Four years ago I sat in a bus as it wound it's way around the river that separates France from Germany. I left France and entered into the land of my ancestors. My Great-Grandfather had brought his family from Germany in the late 1860's to eventually settle in Wisconsin. I looked around, took in the landscape, looked at the farms, and most of all looked at the people. Everything looked familiar.
I wasn't there on an ancestry trip. I was visiting the lands of the Reformation - and in this case, the land of Martin Luther. The name places were familiar in my mind... Eisleben, Eisenach, Erfurt, Worms, Wittenberg, Leipzig, Heidelberg, Coburg and more.
This land of beer, sauerkraut, cuckoo clocks, the Rhine river, castles, also is the land of Bach, Mendelsshon, Beethoven and Wagner - all uniquely German, became the birth place of a fierce defender of the Gospel in Martin Luther.
Raised in a normal German family, he originally was studying to be a lawyer. Filled with doubts and fears he thought he was going to die in a thunderstorm, and so vowed to become a Monk. He found no relief in being more "godly"...in fact, he felt anything but godly. Then in a remarkable turn-about, he discovered the truth of the Gospel. In his study of the book of Romans he came across the verses he had read before;
Romans 1:16-17
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
As he read this time the Spirit of God impressed upon his heart and mind that He COULD NOT work his way into God's favor with his religious works; but instead God alone would impute that righteousness that was necessary to him by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ.
It was a thunderous explosion in Luther's mind. He looked at the scriptures and looked at the Church practices he had been taught and realized they did not line up. He made a decision - a bold, courageous, outlandish decision. He decided to believe the Scripture alone...trust God that is means what it says, and that the church he served in was wrong. He stood before councils...attacked, charged with heresy, mocked, accused, and threatened...and still he stood on the word of God.
"Here I stand, I can do no other"... a spark in Germany that fanned into flame the entire Reformation of the church.
They called them "Protestant"... from a combination of two Latin words: Pro + Testari meaning "to testify forth", "holding forth"... testify, hold forth...what? The Gospel. Buried under practices that hid the beauty and glory of the Gospel, Luther knew it was crucial to testify the truth and not the error.
I walked where he stood...I climbed into the pulpit of the church he preached the Gospel in. I visited his land and looked at the buildings he went into, the university, the house he and Katie raised their children in, the fire pit he used to burn the Papal letters of condemnation, the gardens and marketplaces and rivers and roads that were never paved and without modern bridges.
Hebrews 11:4 says, "Though he is dead, yet he still speaks"
We who believe the Gospel must guard it's truth, willing to testify forth when needed - boldly, courageously, unwaveringly stand where others have stood before - before God who looks at the heart and mind of all who say they believe in Him. Because of Luther, Calvin, others, there will always be a legacy of a strong faith over a superficial believism. Because of Luther, Calvin, others, we must not be shallow in our thinking or our faith - we dare not - we must stand, we should never do any other.
Peace
I wasn't there on an ancestry trip. I was visiting the lands of the Reformation - and in this case, the land of Martin Luther. The name places were familiar in my mind... Eisleben, Eisenach, Erfurt, Worms, Wittenberg, Leipzig, Heidelberg, Coburg and more.
This land of beer, sauerkraut, cuckoo clocks, the Rhine river, castles, also is the land of Bach, Mendelsshon, Beethoven and Wagner - all uniquely German, became the birth place of a fierce defender of the Gospel in Martin Luther.
Raised in a normal German family, he originally was studying to be a lawyer. Filled with doubts and fears he thought he was going to die in a thunderstorm, and so vowed to become a Monk. He found no relief in being more "godly"...in fact, he felt anything but godly. Then in a remarkable turn-about, he discovered the truth of the Gospel. In his study of the book of Romans he came across the verses he had read before;
Romans 1:16-17
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
As he read this time the Spirit of God impressed upon his heart and mind that He COULD NOT work his way into God's favor with his religious works; but instead God alone would impute that righteousness that was necessary to him by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ.
It was a thunderous explosion in Luther's mind. He looked at the scriptures and looked at the Church practices he had been taught and realized they did not line up. He made a decision - a bold, courageous, outlandish decision. He decided to believe the Scripture alone...trust God that is means what it says, and that the church he served in was wrong. He stood before councils...attacked, charged with heresy, mocked, accused, and threatened...and still he stood on the word of God.
"Here I stand, I can do no other"... a spark in Germany that fanned into flame the entire Reformation of the church.
They called them "Protestant"... from a combination of two Latin words: Pro + Testari meaning "to testify forth", "holding forth"... testify, hold forth...what? The Gospel. Buried under practices that hid the beauty and glory of the Gospel, Luther knew it was crucial to testify the truth and not the error.
I walked where he stood...I climbed into the pulpit of the church he preached the Gospel in. I visited his land and looked at the buildings he went into, the university, the house he and Katie raised their children in, the fire pit he used to burn the Papal letters of condemnation, the gardens and marketplaces and rivers and roads that were never paved and without modern bridges.
Hebrews 11:4 says, "Though he is dead, yet he still speaks"
We who believe the Gospel must guard it's truth, willing to testify forth when needed - boldly, courageously, unwaveringly stand where others have stood before - before God who looks at the heart and mind of all who say they believe in Him. Because of Luther, Calvin, others, there will always be a legacy of a strong faith over a superficial believism. Because of Luther, Calvin, others, we must not be shallow in our thinking or our faith - we dare not - we must stand, we should never do any other.
Peace
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