This quick study on Reformation History was given at the end of service at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on September 10, 2017. The text of the study is included and you may play the audio of the study here.
So, when we ended last week, in 1511, Johann von Staupitz, Luther’s priest, had sent him to Wittenberg, to begin to learn and teach. He encouraged Luther to focus on Christ’s merits and not his own sins. To that end, it was a good position for Luther, as he was able to give himself almost completely over to his students and his studies. He became learned in the Biblical languages, even more so that he already was. He was able to read the Scriptures with a new diligence.
You have to remember: most Christians in Luther’s day had never read any part of the Bible before, unless it was inscribed on a stone in the church somewhere. Most copies of the Word were hand-written at this time, usually accompanied by amazing artistry on the inside. Because of that, the price to own a personal copy of God’s Word was exorbitant. However, due to the invention of the movable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1455, this cost began to drop, enough so that most churches were able to have a copy from the press.
For Luther, to have that Word in front of him, to be able to sit down and study the Word by reading it, would have been incredible. This would have been difficult for a monk, one who had given himself over completely to service towards others. Yet for Luther, a monk and now a scholar, he had opportunity aplenty. As Luther began to truly study the Word, beginning his lecturing in the Psalms, and a couple years later, Romans, God’s will and work became more and more clear.
Ultimately, in 1513, Luther had what many call his “tower experience.” He was studying for class in the Black Cloister, the dormitory of the monks of Wittenberg, as he was reading through Romans. Remember last week when it was said he heard the voice of God thundering in his heart, saying, “The just shall live by faith?” Well, that’s here in Romans 1:17, too. For all of Luther’s career, he read these words, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” When he did read them, he saw them as the reason for his hatred of God. After all, he thought, for sure, this was referring to the idea that if one has faith, they will behave righteously. Righteousness would come out of a person, by their own strength. Luther knew no righteousness like that, only sin.
Yet, when he read these words in 1513, suddenly they made sense. The Gospel of Christ reveals that, by His death and resurrection, He has opened the way to salvation, that He has declared each one who believes in Him by faith righteous. Righteousness is apprehended by faith, not by works. For Luther, this began to free him from his self-torture. He began to realize the deep love of God for him and not His anger. Luther began to know Jesus as the Great Redeemer, not just the Great Lawgiver. And for the first time in his life, Luther began to hear the words of absolution and believed that they were for him. He was Christ’s, Christ saved him. This experience for Luther would begin to shape the argument he would begin just a few years later, when he would post a little document on a big door and make the world explode.
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