Lutheranism: Word and Faith
The
early Christians (35 A.D) were a faithful loving group. They joyfully received
the Gospel and believed in Christ as their Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit came on each believer and
their lives were miraculously changed. Miracles and healings were common in
their gatherings.
.And
when the terrible persecutions came upon them, the new Christians stood firm
and bravely continued to proclaim their faith in Christ. In an attempt to stop
the spread of Christianity, many believers in Christ were imprisoned and beaten
and many more gave up their lives for the faith. But these cruel persecutions only fanned the
flames of Christianity and seemed to spur the Christian faith onward to spread
like wild fire across Southern Europe and Asia Minor and Northern Africa.
After
several hundred years of enduring severe persecutions, the early Christian
Church seemed to finally find relief. In the third century, the Roman ruler,
Constantine, declared Christianity to be the faith of the Roman Empire. Now Christians could relax and settle into
their church headed now by the state! Believers in Christ called themselves
“catholic” meaning “universal”, so the Catholic Church got its’ name. Christians
had fought so hard for their faith. The
blood of the many Christian martyrs was not forgotten. But now in the third century A.D. with the
government and the church intertwined, the future appeared to be looking good
for the Catholic Church! Now with power and money behind it, how could it
lose? The Christian faith could move
ahead, couldn’t it?
But
as the centuries rolled on the Catholic Church gradually seemed to move farther
and farther off track. Finally, by the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Catholic Church was experiencing her
darkest period ever. She had lost her way. The high ecclesiastics, the bishops
and popes and church leaders had let power and money go to their heads. Instead of being Gods’ servants of the Church
and shepherds of God’s flock, the Catholic bishops, abbots and popes had become
powerful rich secular rulers. The church leaders lived in luxury and held great
power over to people.
This
was the sad state of the Catholic Church when Martin Luther was ordained a
priest in 1507. Martin Luther had been
raised with the fear of God. He thought
of Jesus only as a judge and he constantly felt guilt because of his sin. Some
historians believe that he might have suffered from depression. Because Luther
was studying for the priesthood he was allowed to read one of the few Bibles
available that had been copied by hand.
(The printing press was invented shortly before Luther’s lifetime.) As Martin Luther read the Bible for the first
time he was amazed to find that the holy Scriptures taught that a person is not
made right with God by their good works, or by paying money to the church.
Luther read in the Bible that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus
Christ as their Savior and Lord. And that salvation is a free gift from a
loving God. Luther had always worried when he read in Scripture that only the
righteous person will please God. He
knew that he was not righteous. But when
Luther read Romans 1:17 a great weight fell from him and he realized that God
made a person righteousness through Jesus Christ. All a person needed to do was to have faith.
Here is what Romans 1:17 says: “In the gospel a righteousness from God is
revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from beginning to end, just as it is
written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”. This passage of Scripture
changed Martin Luther’s life! Afterwards
he was no longer depressed with guilt as he had accepted Christ as his
righteousness. His whole life changed! He described himself as one who was “born
again”.
About
this time, the pope decided to build a great cathedral in Rome – later to be
named St. Peter’s. Of course, the pope would need a lot of money
to build Saint Peter’s Cathedral. Priests and church leaders were commissioned
to ask their members to give money (called indulgences) to build this
Cathedral. The priests told their people that if they would pay money for this building
project they would get something back in return.
The money (or indulgences) church members
would pay would buy the prayers of their priests and bishops. The priests would
pray for the deceased loved ones of the members who paid. Nearly everyone had a loved one who had died
and they were told that these deceased loved ones were now suffering in
Purgatory! The priests would not say special prayers for the non-paying members
loved ones in Purgatory. So, if a church member did give money their loved ones
would be freed from this Purgatory much sooner than if they didn’t give money!
The priest was needed to intercede between the
Christian and his God. A priest’s
prayers and intervention was all important! A preacher named Tetzel came and
spoke in Martin Luther’s town. One of
his sales pitches went this way: “When the money in the coffer rings, the soul
from Purgatory springs!” Luther was
furious!
How could the Catholic Church make up these stories to raise money? Luther fumed.
How could the church leaders tell members that they must pay money to
get their loved one’s sins forgiven? God
takes money to pardon people from sin? Luther knew that only Christ can take
away sins! This practice of the Church pushed Luther over the edge. He composed
a list of ninety-five statements questioning the practices of indulgences
(taking money to get people out of Purgatory) and other problems Luther saw
with the Catholic Church of his time. He
nailed these ninety-five statements on the door of the Castle Church in
Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517..
Lutherans call this day “Reformation Day.”
Martin Luther never intended to leave the Catholic Church. He only hoped to reform it. Many other people around Europe were also
frustrated with the abuses of the Church in that day and joined in with
Luther’s call to the Catholic Church to change. Someone translated Luther’s
ninety-five statements from the original Latin to German so that the people
could read it also. The newly invented printing press printed Luther’s
ninety-five statements and soon they were spread like wildfire across Europe. Luther
loved his Church and waited for an answer.
The Catholic Church of the fifteenth century refused to acknowledge
Luther’s ninety-five statements. They called
Luther “apostate” and refused to believe that they might have any problems.
Instead the Catholic Church tried to silence Luther. He had to flee for his
life. There was a break from the Catholic Church and the Protestant branch of
Christianity was born. The movement was
called the Protestant Reformation. Thousands of frustrated Catholics joined Luther in this protest – this reformation. They
split from the Catholic Church and formed a new reformed church, the Lutheran
Church. Eventually Lutheranism came to be the main church in Germany, Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway.
Several of the main beliefs of Lutherans – reforms that Luther wanted the
Catholic Church to consider – were 1) The Priesthood of All Believers,2) Sola
Scripture (only Scripture) and 3) Justification by Faith. We will start with the priesthood of all
believers. Luther believed that
Scripture teaches that each Christian believer can come before God without the
priest being the mediator. Protestants believe that Jesus Christ is our
mediator and we can all come to God through Him, as Scripture teaches.
In Luther’s day, the priests did most of the worship while the members
watched. Luther understood that worship
was meant for the whole people of God.
Luther translated hymns and the Scriptures and encouraged the people to
read the Bible and sing hymns to God and pray directly to God themselves. He maintained that all believers were ordained
to serve God and do His work, not just priests. And each Christian had a
calling. Believers found great joy
through the Holy Spirit in serving God and in Bible study and in prayer.
Luther’s second main affirmation was “Sola Scriptura “or “only Scripture”. Luther believed that the churches should only
teach doctrines that can be found in Scripture. That the Bible is Gods’ Word. This
led to rejection of many of the practices of the Catholic Church. The practice
of paying indulgences to get loved ones out of Purgatory could not be found in
Scripture so this was rejected! Praying
to saints was rejected since the Bible commands us to only pray to God. The
Bible was placed in the hands of the laity and everyone was encouraged to read
it and live by it.
And Luther’s third main affirmation was the “Justification by Faith”. Luther had grown up believing that our
salvation hinged on our doing enough good works to overshadow our sins. The fact that Scripture tells us that we are
saved through faith in Christ was a new truth when Luther first read it in the
Bible. “For by faith are we saved through
faith and not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any person
can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
This truth utterly transformed Luther!
He accepted Christ as his Savior and this was the central tenet of
Luther’s faith and the faith of the entire Protestant Reformation which we
believe was led by the Holy Spirit.
Luther’s truths would be picked up by others who would press them
further. Next week we will see how another reformer, John Calvin and the
Presbyterians grew out of Luther and the Protestant Reformation.
The ideas in this blog are taken from Adam Hamilton’s book,
“Christianity’s Family Tree”
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