These are a few of my favorite words... 5

"It was in her capacity as the prompter and agent of 'natural' theology that Mistress Reason was in Luther's eyes the Devil's whore; for natural theology is, he held, blasphemous in principle, and bankrupt in practice. It is blasphemous in principle, becuase it seeks to snatch from God a knowledge of Himself which is not His gift, but man's achievement-- a triumph of human brain-power; thus it would feed man's pride, and exalt him above his Creator, as one who could know God at pleasure, whether or not God willed to be known by him. Thus natural theology appears as one more attempt on man's part to implement the programme which he espoused in his original sin-- to deny his creaturehood, and deify himself, and deal with God henceforth on an independent footing. But natural theology is bankrupt in practice; for it never brings its devotees to God; instead it leaves them stranded in a quaking morass of insubstantial speculation. Natural theology leads men away from the Divine Christ, and from Scripture, the cradle in which He lies, and from the theologia crucis, the gospel doctrine which sets Christ forth. But it is only through Christ that God wills to be known, and gives saving knowledge of Himself. He who would know God, therefore, must seek Him through the Biblical gospel. We must not expect to understand all that the gospel tells us, for the fact of Christ (that is, the achievement of our salvation by the death of the incarnate Son of God) is beyond man's rational comprehension. That is why the gospel has always seemed foolishness to the wise men of this world. But we are not entitled to make rational comprehension the condition of credence, nor to edit and reduce God's Word (as Luther accuses Erasmus of doing) so as to make it square with our own preconceived ideas. That, again, is to try and make man into God, for to understand all things perfectly is the prerogative of the Creator alone. And it is also to exclude faith; for the very distinguishing mark of faith is that it takes God's word just because it is God's word, whether or not it can at present understand it. Man's part, therefore, is to humble his proud mind, to renounce the sinful self-sufficiency which prompts him to treat himself as the measure of all things, to confess the blindness of his corrupt heart, and thankfully to receive the enlightening Word of God. Man is by nature as completely unable to know God as to please God; let him face the fact and admit it! Let God be God! Let man be man! Let ruined sinners cease pretending to be something other than ruined sinners! Let them realise that they lie helpless in the hand of an angry Creator; let them seek Christ, and cry for mercy. This is the point of Luther's polemic against reason."

J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnston
Introduction: IV. Theological Issues
The Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther