Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Indulgence redeux

How may we obtain remission of our sins? Paul answers: “The man who is named Jesus Christ and the Son of God gave himself for our sins.” The heavy artillery of these words explodes papacy, works, merits, superstitions. For if our sins could be removed by our own efforts, what need was there for the Son of God to be given for them? Since Christ was given for our sins it stands to reason that they cannot be put away by our own efforts. -- from Commentary on Galatians by Martin Luther

I've been trying out the ebook reader apps on my iPod Touch. And after installing the app, I can then choose from a number of copyright free books. Not surprisingly, one of the books I downloaded with theological in nature -- Commentary on Galatians by Martin Luther. I figured that there are a number of seminal text that any lay Lutheran theologian must read and this is one of them. Besides being tremendously verbose (who would have thunk it?) it is quite insightful both into Luther's understanding of justification and of his exegetical skill. So it was with much interest that I read the article about the re-introduction of, get this, indulgences! Wow. What would brother Martin think. (click on post title to read the article)