THEFT #24 - Stealin' Back Reformation Day - An Early Reminder
"Here I Stand, Justified!" - Romans 1:16-19 - A Preview for Reformation Day
Introduction - Explanation of Luther's 95 Theses and His Inevitable Trial
On October 31, 1517, the day before All
Saints, in the city of Wittenberg on the Elbe River, in the Electorate of
Saxony, the following occurred: A monk
named Martin Luther, member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites, appointed
Doctor of Theology, Professor at the University of Wittenberg, District Vicar
over the monasteries of his chapter in the Electorate of Saxony, and preacher
at the City Church wrote two letters.
One was to the Archbishop of Mainz; the other was to the Bishop of
Brandenberg. In these two letters Luther
protested against the charlatan and false conception of the indulgence as it
was proclaimed in word and practice by the Dominican monk John Tetzel in behalf
of an indulgence for the construction of the new St. Peter's church in
Rome. To both letters he attached 95
theses in which, in a scholarly manner, he explained how dubious the notions
being disseminated by Tetzel about the essence of indulgences were, and in
accord with the "old custom of scholars," he extended an invitation to
discuss them in academic disputation.
Tradition has it that he nailed the Theses on the Wittenberg Castle
Church door on the same day he sent the letters, which was another way of
inviting academic debate.
**Indulgences: According to medieval Roman
Catholic teachings, Christ, Mary, and the saints had lived without sin. They had also performed a great number of
good works, which were stored up in heaven. Because the ordinary Christian ends
this life with more sins than merits, a penalty must be paid, the church
insisted: the sinner must endure untold
suffering in purgatory before being admitted to heaven. Thus it was necessary for relatives and
friends of the dead to have mass said, and to purchase indulgences in order to
reduce the time spent in purgatory. The
pope alone could authorize the sale of indulgences that transferred the merits
of Christ and the saints to the credit of the living and the dead.
John Tetzel was a major indulgence salesman
working in Germany, who even had a slogan "As soon as the coin in the
coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs." Luther had been preaching against indulgences
for about a year, but when Tetzel came to the Wittenberg, Luther felt more
direct action was necessary, and so posted the 95 Theses.
The Theses caused a furor both in Germany
and in Rome, and as both scholars and peasants came to support Luther, the
power of the Pope and his Cardinals came to oppose him. Between 1517 and 1521 Luther wrote more and
more books and materials which revealed that it was not indulgences he really
opposed, but the entire Roman Catholic system of salvation by sacraments and
merits, and ultimately he came to call the Pope himself Antichrist. Although various attempts were made to
convince Luther to retract his books and his statements, he would not budge,
and in January of 1521 he was excommunicated, and in April of that year was
summoned to the Diet of Worms, supposedly to be given one last chance to
repent.
When you read Luther's words during this
period, the driving force behind his preaching and writing becomes clear: he was dedicated to the Word of God, and the
Word of God alone as the ultimate source of authority for the Christian, a
position which flew in the face of Catholic teaching that the Pope and
decisions of Councils had final authority even over Scripture, since only the
Pope could truly interpret Scripture.
Romans 1:16-19
Theme Statement: The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
1a. The
Righteousness of God Comes to Those Who Believe the Truth
Rom. 1:16-17
1b. 1:16
1c. "Not ashamed" - Paul has never been
to Rome, and in 1:15 he has just said that he is eager to preach the gospel in
Rome as he has in other places. Paul is not ashamed of this Gospel, Luther
says, despite 1 Cor. 1:22-25:
22For
indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but
we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles
foolishness, 24 but
to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and
the wisdom of God. 25 Because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. (NASB)
Paul is not ashamed despite the fact that
the gospel goes against every rule of human survival and self-interest. Luther goes so far as to equate being ashamed
to preach the gospel with unbelief:
He who does not truly believe is even today not merely
ashamed of the Gospel, but he also contradicts it, at least in his heart and in
his action. The reason for this is the
following. He who finds pleasure and
enjoyment in the things that are of the flesh and of the world cannot have a
taste or pleasure for the things that are of the Spirit of God. Therefore he is not only ashamed to proclaim
the Gospel to others, but he fights against it and does not want it to be
spoken to him. He hates the light and
loves the darkness. For this reason he
does not suffer the salutary truth to be spoken to him. Moreover, to be ashamed
of the Gospel is a fault of cowardice in pastors, but to contradict it and not
to listen to it is a fault of stupidity in church members. This is obvious when
the preacher is afraid of the power, influence, and number of his hearers and
is silent concerning the essential truth and when the unresponsive hearer
despises the lowliness and humble appearance of the Word.
2c. Luther on "power of God for
salvation":
That is, it is a power unto salvation for all who
believe, or it is the Word that has power to save all who believe in it. And this is given through God and from
God. It is as if you should say: "This jewel has this power from God,
that he who wears it cannot be wounded."
Thus the Gospel has this ingredient from God, that he who believes in it
is saved. In this way, therefore, the
person who has the Gospel is powerful and wise before men, even though in the
eyes of men he may be considered foolish and weak.
3c. "To each one who is believing"
Or:
"to each one who has faith," not simply each one who
"believed," at some time in the past, who said a "sinner's
prayer" and has gone no further.
This is an emphatic description of continuing faith. The gospel is the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believed the gospel when he or she first heard it, and
continues to believe despite all.
2b. 1:17
- Context for Luther -
All
the while I was absorbed with the passionate desire to get better acquainted
with the author of Romans. Not that I
did not succeed, as I had resolved, in penetrating more deeply into the subject
in my investigation, but I stumbled over the words (chapter 1:17) concerning
the "righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel." For the concept "God's
righteousness" was repulsive to me, as I was accustomed to interpret it
according to scholastic philosophy, namely, as the "formal or active"
righteousness, in which God proves Himself righteous in that He punishes the
sinner as an unrighteous person.
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, if not blasphemously, certainly
murmuring greatly, 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 beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most
ardently desiring 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, 'The righteous one shall live by faith.'" 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,
"The righteous one shall live by faith." 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. Thereupon
I ran through the Scripture from memory.
I also found in other terms an analogy, as the work of God, that is,
what God does in us, the power of God, with which He makes us strong, the wisdom
of God, with which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God,
the glory of God. And I extolled my
sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated
the word "righteousness of God."
Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.
3b. 1:17 - Exposition
1c. "the righteousness of God in it is being
revealed"
Again,
not "has been revealed," but "is being revealed," every
time the gospel is preached. Luther
nails the essence when he says that God's righteousness, God' justice, can
cause nothing but fear unless we recognize that the revelation is what Romans
5:1 calls "being justified/declared righteous by faith;" God's
righteousness is revealed in the gospel as that which leads to salvation for
those who believe in the gospel.
2c. "from faith to faith"
NIV
has "by faith from first to last" indicating that we receive God's
righteousness by faith at every stage of our Christian life. Now that may be true, but the expression is
lit. "out of faith into faith," or "by faith for
faith." That is, in the gospel, the
revelation of God's righteousness is understood not only by having faith, but
that revelation is intended to lead to further faith, and faithfulness.
3c. "The righteous one out of faith shall
live."
Habakkuk
2:4 "Behold, as for
the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by
his faith. (NASB)
The contrast in
Hab. is with the proud one, the one who attempts to live according to his own
resources and ignore God. The righteous
is the one whose whole life is dependent on and dedicated to faith in God.
2a. The Wrath of God Comes Upon Those Who Suppress
the Truth
Rom. 1:18-19
1b. 1:18 - Context for Us - Contrast with Luther's
time:
1c. Luther's "tower experience,"
his "conversion" took place after years of wrestling with a dreadful
terror of God's presence because he had such an acute awareness of his own
sinfulness and unworthiness. He was
delivered from this fear through his intense study of God's word, and his
determination to discover what exactly Paul meant by "God's
righteousness." He rejoiced over God's righteousness only after being
convicted that God's wrath rested upon him, and that he was delivered from that
wrath only by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not many of us today, I don't think, take time to reflect on
God's wrath toward those who oppose him, and that, literally, except for God's
grace, we too would be under His wrath.
2c. Also, Luther's stand against Rome pitted
the authority of God's Word against the arrogant authority of men who set their
own standards even above God's word.
Luther was willing to submit to any authority who could demonstrate that
he was in error regarding God's Word.
Rome refused to deal on those terms;
the Pope and his cardinals simply asserted their authority by virtue of
their position. Luther reflected a
mindset of his day that refused to accept authority without reason. For Luther reason came from the Word of God.
If
too much authority was the problem in Luther's day, the problem in our day is
that we have trouble submitting to any authority at all except our own
desires. Not only in the world, but in
the evangelical church we recoil against the whole idea of authority based on
absolute truth. We say we believe the
Bible is the Word of God, but when it conflicts with our personal agendas and
desires we find some way to rationalize it, to turn its powerful spotlight away
from our light onto some other person, some other place, some other time.
2b. Read Rom. 1:18-19 again:
"Suppress the
truth" is lit. "hold down the truth." Now the "truth" in this passage is
not talking specifically about the gospel, but about "what can be known
about God." God has made certain things clear to all men through creation,
through His acts of power in history, sometimes through "personal
appearances." It is upon those who
suppress that knowledge, that truth, that the wrath of God is being revealed in
the gospel.
Now
if God's wrath falls on those who suppress His truth in creation, which is not
salvation truth, how do you suppose God reacts to those who know the truth of
the Gospel, the truth of God's revealed Word, and yet suppress parts of it in
their own lives?
Conclusion/Reflection
Luther stood firm in the face of the
strongest opposition from the Roman Catholic church and the Emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire. His commitment to the Word
of God led to his understanding that he was righteous before God by faith in
Jesus Christ. Once he understood that,
and he no longer feared God's condemnation, he certainly could fear no other
man.
***Luther's Closing
Statement at Trial
At
this I give my answer.
Since
then your Serene Majesty and your lordships require a simple answer, I will
give you one without horns and without teeth, in these words. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the
Scriptures, or by evident reason, (for I put my faith neither in Pope nor
Councils alone, since it is established that they have erred again and again
and contradicted one another), I am bound by the scriptural evidence adduced by
me, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot, I will not recant anything, for it
is neither safe nor right to act against one's conscience. Here I stand!
I can [do] no other!
God help me. Amen.
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