instituteontheline-header-logo
Start free trial
On the line
Donate
Start free trial

Dr. Joel Biermann – Ethics & the Christian Life

  • 7 Lessons
  • 3h 16m Total length

Living Faithfully in God’s World

What does it mean to live a good life? In a culture full of moral confusion, Christians often wrestle with how to live faithfully without falling into either legalism or lawlessness. For Lutherans—who confess justification by grace through faith—ethical questions can feel especially difficult: if salvation is by grace alone, what role do obedience and good works play?

In this course, Dr. Joel Biermann leads us through the heart of Lutheran ethics. He shows that Christian morality is not about earning salvation, but about living as God’s creatures within His creation, shaped by the Word, empowered by the Spirit, and called to serve our neighbors in love. Grounded in vocation and formed by the cross, Lutheran ethics offers clarity, realism, and hope for life in a broken world.

Through seven in-depth sessions, you’ll explore key ethical frameworks, the Lutheran approach to law and gospel, the importance of creation and vocation, and the Spirit’s work of sanctification. This course will help you see that ethics is not a burden but a joyful calling—the shape of faith active in love.

Topics Covered in the Course

  • What ethics is, and how Lutheran theology reframes it.
  • Why Lutherans struggle with ethics and how the “Lutheran dilemma” is resolved.
  • How vocation grounds Christian ethics in ordinary life.
  • The importance of creation, natural law, and God’s design for human life.
  • The role of the law in guiding believers and shaping conscience.
  • How the Holy Spirit sanctifies and forms virtue in the Christian life.
  • How ethics is lived concretely in daily vocations of family, work, church, and society.

Let’s Get Started

This course contains seven sessions, each with a video lecture, downloadable notes, and a quiz. You’ll learn to see ethics not as abstract theory, but as the shape of the Christian life—lived in freedom, guided by God’s Word, and directed toward the neighbor. Work through at your own pace, and discover how Lutheran ethics equips you to live faithfully, courageously, and joyfully in God’s world.

Sorry, you need to subscribe in order to view this content.

Lessons in this course

The Ethical Task

The Ethical Task

Course Materials When most people hear the word ethics, they think of rules, dilemmas, or difficult decisions. But ethics is much broader: it is about the shape of our entire lives. In this opening session, Dr. Joel Biermann explains that ethics is less about rare crisis moments and more about daily habits, relationships, and the kind […]

Start Lesson
The Lutheran Dilemma

The Lutheran Dilemma

Course Materials Lutherans are sometimes accused of being “bad at ethics.” Why? Because their central confession—justification by grace through faith apart from works—makes them deeply cautious about anything that sounds like works-righteousness. This has sometimes led to confusion, avoidance of moral teaching, or even rejection of the law’s guiding role. In this session, Dr. Joel […]

Start Lesson
The Lutheran Solution

The Lutheran Solution

Course Materials If justification is by grace alone, where do good works fit? In this session, Dr. Joel Biermann presents the distinctly Lutheran solution: ethics grounded in vocation. Lutherans affirm both that salvation is by faith apart from works, and that God still calls us to live lives of love and service for the sake […]

Start Lesson
A Creation-Based Ethic

A Creation-Based Ethic

Course Materials Christian ethics begins not with abstract ideals or personal preferences, but with creation itself. In this session, Dr. Joel Biermann shows how God’s created order provides the foundation for human life, morality, and vocation. We are creatures, not self-made beings, and our identity—male and female, body and soul, relational and dependent—is given by […]

Start Lesson
The Shape of the Christian Life

The Shape of the Christian Life

Course Materials For many Christians, the word law feels heavy or threatening. Yet Lutheran ethics insists that the law, rightly understood, is a gift. In this session, Dr. Joel Biermann explains the three uses of the law—curb, mirror, and guide—and shows why the third use is essential for Christian life. The law does not compete with the […]

Start Lesson
Ethics, Sanctification, and the Spirit

Ethics, Sanctification, and the Spirit

Course Materials Ethics is not simply knowing the right thing to do—it is about being transformed into the kind of person who lives in step with God’s will. In this session, Dr. Joel Biermann shows how sanctification, the work of the Holy Spirit, gives shape to the ethical life. Justification declares us righteous, but sanctification […]

Start Lesson
Ethics in Vocation

Ethics in Vocation

Course Materials Ethics is not lived in the abstract—it is lived in concrete callings among real people. In this final session, Dr. Joel Biermann explains the Lutheran doctrine of vocation as the central context for Christian ethics. God calls every believer into multiple roles—family, work, church, and society—through which He serves the world. Vocation is […]

Start Lesson