From Luther’s sermon for the seventh Sunday after Trinity (1534):
Thus St. Paul says: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” and this means, as you now through grace are bound to obey God and live according to His Will. For you must be in the service of one master, either of sin which brings you into death and the wrath of God, if you remain in it it, or of God in grace, to serve Him in newness of life. Therefore you must no longer be obedient to sin, for you are now released from its power and dominion.
Sin will not be able to rule over you, for you are no longer under the Law but under grace. That is, you can now resist sin because ye are now in Christ and have received the power of His resurrection.
Either Luther was reading Vos, or the forensic-centric reputation of Lutherans is a caricature. Or maybe the priority of justification was biblical after all.
Old Life 
“you can now resist sin because ye are now in Christ and have received the power of His resurrection.”
Sounds to me like he was also reading Gaffin.
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Kyle, impossible. Different eras.
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Or, there may be a legitimate Luther v. the Lutherans thing going on.
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Somewhat related:
“The “extra nos” is for Luther the connection between the doctrine of justification and a theological anthropology. This expression should, however, not be misunderstood in the forensic sense of the word. The central concept “extra nos” does not stand on the side of an imputatio-justification over against a unio-justification. It does not prove that we are justified “outside ourselves” before the chair of God the judge (in foro Dei), in such a way that grace would not be imparted but “only” imputed. The intention of the “extra nos” is to show that justification is not based on a claim of man, on a debitum iustitiae. The righteousness granted is not one’s property but one’s possession. It is not *proprietas* but rather *possessio*.”
~Heiko Oberman, “The Dawn of the Reformation,” 121
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Help my confusion. Are the arguments here:
1) That Luther, as indicated in this quote, also taught union with Christ as the basis for definitive sanctification?
2) That current Lutheran soteriology is consistent with either all or part of what you quoted above?
3) That the biblical passage quoted by Luther indicates the priority of justification in the ordo?
4) That forensic-centrism (whether consistent with Luther or not) is different than giving priority to justification in the ordo?
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Sounds to me like Luther was reading Paul. One can pick not a few passages out of Bondage that read similarly to this one.
That said, even a doctrine as important as justification can be overdone and push one’s theology out of balance. Any doctrine can become a canoe-tipper. Biblical (and confessional) balance is very important.
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Darryl, I am inclined to believe in the Caricature Hypothesis, inasmuch as what is a whole unit, Lutheran confessional theology drawing from Luther (“we…appeal to and rely on the detailed expositions of his teaching in [Dr. Luther of blessed memory’s] doctrinal and polemical writings,” Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Binding Summary 9), is separated by those who do not confess them into several sections. What L wrote may be congenial to the non-Lutheran, but what FC or AC says may be uncongenial.
I am also concerned about reading the ordo salutis back into the period of the Lutheran Reformation, inasmuch as Luther and the confessional documents do not reveal to me the same concern with an ordo salutis as Lutheran pietism – I cannot speak to its use among Reformed theologians. Rather, Luther draws power in the Christian life not from a notion of union but from Holy Baptism. “Thus a Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, begun once and continuing ever after. For we must keep at it without ceasing, always purging whatever pertains to the old Adam, so that whatever belongs to the new creature may come forth…Now, when we enter Christ’s kingdom, this corruption must daily decrease…” (Large Catechism, IV.65-66).
In Baptism lordship is transferred; one no longer has two masters, but having renounced the former, holds fast to the latter, and the new master has a new life for the new servant. “Current Lutheran soteriology” is consistent with Luther because soteriology begins in baptism for Luther and the Lutherans. “What gifts or benefits does baptism grant? Answer: It brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the words and promises of God declare” (Small Catechism, Baptism, 2nd Part)
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I second what Adam has written – read within the context of Luther’s theology of baptism, there is nothing in this passage that is incongruent with either Luther or the Book of Concord. It’s the sort of thing I, a Lutheran pastor, preach every other Sunday! Btw, a good resource is the book on Luther’s doctrine of baptism by Jonathan Trigg. (OK, I realize there is an intra-Reformed discussion which forms the context for this post which I am naturally not au fait with, but my comment still stands nonetheless.)
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Jared, the argument is a question: why do some Reformed folks give Lutherans such a hard time?
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Adam, part of the problem may be the fixation within ordo constructions on the mysteries of the Holy Spirit’s work on the believer, as if we can chart how the application of redemption happens. In my reading of Reformed confessions, prior to the 17th c., there was much less attention to the ordo than in the Westminster Standards. But the irony here is that the historia salutis has wound up entering into the nooks and crannies of the ordo even when it was supposed to offer an alternative to ordo considerations.
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Some how got cut off with my devious plan… you know to bring divisions in the church and all, by insisting that ecclesiastical bodies be united by sound doctrine, and not pawining off their heritage to those who hold to a skeleton of their confessional beliefs.
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http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tullian/2011/09/12/luther-on-law/
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