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 ignited by God, who used them in in turn to ignore 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 508 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 in Jerusalem 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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