Martin Luther's Writings

8. It follows further that the forgiveness of guilt is not within the province of any human office or authority, be it pope, bishop, priest, or any other. Rather it depends exclusively upon the word of Christ and your own faith. For Christ did not intend to base our comfort, our salvation, our confidence on human words or deeds, but only upon himself, upon his words and deeds. Priests, bishops, and popes are only servants who hold before you the word of Christ, upon which you should depend and rely with firm faith as upon a solid rock. Then the word will sustain you, and so your sins will have to be forgiven. Moreover this is why the word is not to be honored for the sake of the priests, bishops, or pope; but priests, bishops, and pope are to be honored for the sake of the word, as those who bring to you the word and message of your God that you are loosed from sins.

9. It follows in addition that in the sacrament of penance and forgiveness of guilt a pope or bishop does nothing more than the lowliest priest. Indeed where there is no priest, each individual Christian—even a woman or child—does as much. For anyChristian can say to you, "God forgives you your sins, in the name," etc.,and if you can accept that word with a confident faith, as though God were saying it to you, then in that same faith you are surely absolved. So completely does everything depend on faith in God's word. No pope, bishop, or priest can do anything to your faith. Neither can anyone give to another any better word of God than that common word he spoke to St. Peter, "Whatever you loose … shall be loosed."This word must be in every absolution; indeed every absolution depends upon it.Even so one should observe, and not despise, the established orders of authority. Only, make no mistake about the sacrament and its effect, as if it counted for more when given by a bishop or a pope than when given by a priest or a layman. As the priest's mass and baptism and distribution of the holy body of Christ is just as valid as if the pope or bishop were doing it, so it is with absolution, that is, the sacrament of penance. The fact that they reserve certain cases for absolution does not make their sacramentany greater or better. It is the same as if for some reason they withheld from anybody the mass, baptism, or the like. Nothing would thereby be either added to or taken away from baptism and the mass.

10. Therefore if you believe the word of the priest when he absolves you (that is, when he looses you in the name of Christ and in the power of his words, saying, "I absolve you from your sins"), then your sins are assuredly absolved also before God, before all angels and all creatures—not for your sake, or for the priest'ssake, but for the sake of the very Word of Christ, who cannot be lying to you when he says, "Whatever you loose … shall be loosed."Should you, however, not believe that your sins are truly forgiven and removed, then you are a heathen, acting toward your Lord Christ like one who is an unbeliever and not a Christian; and this is the most serious sin of all against God. Besides you had better not go to the priest if you will not believe his absolution; you will be doing yourself great harm by your disbelief. By such disbelief you make your God to be a liar when, through his priest, he says to you, "You are loosed from your sins," and you retort, "I don't believeit," or, "I doubt it." As if you were more certain in your opinion than God is in his words, whereas you should be letting personal opinions go, and with unshakeable faith giving place to the word of God spoken through the priest. For if you doubt whether your absolution is approved of God and whether you are rid of your sins, that is the same as saying, "Christ has not spoken the truth, and I do not know whether he approves his own words, when he says to Peter, `Whatever you loose … shall be loosed.'" O God, spare everybody from such diabolical disbelief.

11. When you are absolved from your sins, indeed when amid your awareness of sin some devout Christian—man or woman, young or old— comforts you, then receive this absolution in such faith that you would readily let yourself be torn apart or killed over and over again, or readily renounce everything else, rather than doubt that you have been truly absolved before God. Since by God's grace it is commanded of us to believe and to hope that our sins are forgiven us, how much more then ought you to believe it when God gives you a sign of it through another person! There is no greater sin than not to believe this article of "the forgiveness of sins" which we pray daily in the Creed. And this sin is called the sin against the Holy Spirit. It strengthens all other sins and makes them forever unforgivable. Consider, therefore, what a gracious God and Father we have. He not only promises us forgiveness of sins, but also commands us, on pain of committing the most grievous sin of all, to believe that they are forgiven. With this same command he constrains us to have a joyful conscience while he uses the terrible sin [against the Holy Spirit] as a means of driving us away from sins and from a bad conscience.

12. A number of people have been teaching us that we should, and must necessarily, be uncertain about absolution, and doubt whether we have been restored to [the state of] grace10 and our sins forgiven—on the grounds that we do not know whether our contrition has been adequate or whether sufficient satisfaction has been made for our sins.11 And because this is not known, the priest cannot at once assign appropriate penance.12 Be on guard against these misleading and un- Christian gossips. The priest is necessarily uncertain as to your contrition and faith, but this is not what matters. To him it is enough that you make confession and seek an absolution. He is supposed to give it to you and is obligated to do so. What will come of it, however, he should leave to God and to your faith. You should not be debating in the first place whether or not your contrition is sufficient. Rather you should be assured of this, that after all your efforts your contrition is not sufficient. This is why you must cast yourself upon the grace of God, hear his sufficiently sure word in the sacrament, accept it in free and joyful faith, and never doubt that you have come to grace—not by your own merits or contrition but by his gracious and divine mercy, which promises, offers, and grants you full and free forgiveness of sins in order that in the face of all the assaults [anfechtung] of sin, conscience, and the devil, you thus learn to glory and trust not in yourself or your own actions, but in the grace and mercy of your dear Father in heaven. After that be contrite all the more and render satisfaction as well as you can. Only, let this simple faith in the unmerited forgiveness promised in the words of Christ go before and remain in command of the situation.