Today we celebrate the 500th anniversary of The Reformation. On October 31,
1517, the great Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses to the door of the
Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. But what do we know about this incredible
man?
Luther went to law school but decided that he was not interested in the
law. Therefore he devoted his life to ministry and took an oath of celibacy and
became a monk. He
was ordained celebrating his first mass in
1507. Luther was always convicted that the amount of good works he achieved was
not enough for God’s standard. He would go to confession for hours and still
felt the guilty of his sin. He would brutally beat himself hoping that it would
be pleasing to God but it was never enough. Luther no matter how much good he
did, he felt unworthy to achieve God’s love.
Luther’s angst and frustration against the church grew for many reasons, but
not least of which was a growing trend by some priests to promote indulgences. Indulgences
were advertised as a way where sinners could pay out money to the church in
return for the church covering that individual’s sin. The church was able to
raise a tremendous amount of funds by selling these indulgences. Luther's anger at indulgences caused
a firestorm in the church which forced him into hiding. Unfortunately, many anti-church
people became violent against the church where forced Luther to come out from
hiding to demand that they stop the violence.
His whole point about the Reformation stood on the doctrine that we are
saved not by works but by faith. He wanted to follow God according to what the
Bible said, not what any religious person or the religious law of the day said.
