Dr. Martin Luther and Dr. Jordan Peterson have one important thing in common. They have both expressed terror at the existence of God. While Luther resolved this by understanding the contrast between law and gospel, Peterson has not.
Despite being generally reluctant to discuss whether or not he believes, Dr. Peterson has on many occasions said that he’s afraid God might actually exist. Consider this exchange from a YouTube interview with Piers Morgan:
Morgan: “Do you think there is a God?”
Peterson: “I’m terrified that there might be.”
Peterson tries to deflect the impact of his statement by referring to the idea of “the fear of God” that is so prominent in biblical wisdom literature, but after listening to him for many years, I have no doubt that Peterson finds (or found) the idea of a perfect judge who can peer into the deep secrets of our hearts an absolute nightmare. I could fill this article with quotes from Peterson supporting that judgment.
In this respect, Dr. Peterson reminds me of a Dr. Martin Luther, who related his experience of saying the introductory portion of the mass as follows.
At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God.” (From Roland Bainton’s Here I Stand)
Luther and Peterson would both reject the modern “my buddy Jesus” view of God, as well as the idea that we can put God in the dock and subject him to the moral judgment of our puny minds and limited perspectives. But the agreement only goes so far. The great divergence is in how these two intellectual giants dealt with the horror of this all-seeing judge.
Clean Your Room
Jordan Peterson’s message has resonated with a lot of people, and particularly with young men — many of whom are lost and rudderless in a culture that calls them unnecessary, toxic, and far worse. His prescription for people suffering from a lack of meaning is to put your life in order and take up as much responsibility as you can bear. Clean your room. Stand up straight. Dress decently. And yes, carry your cross. It’s only by doing these things that you can find meaning and purpose in your life.
Here are some quotes to provide a bit of the flavor of Dr. Peterson’s advice:
Pick up your damn suffering and bear it. Try to be a good person so you don’t make it worse. (Rule 1)
No one gets away with anything, ever, so take responsibility for your own life. (Rule 1)
You’re going to pay a price for every bloody thing you do and everything you don’t do. You don’t get to choose to not pay a price. You only get to choose which poison you’re going to take. (Rule 7)
One wonders how Peterson would respond to someone burdened by guilt and shame over the wicked things he’s done. He does encourage people to get beyond their past, but — once again — it’s all through internal effort. Rule Eight states “If you want to discover who you are, start with telling the truth. And stop doing things you know are wrong.”
Peterson tells young men to quit wasting their time, get serious about life, and do something important — voluntarily accepting the sacrifice and pain that will inevitably accompany such a venture. That’s the path to meaning and purpose.
Luther, Law, and Gospel
Dr. Luther took a very different path. He didn’t have a problem with cleaning his room or taking up a meaningful career. He was a hard-working, conscientious doctor of theology and a priest. Luther’s problem was that he was terrified at the majesty of God, and the solution he found wasn’t resolved by effort or by good advice, but by revelation of the righteousness of God freely given in Christ.
Classic Lutheranism views the biblical text through the lens of law and gospel — that is, what God requires and what he promises. Or, to put it more simply, “do” vs. “done.” The law demands what we can’t perform (“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” Mt 5:48). It exposes our sin, our inadequacy, and our complete helplessness before God.
We aren’t wounded souls who need some encouragement. We can’t get out of this mess through positive thinking, self-discipline, or therapy. As a friend said once in a sermon on Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, before someone is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they are stone cold dead and rotting at the bottom of the ocean.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us … made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus …. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:1–9)
We can’t even find any merit for ourselves in the faith that saves. Even that is a gift of God. All boasting is categorically excluded. We’re completely dependent on a gift that we don’t deserve.
The gospel counters the diagnosis with a cure, the demand with a gift, the command with a promise. While the law shows our sin, the gospel shows our savior. “For in [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith'” (Rom 1:17).
This righteousness is not the righteousness inherent in God, by which he judges sinners, but the righteousness that he freely offers to sinners on the basis of grace alone.
Good Advice, So Far as It Goes
For all of Peterson’s talk about the Bible and the Gospels, there is no gospel message in his message. It’s difficult to quibble with Peterson’s advice. It’s solid, time-tested wisdom that he’s deployed effectively in his own clinical practice. But does it answer the real problem?
People today have no sense of meaning because they’re disconnected from Meaning itself. Peterson addresses that issue as well, and his ideas about the Logos and the voice of God in conscience are worth your time. Still, you can’t approach Meaning with sin on your conscience. If you can work up the self-discipline, you can clean your room, stand up straight, take responsibility, and align your life with something of genuine value. And by all means do that. But will it satisfy without forgiveness?
Think of the paralytic who was lowered through the roof to be near Jesus. Jesus forgave his sins, which, to modern ears, seems absurd. “This man’s problem is that he’s paralyzed! What does forgiveness have to do with anything?”
Actually … everything. We have our perspectives all wrong. We think our problems have to do with jobs and money and relationships, where our real problem is sin. Jesus didn’t come to give us wise sayings — although he did do that. He came to save us from our sins.
There’s a lot to be said for Peterson’s message. He’s doling out hard truths to people who need to hear them, and in some ways, he could serve as a gateway drug to real faith. His message of hard work, responsibility, and sacrifice is definitely needed, and people are eating it up.
Dr. Peterson would have little to say to a terrorized Dr. Luther, or to any soul plagued by guilt. But if Peterson trades in good advice, it’s probably not a surprise that his God is one Peterson fears might exist. The God of good advice is a God who stands in judgment of us. But the real God — the one who reveals himself in scripture — offers something far better than ten rules for living. The gospel is not good advice, but good news. Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification.
Greg Krehbiel is the President of Krehbiel Group the author of the book .
