Fathers of the Reformation: Andreas Osiander – By Pastor Goodroad

A casual observer of the Reformation may think that there were merely two sides: the Lutherans, and the Roman Catholic Church. A closer look will reveal that things were not quite that black-and-white, revealing other prominent figures that represented, or came to represent, other views as well. Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin easily come to mind, figures who were not Roman Catholic, nor were they Lutheran, but Reformed. An even closer look reveals even more fragmentation between and within different parties. As we learned previously, Melanchthon wound up splitting from the Lutherans, but was still not quite in Zwingli or Calvin’s camp, and definitely was not Roman Catholic. Andreas Osiander is another such individual who wound up being not quite Lutheran, not quite Reformed, and not Roman Catholic.

Born around December 1498 in the Franconian town of Gunzenhausen, Osiander was a humanist (meaning one who embraced Renaissance Humanism and studied classical literature, art, philosophy, languages, and so on), reformer, and theologian, and was a master of the Biblical languages of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Osiander was a capable scholar and an early reformer in Nuremberg. He helped promote Luther’s teachings and even participated in the writing of the Augsburg Confession. However, after Luther’s death, Osiander introduced a controversial teaching that divided the church and drew criticism from the confessors of the Lutheran faith.

Osiander’s key error centered on the doctrine of justification — the teaching that we are declared righteous before God by grace, through faith, because of Christ’s atoning work. Luther calls justification the doctrine by which the church either stands or falls. While Luther and the Lutheran Confessions clearly taught that God declares us righteous for the sake of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross (His active and passive obedience), Osiander insisted that we are justified because the divine nature of Christ dwells in us. In other words, he confused justification (God’s declaration of forgiveness) with sanctification (being made holy by the work of the Spirit).

This might sound like a subtle difference, but the implications are massive. Osiander’s view threatened the certainty of salvation. If righteousness depends on something happening inside us rather than on what Christ accomplished for us, then we are left looking inward for assurance, a path that ultimately leads to either pride or despair.

The Lutherans firmly rejected Osiander’s teaching. Article III of the Formula of Concord, one of our Lutheran Confessions, was written specifically to correct his error. It clearly states that we are justified by faith on account of the obedience of Christ, not by an infusion of divine essence into the believer.

This confession safeguards the Gospel itself, ensuring that our salvation rests securely on what Christ has done, not what we feel or experience.

Today, this error persists throughout Christendom in those who do not rightly distinguish between justification and sanctification, sometimes confusing them, other times thinking they are man’s work, not God’s.

While we can be thankful for the good work God did through Osiander, we can also be thankful for the faithful authors of the Formula of Concord, such as Martin Chemnitz, for identifying Osiander’s errors and holding fast to the true faith, teaching God’s Word in its truth and purity.