THE EUROPEAN REFORMER
Habakkuk 2:4 “The just shall live by faith.”
Christians, who take their faith seriously, will surely remember the Reformers, who refused to give up their love for the Lord Jesus and chose martyrdom rather than compromise with the Church of Rome.
I would like to draw your attention to Martin Luther, the European Reformer, and, in order to do so, we must go back to the year 1517.
On the 31st of October, 1517, Martin Luther stood outside the door of his church in Wittenberg, hammer in hand, and nailed his 95 Theses on the door. These Theses, or Propositions, were the challenge of a solitary monk, the son of a miner, to the Pope himself! The truths propagated by Luther united the German nation kindling among them a Godly spirit of patriotism, which, alas, has long since evaporated.
As for the Reformation itself, it was rooted deeper in Switzerland through the efforts of Zwingli and Calvin. It stirred Denmark and Holland into new life. It spread abroad into godly England and Scotland through such men as Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, Knox, and others. From prepared homes to the Royal Palace the effects of the Great Reformation were felt and enjoyed. The British nation was regenerated through such stalwarts as Cromwell, Milton and Bunyan. The influence of the Great Revolution against gross idolatry in the Church, was felt right across the world. It created the right atmosphere for the modern discoveries of science, and our progress in art, commerce and education.
The starting point of the Reformation, then, was the heroic deed of the miner’s son in challenging the might and power of the apostate church.
What, actually, was it that inspired Luther to do what he did? He read his Bible! Turn to Galatians 2:20:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Who loved me, and gave Himself for me”.
Here we have the starting point for what was to be the Reformation.
Martin Luther was in the library of his university when he discovered a Latin Bible. He read the Galatian text in this Bible, and it became his motive for what was to follow. Luther, in a way, can be compared with the Apostle Paul. Paul’s work was both destructive and constructive. He was concerned about the paganism that still pervaded the church, and sought, by the preaching of the Gospel, to destroy all that was evil, and establish that which was pure, and truly Biblical. It was Paul’s confession that Luther had latched onto. Luther was troubled in his mind about the activities of a priest – Tetzel, and the way in which he was peddling indulgences. We will look at this as we continue. Let us, first of all, look at Luther’s faith.
It is obvious that Luther loved the University of Erfurt, which was listed as one of the great centres of learning in Europe.
He was driven by agony of soul to leave the university for life as a Benedictine monk, in order to search for God. As he pursued the rigorous, austere, life of a monk, be had fits of depression. He was now aiming to have peace in his soul when sin dominated his life.
We are told that the vicar-general of the Monastery, Staupitz by name, gave Martin a Bible of his own, and that was the turning point of his life. He studied this precious volume diligently, concentrating particularly on Paul’s letters.
This is what D’Aubigne had to say:
“The Reformation, which was commenced with the struggling of a humble soul in the cell of a convent at Erfurt, has never ceased to advance. An obscure individual, with the Word of Life in his hand, had stood erect in the presence of worldly grandeur, and made it tremble.! “
Paul came up against Jewish teaching which allowed no place for Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant. He had to clear away all the obstacles of the Jewish priesthood before the spiritual edifice of the Church of God could be erected. Luther also set himself against a formidable foe, as we shall see.
What gave Martin Luther the spiritual strength to take on the might and power of Rome? Nothing more than the Holy Bible, the Word of the Living God. You see, the more he read and studied the Bible, the more he could see of the corruption in his church. His first major conflict he had was against Tetzel and his followers, the peddlers of indulgences He then proceeded to proclaim the Word of God to the Papal Legate at Augsburg. He then took on the theologians at Leipzig, and then the Pope himself. When challenged Luther would say:
“Let us believe the Gospel, let us believe St. Paul, and not the letters and commands (allowing for no appeals) of the Pope.”
One day he was asked, “Are you the man that undertakes to reform the Papacy?”
Luther replied, “Yes, I am the man. I confide in Almighty God, Whose WORD I have before me.”
To the archbishop who tried to persuade him to retract his writings, he said:-
“I would sooner sacrifice my life, and allow my arms and legs to be cut off, than abandon the clear and genuine Word of God”.
From his lonely prison in the castle of Wartburg, deep in the forests of Thuringia, he made a translation of the Bible to the German people. Let us be reminded of Luther’ s words.
“Let this single Book be in all tongues, in all lands, before all eyes, in all ears, in all hearts.”
And again,
“The Scripture, without any commentary, is the sun from which all teachers must receive light.”
All the Reformers held the Bible to be the true source of light, the only rule of faith. “
Both Paul and Martin Luther took Galatians 2:20 as the keynote to their work. Let us be reminded what is written:-
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me”.
Luther calls these last words the definition of Christ.
In his Theses he defined Christ afresh to a spiritually starving people. He put Paul’s testimony into the language of his own time. Like Paul, he began to build upon the one true foundation, Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Other foundations had been laid. Men were being taught to build their own lives and characters up on corrupt human priesthoods and paganistic authorities. Luther’s first priority was to demonstrate the insufficiency and fallacy of these substitutes that were robbing the people of the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on Calvary. His mission, of necessity, was that of an iconaclast, a destroyer of false ideas and practices.
Although his ministry was full of heated controversy, it was constructive. After all, an old derelict building has to be demolished before a new one can be erected.
His message was that Christ died, and rose again. He himself was crucified with Christ in his suffering for the defence of the Truth. But, he also rose with Christ and lived in Him in his new found faith.
The Reformation owed its great success to the fact that Luther recognised that for a Faith to be constructive it has also to be Redemptive.
Our redemption was purchased at great cost when Jesus died in agony. What we were seeing was not a monk merely quarrelling with a pope about Papal authority. It was the rediscovery and the re-proclamation of the central truths of Christianity. When Paul penned the words of our text, they were fresh. They state the deepest conviction of the Apostle’s life and he meant what he wrote. It was not Paul who converted Lydia to the Christian faith or who imparted salvation to the Philippian gaoler. It was not Paul who planted churches at Philippi and Corinth or wrote all those wonderful letters.
It was Christ living in Paul! Similarly it was Christ living in Martin Luther who nailed the 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Church.
Great truths of Redemption were brought to light through this great Reformer’s actions. He became aware of the fact that salvation came solely through the Lord Jesus Christ, and not through the Roman Catholic Church, as he had been led to believe. Faith in the crucified Redeemer means the crucifixion of the believer. If we believe in Christ we are called to share, as far as possible, in His experience. The Lord Jesus gave Himself to us in Love, and we are called to give ourselves to Him in the same way. That means that the old nature of pride, worldliness, and sin is to be crucified. In this He can then enter into us and enlarge our vision of Him, in our lives and in our witness of His precious Word.
“We live, yet not us, but Christ liveth in us.” Christ in Luther was the springboard of the Reformation. Through Luther, Christ was redeeming the people from the devilish deceptions and corruptions of the dark age in which they lived.
Being Redemptive, Luther’s work was individual. “I live, yet not I”. “The Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” The Reformation was the emancipation of the individual from moral and spiritual bondage. It was the reassertion of the vital fact of individual salvation.
Let us never forget that the Church of Rome dominated the lives and consciences of the people. Civil and religious liberty was unthinkable. Martin Luther proclaimed the infinite value of the individual soul. He exalted individual faith in Christ above all external authorities. In so doing he reasserted one essential fact of our Lord’s teaching, and cleared it from the morass of sacerdotal invention under which it had been buried.
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost until he find it?”
Here we have the principle of the Reformation , the intrinsic value of the individual soul.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians is the great Epistle of individual freedom. Some has said:- “The liberty of the soul is the soul of all liberty .”
In the final chapter of Galatians the apostle writes:-
” Stand fast therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.”
Martin Luther’s faith was completely Biblical. It arose from private personal study of God’s Word, which inspired him. One day·he discovered a Bible on a library shelf. Prior to this he only had read prayer books and commentaries of the Apostate Church. The Church of Rome taught (and probably wishes it could still do so) that only the priests could interpret the Bible. (With quite a bit of paganism thrown in!)
Luther discovered the Lord Jesus Cbrist when he discovered the Bible!! The Saviour became a new, a richer Personality to him. The Book was alive with the presence and power of the Living Lord. He learned that the real Word of God was Jesus, Who came to tell men of His Father’s Love. He set on fire for God in his enthusiasm for the great work that lay ahead of him.
Galatians 2:20-21 was his impelling force. It gave him the strength to stand against priest and pope alike. He was ‘God’s man’ and he was about to demonstrate this before the world. Only one thing was uppermost in his mind, and that was to serve the Lord Jesus Christ Who had done so much for him.
Because of Martin Luther, and others like him, we have been given the wonde1ful privilege of being able to privately study the Word of God. Never let us fall into the trap of trivialising it, or taking it for granted !! Luther didn’t. Millions of men, women and children died, rather than give in to the Roman Beast. (John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs gives us an insight into the lengths Rome went to to keep the Bible from the common man).
In our day it is of the utmost importance that we read, study, and digest God’s precious Word – individually and collectively. Why? Because there are those who want to turn back the clock, and take us back to the Dark Ages of repression and spiritual starvation. The Bible and The Book of Common Prayer have been removed from the pews of our Churches.
Luther did his job well, as did all whom God raised up, and anointed, to proclaim Salvation through the Lord Jesus.
The Bible is our lifeline and, as we remember Martin Luther, the European Reformer, let us vow to defend the most Precious Book ever written – the Holy Bible – the Living Word of God .
I believe we are the Guardians of the Truth in our age. Let us not falter in our task .
