The sheer volume of Martin Luther’s writings is astounding.
According to Britannica, he wrote a third of the books published in the German language during the first half of the 1500s.[1] The first 55 volumes of his written works in the English translation altogether are over 22,000 pages long—and that’s not even everything he wrote!
Somewhere he also found the time to start a theological reformation that changed the known world.
There is no doubt that Martin Luther was a dedicated, lifelong student of the Word. He sat daily at the foot of the cross, poring over the pages of Scripture. His desire was to know the love of Christ—and for others to know it as well. He knew that to be able to preach and teach God’s Word, he needed it to dwell richly in his heart and mind.
That got me thinking: In addition to the Bible, what other books might Luther have read to help him grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ?
Here are a couple of possible modern-day suggestions:
Justification: How God Forgives
The People’s Bible: Romans
Why these two?
In the introduction to his commentary on the book of Galatians, Martin Luther argued that justification is the doctrine on which the Church falls or stands. “Wherefore this doctrine [justification] be lost, then is also the whole knowledge of truth, life and salvation lost and gone.”[2]
Martin Luther rightly believed that if we don’t understand justification—that we’re saved from our sins purely by God’s grace in Jesus, through faith in him—then the rest of Scripture is lost to us as well. Our eyes turn away from what Christ has done for us. We begin to wonder if there’s something we must be doing to earn our salvation.
That’s a dangerous mindset. Either it fills us with a pharisaical pride that thinks we’re worthy of salvation because of what we’ve done, or it fills us with a self-loathing that knows we’ll never be worthy of salvation because of what we haven’t done—namely living a perfect, holy life.
Thanks be to God that salvation isn’t about us! It’s all about Jesus and what he’s done for us.
That’s exactly what Pastor Wayne D. Mueller seeks to do in his book, Justification: How God Forgives. He wants the reader to see justification as to why Jesus came into the world: to seek and save sinners.
Pastor Armin J. Panning wrote The People’s Bible: Romans for the very reason that Martin Luther was so very passionate about the epistle:
This epistle [Romans] is really the chief part of the New Testament, and is truly the purest gospel. It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but also that he should occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. We can never read it or ponder over it too much, for the more we deal with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.[3]
Any time we spend in the Word of God or in biblically sound commentaries and devotions—letting Scripture dwell richly in our hearts and minds—is time well spent.
We can’t speak for Martin Luther and what he’d recommend, but if you’re looking for solidly biblical, Christ-centered resources that focus on Jesus and what he’s done for us, these two books are a great place to start!
[1] https://www.britannica.com/facts/Martin-Luther
[2] Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), p. 21.
[3] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann, American Edition, Vol. 35 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1955–1986), p. 365.
Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.