October 28, 2007

• Reformation Sunday: Luther-"Just an individualist who never co-operated" or Contender for the truth?

  As Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1) addresses the need to guard the purity of the Church, he refers to Martin Luther:

  I do not understand the mentality in the Christian Church today which says that we must all come together and sink our differences; and that what we believe does not matter. It is a denial of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, and of the story of the twelve ignorant, untutored and unlettered men who knew whom and what they believed, and who had the power of the Spirit upon them, and who "turned the world upside-down". This surely is one of the central messages of the bible. The great concern of the New Testament Epistles is not about the size of the Church, it is about the purity of the Church. ...There is an exclusiveness in the New Testament that is quite amazing. The apostle Paul writing to the Galatians says, "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8). "My Gospel!", says Paul writing to Timothy. He denounces other teachers. So many of these modern preachers are much nicer people than the Apostle Paul! They never say a word against anyone at all, they praise everybody and are praised by everybody. They are never "negative"! They never define what they believe and what they do not believe. They are said to be "Full of love". I am not misjudging them when I say that is not the explanation. The explanation is that they do not "contend for the truth", they are innocent concerning the wiles of the devil". It is not for us to decide what to leave out and what to drop for the sake of unity. My business is to expound this truth, to declare it - come what may! We must not be interested primarily in numbers, we must be interested in the truth of God. Why are many today denying the glory of the Protestant Reformation? Martin Luther - one man, standing against the whole Church - would be dismissed today as "just an individualist who never co-operated". But he stood up and said in effect, "I am right, you are all wrong!"

  Without realizing it the moderns are dismissing Luther as a fool, and as an arrogant fool, because he stood alone. But why did he stand alone? There is only one answer. He stood alone because he had seen the truth of God, and had known and experience the blessed liberation it brings. He had seen the light and had also been awakened to "the wiles of the devil". When a man sees this truth he has no choice. He does not force himself to stand alone. He does not even want to do so; but he can do no other. As Luther said, "Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God!" And God did help him. Of course He did! God will always honor His truth and the man who stands for it....

  Was Luther "just an individualist who never co-operated" or a contender for the truth?

  

  Here's the Dedicatory Letter Martin Luther wrote to Nicolaus von Amsdorf (2) in 1520 (the 95 Theses were posted in 1517) regarding Luther's letter written "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Respectingthe Reformation of the Christian Estate":

  The Grace and Peace of God be with you! Respected, worthy Sir and dear friend.The time for silence is gone and the time to speak has come, as we read in Ecclesiastes (iii. 7.) I have in conformity with our resolve put together some few points concerning the Reformation of the Christian Estate, with the intent of placing the same before the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, in case it may please God to help His Church by means of the laity, inasmuch as the clergy, whom this task rather befitted, have become quite careless. I send all this to your worship, to judge and to amend where needed. I am well aware that I shall not escape the reproach of taking far too much upon me, in presuming, insignificant as I am, to address such high estates on such weighty and great subjects; as if there were no one in the world but Dr. Luther, to have a care for Christianity, and to give advice to such wise people.

  Let who will blame me, I shall not offer any excuse. Perhaps I still owe God and the world another folly. This debt I have now resolved honestly to discharge, as well as may be, and to be court fool for once in my life: if I fail, I shall at any rate gain this advantage, that no one need buy me a fool’s cap or shave my poll. But it remains to be seen which shall hang the bells on the other. I must fulfil the proverb: When anything is to be done in the world, a monk must be in it, were it only as a painted figure. I suppose, it has often happened that a fool has spoken wisely, and wise men have often done foolishly, as St. Paul says: “If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” (1 Cor. iii. 18.)

  Now, inasmuch as I am not only a fool, but also a sworn doctor of the Holy Scriptures, I am glad that I have an opportunity of fulfilling my oath, just in this fool’s way. I beg you to excuse me to the moderately wise: for I know not how to deserve the favour and grace of the supremely wise, which I have so often sought with much labour, but now for the future shall neither have nor regard.

  God help us to seek not our glory, but His alone. Amen.

  From Wittenberg, in the monastery of St. Augustine, on the eve of St. John the Baptist, in the year 1520.

  * * *

  Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

  Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

  -Jude 2-4

  "The time for silence is gone and the time to speak has come,
  as we read in Ecclesiastes (iii. 7.)."

  Lord, raise up men and women like Martin Luther,
  men and women who will earnestly contend for the faith and for the truth.

  "God help us to seek not our glory, but His alone. Amen."

  Semper Reformanda.

  ---

  (1) D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13" (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977 reprint), 118-119. I find Lloyd-Jones' words an eerily accurate description of the state of the Church today.

  (2) "Nicolaus von Amsdorf (1483-1565) was a colleague of Luther at the University of Wittenberg, and one of his most zealous fellow-workers in the cause of the Reformation." Source: Dedicatory Letter, found in Luther's First Principles of the Reformation or the Ninety-five Theses and the Three Primary Works of Dr. Martin Luther Translated into English.

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