Luther – the wild boar
Review: In reverse order last week…Wycliffe, Huss, Luther
We looked at Apostolic Succession, The
treasury of Merit, Indulgences & Purgatory.
Any questions from Last Week?
Protestantism existed in attempt to
answer 4 major questions. How are people saved? Where does religion’s authority lie? What is the church? What is the essence of Christian living?
For
Luther and his family their goal was for Luther to grow up to be a lawyer (make
note cause Calvin next week will be a similar situation). 1 day (I believe on his way home from
university) he was caught in a violent thunderstorm and a lightning bolt stuck
nearby nearly killing him. With that, he
made a vow to become a monk if kept safe from the storm and he did join
an Augustinian monastery.
L-Q#1 **He
declared, “I kept the rule so strictly that I may say if ever a monk got to
heaven by his sheer monkery, it was I.
If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils,
prayers, readings & other works.”
Luther’s own health was racked for the rest of his life from the extreme
fastings & austere blanket-less German winter nights, suffering for God.
Admirably,
Luther was sure of 2 things: 1 the unutterable majesty of God & 2 a
profound sense of his own sinfulness.
The
troubled monk found the soothing balm of grace in his study of Scripture. His mentor pushed him away from too much self-reflection
& to Biblical studies. 2 things stood out to Luther: 1st
Christ’s words from the cross: “my God, my God why has though forsaken me?”
Luther himself felt forsaken of God because of his own sin but why would sin-less
Christ? Who did Christ die for? 2nd
Romans 1:17, “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith
for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Night
& day Luther would ponder these words till he made this connection. A
connection between the justice of God and living by faith; so if I could
rephrase the verse in Luther’s mind…You poor sinner, may indeed become
righteous not by years of isolation, works & monkery but received as a gift
by faith in the completed works done for you by Christ.”
L-Q#2 **ML
said, “There upon I felt myself reborn & to have gone through open doors to
paradise.”
Luther
saw it clear now: Man is saved by faith in the Merit of Christ’s sacrifice for
him. To Luther the cross, alone, could
remove men’s sin & save him from the grasp of Satan, (institutionalizing the doctrine of
justification by faith alone). This was
contrary to Rome’s doctrine of justification by faith & works: like
demonstration of faith through loving-virtuous acts, acceptance of church dogma
& participation in church ritual.
The
implications were ENORMOUS enough to change the very face of Europe, politics,
religious institutions, education & the every day lives of normal
people.
Luther
had no idea where his thoughts on Salvation would lead but it took the flagrant
abuse of church finance to lead him to his position on papal authority.
As
we said last week the Sale of Indulgences – introduced during Crusades, remained
a favored source of papal income. In
exchange for a meritorious work – like contribution to a worthy cause, fighting
or dying in a Crusade or going on a pilgrimage to a shrine or relic – the
church granted an exception from penance pulled from an imaginary treasury of
merit, which comes from both Christ’s sacrifice & good deeds of the lives
of Mary & the Saints.
Nuance: Too
often the sellers of indulgences (Tetzel) downplayed the condition of a person’s
soul (repentance) & it became just a transaction $ for forgiveness, & not
just for you so if you’d just stop being a cheapskate & cough up some $
means you could free your child or parent or friend from 1000s or Millions of
years of painful suffering in purgatory; this guilt made Rome lots of $$.
Tetzel’s pimping of indulgences in
Germany lead Luther on Halloween to nail his 95 thesis to the Wittenberg church
door which sparked the Protestant Reformation, 11-31-1517. ML’s intent was only
to debate the issues of the day but German printers due to the new Gutenberg
printing press mass marketed his writings & ML’s ideas became widespread,
within 2 weeks all of Germany was talking of ML’ ideas & within 2 months it
was all of Europe.
L-Q#3 **As
Luther debated his new ideas with Roman theologians he said, “A council may
sometimes err. Neither the church nor
the Pope can establish articles of faith.
These must come from Scripture.”
Here
Luther moved from the 1st Reformation issue Salvation by faith to the
2nd issue Authority. Scripture
not Popes or councils had to be recognized as the final authority for Christian
faith & life. Making Luther sound
just like Huss & Wycliffe before him.
Submitting
to this Biblical Authority then ML also wanted to edit Rome’s 7 sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, Penance, Confirmation,
Marriage, Holy Orders, Anointing the Sick – which used to be called, Last Rites)
to 2 sacraments only that Luther saw from the NT: Baptism & Lord’s Supper
This
idea also lead from a view of church as a hierarchy headed by the Pope &
returned to something more like Baptists & the Early Church to a view of a community
of Christian believers in which all believers are priests called to live lives
as spiritual sacrifices to God.
As
he was on the verge of excommunication from RCC, Luther rejected monastic life redefining
worship of God from living separated lives in service to God, to serving
God through one’s calling: serving one’s neighbor. * This relates back to something Daniel was
saying which is RCC worship is showing God how serious you are & Prot. Ref.
worship is love your neighbor because
you love God & in loving your neighbor you do worship God.
L-Q #4 **On Good works & the gospel - “Good works do not make a man
good, but a good man does good works.” My paraphrase: “Christians do good
works, good works don’t make one a Christian.”
After
his excommunication from the church and condemnation as a heretic Luther was
saved from execution by Prince of Saxony, Duke Frederick the Wise, ML was disguised
as a minor noble man called “Junker George” & hid in Wartburg Castle where
he translated the NT into German falling in line with Wycliffe. The Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V presented the final draft of the Edict of Worms on 25 May 1521,
declaring Luther an outlaw, banning his
literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and
punished as a notorious heretic." It also made it a crime for
anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter & it permitted anyone to
kill Luther without legal consequence.
Surviving
this ordeal in hiding, he translated the Bible into German much like Wycliffe
did into English…Luther lead pastors to marry, & he married a former nun
named Katherine Von Bora, & he translated the liturgy or Church’s order of
Worship from Latin into German. Changed
communion from just bread to bread & wine and changed the emphases
of the service from the Eucharist to the preaching & teaching of
God’s Word. His ideas even changed the
face of politics & economics in Germany, and not only Christianity but all
of Western Civilization.
ML: 1st
Salvation? Not by works or even faith +
works, but by faith alone
2nd
Religious authority? Not in the visible
institution of the Roman Church headed
by Pope or in prior Church Councils but in the Word of God
3rd
What is the church? The whole community
of Christian believers.
4th
Essence of Christian living? Serving God
in any useful calling whether ordained
or laity
**ML words @ diet of worms
“Since then your sere Majesty &
your Lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither
horned nor toothed. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or
by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the Pope or in Councils alone,
since it is well known that they have often erred & contradicted
themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted & my conscience is
captive to the Word of God. I cannot & I will not recant anything, since it
is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”
At the end of this speech, Luther raised his arm "in the
traditional salute of a knight winning a bout." Renaissance historian
Michael Mullett considers this speech as a "world classic of epoch-making
oratory."
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