I died to the Law through the Law, so that I could live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in my body, I live by faith, indeed, by the faithfulness of God’s Son, who loved me and gave himself for me. I don’t ignore the grace of God, because if we become righteous through the Law, then Christ died for no purpose. – Galatians 2:19-21 (CEB)
This week is the second part of considering what Martin Luther has to say about the Holy Spirit. Last week focused on the role of the Spirit in all of creation. Now we focus more specifically on what the Holy Spirit does in the life of a believer.
An important source for understanding Luther’s theology of the Holy Spirit is his lectures on Galatians. He lectured on Galatians twice, once in 1519 at the beginning of the Reformation and then again in 1535, after the schism with Rome was firmly established. These lectures are truly voluminous, taking up two full volumes of Luther’s Works, totaling nearly 900 pages. In them he speaks of a variety of issues. Here I only wish to highlight the ways he speaks of the Holy Spirit in these lectures.
In the 1519 version, Luther begins his commentary with a meditation on what it means to be an apostle. He contends that Paul being set apart for the Gospel of God means that the Holy Spirit has provided Paul with the Word of Christ and has sent him to share it. Apostleship, then, means to be sent by the Spirit as an obedient servant to share the Word of God. This is not a role that is sought, but one given by the Spirit: “Nobody produces fruit by means of the Word unless he is called to teach without wishing for it.”1 This call by the Spirit distinguishes true apostles from false ones, who rely upon their own wisdom and desire to teach. Their words are human words rather than the Living Word, whereas by the call of the Holy Spirit true apostles speak the Word of God.
In continuing into Galatians 2, Luther begins to consider what it means for Christ to dwell within a person (Galatians 2:20). Luther explains that through baptism Christ comes to abide within a person even as that person’s old self dies. This dwelling of Christ is a setting apart that makes one an apostle. As the Holy Spirit raised Christ from the dead, the Holy Spirit calls people out to be sent as apostles like Paul, giving all people gifts to be used to proclaim the good news of Christ. What we see here is that the Holy Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit creates life in the world through the process of creatio continua; the Holy Spirit is the power of life that overcame the grave in Christ; the Holy Spirit creates new life in us. More than that, the Holy Spirit issues a call to each Christian in baptism to witness to this new creation in the Holy Spirit. For Luther this call to the creative life of the Spirit is the apostolic call imparted in baptism.