February 23, 2016

Martin Luther was ill for much of his later years. He died in 1546 on the 18th of February at the age of 63. It was 1555 and the Peace of Augsburg that officially ended the religious struggle and allowed a permanent and legal division of Protestant and Catholic areas of Germany within the Holy Roman Empire. However, Pope Paul III had previously, in June 1536, called for a general council to meet in Mantua in May 1537, and launched a diplomatic offensive to bring German princes and their theologians to that council. The opening of the council was delayed until December 1545, when it was convened in the Episcopal city of Trent.

The Saxon elector, John Frederick, had wanted Martin Luther to put into writing a sort of doctrinal “last will and testament”, a clear statement of his positions on the critical issues of the time. Thus began the writing of what would be called the Smalcald Articles. The document was structured to present Luther‘s teaching to the council. The Smalcald Articles were presented to Lutheran princes in February 1537, at the meeting of the defensive league they had organized in Smalcald in 1531. Ultimately they decided to use the Augsburg Confession and its Apology as the basis of their presentation at the council rather than Luther‘s Articles.

Luther wrote a preface outlining his program for reform the following year (1538), and the Articles were printed, with a translation of Melanchthon‘s “Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope” attached. During the 1550s the Articles were used increasingly as an authoritative confessional document, and so they were to be included in the Book of Concord (1580).

What makes the Smalcald Articles so important to me are the mention of what Luther called the 5 “means of Grace”.
“[4.] Concerning the Gospel: We now want to return to the gospel, which gives guidance and help against sin in more than one way, because God is extravagantly rich in his grace: first, through the spoken word, in which the forgiveness of sins is preached to the whole world (which is the proper function of the gospel); second, through baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the keys and also (fifth) through the mutual conversation and consolation of brothers and sisters.”

Again, it is important to know the confessional writings of our Lutheran faith, even the more obscure ones – obscure but still vital to our Lutheran understanding of G-d’s Grace.

Pastor Dave