The Lutheran Hour

"Why Do We Call Ourselves “Lutheran”?"

#72-07
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on October 31, 2004
Guest Speaker: Rev. Dr. Cameron MacKenzie
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: Romans 3:19-28

Almighty God, heavenly Father, You guide and govern all things in the interests of Your people. We thank You for granting to the Church leaders like Martin Luther who have taught us the saving Gospel of Jesus, and we pray that we may likewise remain faithful in confessing You before others for the salvation of many through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Why do we call ourselves “Lutheran”? For many, many years now, this broadcast has been coming to you as “The Lutheran Hour” and representing the views of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. And all over the world there are churches that include Lutheran in their name. For the most part I suppose, this is something that we just take for granted. But when you stop and think about it, it seems a little strange. Why would 21 st century Christians want to call themselves after a 16 th century monk?

After all, Martin Luther didn’t die for us; Martin Luther’s writings are not inspired in the same way that the Bible is. We are not saved by faith in Martin Luther. In fact, Luther himself was not particularly enthusiastic about the label Lutheran, since his enemies first coined it as a way of dismissing his beliefs and teachings. So why do we do it? Why do we call ourselves Lutheran?

The Book of Hebrews in the Bible tells us to “remember your leaders, who spoke the Word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” That’s what we’re doing when we call ourselves Lutheran. We are remembering Martin Luther who spoke the Word of God to us.

Of course, we can remember Martin Luther in a lot of different ways, and the biographies of Luther are filled with all sorts of interesting details about the man and his times. In fact, on more than one occasion, major Hollywood movies have been produced for theater-going audiences, since Luther’s life includes dramatic and exciting episodes.

But sometimes people are disappointed with what they learn about Martin Luther, for in addition to the drama and excitement, history reveals a man with serious flaws – someone who suffered from terrible bouts of depression and someone who used very hard and harsh language against his foes. For someone who knows very little about Luther except that he was a hero of faith, it can be rather shocking to learn about his faults.

Now I don’t suppose that it does much good to dwell on anybody’s sins and weaknesses, not even Martin Luther’s. But it shouldn’t be a surprise to discover them in anyone, including Martin Luther, as our text for today tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” “All,” the Bible says, all of us have sinned, high and low, famous or unknown, Martin Luther and everyone of us.

And of course, Luther knew it quite well himself that he was a sinner. In fact, in the Small Catechism that Luther prepared for the instruction of the young, he wrote “that we daily sin much and indeed deserve nothing but punishment” for our sins. At any point in life, self-examination in the light of God’s demands and requirements reveals the same thing – we fall short of what God wants and expects. His demand is for holiness but our performance is always far less.

So sinfulness is a point of contact between ourselves and the great reformer. For when we hear of his bad temper or harsh language or moodiness, we know precisely what that means because we are guilty of the very same things. Now there’s a lot that separates us from Luther’s world – time, culture, customs – but one thing that has remained constant through all the centuries is human nature, for we are made of the same stuff as Martin Luther so that the faults and flaws of people in the 16 th century are the same as today. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

But what to do about it? That’s the important question. How do we overcome the sinfulness that seems built-in to being human? As a young man, Luther thought he had it all figured out. After a close call with death and the imminence of God’s judgment, Luther decided to join a monastery where he could devote himself full time for the rest of his life, to the quest for salvation by means of a life of prayer and meditation and other pious works.

But what happened? Luther threw himself into the monastic life. He later described it this way: “I was a good monk, and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was I. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work.”

In spite of all his efforts, however, Luther remained what he had been before – a sinner – because nothing that he did could change his inner reality any more than we can change ourselves by our own efforts. Sure, we may be able to make some alterations in our outward behavior. We can learn some manners, we can make some changes, which is all fine and good; but what God wants is more than outward behavior. He wants our hearts, as Jesus has taught us when He described the great commandment of God’s law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And then Jesus added that the second greatest commandment is like the first, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” These two commandments are the basis for all of God’s Law, and what they demand is an inner attitude of selfless love directed first of all to God, and then to our fellow human beings.

But who can do this? Who can really do what God demands? No one, as Luther came to realize in spite of everything that he tried in the monastery. In fact, the more he tried the worse it got, for nothing seemed to change his heart. At times, Luther even began to think that God wanted to damn him, so frustrated had he become in trying to find peace through his own efforts. “I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair,” he wrote, “so that I wished I had never been created. Love God? I hated him.”

I hated him. Can you imagine the horror Luther must have felt when he reached this point in life? He was supposed to love God with his entire being but instead, his inability to measure up to God’s Law had pushed him in precisely the opposite direction, so that instead of heaven, hell was opening up its jaws for Martin Luther.

In a strange way, however, God’s Law was doing what it was supposed to. Luther was trying to use it as a way to please God, to become right with God and so prepare himself for eternity, but he kept on finding that he couldn’t do it. But that’s exactly what the Bible says is supposed to happen. Listen again to our text, “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

We may not have the intensity of experience that Luther did in confronting our own sinfulness, but what the Law said to Luther it also says to us, and there is no hope for a right relationship with God based on our own efforts or works. Therefore, when we see the Lutheran label attached to something, it ought to remind us that we are like Martin Luther in a very fundamental way – in our weaknesses, our faults, our sinfulness in the light of God’s Law.

But of course, Lutheran means a whole lot more than that, for the image of Martin Luther that probably stands out most clearly in our minds is Luther as a man of faith; and we recall his great acts of courage, his persistent faith in the face of tremendous opposition, as for example, at the Diet of Worms in 1521. By that time Luther was already well known but had been condemned by church authorities. So now government officials summoned him to appear before the mightiest men in church and state, and Luther was asked to take back his writings. That would have been the easy way out, but Luther refused to deny what he had written on the basis of the Bible in the confession of Christ. And not even the presence of the Holy Roman Emperor could shake the Reformer’s resolve! It was a glorious moment, so that when we hear the word Lutheran, it ought to remind us of Luther’s bold faith.

In fact, “faith” is practically the watchword of Lutheranism, and one popular way of summing up the spiritual insight that brought Luther out of despair at his sinfulness, and that prompted the courage he displayed at Worms is the expression, “justification by faith.” Luther, of course, didn’t invent this; he found it in the Bible, as we see in our text, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”

But we need to understand this correctly, because sometimes people think that the act of faith is what saves, when it is really the object of faith that saves. In other words, some people erroneously turn faith into a work of the believer which somehow compensates for sin. But the reality is far different, because faith saves only because it is aimed at the Savior, Jesus Christ. Faith relies on Him, faith rests on Him. And for Jesus’ sake, God declares us not guilty of our sins.

Now there are a lot of false religions in the world, so there are many different kinds of faith. In our own times, we have seen some who have such intensity of faith that they are willing to kill and die, while killing in the name of their religion. But that kind of faith, no matter how sincere or intense, cannot save from sin because it relies on a false god, as Jesus Himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Faith in someone other than Jesus cannot save.

But even Christians are tempted to substitute false faiths for faith in the Lord. Some trust in their works like the young Martin Luther. Others trust in their church. “I believe what my church teaches,” they say, whether they know what it teaches or not. They may be very regular in their attendance in their church and participate in all the rites and ceremonies of their church, and so have confidence that they are doing the right thing. Yet, Luther belonged to a church that could trace its history back to the apostles and he performed all the rites and ceremonies that his church prescribed, but none of it worked. For institutions no matter how venerable, or ceremonies no matter how elaborate, cannot compensate for sin.

Another false faith arises when people trust in their experiences or their emotions – great religious feelings that they have had at certain times in their lives, when they have really felt the presence of God or of His Spirit. But experiences come and go, feelings are here today and gone tomorrow. They provide no firm foundation for faith.

It’s true of course, that Luther himself had a powerful emotional experience when God finally opened his eyes and his heart to the Gospel in the Holy Scriptures. After laboring so long under the sense of his own sinfulness, he was overjoyed to learn from the Bible that salvation was his, as a gift, through faith in Christ. So he wrote of this experience that he felt as if he had been “born again” and “had entered paradise itself through open gates.” After many years of his seeking the assurance of salvation, the Lord finally provided it in His Word, and Luther experienced enormous relief and the greatest joy. But it wasn’t the experience that saved Luther, nor was it the joy that gave him security. The emotions and the feelings were a result of the salvation that God had already won for him. The message of what God had done for him in Jesus Christ caused the experience.

And so, true faith, saving faith, the faith that prevails over sin and death, is faith in Jesus Christ alone; not experience or emotions, not institutions or works of any kind. Only Jesus. Listen again to what our text says, “Righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood.”

By our Lord’s perfect life of obedience to do what we are unable to, by His perfect sacrifice on the cross as a payment for all sins, and by His triumphant resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for our salvation. He has paid the price and won the victory. Forgiveness, eternal life, resurrection from the dead – all are perfectly secure in Him. And faith? Faith simply receives what our Lord has accomplished. Faith is the hand of a poor beggar, and into this hand, God pours all that Christ has done for us.

This is what Luther learned from the Scriptures and this is what he preached – the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. And in the 16th century, those who followed Luther in proclaiming this Good News about Christ came to be known as Lutherans.

But that’s also why we still use the Lutheran label today. It’s a way of reminding people that we are like Martin Luther; first of all, in our sinfulness, in our inability to save ourselves, in our desperate need for a Savior. But more importantly, it also summons us to follow Luther’s faith, to find forgiveness and eternal security, everlasting life and the sure hope of resurrection in one place and one place only – in Jesus Christ, the world’s only Savior. Amen.

Lutheran Hour Mailbox (Questions & Answers) for October 31, 2004
Topic: Big, Foreign Words

ANNOUNCER: Now it’s time for Lutheran Hour questions and answers with Pastor Ken Klaus. I’m Mark Eischer. Here’s one we’ve saved for the last Sunday in October, which is Reformation Day. The questioner asks, “In a sermon, our pastor used the words ‘sola fide, sola gratia , and sola scriptura .’ Why do pastors have to use such foreign terms?”

KLAUS: For our listeners who aren’t Lutheran, I should tell you that those three phrases , sola fide, sola gratia, and sola scriptura , are the three cornerstones of the Reformation, and this is Reformation Sunday. It’s a theological shorthand. They are Latin words, and they mean we are saved sola fide – by faith alone; sola gratia – by grace alone; and sola scriptura – by Scripture alone, on account of Christ alone.

ANNOUNCER: That does sum up what we teach and believe. But why do pastors have to use these Latin or Greek or Hebrew words, all kinds of fancy stuff? Are they just trying to show off and look smart?

KLAUS: Sometimes pastors use such words because those words, in the original, have a special meaning that can get lost in translation. It’s a way of speaking with precision. Sometimes those words are used because they are so important. To try and use anything else will only serve to muddy up or diminish the meaning.

ANNOUNCER: Could you give us an example?

KLAUS: How about the word “justification?” Justification is the most important doctrine in Scripture. Justification is God declaring helpless sinners righteous, innocent, and free of condemnation because of the salvation that Jesus has won for them on the cross. That’s a very poor, overly simple definition of justification. Still, I don’t know of any other word in the English language that you can use to replace it.

ANNOUNCER: But I don’t know that I’ve ever heard you use that word justification in any of your broadcast sermons.

KLAUS: That’s partly because on “The Lutheran Hour” we’re trying to explain things very simply and very clearly. We can’t afford to use shorthand or fancy theological words. Rather than saying “you are justified” we prefer to spell it out. So I would say something like, “Because Jesus has taken your place, fulfilled the law, died the death you deserve and rose for you, God has forgiven the sins, all sins, of those who believe in Him as their Savior.”

ANNOUNCER: Any other reasons why pastors use foreign and big words?

KLAUS: I suppose some probably do so because they don’t have a choice. Doctors are in the same kind of boat. Suppose you went to a doctor, he ran a battery of tests and you came back for the results. What would be your reaction if the doctor sat down and said, “We’ve run the tests, and they conclusively prove that you’ve got something very, very, very bad.”

ANNOUNCER: I’d say, “What is it?”

KLAUS: And if he said, “Oh, it’s something very, very, very bad” you would ….

ANNOUNCER: … I’d become upset because I’d want to know exactly what’s going on.

KLAUS: And to let you know, the doctor would employ some big foreign sounding, but very specific words to let you know what very, very, very bad meant. One of the marks of a good doctor is that he explains things to his patients in terms they can understand; exactly what’s wrong with them physically, so that they can begin the appropriate form of treatment.

ANNOUNCER: I suppose one of the marks of a good pastor is that he is able to explain to his people, in terms they can understand, what might be wrong with them spiritually…

KLAUS: …and what God has prescribed to make them right. Which leads us back, by the way, to justification.

ANNOUNCER: Any other reasons?

KLAUS: Possibly one more. Have you ever noticed that some people like to read their Bible using the King James Version?

ANNOUNCER: Sure. A lot of people like that.

KLAUS: Why is that? Because it’s easier to read?

ANNOUNCER: No, I think it’s because there is a certain nobility of language there.

KLAUS: There is, indeed. Have you ever noticed, Mark, that some people, although God doesn’t care what they wear, get all dressed up for church?

ANNOUNCER: Sure, they get dressed for church, but where are you going with this?

KLAUS: I do thank you for putting up with the questions. There is a method to the madness. People get dressed up for church, because they want to look their best. They want to give their best to God. They read the King James, at least in part, because it is very lofty sounding. Both, totally unrelated actions, suggest that God is special. We want to show Him proper respect when we come into His presence. It’s possible that some pastors want to do no less with the words they use. They want to use the best words they can come up when they talk about, or pray to the Lord who have saved them, through His cross and resurrection.

ANNOUNCER: Thank you Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.