This is the fourth installment in our special series on Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation. Translation of Theses 7 and 8 by Caleb Keith.

Luther establishes the human condition in two, and only two realities; the Christian (Thesis 7) and the unbeliever (Thesis 8).  There is no third purgatorial state of “figuring out if one is a Christian.” There are no levels of Christian holiness based on one’s avoidance of sin or one’s success at good works. The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is not based on works or sins, but on where they place their security.