The world changed on October 31, 1517. Martin Luther[1],
a Roman Catholic monk and a teacher at an Augustinian seminary had had enough. He was greatly disturbed by the sale of indulgences.
Let me explain.
A Catholic bishop, Albert
of Mainz (1490 – 1545) was the overseer of two bishoprics, but he wanted even
more power and influence. He desired an additional archbishopric over Mainz. At
that time the practise of buying of such bishoprics[2]
was the done thing. It was actually against church law to have more than one
bishopric, but money talks. And greedy pope Leo X (who needed money to build St. Peter’s basilica in Rome)
allowed him to do this against the payment of a huge sum. Albert borrowed the
money from a wealthy man[3]. He obtained the electorate of Mainz in 1514. But how was he going to pay back for
this? He procured the services of a
Dominican monk, Johan Tetzel, who
was known for granting indulgences on behalf of the Catholic Church in exchange
for money. Indulgences were guarantees underwritten by the pope that sins
committed could be forgiven by means of a payment into the church coffers. This spiritual abuse made Martin Luther angry.
He had to speak out, and so he took his pen and began to write his famous 95
theses. He posted them on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. The
theses or protests were designed to
spark a debate, but it did far more. It
started a huge fire in the church, community and country, and soon it spilled
over into other countries around Germany. The corruption of the church had been
named and exposed for what it was. The common people saw that clearly. And the 95
Theses revealed that the church was corrupt, greedy and in dire need of a
thorough going reformation.
The 62nd Thesis of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses powerfully
declares, “The Church’s true treasure is the
gospel of Jesus Christ.” The
Roman church of Luther’s day had lost sight of the gospel of Jesus. Just as in
the days of Jesus and the Pharisees, the Catholic church of Luther’s day had
obscured and replaced the simple gospel of Jesus with manmade traditions and a
system of self-righteous works and performance. I remind you that the Gospel
does not focus on performance, but on reliance in Jesus ALONE. The gospel
teaches us to rest in Jesus and His work of the cross.
Reformation Day celebrates the liberating gospel of Jesus
Christ. Christ plus nothing is everything! The 1517 event set off a spark which
ignited the hearts of many – men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich
Zwingli, Menno Simmons, John Knox, and so many other preachers. They were like matches that ignited
the thirsty souls of the people who had
for so long walked in darkness – a
repeat of Isaiah 9:2: “The
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a
land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” They directed the people’s attention to the
gospel of Jesus. They showed their people that what they needed most was the
gospel of Jesus. They needed that great Word from the true Shepherd more than
they needed words of popes, bishops and
priests.
The Reformation started a gospel preaching, missionary
movement which spread like wildfire. It brought renewal to the church. The church
started singing songs of praise to God. Luther loved singing. He taught the
church to sing. New hymns were written.
Sermons were preached from the Bible and in the language of the people.
People were converted, changed and renewed by the Word of God. We
celebrate Reformation Day, even 506
years later. We remember the day the
gospel was given back to the church, after many years of darkness, in a similar way in which the Jews
celebrate Hanukkah[4]
(Festival of lights), commemorating the
recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the
beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd
century BC.
Martin Luther’s
Conversion
Luther’s encounter with the gospel was a journey – like yours
and mine! The actual date of Martin Luther's conversion is disputed. Some think
that it is before the posting of the Ninety-Five Theses. It seems more likely
however, that Luther’s conversion happened in 1519. In reading the Ninety-Five
Theses, it is clear that Luther still held on to a number of formative Roman
Catholic doctrines. At that point, he tried to correct the church from the
corruptions. But Luther’s own testimony tells
us that his conversion happened while he was lecturing through the Psalms a
second time in the early months of 1519. Shortly before his death, Luther reflected
on his conversion, and in 1545 he said this:
“Meanwhile, I had
already during that year returned to interpret the Psalter anew. I had
confidence in the fact that I was more skilful, after I had lectured in the
university on St. Paul’s epistles to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the one
to the Hebrews. I had indeed been captivated with an extraordinary ardour for
understanding Paul in the Epistle to the Romans… a single word in (Romans) Chapter 1, “In it the righteousness of God is
revealed”… had stood in my way. For I hated that word “righteousness of God,”
which, according to the use and custom of all the teachers, I had been taught
to understand philosophically regarding the formal or active righteousness, as
they call it, with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.
Though I lived as a
monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely
disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my
satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes
sinners, and secretly… I was angry with God, and said, As if, indeed, it is not
enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are
crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without having
God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with
his righteousness and wrath!” Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled
conscience.
Nevertheless, I … most
ardently desired to know what St. Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy of God,
meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In
it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through
faith is righteous shall live.’” There I began to understand that the
righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God,
namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is
revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful
God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous
shall live.” Here I felt that I was
altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.
There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me….Thus that place in Paul was for me truly
the gate to paradise.
Romans 1:16,17
This is the text that finally settled it for Luther. A little
background to the letter is needed. Paul writes this letter to the Romans, probably
from Corinth. When he wrote this letter he believed that he had fulfilled his
ministry in the eastern Mediterranean region (15:17-23). From there he had hoped to go west, even as far as Spain
(15:24), and he hoped to visit the
Roman Christians (1:10), whose faith
was reported upon (1:8), fulfilling
a promise to them, and perhaps to solicit their help as a supporting church (15:24). The Roman church was probably
born as a result of Pentecost, when Jews were present at the feast of Pentecost
(Acts 2:10). There the Holy Spirit
touched the lives of many, and subsequently the many returned back to their
homes carrying the good news of the gospel with them, giving rise to gospel
communities – churches, everywhere as they went. Within a few hundred years (and
after much suffering) the Christian gospel would conquer the Roman empire and
Europe, and the east, and North Africa. These early Christians were the matches
that the Holy Spirit used to light fires everywhere. The gospel was the fuel
which they carried. The gospel is God’s solution to save the world from itself,
and most of all, to save it from His terrible wrath (see Romans 1:18ff). Pray now that the gospel will save the world of our
day as our world currently heads into big trouble. There is no healing in sight
for the many angry nations now at each other’s throats. Our
world has no power whatsoever to save itself. The world needs real salvation,
and the gospel of God is given ALONE to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of Jesus’s Name among all the
nations (1:5). That was Paul’s mission – the gospel for a perishing world: “I
am under obligation to both Greeks and
to Barbarians…” (1:14). Paul’s great confidence for the
world is the gospel of God (1:1,15,16).
Is it your confidence, or are you still thinking that we can fix this world simply
through politics and diplomacy, through education and replacing Christianity with all sorts of cheap and useless philosophies? Let me ask again?
How was the world changed in Paul’s day? How does the gospel work to change
society? How did it change Luther and Germany and so many other nations? Look
at 1:16,17
Paul says, “for I am
not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for
everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also to the Greek”… and then
he gives the punch line, “For in it (i.e.
the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,
as it is written (in Hab.2:4), ‘The righteous shall live by faith’”.
What is it in the gospel that makes the difference in the
world? It is the righteousness of God. Luther struggled with this, because he
constantly thought of self - righteousness, when in truth that thought is
furthest here. He hated God, because He knew that in himself he could not
attain to that standard. But Paul speaks here not of self- righteousness as a
means for being justified before God. No! He speaks of an alien righteousness, a righteousness
imputed or given from the outside. It is
the righteousness of God, freely given to sinners who believe on the merits of the death of His Son who died for sin, so
that whoever looks to Him is not condemned (i.e. is justified). By this
righteousness imputed, I am counted righteous and I receive the power to be
righteous. It is THAT which Martin
Luther finally understood , and this changed EVERYTHING. This is the Gospel!
How do I receive that righteousness? Answer: By faith. What is faith? Faith is believing the gospel of
God! That means that you believe and receive
all that is there in the gospel for you: Jesus died for your sin and He exchanges His righteous life for your unrighteousness. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT? When you stop trusting
in yourself , stop looking at yourself , and when you look to Jesus and all
that He is for you, then the Holy Spirit
does that great work which
happened at Pentecost in a large scale ,
and again at the Reformation.
Do we need another Reformation? Don’t you see that what our churches and our
world lack most at this time is that God centred perspective? We are all so focussed on human solutions. We are
caught up in secular philosophical thought systems that contradict and deny the
power of the gospel. Repentance and
believing the gospel is the ONLY cure for the world. Right now we need fundamental change within and the gospel of Jesus alone contains the
cure for that. If not, we will soon destroy ourselves in this
generation.
The church must not forget the lessons learned during the
Reformation. We cannot forget what happens when the gospel is obscured and
distorted and replaced by false cures procured from the devil’s medicine box. We
need a new Reformation because everything else has failed and is failing.
Humanism and its allies are bankrupt. We need God's help to reform our world
again! We need Holy Spirit anointed preachers that radically believe in God and
His word and preach it fearlessly and care little for public opinion. We need
the truth as it is in Jesus. May God have mercy on us!
[1]
Martin Luther : 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546
[2] Simony is the act of selling church offices and sacred
things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the
Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their
empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit to anyone on whom he
would place his hands. The term extends to other forms of trafficking for money
in "spiritual things”
[3]
Jacob Fugger - a major German merchant,
mining entrepreneur, and banker.
[4]
Occurs roughly around the same time as Christmas
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