Martin Luther 1483 - 1546

Rom 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall ‘LIVE’ by faith.”  (NKJV)

600 yrs ago a man by the name of Martin Luther came to the fore in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Luther was a priest and theologian practicing within the RCC. He became disillusioned by the fact that the Church was preaching a Gospel of works and self righteousness in order to obtain salvation from God.

Luther had recently come to faith in Christ and God had opened the scriptures to him revealing that salvation was by faith in the finished work of Christ upon the cross. He soon realised his conscience would not allow him to idly stand by and watch people go to an after life without Christ because their thinking and faith was misplaced.

History now shows that in 1517AD Luther went to the Castle Church in Wittenburg and nailed to the front door his 95 thesis, that is 95 issues regarding the life and practises of the RCC that he beleived were unbiblical. Nailing a thesis to the door of a Church was recognised as a means of calling the general public to debate that thesis.

God used this means of debate as a catalyst to spread Luther’s teachings like a forest fire all over Europe and thus kick-start the Reformation and Protestant Church; The watchword of the Reformation became Rom 1:17 The just shall live by faith.

Christians today owe their existence to Luther’s ministry and Rom 1:17. Sadly, the revelation of this scripture has been lost to many in the Church in the sense that we came to Christ by faith but we don’t know how to ‘LIVE’ by faith; subsequently we have adopted other means to enable us to live the Christian life. Paul the Apostle addressed this very issue with the Galatian Church:

Gal 3:1-4 Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.  Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.  How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?  Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?  (NLT)

In future Blogs we will look at what it means to be justified and how to ‘LIVE’ by faith.

Meditation point: Is my Christian life beset by guilt, condemnation, shame, rejection and fear etc. If so have I failed to grasp the salvation of Christ that enables me to ‘LIVE’ in victory over such things.

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