AM001 500 Years of The Reformation

Romans 1:16–17 NKJV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

Today, I am taking a break from our 3-year Harmony of the Gospels to address something of great importance which, if it had not happened, would probably have meant that this Church would not be in existence today, except, of course, by the very will of God. 500 years ago Martin Luther set in motion a chain of events that came to be known as The Reformation.

This time was a time of great superstition, no one had a bible except those who were priests or monks and that would be in Latin. All sorts of strange ideas flourished and everyone went to the Roman Catholic Church which was also in Latin.

Martin Luther was born in 1483 in Germany and went to Latin school before going to university to study law at the grand old age of 13. He got his bachelors and masters degrees in the quickest time allowed and became known as the philosopher because of his ability to debate. He was to become a lawyer. His father had saved up money as a coppersmith to send him to get educated which is why he and others were displeased at the next event as they thought it to be a waste of his talents.

In 1505, at the age of 22 he got caught in a torrential downpour and lightning almost struck him and he called out “Help me, St Anne! I will become a monk.” Two weeks later he fulfilled his words by giving away everything and entering a monastery. He entered this life with much enthusiasm including all the austere aspects of it including self-flagellation. He commented later that:

131 Christians Everyone Should Know Spiritual Breakthrough

“If anyone could have earned heaven by the life of a monk, it was I.”

131 Christians Everyone Should Know Spiritual Breakthrough

During his early years, whenever Luther read what would become the famous “Reformation text”—Romans 1:17—his eyes were drawn not to the word faith, but to the word righteous. Who, after all, could “live by faith” but those who were already righteous? The text was clear on the matter: “the righteous shall live by faith.”

Luther remarked, “I hated that word, ‘the righteousness of God,’ by which I had been taught according to the custom and use of all teachers … [that] God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.” The young Luther could not live by faith because he was not righteous—and he knew it

To this end he spent a great deal of time confessing his sins to the priests and in such detail that the priests became weary of it and told him to commit a sin worthy of coming to them or not come with such trivial details. It was whilst he was a monk that he realised how futile any of his works were in being right with God.

In 1507 he got his degrees in theology as well as the ones he already had in law and 5 years later a doctorate in theology. In 1508 he started his professorship at Wittenberg University. It was whilst he was teaching on the Psalms and going through the book of Romans in 1513 and 14 there was a breakthrough where according to his own words he said:

131 Christians Everyone Should Know Spiritual Breakthrough

“At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I … began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith.… Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open.”

This was the moment when the Father of the Reformation was born realising that salvation is not of works but of faith, of trust. And, as a result, we are the children of the reformation. Though there had always been Christians in small, isolated, persecuted groups it can be properly said that without Luther we would not have the Protestant Church as large as it is. Which is also a shame as its shrinkage which has to do more with moving away from the principles of the reformation to either Liberalism or back to Catholicism.

Once Luther realised that he was saved by faith suddenly he started to understand so much more from the Scriptures which is why I and others say, that the Scriptures can only be properly understood by people of faith in Christ. He makes it clear that suddenly the Scriptures had a new face which he could not see before. What were these other things he understood?

Well, he understood the Church was not an institution but a community, he understood that you came to salvation by faith alone and not by sacraments, that humans were not naturally good, and that faith was about trusting the promises of Scripture and what Christ had done.

He was still getting to grips with these things when a teacher was selling indulgences to get people out of purgatory. Purgatory was taught to be a place of punishment where one is refined when you die that makes you ready for Heaven. So, in Roman Catholic doctrine, which is the same now as then, you could go to one of three places when you die: Hell, Purgatory or Heaven. The Church used to sell documents that you could buy for yourself or for others including those who are dead to get people out of purgatory quicker or not go there at all. The main man teaching this, with the authority of Pope Leo, was Tetzel. And he taught that: “Once the coin into the coffer clings, a soul from purgatory heavenward springs!”

Well, Luther was livid at this new doctrine taught as being from an infallible Pope, also a new doctrine, which was fleecing the people so on Halloween, 31st October 1517 he posted his famous 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg which is what you did to publicise things in these days and his point was to call for a debate on these things. The introduction to his theses was:

Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg, intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

This was written in Latin for the educated to come together to debate but soon this was translated by those who read these theses and this had the unexpected result of spreading across Germany within 2 weeks and within 2 months across Europe. These theses brought into question the authority of the Pope.

A debate happened in 1519 in Leipzig in which Luther said that a “simple layman with the Scriptures” was more powerful than the Pope and Church councils. For this he was almost excommunicated. Luther only wanted to reform the Church and had nothing against the Pope, personally, in all this. Because of this debate he published 3 treatises: The Address to the Christian Nobility, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On the Freedom of a Christian. In them he speaks of the priesthood of all believers; changed 7 sacraments to 2, that is baptism and communion; freedom from the law and slaves to love their neighbours.

In 1520 he received his first of two letters of excommunication from the Pope which Luther publicly burned in the street saying that the Pope is not infallible and had no authority.

In 1521 he was called for a debate at the Diet of Worms in Germany and to appear before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. However, when Luther arrived he discovered it was a trial for heresy to cause him to recant what he had taught. Then one of the most famous of Luther’s words was spoken, which were incredibly bold:

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.” or as in some doubtful traditions he said: “Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”

Soon an edict declared him to be an heretic but before the sentence was passed he was rescued by knights and taken to stay in Wartburg Castle where he stayed for 10 months. It was here he translated the New Testament into German. After which he returned to Wittenberg and along with Philip Melanchthon he helped the reform movement get going.

In 1522 using the newly invented machines called ‘printing presses’ he printed the New Testament and in 1534 the whole bible. Because of him the Bible was then translated in the many other languages of Europe including English. The German language was standardised through Luther’s German.

When he was 41 he married a runaway nun and in the end had 6 kids and adopted 4 more. This led to the view that Priests and pastors should marry. When he was 48 and was sick for 6 months he went on to translate more of the Bible, print 15 tracts, wrote 180 sermons and took a number of trips. Luther said that if you want to change the world pick up your pen and start writing. He also wrote catechisms.

The later years he became a bad-tempered man and used a great deal of foul language especially against the Pope, theological opponents and the Jews. It is shameful to read these things - and unfortunately the 7 things he wrote when he was 59 years old, against the Jews, namely:

To burn down Jewish synagogues and schools and warn people against them; To refuse to let Jews own houses among Christians; For Jewish religious writings to be taken away; For rabbis to be forbidden to preach; To offer no protection to Jews on highways; For usury to be prohibited and for all silver and gold to be removed, put aside for safekeeping, and given back to Jews who truly convert; To give young, strong Jews flail, axe, spade, and spindle, and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their brow.

These were taken literally by a man nearly 400 years later by the name of Hitler and led to the evil of the holocaust.

He was not perfect yet God still used this man to set the course of the Church in the right direction. He was still very much influenced by Roman Catholic doctrine but it is plain he really did become a Christian. Don’t forget that this was all new to him. We take much of what happened as a result of the Reformation for granted. It is because of him and later reformers such as Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer, the Anabaptist and many more that we exist here at all at Mount Calvary. All were influenced, as are we, by Luther. Because of them Protestants have what are called the five solas. A sola means ‘alone’. The five are:

Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”): The Bible alone is our highest authority.

Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

Sola Gratia (“grace alone”): We are saved by the grace of God alone.

Solus Christus (“Christ alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Saviour, and King.

Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone.

The Roman Catholic Church did reform in many ways but these five ‘solas’ were not accepted. They consider those who hold all these as heretical. We hold the Roman Catholic Church to be heretical. Sacraments cannot save. There is no such place as Purgatory and praying on behalf of the dead, as they still do, does not save anyone from such a place. There are only one of two places we go when we die: Heaven or Hell.

If only we could influence history so much if we lived to be 62. Luther died in 1546. He was buried in front of the pulpit from which he preached for 34 years.

There is a movement today to remove the vestiges of the reformation from the church - even having joint services with the Roman Catholic Church on Tuesday - but friends, the Roman doctrine still teaches salvation is by works and not by faith, therefore they are preaching another gospel which is condemned as being deserving of hell in the Scriptures. Some evangelicals have been caught up in this and that is all the more surprising but our trip through the Letter to the Galatians should not then leave us amazed that this is happening - this also happened in the early Church. We are called to be faithful to the Reformation, to the Scriptures, to the Gospel that has as the a foundation those 5 solas that we spoke of. And certainly not unity at any cost.

Well, Luther was the Father of the Reformation in that he started to turn back the Church away from superstition and the Roman Catholic Church back to Scripture. This was a move of God first and foremost. This reform started in the heart of Luther when he set his heart to study Scripture. If we want reform and revival, it happens when we return to Scripture and allow it to have the last word in our lives.

Salvation is not based upon how good we are. Even as Christians there seems to be the perpetual trouble that we feel we are not good enough. Well, my friends, let me tell you the truth. You are not good enough. We were not good enough for Heaven before we became Christians and we are not good enough now. Our hope is not in trusting ourselves to achieve rightness with God. We will never be right enough.

Our faith is in the blood of Jesus alone to save us. Any good we do is because He has already saved us.

And we are saved because He poured out His grace upon us.

As a result we know that Jesus alone is our Saviour, our Lord and King.

We could do none of this ourselves and therefore only God gets the glory.

We are not perfect, just as Luther was not perfect but we can have confidence in God who loves us. There is no room for pride to say ‘I did it!’ but we can, instead, say, with Paul, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” Why? It has the power to save us and any who come to Christ. The cross is central to our faith. Jesus paid the price for all our past sin and all our future sin. It is because He did this we want to live lives pleasing to God. And the only way to please God according to the Scriptures? Is by faith. The just shall live by faith.

Put your trust in Jesus today and not in anything you or anyone else can do. Ask Him into your life. For now is the day of salvation. This is the year of the Lord’s favour.

Benediction

Hebrews 4:14–16 NKJV

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Bibliography

Edgar, W., & Oliphint, K. S. (Eds.). (2011). Christian Apologetics Past and Present: A Primary Source Reader, From 1500 (Vol. 2). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Hart, T. A. (2000). In The dictionary of historical theology. Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Paternoster Press.

Luther, M. (1996). Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the power and efficacy of indulgences: October 31, 1517 (electronic ed.). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

Galli, M., & Olsen, T. (2000). In 131 Christians everyone should know. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 19:18 28 October 2017.