On November 10, 1483, nine years before Columbus discovered America, Hans and Margaret Luther had a baby. They baptized him and named him Martin. Hans Luther was a miner who supported his family well. He put Martin all the way through the university. Ultimately he wanted his son to become a lawyer. In January, 1505, Martin Luther entered law school. But as he was journeying home one night that spring, he was caught in a severe storm. As lightning struck near him, Luther was certain he was going to die. In his fear, he cried out: “Help St. Anne! Save me! I will become a monk!”  He survived the storm. He sold all his books. He entered the monastery.

By entering a monastery, Luther not only angered his father, but also lost out on a lucrative law career. What made him so fearful on that stormy night that he would vow to do such a thing? Luther lived in fear of God. His church primarily pictured God as a judge who forgave sins only after good works of penance  were done, rather than the Heavenly Father who freely forgives through Jesus all who confess their sins to him.  Luther was simply afraid that he was not doing enough to appease God and earn heaven. Since monastic life, in Luther’s day, was seen as the way to earn heaven by holy living, it is not surprising that Luther would choose this path. He hoped that monastic life would bring him closer to God and earn heaven for himself.

It was 1506 when Luther entered the monastery. His cell was unheated. It was small. It overlooked the monastery cemetery, where he knew one day he would be buried.  To assure himself of his salvation, he outworked all the other monks. He out-fasted them. He out-prayed them. Luther was determined to reach heaven. Luther was determined to escape the fire of hell!

But living in a monastery did not cause Luther to feel any closer to God. He still feared God. Everything he knew about the way to salvation was based on what his church had always told him: “God would never withhold his love from anyone who did the best that was in him,”  But this did not make Luther feel confident at all. His fears could be summed up like this: “How can I ever be sure that I have done my best?” “In fact, I already know I have not done my best.” “When I die, God will not be merciful to me!”

God however, did not let Luther die in his despair. He caused the light of the Gospel (good news) shine in his troubled heart. God used Dr. Johann von Staupitz, the head of Luther’s monastery, to set him on the right path. “Read the Bible and trust in Jesus,”  Staupitz said. But it was not until years later, that God made the Gospel of Jesus fully clear to Luther’s heart.

That time came after Luther had become a Doctor of Biblical Studies at the University of Wittenberg, in Germany. As Luther continued to pour over God’s Word in the university, God revealed to him that penance and the attempt at holy living could not remove sin, as Luther had been taught.  God showed Luther that Christ’s blood shed on the cross had already taken away all his sins,  and by believing in Christ, he was saved!  Luther couldn't believe it! Salvation was simply a gift from God, received by faith in Christ!

When Luther realized this, he said: “Immediately I felt that I had been reborn and that I had passed through the wide-open gates of paradise.”  This was no longer the Luther who, ten years earlier, had been driven into the monastery by his fear of God's judgment.

In his classroom, he began to teach this “new” Gospel of free and full salvation through faith in Christ. Many were relieved to hear that God was freely merciful to sinners after all!

Of course, his Gospel was not in line with the “Gospel” of his Roman Catholic Church. A storm was building on the horizon.

The storm broke in 1517. It broke over the church's sale of indulgences.  At Luther’s time, indulgences had become a great money maker for the church. In 1507, Pope Julius II commissioned indulgences to be sold to generate funds for building St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.  The supersalesman of indulgences was the monk John Tetzel. "Indulgences," he would say, "are God's precious gifts. When your money rattles in the chest, your sins are forgiven. Pay for the sins of loved ones who are dead, and they will escape from purgatory  to heaven."

Whenever Tetzel would enter a city to sell indulgences, he would be dressed in gorgeous robes, amid the beating of drums, the blaze of torches, and the peal of bells. A long procession would follow him. Setting up a great red cross, and putting down beside it a huge money box, Tetzel would picture purgatory and hell. The people grew afraid. Tetzel's money box was quickly filled. (If only they had known the Biblical Gospel that Christ had already forgiven all their sins on the cross.) They believed like Luther once had, that they had to do something to make up for their sins.

When they purchased these special indulgences, Tetzel had secretaries in purple robes make out receipts that were printed in red and gold. Each one was tied with a ribbon and had the big seal of the pope attached.

Luther knew that God's forgiveness could not be purchased with money. He preached against indulgences. On October 31, 1517, as Tetzel drew near to Wittenberg where Luther was teaching at the University, Luther acted. He nailed “95 Theses” or statements to the church door in Wittenberg, which spoke out against indulgences and other false teachings accepted by the church. One of these theses read: “Pardon for sin is from Christ, full and free!” The Reformation had begun.

For Luther, reformation was never about revolution. He never wanted to break away from the Roman Catholic Church. He never set out to overthrow the church. But he knew the church taught many things not found in God’s Word. These false teachings and distortions of God’s Word were not leading people toward Jesus, but away from him! This had to stop!

The 95 Theses were hugely popular among the German people. But Tetzel, the indulgence salesman, raged against Luther. For a while, the pope paid no attention. He thought it was just another quarrel between monks. In fact, he said early on: "To tell the truth, a pretty good head rests on Brother Martin's shoulders."

The small blaze which was started by the Theses, spread to light up Germany and then all of Christendom. Finally, the pope did begin to take notice. He sent out a decree that Luther's writings should be burned. He declared Luther an outlaw unless he recanted (took back what he said).

After Luther was declared an outlaw, there was a burning of sorts back in Wittenberg. At the head of a procession of students and professors, Luther passed through the university gates and went on to the market square. A fellow professor lit a fire. Then Luther put into the flames the decree by which the pope had condemned him. By this act, Luther the outlaw showed that he was rejecting the authority of the pope in all matters of Christian faith.

Luther was rightfully rejecting the authority the papacy (the office of the pope) claimed to have. The papacy claimed in Luther's time (and still today), that God had given it sole authority over all the church.   The papacy of Luther’s time (and still today) also claimed that God had given it the sole right to determine the church’s official stand on any teaching from Scripture at any time.

Soon after Luther burned the pope’s decree, Emperor Charles V—a  secular ruler over much of Europe, and one who generally sided with the pope—called a meeting (a "Diet") between Luther and the church. The Diet was held in Germany, in a town called Worms in 1521.

A representative of the pope first spoke to the Diet for three hours demanding that Luther be burned without a hearing. (This type of justice was common place in the Middle Ages!) Despite the calls for his burning, the Emperor promised Luther protection to and from the Diet. This promise of safety worried Luther's friends. (A hundred years before, a man named John Hus criticized the church’s teaching on various matters, like Luther was now doing.  Hus was promised protection to and from a council to hear his views. But when he arrived, he was taken by the emperor and burned at the stake. ) But Luther said, "Though there should be as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the roofs, I will go."

After 14 days of travel, Luther reached Worms. The watchman on the cathedral tower blew his horn to announce Luther's arrival. Then it seemed as if all the townsfolk rushed to see him.

The next afternoon a herald was sent to get Luther. The crowds were thick in the main streets. They were so thick that he was forced to reach the place of the Diet by slipping through gardens from house to house. Once there, Luther was asked to recant what he had written. He asked for time to prepare his answer.

After a night of prayer, he appeared before the Diet again, and gave his courageous answer concluding with these words: "Unless I am convinced by Scripture… for I neither trust in popes nor in councils since they have often erred and contradicted themselves—unless I am thus convinced, I am bound by the texts of the Bible. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I neither can nor will recant anything, since it is neither right nor safe to act against conscience. God help me. Amen."

Luther’s stand was, in fact, God proclaiming to the world: "Once again, my Word shall be proclaimed as I want it to be!" And God did not allow Luther to be burned. God had further use of his servant. God gave Luther a clearer and fuller understanding of the Gospel than to any other reformer. Though Luther remained a church outlaw for the rest of his life, he never stopped preaching the Gospel of Jesus which had given him peace with God.

The preaching of Luther and other Lutheran pastors was so centered on the Gospel of free forgiveness, that fellow Protestants of other persuasions nicknamed them "evangelicals"  (carriers of good news)! Lutherans were the first to be called evangelicals!

In 1580, 34 years after Luther's death, the Lutheran church published The Book of Concord —their official and soul enriching stand on all that God’s Word teaches. If you were to read it, you would find that Martin Luther did not invent a new religion back in the sixteenth century.  God simply restored to its purity the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Luther. In short, to be a Lutheran teaching, it must be a Bible teaching. And every Bible teaching is a Lutheran teaching. On these Confessions, the early Lutherans or “Evangelicals” took their stand, even risking their lives and shedding their blood. To have God’s Word taught faithfully, and spread to future generations, was worth all the sacrifice to them!

We at Faith Lutheran church are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS). We as a congregation and Synod believe it is worth the sacrifice too! We still hold to these Confessions in belief and practice.  By God's grace to us, we still teach exactly what the early Lutherans did, and Luther himself did! God's Word does not change! So what we confess to the world, and what we want to teach to you, does not either!
 
 

If you would like to find out more about what the Reformation was all about, and why it is good news for you today, give us a call (210-494-7800), drop us an email, or just stop by!