The Bondage of the Will and Election

This is a 20 minute Issues, Etc. program that is well worth listening to if you are interested in Luther’s famous book, The Bondage of the Will. It discusses the context in which it was written, as well as touching on the key points made in his book. It also goes into the Lutheran view on predestination versus the Calvinist view of double predestination.

The basic assertion Luther made in this book was that man is in bondage spiritually, and has no volition or even ability to trust in God or become pleasing to Him. Our small catechism sums it up well:

I believe that I can not by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him: but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. (Luther’s Small Catechism, The Creed, The Third Article).

Ephesians 2:1 (emphasis mine) says “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” A dead man can not save himself, or decide to ask someone to save him. Verse 4 says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-…” God clearly gets the credit for salvation. However, one might begin to reason, that if this is so, and a person can not “decide for Christ”, then is the opposite true? If God chooses people to be saved, does God pick out some people not to be saved? This is known as “double predestination”. Yet Jesus places the blame elsewhere for man’s damnation in Matthew 23:37 (emphasis mine): “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” Again, in 1 Timothy 1:19 (emphasis mine) Paul tells Timothy to hold “faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith.” Man’s sinful nature clearly gets the credit for damnation, for God “has no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God, so turn and live.” (Ezekel 18:32). Here, one might argue that God is telling the people to turn, so isn’t that that “doing something” to help God out? But Scripture interprets Scripture, and since it is clear that it is “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, “ (Eph 2:9 emphasis mine), we see that even the turning that God told the people to do was, and is, a gift of grace. So He gets the credit for salvation, and man’s sinful nature gets the credit for sin and damnation. Intellectually satisfying? No. Biblically consistent? Yes. God tells us what we need to know in His Word. We are not to go beyond the revealed Word of God and speculate on the why’s and how’s that He has not told us. Why some reject and some receive remains a mystery. Jesus “came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God… (John 1:11). What does God desire? To give us the gift of saving faith, for He has paid for everyone’s sins, by the death of His Son, who is “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2 emphasis mine).”

Back to our small catechism, which explains that the Holy Spirit points to this work of Christ by calling by the gospel. It is a great comfort to believers when it goes on to say that:

In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.

On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

This is most certainly true.


If you are interested in reading our synod’s doctrinal statement on election, you’ll find it here.

Issues, Etc. may be offering a series on The Bondage of the Will; if so, I will try to post links to the shows.

Note: Not sure if my link to the radio show is working, so here is the link to the show archive. Scroll down to Tuesday, September 14, and you can listen there.

Quote of the Day

“Good works do not make a good man, but a good
man does good works; evil works do not make a wicked man,
but a wicked man does evil works. Consequently it is always
necessary that the substance or person himself must be good
before there can be any good works, and that good works
follow and proceed from the good person, as Christ says ‘A good
tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit’
(Matt. 7:18). It is clear that the fruits do not bear the tree and
that the tree does not grow on the fruits, also on the contrary,
the trees bear the fruits and the fruits are grown on the trees.”
Martin Luther, “The Freedom of a Christian” (1520).

The very heart of the gospel is at stake with the interpretation of Matthew 7:18. It is Christ, and Christ alone makes us "good" and He sanctifies our works. Any working to prove that one is a Christian is works-righteousness. Good works certainly have to be in the life of a Christian, but they are a result of Christ's salvation, not a striving to prove that one is a Christian.

What does EVERY false doctrine distort? The Gospel of Jesus Christ. That He, and He alone, saves us and produces fruit in our lives is what is always compromised when doctrine becomes distorted. It is by His Gospel alone that we are saved.

A Trip to the Farm

We are very blessed that the children get to know their great-grandparents, my paternal grandparents, so well!


Lindsay giving Blackie the cat a ride!

Photos from the Sunflower State

Here are some photos from our recent trip to Kansas, as well an older photo my aunt and cousin recently sent me.


John driving the go cart that my grandpa built for my mom.


Elise giving Bethany a ride in my "Herbie"


Steph and Dana-I'm the short one in this photo


Steph and Dana-1981-Steph is the short one in this photo


Going full throttle (15 mph!)

Kicking Up Our Heels at the Country Dance

Breakfast at the Palmers

Our house at breakfast this morning:

Dad and Mom: tired due to staying up late to watch a movie.

Elise: tired from staying up late.

John: mild sore throat.

Lindsay: sore throat and asthma bothering her.

Bethany: asking lots of questions. "What is bran? Why do they take the bran out of flour? What does plain mean?"

Even better, Bethany is standing here laughing at my post and telling me to write "fine" after her name. And saying, "Do more questions!" I love being a mom. And having my husband on break from school. And finding the humor in the every day life. What good gifts from our Father in heaven.

Summer Snapshots

At the church picnic. After it was over, we had the bouncy house to ourselves all afternoon. I had fun bouncing, too!


The kids found a snake in the front yard. Dad came out to confirm that it was harmless. John, Lindsay, and Bethany are excited about their find (and Elise and Mom are happy for them, from a distance)!


At the seminary playscape. We have had overnight guests twice this summer, and enjoyed showing them around town (as well as getting to spend time with them!).


When one family was here visiting, the kids spent an entire day catching butterflies (and naming them). I think they caught ten butterflies over the course of the day. They even let them go after short periods of time, since they were trying to take good care of "Gorgeous" and her companions.