The Devoted Defiance of Martin Luther

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” - Romans 1:16-17 (ESV)

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What does it mean to live by faith? Does it consist of a white picket-fence, American Dream, church on Easter and Christmas, with a lack of a personal connection with God? Or does it consist of radical life change, open defiance to the authority of the church and state, and a refusal to back down from what you know to be true based on the convictions of the Holy Spirt? If the answer was not clear — a life of faith is in line with the latter of these two — which aptly describes the life and person of Martin Luther.

Martin Luther lived from 1483-1546 AD in Germany. During his younger years, Luther came up in the training of a lawyer; yet, Luther left this potential occupation to become a monk after a friend of his died in a thunderstorm and he was nearly struck by lightning. Luther’s time as a monk was marked by a loss of the person of Jesus Christ, struggling to deal with his sin and spending massive amounts of time in confession (which the other monks refused to listen to). After visiting Rome and being exposed to indulgences, Luther’s faith was shattered and he became disillusioned with the Catholic Church.

Nonetheless, Luther discovered his true belief in Christ after studying Romans 1:16-17 and finding that faith, and faith alone, was the key to salvation. As a result, Luther contended with the false teachings of the Catholic Church — nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg in an act of open defiance. Martin Luther’s claims led to a religious civil war in Europe, but even as he was persecuted and questioned for the doctrines to which he held tight — he did not sway from his beliefs, stating in front of the Diet of Worms: “My conscience is held captive to the Word of God.”

Luther is a hero of the faith for several key reasons: standing firm in the faith, calling out heresy, and for adhering strictly to the Word of God — even when persecuted. These qualities of Luther are all indicative of his personal intimacy with the Lord and the fact that he truly lived by absolute, undeniable and unbreakable faith in the person of Jesus Christ. We can look at the life of Martin Luther and glean many key application points for our own lives. First, we must stand firm in the faith — knowing that, as Paul describes in Philippians 3:7-8, the loss of all things is incomparable to the surpassing glory of knowing Jesus. Furthermore, we may see from Martin Luther that we must call out heresy in the church when we see it. To allow heresy to permeate the teachings of the church is to allow those who would consider themselves to be fellow believers to be truly misled and possibly sent into eternal damnation. Just as Luther went against the grain of the Catholic Church, we must go against the church of modern society when its teachings contradict that of Scripture.