Thursday, October 31, 2013
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 ... as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
MARTIN LUTHER AND YOU
Sometime in the fall of 1514 Dr. Martin Luther took up the study of the expression "the righteousness of God" in preparation for his classroom lectures at the University of Wittenberg. Though this expression had troubled Luther for a long time, he still continued to look to the Holy Spirit for help. He let Scripture interpret Scripture. And this time the Spirit of God added light to the Word He had preserved. But let Luther tell you himself:
"I hated the expression 'righteousness of God', which I had been taught to understand as that righteousness with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner ... But, after days and nights of wrestling with the problem, God finally took pity on me, so that I was able to understand that the 'righteousness of God' is here that righteousness by which the righteous are saved by God's grace, namely, through faith; that is, that the righteousness of God which is revealed through the gospel is to be understood in a passive sense -- as that righteousness with which God through mercy justifies man by faith, as it is written, 'the just shall live by faith.'
"Now I felt exactly as though I had been altogether born again, and had entered paradise itself through open gates."
This was the historic experience that changed Luther's whole life and dramatically influenced western Christendom and the history of the world. But when all is said and done, to know the history of how this earthshaking revelation was made and to know Luther's "find" changed the history of the world in remarkable ways, is a waste of time and energy if we do not travel the same road.
What good is Reformation history or being a Lutheran or a church member, if we do not each ourselves despair of ever making ourselves righteous in God's sight, and rejoice in the righteousness which God gives us as a free gift through faith -- the very righteousness of His own dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
So, I beseech you, do not simply read the words we now read, do not simply confess as Luther confessed, but from your heart with all your soul confess as true for you what Luther believed -- by the grace of God through the working of the Holy Spirit.
