What Is In You
Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 59-61
Thesis 16. The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.
Il Tintoretto, "The washing of the feet" (1548-49)
But all of this is no doubt devastating to the theologian of glory. If we cannot be assured of grace by doing our best, and if our best only doubles sin, then what is the use? How shall we obtain grace at all? Luther’s next paragraph in his proof indicates that he is well aware of the question. “Now you ask,” he says, “What then shall we do? Shall we go our way with indifference because we can do nothing but sin?” When such questions arise we have reached a critical point. The theologian of glory in us is beginning to cry out in frustration and despair! There is nothing to hold on to, no support left, nothing to do. Then the last-ditch defense is tried. “If all I do is sin, why not just quit? Why not just forget it all and sink into complete indifference?” At the last, the theologian of glory tries to force the hand of the theologian of the cross. The anticipated outcome is that the theologian of the cross should back off a bit and allow that little bit of operating room, the “comfort” of “doing what is i one.”
Yet the theologian of the cross knows that there is nothing to do now but wait upon grace, to recognize that when all the supports have been cut away we can only throw ourselves on the mercy of God in Christ. So it is here in the second paragraph of the proof for thesis 16 and in the subsequent theses of the Disputation that the great turn to grace is finally made. For the first time (other than the incidental mention in thesis 9) Christ is spoken of in the Disputation. When the theologian of glory has finally bottomed out, Christ enters the scene as the bringer of salvation, hope, and resurrection. When the question, “Shall we go our way with indifference because we can do nothing but sin?” is finally raised, Luther replies,
By no means. But having heard this, fall down and pray for grace and place your hope in Christ in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection. For this reason we are so instructed–for this reason the law makes us aware of sin so that, having recognized our sin, we may seek and receive grace. Thus God “gives grace to the humble” [I Peter 5:5], and “whoever humbles himself will be exalted” [Matthew 23:12]. The law humbles, grace exalts. The law effects fear and wrath, grace effects hope and mercy. “Through the law comes knowledge of sin” [Romans 3:20]; through knowledge of sin, however, comes humility; and through humility grace is acquired. Thus an action that is alien to God’s nature results in a deed belonging to his very nature: he makes a person a sinner so that he may make him righteous.
This is Luther’s answer to the incessant question in the Disputation about how one obtains grace: by humility. In other words, grace is acquired not by “doing what is in one.” It is acquired when we are so completely humbled by God’s alien work in the law and wrath that we see how completely we are caught in the web of sin and turn to Christ as the only hope. “God gives grace to the humble” was a watchword or Augustinian–and Lutheran–theology.
