Martin Luther & Sola Scriptura

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany.  The son of a miner, he turned from a profession in law to the monastery. In 1505, in the midst of a frightening thunderstorm and nearby lightning strike that threw him to the ground, he screamed, “Help me, St. Anne. I will become a monk.” Making a deal with God through his belief at the time in the intercession of St. Anne, patron saint of miners, Martin survived and kept his end of the bargain.

Luther’s spiritual distress continued in the monastery. He knew he was a sinner. He knew God was holy. He could never get past the sense that the judgement of God always lay before him. His mentors in the monastery tried to solve his problem first by sending him to seminary and then to a teaching position at the newly formed University of Wittenberg. He taught theology and Bible.

In 1516, during the time of Enlightenment and a “return to the sources,” the Dutch Christian humanist, Erasmus of Rotterdam, published his monumental scholarly edition of the Greek New Testament. Prior to this, teachers and scholars only had access to Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate. The return to the original Greek text would truly change the world.

In God’s providence, Luther was assigned to teach the Psalms, Galatians, Romans, and Hebrews. When the new Greek text became available, he began reading the NT in its original language. His spiritual distress would soon find relief. The Greek word properly translated as “repent” or “repentance,” metanoia, was translated differently in the Latin Bible. It was translated as “do penance.” Think about this. Both Jesus and John preached, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” That is, turn away from your sins and to God in faith. Do penance means: do acts of contrition, confess to a priest, accept punishments for your sin, and finally, seek absolution. Spiritual distress indeed!

Luther’s study of the Bible eventually led to one of the “solas” of the Reformation: Scripture Alone. It also led to his own spiritual breakthrough. When he realized we are justified by grace through faith he said it was as if the gates of paradise were opened and he walked through!

On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther famously nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the church door (i.e., public bulletin board) in Wittenberg. Remember metanoia? Here are the first three theses:

1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” [Matthew 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. 2. This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy. 3. Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortifications of the flesh.

Luther helped get these ideas back into the right order. The change in our lives grows out of the new birth and new life we have in Christ. We might say, “We are justified by faith alone. But the faith that justifies is not alone.” God delivers us from the power and guilt of sin through our faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit now dwells within us. Having been born from above, “I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16 CSB). After all, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20). Amen.