The. Martin. Luther.

This week at K-Institute we studied the history of the church. So much information was thrown at us as we went from the age of Catholic Christianity beginning in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple to today with our post-modern ideologies and rejection of absolute truth. One man that I enjoyed learning more about was Martin Luther who showed great bravery and boldness to begin the Reformation.

In the early 1500s there was great discontentment in Europe and the people were in need of reform. Basic questions of Christianity needed to be re-answered; how is a person saved? Where does religious authority lie? What is the church? What is the essence of Christian living? And Luther was about to come on the scene to answer some of those questions.

Luther was an educated man trained in law. He later became a monk and would spend hours in confession over his sins that he couldn’t tackle. He would actually be in confession so long that monks started to refuse to listen to him! He later made a trip to Rome and saw the corruption of the church. The papacy was teaching that salvation was granted to people by their good works and how much money that donated to the church. He was devastated by this and decided to become a college professor, studying and teaching the Bible. When he read Romans 1:16,17 the message of sin and salvation finally clicked and he began to radically teach that salvation comes through faith.

Romans 1:16,17

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

Luther wrote the 95 Theses, protesting against the abuse of indulgence sales, and posted them on the doors of the church of Wittenburg on October 31, 1517. Because of the printing press copies of the theses spread very quickly to France, England and Italy. In 1521, a few years after the theses were posted, Luther was called to go before the Diet of Worms and recant his authorship and content of his writings. Facing arrest, his response was:

“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.”

Denying man and his own safety Martin Luther proclaimed the word of God. He later translated the Greek Bible into German so people could have their own copies of the Bible and study and learn for themselves. He was the leading man of the Reformation simply because he held true to the word of God and proclaimed it to people who needed to hear it.  

In a culture today that also desperately needs questions of Christianity re-answered, I am inspired by Martin Luther to stand up boldly for what the Bible teaches, and encouraged by the great impact he made in his lifetime!