The Devil, the Doctor?

Oh, how little did Luther think of free will?

So little of it that not even the devil had free will but was compelled by God to act against his own interests.

The following is quoted from Steve Hein (the reference is at the end) and presents a snippet of what Steven calls Luther’s De Servo Arbitrio Diaboli, “concerning the unfree will of the

Devil”: against his will, he is forced to proclaim God’s Word.

(quote)

Luther could also refer to the Devil as the Magister conscientiaa—
Master of the conscience. It is odd, notes Oberman, that much of the Luther
revivals in the 19th and early 20th centuries could portray Luther as the great
champion of the conscience over against the powers of this world. Luther
insisted that the Christian conscience be tied to the Word of God. Let it
thereby be imprisoned by God. “The alternative to this ‘prison of God’,”
notes Oberman about Luther, “is not ‘freedom of conscience’ but rather
‘conscience imprisoned by the Devil’, because the conscience—and this is
terrifying even unbearable for the modern ear—is the natural kingdom of the
Devil.”

Luther had one other strange title for the Devil as he considered his

work of tentatio. He called him Doctor Consolatorius—the Doctor of

consolation, which is the honorary title of the Holy Spirit! The Unholy Spirit

comes to us and makes his case in the conscience that by rights we belong to

him. The Hound of Hell … has three throats—sin, the law, and death.21

Our sinfulness, in word and deed, has erected a wall between us and God,

and we are imprisoned behind it. But it is precisely at this point that we have

proof of Christ’s presence and His righteousness. Here we have the

unmistakable sign of being the elect of God—justified, and joined to Christ

by faith. The Devil is not interested in the unbeliever—he has all of them

already. His battle is with those who belong to the “Enemy”; where the

Gospel lives in the heart, where the Word of Christ rules the conscience by

faith. Here is our experiential assurance—and the Devil provides it—that we

really belong to Christ. What comfort! Said Luther, “the fact that the Devil

presses us so hard shows that we are on the right side”.22 Satan attacks the

conscience and afflicts the heart and soul, pointing out our spiritual

poverty—our wretchedness, cowardice, and weakness in fear, love, and

trust. But then, here therefore, are the consolations and comforting signs that

we most assuredly belong to Christ. God enlists the Devil to assure the

Christian of his own election by experiences of the sickness unto death.

This

is Luther’s De Servo Arbitrio Diaboli, “concerning the unfree will of the

Devil”: against his will, he is forced to proclaim God’s Word.

Hein, Steven A., "Tentatio," Lutheran Theological Review, 10 (1997-98), 29-47.