Laughing at Lions
Martin Luther’s strategy for spiritual warfare.
I think the best piece of advice for anyone enduring an especially pointed moment or even season of temptation comes from the pen of that feisty German reformer, Martin Luther. In a 1531 letter addressed to his friend and colleague, Jerome Weller, whose faith was buckling under the pressure of severe spiritual trial, Luther gives us a glimpse of his storied pastoral wisdom and winsomeness. Jerome, who served as a tutor for Luther’s children from 1527 to 1535, was said to have struggled with an array of physical, spiritual, and psychological hardships, all of which made faith, especially the victorious kind, seem more than tenuous. The constant barrage of temptation and doubt made Jerome susceptible to spiritual despair.
Luther’s words find his pupil in a vexing crater, seemingly hemmed in by the adversary who walks about as a lion on the prowl. To sinners and sufferers in such a predicament, where should they turn? Where does their help come from? As Luther asserts, one’s help doesn’t come from the Decalogue. Running to the law, as good and necessary as the law is, won’t offer much in the way of relief. The law’s not bad, but it can’t save you. For that, one must be told the word of the gospel afresh, which gestures to the Crucified and Risen One, in whose person and work the weary are relieved and the adversary felled. Luther puts it like this:
Excellent Jerome, you ought to rejoice in this temptation of the devil because it is a certain sign that God is propitious and merciful to you. You say that the temptation is heavier than you can bear, and that you fear that it will so break and beat you down as to drive you to despair and blasphemy. I know this wile of the devil. If he cannot break a person with his first attack, he tries by persevering to wear him out and weaken him until the person falls and confesses himself beaten. Whenever this temptation comes to you, avoid entering upon a disputation with the devil and do not allow yourself to dwell on those deadly thoughts, for to do so is nothing short of yielding to the devil and letting him have his way. Try as hard as you can to despise those thoughts which are induced by the devil. In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking. By all means, flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him . . . When the devil attacks and torments us, we must completely set aside the whole Decalogue. When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: “I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.”
Yours,
Martin Luther1
Temptation and trial aren’t matters of “if” — only when. There will be snares that trip you up. There will be obstacles that cause you to stumble. No one’s life of faith proceeds unencumbered by failure. Perhaps the biggest lie we could tell about the life of faith and that of a Christian is that faith enrolls one on an ever-ascending escalator of spiritual performance. The curve of faith, if you will, is pointedly diagonal, away from that dreaded Y axis. That’s far from the truth precisely because that’s far from anyone’s experience. To put the life of faith on a graph would result in a jagged, vacillating line that ascends and dips and sometimes even falls below that Y axis. This is just what it means to live simul iustus et peccator, “simultaneously justified and sinner.”
But to such paradoxical sinner-saints, the word that remains our hope and stay is he who is the Word become flesh. In all those peaks and valleys that lie ahead, for all the conflicts that the evil one brings your way, the best and most cheerful news resounds in our ears. That fearsome lion has been defanged. The very sins with which he desires to taunt and torment you are no more. They’ve already been dealt with by Christ. All your impending battles have already been fought and won by the true and better Adam, in whom we are made alive (1 Cor. 15:22; Heb. 2:17–18). Thus, when temptation assails, you are free to laugh in your tempter’s face, for “one little word shall him.” The one who sits in the heavens and laughs at the plots of princes and devils invites us to laugh along with him (Ps. 2:4).
Friends, yours is the victory through Christ alone. When Satan’s wiles seem to be getting the better of you, preach Christ to him and yourself. Better yet, have a laugh, because the verdict is already in, and you’ve more than conquered through him who loved you, even unto death (Rom. 8:37).
Grace and peace to you.
Martin Luther, Letters of Spiritual Counsel, translated and edited by Theodore G. Tappert (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003), 85–87.