Martin Luther and the Early Lutherans

Abstract For Martin Luther, God lives in believers and enables believers to share in his life through the light of faith. Believers take on the image of Christ and are configured to all the mysteries of Christ’s life, sharing in Christ’s salvific works and receiving Christ’s inheritance. By faith and baptism, believers take on Christ’s righteousness in God’s eyes, and this righteousness really becomes true of believers, so that believers are filled with love (which is the divine nature). Following upon Luther, Philip Melanchthon argues that the goal of Christian life is to receive God’s perfect justification, so that God becomes all and all. Even in this life, through imputed righteousness, believers have a spark of this perfect righteousness, so that believers already are being deified by the Spirit. Johannes Bugenhagen (Pomeranus) emphasizes believers’ adoption as God’s children, and Johannes Brenz argues that God communicates Christ’s own qualities to believers.