Luther's Legacy on Predestination in the Context of On Bound Choice

Abstract: Martin Luther's struggles with the doctrine of predestination in the 1510s foreshadowed a life-long wary attitude toward expressions that might tempt believers to doubt that God had indeed chosen them before the foundations of the world as his own. Therefore, he largely avoided the term "predestination" in De servo arbitrio and other writings. In preaching, conversations with students, and print, Luther emphasized that believers have confidence that God chose them as his own in eternity on the basis of their receiving the promise of salvation in Christ in the divine word of promise in its oral, written, and sacramental forms. In the delivery of the promise of forgiveness and life through the means of grace, believers find assurance of their election and justification in God's sight.