The point i wish to emphasize here is that sadism is not identical with destructiveness, although it is to a great extend blended with it. The destructive person wants to destroy the object, that is, to do away with it and to get rid of it. The sadist wants to dominate his object and therefore suffers a loss if his object disappears.
Luther's relationship to God was one of complete submission. In psychological terms his concept of faith means: if you completely submit, if you accept your individual insignificance, then the all-powerful God may be willing to love you and save you. If you get rid off your individual self with all shortcomings and doubts by utmost self-effacement, you free yourself from the feeling of your own nothingness and can participate in God's glory.
Man discovers himself and others as individuals, as seperate entities, he discovers nature as something apart from himself in two aspects: as an object of theoratical and practical mastery, and in its beauty, as an object of pleasure. He discovers the world, practically by discovering new continents and spiritually by developing a cosmopolitan spirit, a spirit in which Dante can say: "My country is the whole world."
Each person works for himself, individualistically, at his own risk and not primarily in co-operation with others. But he is not a Robinson Crusoe, he needs others, as customers, as employees or as employers. He must buy and sell, give and take.