If God does 99% of it, then Jesus is not the Savior and the Holy Spirit is not the Giver of Life, and IMO, it is deceptive and wrong to proclaim that He is.
If Jesus (as I was taught in the RCC) just "opened the door to heaven so that you can get yourself through it" and "Jesus actually saves no one but He makes it possible for all to be saved" then Jesus in not - in any sense or manner or degree - the Savior. He is the Possibility-Maker. And IMO, it is deceptive and wrong to refer to Him as Savior when it is denied that He is.
If Jesus (as I was taught in the RCC) is just ONE (of very many) helpers who "helps those who help themselves" giving us the divine enabling so that we can do what we otherwise would not - then Jesus is not - in any sense or manner or degree - the Savior. He is just one of the helpers.
IF Jesus did His part (the part that is ineffectual and actually causes no one to be saved) and then we add our part (the part that actually matters, the part that actually accomplishes something, the part that actually means we are a child of God and heaven-bound, then Jesus is not - in any sense or manner - the Savior. He is at most the PART Savior (the part that doesn't matter) and then (IMO) it is deceptive and wrong to call Him the Savior. He is just the PART Savior.
Luther lived in a world where the Gospel was often displaced - by Indulgence Sellers who wanted people to think their generous giving was the cause of their justification (not Jesus, not the Cross, not the Empty Tomb), and very often by largely ignorant and uneducated Catholic priests who simply were never taught the Gospel and thus never taught it. Luther - a Doctor in the Church whose "job" included noting error - decried this very UNCATHOLIC teaching, teaching that violated the Council of Orange and so much more, preaching that was actually contrary to Catholicism. He is very polite in the beginning. He was very patient in the beginning. He PASSIONATELY believed that the Bishops of the Church and even the very corrupt Holy Father would be GLAD Luther noted all this and would be QUICK to correct this very unchristian, un-Catholic message (even if it MIGHT - maybe - result in lower income from the Germans). He learned - after a year or so - that he was VERY wrong. Although it took 40 years or so, the RCC chose to NOT correct the really bad unbiblical, unchristian teaching the Indulgence Sellers were preaching, they would dogmatize it. And MY experience (and it seems Albions' too) .... that of virtually every Catholic known to me... this errant preaching continues to this day. For LUTHER, it was a case of honoring Christ, of lifting high the Cross, of pointing people to the Cross rather than to their mirror. And ANYTHING that implied Jesus was irrelevant, Jesus is not the Savior, the Holy Spirit is not the giver of life, that self saves self - is DANGEROUS, DANGEROUS stuff, that highly threatens the Gospel and the Christian faith and creates a "terror of conscience". Luther knew this from personal experience, because he too had had ignorant priests in his life who had taught the same thing: self saves self (with help). Lutherans to this day are sensitive to things that undermine the Christian religion, the Gospel of Christ... and make Christianity just a slight variant of Islam on this point.
A blessed Pentecost to all....
- Josiah
