The Reformation was born out of Luther’s famous question, “How am I righteous before God?” It is the question of a believer in desperate need of God’s mercy. But is it also the question of the twenty-first century man? Is today’s man not tormented by vastly different questions, such as, “Does God really exist?” and, “If God exists, what about all the injustice in this world?” Should we not put aside the question of a gracious God to make way for the real questions?

The question of a gracious God is attributed by many to the time in which Luther lived. It is not surprising then, or so it is thought, that in a time when “the final judgment” and “hell” hung as a constant threat over man’s life, people were searching for God’s grace. Frightened by all kinds of fears of God’s strict judgment, Luther also sought a way to satisfy God’s justice. He first entered a monastery to gain God’s approval through strict obedience and pious living. But when life in a monastery only brought more doubt and despair, the reading of the letter to the Romans opened Luther’s eyes to the gospel that the righteousness God requires from us is given to us in the man Jesus Christ.

The resonance found in Luther’s doctrine of justification could very well be explained psychologically and historically in this way. At a time when the existence of God was taken for granted, the doctrine of justification by faith was an answer to the age-old questions of many people who were weighed down by their image of a strict God. But times have changed. Where people searched for a gracious God in the late middle ages, the question of God’s existence has come to the fore in our day.

The Question about God’s Existence⤒🔗

Because the questions have changed, it is important for the church today to try to answer the right questions. Many people are therefore of the opinion that we must put aside the question of a gracious God in favor of the question of the existence of God. However, it is good to make some comments on this. First, it is good to dwell a little longer on the current question about God’s existence. This question can be explained in several ways.

First, the question can be seen as a neutral question about the existence of a power that is beyond our reality. Asking about God’s existence is therefore a quest that man hopes to complete based on all sorts of reasonable arguments. Whereas one denies the existence of God based on his observation and beliefs, another comes to the opposite conclusion. With the latter we can think, for example, of the reasoning that the world is so complicated that there must be a higher power that created everything.

Without wishing to go into this any further, from that point of view it is clear that the question of the very existence of God is indeed quite different from that of a gracious God. Where Luther’s question was about the relationship between God and man, here God is in fact nothing more than the result of logical reasoning. But there is a big difference between logical reasoning and a relationship with a personal God.

The question of God’s existence can also be interpreted in another way. In this case, the question is mainly focused on the fact that there is so much misery and injustice in this world, and how this can be reconciled with the belief in a God who is all-powerful and good. How can the existence of a gracious God be justified with all the misery of this world in the back of our minds?

Concerning the demand for a just God, the roles are reversed here. While the question for Luther was how he could continue to stand before God as a sinful man, the question today is whether God can uphold himself in the face of a world weighed down by injustice and violence. Or actually it is no question for many people: With so much misery in this world, we can no longer believe in the existence of God.

In doing so, one important question is ignored, namely, whether people themselves are that good. The question about God is posed from the conviction that man knows what is right and what is just; subsequently, God is measured against man’s moral yardstick. But could it not be that evil is deeply rooted in man himself? Is it not much more justified to question man instead? Luther’s search for a righteous God arose from exactly this realization that we are sinners who are incapable of loving God and the neighbour with an undivided heart.

Incidentally, the two ways of explaining the question of God’s existence have one thing in common. Both are based on a pre-existing image of God. In the first case, the image of God is that God must submit to the laws of logic and nature. In the second case, the image of God is that of a God who must meet our moral standards.

Luther’s Question←⤒🔗

The reasoning and questioning of man is the starting point in the question of God’s existence. A man asks the questions and decides whether he is satisfied with the answer given. God must prove or justify himself.

At first, Luther’s question also seems to take the starting point in the questioning man. The question of a gracious God is asked by man. And here too the answer seems to be certain in advance. Looking at Luther, can we also speak of a pre-existing image of God that determines how a man speaks about God? With him too, the questioning man seems to be at the centre. Yet the opposite is true. Luther’s question can only be truly understood from his answer.

The strength of Luther’s discovery was that man’s image of God and the image of the man associated with that were completely broken up. While listening to God’s Word and his promises, Luther’s image of God was completely renewed: from a God who judges man as a strict judge, to a gracious God who wants to make people righteous through Jesus Christ.

In the light of Luther’s later discovery in the monastery, his quest was not for a gracious God, but for a perfect man. In fact, Luther’s question was, how can I live as a sinful human being and be righteous before the face of God?

The liberation that Luther experienced was not that he had finally found a God who answered his questions, but rather that he had discovered a God who is completely different from what he had thought. In his discovery, it is no coincidence that Luther places so much emphasis on the fact that man by himself—that is, without God revealing himself — is unable to let God be God. All human images of God must disappear, because they stem from the pride of man who himself wants to construct an image of God.

It is therefore also a bit misleading to ask the question, “How do I get a gracious God?” as a starting point when describing the doctrine of justification. This gives the impression that Luther’s breakthrough can largely be explained as a psychological process that has helped many in his time and future generations in their dealing with God. Luther’s discovery would then have been a way of dealing with the medieval image of God. If that was true, it would be justified today to leave this question unanswered. Obviously, Luther’s discovery should not be explained psychologically, but theologically. God revealed himself in an unprecedented new way, by opening the way for a new understanding of the gospel.

Luther’s Question Today←⤒🔗

The unprecedented novelty of Luther’s discovery was that the human image of a distant God was exposed as an illusion. God is the God who wants to meet us and present us with a new life in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then it is indeed about guilt, justice, and grace, but these are no abstract concepts that need to explain a theory. Guilt, justice, and grace take on form in a man’s wonderful encounter with Jesus Christ. When man, in faith, gets to know himself through the knowledge of Christ, he receives a completely new existence.

It is precisely in this, I believe, that the strength and necessity of the demand for a gracious God lies today. Luther’s question elevates man above a theory about God that places the questioning man at the centre. The ultimate question is not whether God’s existence can be made credible and how his existence is to be understood against the background of the world’s misery. The ultimate question is who I am as a sinful human being before God who wants to connect with me. When it comes to sin, it is not about talking people into guilty feelings and thus bringing them to Christ. No, the guilt comes to the fore where a man encounters Jesus Christ and learns that he lives for himself and separates himself from the Lord. But that guilt can only be understood from the grace of Jesus Christ who gives new life to a people lost in sin and misery.

The Question about God and the Task of the Church←⤒🔗

I do not want to claim that the question about God’s existence has no right whatsoever. On the contrary, such a question must be taken seriously. The church needs to speak today’s language when spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Besides, the current question of God’s existence, in a sense, creates the opportunity to set in motion a discussion about the God of the Bible.

However, this does not take away from the fact that we can learn from Luther that our failing human questions cannot bring us to a true knowledge of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, we find the answer to our questions in God alone, because God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the church should be careful not to be misled and succumb to the temptation to stand by man’s questions. Amid the current questions today, the church must testify of God who has spoken and is still speaking in the Lord Jesus Christ.