The Freedom of the Christian

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Luther's exposition on the freedom of a Christian. I think it was informative and an accurate representation of the thought process behind the Reformation. Luther gave did an excellent job of describing how works and faith relate in s Christian life. Up until Luther, works were largely emphasised as a vital part in the Christian's life. However, as Luther pointed out, works aren't the basis of our faith but the result of it. One does not perform works in order to maintain or earn their justification (right standing before God), they perform them out of a love and appreciation for Christ and His saving work on the cross. There is no need to try to earn God's love, since that was already accomplished through God's son, Jesus Christ coming to earth and dying in the place of sinners who otherwise deserved His wrath. This is how the Christian has freedom as Luther described, they are no longer in bondage to the law(rules), they no longer have to live under the crushing weight of guilt that is produced when they fail to keep the law because they realize that freedom from their sin was already accomplished for them. They now live under a grace which requires nothing more than faith. "Sola Fide" (faith alone) is one of the five foundational truths that resulted from the Reformation. Because of Luther's teaching Christians reached a whole new understanding of how works relate to faith, teachings that were very contrary to what the Roman Catholic church was teaching in that day. Not only were Luther's teaching relevant to his time period, but remain to give Christian's a greater understanding of their faith in relation to works.