Lord’s Day, Vol. 5 No. 43
16th Century Reformation in Germany
- Martin Luther (Part 2)
Luther’s chief struggle had to do with the phrase ‘ the righteousness of God’. He was convinced that in Romans 1:17 and elsewhere these words referred to the awful holiness of God, and His unchanging hatred of sin and sinners. How could he, Martin Luther, ever achieve the kind of holiness that would turn away the anger of God against him?
He did not yet understand Paul’s words in Romans that the gospel is the saving power of God to everyone who believes in Christ, because it reveals the righteousness of God. This righteousness of God is nothing other than Christ’s perfect obedience to His Father’s will in life and death, ‘even the death of the cross’ – obedience which God counts as belonging to all those in whose place Christ died. Just as the punishment of the believer’s sin was borne by Christ so it is because of Christ’s righteousness that the same believer, though ungodly in himself, is pronounced ‘just’ or righteous in the sight of God. In this way, Paul says, faith receives the righteousness of God: ‘To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness’ (Romans 4:5).
When the Holy Spirit revealed this to Luther, and he learned that it was by faith alone that he could be saved, and not by his own good works, the light of the truth shone with such brilliance, and brought such deliverance into his spirit, that he felt Paul’s words, ‘The just shall live by faith’, were the very gate of Paradise itself. And so this great truth, THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH . . . became the fundamental truth of the Reformation. In other words, a wonderful reformation came personally to Luther before God used him as the instrument of the Reformation in Europe.
Staupitz persuaded Luther to enter the Roman priesthood and recommended him to Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, as a man suitable for a professorship of Theology in the University that Frederick had founded at Wittenberg. In the post, Luther found great happiness. His mind was clear and his heart satisfied. He rejoiced in salvation, not by works of the law performed by the sinner, not by ceremonies and penances and similar observances prescribed by the Roman Catholic Church, but by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
New light was shed upon the entire Bible, which became to him a book of life and comfort, and of wisdom from above. All the blessings and benefits of redemption through ‘precious blood of Christ’ came to him; he breathed the fresh air of God’s redeeming love.
Luther now wanted to spread to all men the saving truth that had brought him out of darkness into light. He longed to preached justification by faith far and wide and gradually he became conscious of the great work that awaited him. Difficulties abounded, but he learned to say, as did the apostle Paul, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me’. The future, though dark, was at the same time bright with hope.
Although Luther was now a professor at the University of Wittenberg, he still lived in a monastery. In the year 1510, he was commissioned to go to Rome in the interests of the Augustinian Order. He was delighted with his mission, for up to this time, he held the conviction that the Roman Catholic Church was the Church, that the Pope was the holy vicar of Christ upon earth, and that Rome, ‘the eternal city’, was the supreme seat of holiness. But he was miserably disappointed. The nearer he approached the ‘holy city’ the more wickedness he observed on every hand, and while in Rome he heard about the wicked deeds of popes and other high dignitaries.
The popes had decided that St. Peter’s Cathedral at Rome should be rebuilt. The enormous expense was to be met by contribution from all areas where the Church held sway, and with a view to promoting the inflow of money to Rome special indulgences were to be sold.
Tezel a monk from Leipzig, was one of those who toured the German states to effect their sale, and he had a graduated scale payments based upon social rank and upon sins committed. Some Germans, it appears, were even prepared to buy indulgences (to secure exemption from years in purgatory) for sins they had not yet committed at the time of purchase. People were also told that they could make payments which would deliver their loved one who had died from their purgatorial torments. ‘The moment the money tinkles in my box’, said Tetzel, ‘that moment the soul springs up out of purgatory’.
Luther’s anger was unbounded. He preached vehemently against Tetzel and his ecclesiastical wares, but soon decided to take more vigorous action, for men in general had no conscience against purchasing indulgences which guarantee the remission of purgatorial pains. Luther, therefore, wrote 95 theses, tersely stating the evils of indulgences; and on 31st October, 1517, at the hour of noon, he nailed them to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. This was the beginning of the Reformation; October 31st is its birthday. The following day was “All Saints’ Day’ when multitudes flocked to the church. The theses attracted great public attention. They were read, copied, printed and distributed all over Germany, and soon, as on wings, carried all over Europe. Many rejoiced in Luther’s boldness and hoped that good would come out of it.
[Extracted and edited from Sketches from Church History by S.M Houghton, pp81-86]
Yours Lovingly,
Pastor Lek Aik Wee