19 May 2009

The Will's Inherent Bondage

It is because we do not really know God that we must . . . construct a theology that enables us basically to place our trust in ourselves. The point of Luther's writing On the Bondage of the Will is that as sinners we are bound by our own will to do this. The bondage of the will does not stem from the fact that because God is almighty we are therefore forced to do some things 'against our will'. . . . No, the bondage of the will Luther was talking about was much more actual. It is something of our own making. We will not accept an almighty God and so are bound by our own will to construct a theology based on our own freedom. We are the problem, not God.

--Gerhard Forde, Where God Meets Man: Luther's Down-to-Earth Approach to the Gospel (Augsburg 1972), 24; emphasis original

But God . . . (Eph 2:4)

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