Journal: Emmaus Journal
Volume: EMJ 19:2 (Summer 2010)
Article: Martin Luther And The Christian’s Vocation
Author: Alan W. Gomes

EMJ 19:2 (Summer 2010) p. 193

Martin Luther And The Christian’s Vocation

Alan W. Gomes1

What is your vocation, or your “calling in life”? This is the question that every Christian graduate faces after the completion of his or her studies. For some, it may mean further schooling to gain the training needed to become a teacher, a full-time youth worker, a missionary, a counselor, or a lawyer. Others will go directly into the workforce, seeking employment in business, accounting, information technology, or a host of other fields. But regardless of the specifics, I am certain that the issue of your future vocation or calling is very much in the forefront of the thinking these days.

Some of the richest, most helpful teaching on how we should view our vocation comes to us from the great theologians of the Protestant Reformation. More than anyone else, Martin Luther connected the dots, so to speak, on the implications of the recovery of the pure gospel and its relationship to one’s “calling” or “vocation.” In order to make this point, I’m going to discuss this theologically.

The Theological Basis For The Christian’s Vocation

Consider Luther’s teaching that we are saved by grace, through faith ALONE, apart from works. This was a central teaching of Luther’s. More to the point, it is one of the central teachings of the Bible.

In Luther’s day, it was thought that a person who was really serious about saving his or her soul would become a priest or a nun or a monk, which would allow a person to devote one’s full-time energies to

EMJ 19:2 (Summer 2010) p. 194

attaining this goal. Your average merchant, or peasant, or farmer, or soldier, or housewife was distracted with the worldly concerns of his or her occupation. Sure, they could be good Catholics by going to mass, taking communion, and observing the fasts and feast days whenever they could. But those who had a “religious vocation”—who were called to the religious orders—were the ones who had a “calling” and secured for themselves a much higher degree of holiness, and therefore were more pleasing to God.

Of course, in the Roman Catholic doctrine of merit, the member of the religious order would rack up even greater spiritual “brownie points” than would be possible to those whose time was divided, having to pursue worldly activities like milking cows or changing diapers. For example, if a person venerated relics, prayed certain prescribed prayers, went on pilgrimages, and did other spiritual exercises, such a person could receive an indulgence to remove time that would otherwise be spent in purgatory. Quite obviously, simple math tells you that the more t...