Revival - Part 5: Martin Luther

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben in 1483 the son of a coal miner. He was educated in Efurt, graduating in 1505. He became a priest in the Catholic Church but a visit to Rome in 1510 opened his eyes to the true state of the Church, and from then on his life was spent in trying to reform it and to recapture the purity of the early Church.
As a professor of biblical exegesis - explaining the meaning of the Bible - Luther rediscovered some of the great doctrines that had for so long been neglected and contradicted by the traditions of the Church. He began to preach that salvation was by faith alone and was the gracious gift of God, and in 1517 he nailed his famous 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Church. The Reformation was beginning. Luther now went on to attack the whole Papal system accusing the Pope of pride and avarice. He contrasted the poverty and meekness of Christ with the splendour of the Papal Court. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V summoned Luther to appear before the Diet of Worms- an assembly of rulers and dignitaries not the food of birds- but the Diet was divided as to what to do about him and he was allowed to leave. However, he was immediately arrested for his own protection and imprisoned in the Wartburg castle for about a year, during which time he started on his translation of the Bible which came to be regarded as a classic piece of German literature.
Luther married an ex- nun Katherina von Bora and they had six children. A man of enormous energy and charm he was also stubborn and uncompromising in discussion with the other Reformers and this was to split the Reformation. Endowed with a brilliant intellect his commentaries on the Bible are still available and can be read with profit. He also wrote many hymns for congregational singing such as his paraphrase of Psalm 46 "God is our refuge and strength", number 360 in Christian Hymns Luther did not set out to start a new church but to reform the corruptions of the Papal System. He retained much of the ritual of the Church and his version of the mass is in essence the same as that of the Catholic Church. He was also somehow able to reconcile the idea that children were saved by being baptised with the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Luther's fear of anarchy made him side with the princes against the common people in the Peasant's War in 1524. This lost him much support and led to the steady passing of control of the Reformation into the hands of the secular authorities. Luther also persecuted godly men who believed that the Church should consist of those who had been saved by the grace of God, not all of those people living in a particular place. Whereas in some areas Luther may have not pushed reform far enough in others he could be too extreme. In his great battle to establish the doctrine of salvation by faith alone he devalued the place of good works in the life of the Christian and he derided the Letter of James as "an epistle of straw".
Martin Luther was undoubtedly a great man raised up by God to reform the Church, but he was only a man. His particular significance was in his ability to motivate men and to inspire the early struggle with the Church of Rome, but it was left to the genius of Calvin to place the Reformation on more sound theological foundations. In our own days the Lutheran Churches are mostly compromised by modernism and are drifting back into the arms of the Catholic Church.