Martin Luther
There was a Benedictine monk in the 16th century who fancied himself one of the hardest-working monks who had ever lived. If a monk could be saved through monkery, he thought, he would be among the first to enter heaven. But despite all of his pious monkery, this monk was angry with God. One day, while studying Paul’s letter to the Romans, he stumbled upon this verse: “For in [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed…” The very mention of God’s righteousness caused him to burn with anger. He wrote:
I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, and said, “As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!” (emphasis mine)
This monk, who for all of his monkery could not attain to God’s righteousness, was embittered by Paul’s words. We sinners are already crushed by our inability to maintain the Law, he thought. Why does God need to crush us further by threatening us with his righteousness? The monk knew what all of us sinners know. We cannot stand in the face of God’s righteousness. Left to our own devices, we are without hope and deserving only of death.
Still, by God’s grace, he forged onward in Romans:
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.'” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.
Dawn: Luther at Erfurt – Joseph Noel Paton, 1861.
Scottish National Gallery. Public Domain.
Today, February 18, 2022, is the feast day of this faithful monk, the great German Reformer, Martin Luther. After Luther’s heart was melted by the reality that he was justified by faith alone—that, by God’s grace, the righteousness of God was freely given to him, a sinner—he dedicated his life to preaching this good news; the only good news that can save us from death. The Collect for the Feast Day of Martin Luther tells his story in this way:
O God, by your grace your servant Martin Luther, kindled by the flame of your love, became a burning and shining light in your Church, turning pride into humility and error into truth: Grant that we may be set aflame with the same spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
By God’s grace, Luther’s pride of performance was forged into the humility of faith and his error of self-justification was enlightened by the truth of justification by grace through faith alone. It is my prayer for Christ Church this week that we may, too, be “set aflame with the same spirit of love and discipline;” that the life-altering hope of God’s grace would soften our pride and correct our error, to the glory of His name.
Under His Mercy,
Bree Snow
Minister of Formation and Catechesis
*Quotations are taken from Luther’s Works Vol. 34 (St. Louis, Concordia Publishing House, 1960), p. 336-337.