Martin Luther: Historical Friday

One of the great things about studying the history of Christianity is learning about the brothers and sisters in Christ who have come before us. Our faith today has been shaped by the millions of our fellow Christians who have lived lives of devotion and service to God. Occasionally God uses one of us to change the way faith and theology are lived in a radical way.

Many of us have heard the name Martin Luther and know something about him. Even secular history books, which do their best to ignore religious history, are forced to recognize the importance of Martin Luther. We would not be where we are today as a society and as a church without this man.

The Importance of Martin Luther

Martin Luther is a prime example of how God can use a man to effect great change on the world. Luther did not seek out fame or glory; he only sought after the grace of God. I won't go into a detailed biography of Luther, but suffice it to say Luther had one big concern early on in his life; sin.

Luther was obsessed with sin. He was constantly going to confession for forgiveness and worrying about every little action he took. He was scared of messing up even in the slightest for fear that he would fall out of God's grace.  Luther was caught in an extremely legalistic mind set. 

This was the state Luther was in when he taught a class on Romans that forever changed the world. Luther read the now famous line from Romans 1:17, "The just shall live by faith." This caused him to rethink everything he thought he knew. Upon further studying the book of Romans and then Galatians, Luther understood something that had been lost for centuries; that we are saved by faith.

For centuries now, especially in the west, salvation had been seen as dependent upon being apart of the Catholic Church. That was the sole requirement. This allowed for mass corruption throughout the Catholic Church. The people put up with it because there salvation was dependent upon being in the good graces of the Church.

Luther's realization that salvation comes only from faith in Jesus Christ, and not a legalistic worldview and church membership, empowered him to stand up to the powers that be. He was able to challenge the corruption and teach what was right with a clear conscience because he realized that his salvation was not dependent on what the Catholic Church thought of him. 

Conclusion

From then on out the world was never the same. What would become known as the Protestant Reformation spread throughout Europe. People, for the first time in their lives, made decisions based on their faith in Jesus Christ. Luther also translated the Bible into the common language (German, because that's where he lived) for the first time, allowing the people to read God's Word for themselves.

Imagine living your life in constant fear of falling out of favor with your church. Imagine believing that your entire salvation depended on it. The changes that Luther brought to Christianity are so foundational to who we are today that we often take them for granted. 

I don't agree with everything Luther taught and believed, but I still am thankful to God for using him to bring change to the world. It is because of Luther that I can disagree with him. He showed the world that our salvation isn't dependent on church membership or being in perfect agreement with each other. He showed the world, including us, that it is our faith in Jesus Christ that sets us free.