Sublime

Luther was an expert in the law of God, and every day he was in terror as he looked in the mirror of the law and examined his life against God’s righteousness. We are not in terror, because we have blocked out the view of God’s righteousness. We judge ourselves on a curve, measuring ourselves against others. We never judge ourselves according to

The exhortation of the apostle to make fast one’s own call is here interpreted as a duty to attain certainty of one’s own election and justification in the daily struggle of life. In the place of the humble sinners to whom Luther promises grace if they trust themselves to God in penitent faith are bred those self-confident saints46 whom we can

Luther believed that each reader or hearer of scripture had the capacity—indeed, the obligation—to interpret God’s word personally. No human held a monopoly over the interpretation of God’s message, he contended, and therefore no human should command authority over another in his spiritual communion with God.