Martin Luther

Since the days of the apostles, individuals have had important contributions to the Church. However, the man called Martin Luther had an impact on the Church, state, German language, education, and freedom. 

After centuries of spiritual darkness, it was through Luther that God restored the clear light of the gospel. Through Luther God restored the Bible to the people in the language they could understand. Through Luther God purified the church's forms of worship and raised the office of preaching and the sacraments to their rightful place of importance. Through Luther God laid the foundation for a system of Christian education, which we still enjoy today. 

Humble Beginnings 
Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, in the town of Eisleben, Germany. About six months after Martin's birth his parents moved to Mansfeld. There his father was able to lease several copper mines and soon became fairly well to do. At the age of four, Luther began his formal education in the Latin school at Mansfeld. While there, he learned by heart the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and many other parts of the Bible. 

When he was fourteen, he attended the cathedral school at Magdeburg, where he saw his first Bible. The next year his father transferred him to the school at Eisenach. Four years later Luther entered the university to pursue the study of law, the most honored profession of that day. His father was bent on having him become a lawyer. But God had other plans.

Changes and Discoveries 
In the Medieval Roman Catholic Church people were taught to regard Christ as a stern judge and to put their hope in pilgrimages (trips to holy places), indulgences (paying money for forgiveness), and the intercession of saints (praying to the saints), rather than the grace of God in Christ. 

All this preyed on Luther's sensitive soul. Finally, on a July day in 1505, his last year at the university, he experienced a brush with death. It changed the course of his life. While returning to school from a visit with his parents, a lightning bolt struck near him and knocked him to the ground. In terror he cried out, "St. Anne, help me! I will become a monk!" 

To the sorrow of his friends and the dismay of his father, Luther sold his law books and entered the Augustinian monastery. After his year of probation, his superiors ordered him to study for the priesthood. In 1507 he was ordained. All the same, he still hadn't found the peace with God he longed for. 

In late fall of 1510 Luther and another monk were sent to Rome to settle a dispute that had arisen in the Augustinian order. While at Rome, Luther was dismayed by the corruption and frivolity of the clergy. But he was more interested in taking advantage of the spiritual opportunities, which Staupitz had told him about. He kissed the cross on the wall above the spot where St. Peter's remains were thought to lie. He climbed Pilate's stairs and kissed each step as he prayed the Lord's Prayer. He regretted that his parents weren't already dead so that he could thus pray them out of purgatory. 

After Luther returned, John Staupitz, vicar of the Augustinian order, began to urge him to study for the degree of Doctor of Theology and to become a preacher. In obedience to his superior, Luther threw himself into his theological studies. In 1512 he received the title of Doctor of Theology and was appointed to the position of "lecturer on the Bible" on the faculty of the University of Wittenberg. 

At about the same time, the pastor of the town church in Wittenberg fell ill. The town council called Luther to fill the vacant pulpit. Here, at the city church, he often preached daily. Meanwhile, he continued to lecture to his classes at the university on various books of the Bible, notably St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. 

In the quiet of the tower room, while meditating on the Scriptures, Luther was led by the Spirit of God to understand at long last what the Bible means by the words, "the righteousness of God," in Romans 1:16,17: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes...for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "'The righteous will live by faith.'" That righteousness, he finally realized, is the righteousness that Christ has earned for us through his atoning suffering and death. This discovery can rightly be called the beginning of the Reformation. 

The Indulgence Debate 
The pope's indulgence salesmen led people to believe they could buy forgiveness without confession. According to John Tetzel's sales pitch, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."

Many citizens of Wittenberg purchased Tetzel's slips of paper declaring forgiveness of sins. When Luther withheld the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper from some of his members who persisted in their sins, they defiantly showed him their indulgence receipts and even reported him to Tetzel for disciplining them. 

Luther's angry concern over this scandalous situation moved him to post his Ninety-five Theses on the castle church door on October 31,1517 (later to be called Reformation Day). He was challenging any pastors and teachers of theology to debate with him the question of indulgences. 

The popularity of the Ninety-five Theses in Germany and elsewhere made the church authorities eager to silence Luther. During these dangerous times Luther gained a powerful champion, Prince Frederick of Saxony. The Prince Frederick took a special interest in Luther's cause. 

When in 1519 John Eck formally challenged Luther's associate, Carlstadt, to a debate in Leipzig Germany, he really hoped to debate Luther. So, Luther went. The participants argued about purgatory, indulgences, penance, the Mass, and the infallibility of the pope. Luther said, "I hold that it is not necessary for salvation to believe in the primacy of the pope." Eck shouted back, "I command you to recant your false opinion and to vow faithfulness to the church which alone has salvation!" But Luther stood firm. 

After the debate Dr. Eck went to Rome. With the pope's blessing, he helped draw up a document threatening Luther with being expelled from the church if he did not recant within 60 days. When Luther failed to recant, the pope formally excommunicated him and his followers from the church. But now this posed problems for the empire. 

A Bold Stand 
The year was 1521 and the new young emperor, Charles V, wanted unity. At the urging of Frederick the Wise, he invited Luther to appear before him at the Diet of Worms. At Worms the whole assembly waited in anticipation. What would this humble monk say to the assembled powers of the Christian Church? "Give us a simple answer!" demanded the officer in charge of the hearing. "Will you recant? Yes or no!" 

Luther’s reply would shape the course of the church and faith to this day. Luther answered, "Unless I am convinced by Scriptures and clear reasoning - for I do not trust in popes and councils since they have often been wrong - my conscience is bound to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant, for to act against my conscience is wrong and dangerous. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen." 

The assembly broke into an uproar. The angry emperor rose and stomped out of the hall. The Spanish soldiers cried out: "To the fire with him!" Luther was hastened outside the hall. Going through the doorway he raised his arms like a victorious knight at a tournament and exultantly shouted, "I made it through! I made it through!" But Elector Frederick had made arrangements to protect Luther. On his way back to Wittenberg from Worms he was seized by some knights and spirited away to the Wartburg Castle. 

Gifts to the Church 
Here in the Castle, Luther was disguised as a knight by the name of Knight George. In his seclusion at the Wartburg Luther was far from being idle. Aside from writing sermons and tracts, he undertook his historic translation of the New Testament from Greek into German. 

Within three months the project was done. And yet it was only a beginning. After his return to Wittenberg late in 1522 he and other scholars undertook the translation of the Old Testament. Finally in 1534 the whole Bible was ready for publication in German. So great was the popularity of Luther's Bible that it by the time of his death in 1546, over 1,000,000 copies had been sold, and it is still used today.

Luther also revised the liturgy and created the first Protestant liturgy, which was deeply rooted in the ancient worship of the Church. Luther’s love of music led the Lutheran Church became known as "the singing church."

Another major gift God gave to his church through Luther was the Small Catechism. It was published in 1529. It has been called a "Bible in miniature" and "the gem of the Reformation." 

Wedding Bells 
Many monks and nuns read Luther's writings and as a result renounced their monastic vows and left their cloisters. One day a friend of Luther's brought nine escaped nuns to Luther's door for help. Luther promised to find jobs for them, or, if possible, husbands. Soon they were all married except for Katherine von Bora. Luther put forth his best efforts to find a husband for Katherine, but she resisted all offers. She would only marry Luther. After some persuasion and careful thought, found himself standing beside her at the altar.

On June 13, 1525, Luther, now 42 years old, and Katherine, 26, were married in the Black Cloister at Wittenberg. The marriage was a very happy one. Katie, as Luther affectionately called her, helped immeasurably as she managed their large and busy household, which included not only their own six children but a steady stream of guests and students. Martin Luther and his wife established the Protestant parsonage, a model for pastors, teachers and all Christian families down to this day. 

The Heat of the Battle 
Like Luther, the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli seemed to accept the doctrine of justification by faith, but he and his followers did not accept the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper. 

In hope of uniting the two sides, Prince Philip of Hesse invited both the Zwinglians and the Lutherans to his castle in Marburg for a meeting on their doctrinal positions. Although the meeting lasted several days, the two sides could not reconcile their differences. The meeting broke up without the hoped-for union. 

In the meantime the emperor and the Catholic princes tried to block the Reformation at a series of diets. At a fourth such attempt, the Diet of Spire in 1529, the Lutheran princes had become so numerous and so firm in their stand for Christ and his gospel that they were given the name "Protestants." 

Once more Emperor Charles V tried to unite the Lutherans and the Catholics - at the memorable Diet of Augsburg, in 1530, in the south German state of Bavaria, strong Catholic country. On June 25, in a crowded hall, in the presence of the emperor, the Lutherans read their statement of faith, now known at; the Augsburg Confession. The Lutheran princes, all laymen, led by Elector John of Saxony, stood solid as a rock upon their confession, even though they were risking the loss of their lands and their lives. George, Margrave of Brandenburg, said, "Before I would deny my God and his gospel, I would rather kneel down before your imperial majesty and let you cut off my head." 

When Luther at Coburg heard that the Augsburg Confession had been read before the Diet and that the princes had boldly confessed their faith, he was overjoyed. He wrote to Elector John, "I thank God I have lived to see this hour. Christ was with us. The reading of the confession at the Diet has done more good than the sermons of ten doctors."

"The Heavenly Kingdom Is Our Hope" 
In January of 1546, Luther was asked to help settle a dispute between two princes at Eisleben. Though in fragile health, he undertook the difficult journey in an open carriage in bitterly cold winter weather. Some friends and his three sons went along. 

On February 17 the dispute was finally settled. But Luther was in a greatly weakened condition. He was put to bed. Physicians were called in. It became clear that Luther was at the point of death. In the early hours of February 18, 1546 his friend, Justus Jonas, asked him, "Reverend “Reverend father, are you ready to die in the faith of your Lord Jesus Christ and in the doctrine which you preached in his name?" To the more than a dozen people present in the chamber Luther answered, "Yes!" and breathed his last. 

On February 22 Luther's body was brought back to Wittenberg, escorted by large crowds of people. He was buried near the pulpit in the castle church, where he had nailed the Ninety-five Theses on the door nearly 40 years earlier. In his funeral sermon Pastor John Bugenhagen compared Luther to the angel in Revelation 14:6, "He had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth--to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, 'Fear God and give him glory' " 

Near the ruins of a church in Dresden, Germany, where bombers in World War 2 demolished the city and 250,000 people were killed in one night, stands a statue of Luther, surrounded by rubble, yet virtually unscathed by the destruction. Amid the ruins, he is holding an open Bible, a symbol of "the everlasting gospel" and of our Lord's promise, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."