Luther and His Troubled Conscience

“Since Brother Martin was so troubled by his sin and unworthiness, Staupitz first advised that he seek forgiveness in the sacrament of penance.  Going to confession helped Luther, but only to a point.  Luther began to confess his sins frequently, often on a daily basis, and sometimes in great detail.  He analyzed every sin, every motive, every circumstance, scrupulously.  His fellow priests grew tired of hearing his obsessive confessions.  Some began to avoid him on purpose.  Johann van Staupitz, a very patient man, exploded one day: “Look here”, he said to Luther, “if you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive – patricide, blasphemy, adultery – instead of all these small faults.”  But this advice was useless to Luther.  His anxiety was not over the magnitude of his sins, or their sheer number, but over whether they had been correctly confessed.  What about unrecognized sins?  Or forgotten sins?  What about his motives, especially?  After all, a good act committed for the wrong motive could count as a sin – for example, performing and act of charity out of vainglory.  Motives were hard to discern correctly.  And confession was no cure for Brother Martin.”

Carlos Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016. 142.

We chide Luther for his obsessive character in wanting to name and deplore every little sin, both known and unknown during his time at the Augustinian monastery.  Motives are most difficult to discern because they lie in the dormant machinations of our minds, often not even seeing the light of day unless a superior demands a reason.  Yet, for Luther, his view of God and his judgment, and his own anxiety ridden heart, one tiny speck of sin was enough to throw him out of the presence and plan of God.  He had to be utterly sure that his confession of sin(s) cornered every aspect of his sin, both in its breaking God’s law but also keeping him in line with the righteous judge.  Looking back, it is easy to find this kind of confession amusing, putting him in the camp of someone who has a psychological disorder (OCD) and seeing him as verging on crazy.  Yet, is that all we can gain from studying this man who helped reform the world?

Luther’s troubled conscience built inside of him a spirit of despair.  These bouts of despair, Anfechtung (Eire states that there is no English equivalent) were “an affliction inseparable from temptation,…a downward spiral leading to hell itself, which made Luther think that God had abandoned him forever and that God’s promises were false.” (141)   Tormenting rushes of doubt, affliction, and devilish accusations, Luther was weighed down with grief and pain.  Eire continues, “Images of Christ terrified him, and especially those that depicted the Final Judgment…Unable to withstand the thought of Christ as judge, rather than as redeemer, Luther could find no solace in the Mass, or in the iconography that surrounded him.” (141). Judgment meant expulsion from the promises of God but also the structure that God had built in the church.  There was no escaping from God’s utter displeasure of sin and of his existence for Luther, he could not confess enough to meet God’s standard. 

How does a German monk go from fits of despair and affliction to the beauty of God in understanding his righteousness?  Too quickly we want to give the answer to the Scriptures, for they were instrumental in changing Luther’s mind of the righteousness of God (Romans 1:17-18).  But these were not the first steps toward the God of all grace.  No, often a friend leads another friend to the well of mercy.  It is the same for Luther.  Eire quotes Martin’s own words, “I got nothing from Erasmus.  Everything I have came from Staupitz.” (142)  Johann van Staupitz was Luther’s spiritual adviser, both spiritually and in his work duties.  He was a patient man, with enough long suffering to endure the many confessions of Brother Martin.  Yet, he knew that Brother Martin’s despair could only be drawn out by specific tasks.  Eire notes, “…so he ordered him to obtain a doctorate in biblical studies.  Luther complained that he was much too fragile and unstable for such work, but Staupitz would not back down and Luther had no choice but to fulfill his vow of obedience.” (142-143)  Without the push of Staupitz, would Luther had discovered justification by faith or any of the other doctrines that we hold so close because of the Reformation?  We do not know the answer to the that question, but we do know that the prodding of Staupitz paved the way for Luther to open up the Scriptures, and this was a turning point for the Reformation.