Diet of Worms
Well last time we left off with the 95 theses which Luther posted on Oct. 31st 1517. He continued to write and debate in the intervening time leading up to the year 1521. On January 3rd, 1521 Pope Leo X issued a papal bull – which is just a document – which declared Luther to be a heretic and condemned his soul to hell. This was a serious issue as it was believed the Pope held the keys of the kingdom and could condemn souls to hell. Luther’s response was to gather a crowd at Wittenberg where he burned the papal bull in dramatic epic fashion. Luther’s conviction was that the Papacy was no longer the true church, for the true church is where the word of God is faithfully preached and the sacraments administered.
Upon his excommunication, the Emperor of the Roman Empire, Charles V, summoned Luther to appear before a counsel to determine if he was a heretic who should be burned at the stake or put to death. Well, by this time, Frederick of Saxony, Luther’s local civil magistrate was warming to Luther, not just politically, but even his theological ideas. Frederick bucked against this, for Luther was his subject, and should rather be tried on German soil, not far off Rome.
Well, Luther ends up making the trip to Rome for the Diet of Worms, which took place April 16-18, 1521. There was other church business and meetings that were taking place, Luther’s case was one of the items on the agenda. Luther believed that he would have the opportunity to debate and defend his teachings. But as he arrives and comes before the Diet, it is clear there would be no debate. As he enters the diet he sees that all of his books and writings are spread out on the table before him. He asked two questions: Are these your writings? “Yes,” is the answer. And then, “Will you recant?” Well, Luther could not simply recant, for that would be to recant all the solid teaching on theology and the Christian life that he had written, not just the issues of the papacy and indulgences. And of course, if he did not recant, he could be put to death. So what does Luther do? He doesn’t make this dramatic stand right then and there, but he quietly asks for one day to think things over. So he is granted one day.
After a sleepless night of prayer and thinking, Luther comes back the next day, staring the very real probability of execution in the face, and delivers one of the most momentous speeches in world history. It was not by the inherent strength or confidence of Luther that he spoke these words, but by the power of the God of heaven who gripped His heart through all his strugglings in the Holy Scriptures. Luther, in German, gives a lengthy response explaining the varying genres and themes of his writings and how Jesus came not to bring peace but a sword. Well there is a bit of an uproar, but meanwhile Charles V has no idea what was said, for he does not know German, so he’s confused and he asks Luther to repeat what he said in a simple and clear way. So Luther says before the counsel and Charles V, “Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”
Well there’s a bit of chaos and fury, and Luther is able to get out of there and be on his way. And the emperor ends up condemning Luther as a heretic employing all his might to capture Luther. But as Luther leaves, he is kidnapped! Luther did not realize it at first, but he is kidnapped by men deployed by his own magistrate, Frederick of Saxony. Frederick had Luther captured to save his skin, and he had Luther put in hiding for a year in the Castle Wartburg, and this was successful.
In Hiding at the Castle Wartburg
As difficult as this time in hiding was, it was a very important time in Luther’s life. Isolation can be hard on any person and it was on Luther. In addition to bouts with physical ailments, Luther did great battle against the devil while in the castle. He fought temptations from the devil to despair and doubt. In addition to using the prayer and the Psalms for comfort he would taunt or talk back to the devil. Here Luther states his troubles, “I can tell you in this idle solitude there are a thousand battles with Satan. It is much easier to fight against the incarnate Devil – that is, against men – than against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. Often I fall and am lifted again by God’s right hand.” On more humorous notes it is said that Luther once threw an inkwell at the devil who had been incessantly accusing him. Luther would even use the “breaking of wind” to spite the devil. Luther once said this, “When he [the devil] tempts me with silly sins, I say, ‘Devil, yesterday I broke wind too. Have you written it down on your list?’ When I say to him, ‘You have been put to shame,’ he believes it… Thus I remind myself of the forgiveness of sin and of Christ and I remind Satan of the abomination of the pope.” While there is some silliness in Luther here, he’s perception of spiritual warfare was keen and he took it seriously, ultimately gaining victory by remembrance and recounting the promises of the gospel and running to Christ. On another occasion Luther once wrote, “I would run to Christ even if he had a sword in His hand.” Luther had come to love and find his only refuge in the God he once did not understand and hated.
While in hiding in the castle at Wartburg, Luther also completed his translation of the New Testament into German. This was an amazing feat and important work that he did for the German people and the reformation. This shows us the importance of the Scriptures, and that all people have them in their tongue, to Luther’s theology and reformational values. What was once locked away from the people in the Latin tongue, now can be held in their hands and read with their own tongue. Certainly Luther’s translation, which eventually was the whole Bible and which he worked to perfect his whole life, was a loose translation in certain ways. He took liberties of translation which we would not concur with in the purpose of translating. It is said that Luther essentially “Germanized” the Bible.
Now, while Luther was tucked away in the castle, he had spotty communication with the happenings in Wittenberg. And during this time the reformation began to actually happen and take shape in Witteberg under the leadership of Philip Melanchthon, who was Luther’s friend and professor at the university, and most notably, from a guy named Carlstadt, a professor and archdeacon at the Castle Church. However, Luther was not happy with all the reforms Carlstadt was spearheading. Carlstadt was a bit of a radical and he led the people in destroying property in the church and city, anything that smelled of Rome, statues, altars, images, stained glass, etc. During this time priests, nuns, and monks began to marry. Wine was given to the laity in the sacrament. The priests no longer wore vestments. And mob violence even broke out. Of course Luther was in favor of a number of these reforms, but was distressed at the chaos that was being led.
Finally, by December of 1521, Luther, disguised in a beard, which Roland Bainton says, was good enough to deceive his mother, Luther returned to Wittenberg after 8 months in the Castle Wartburg. Eventually, Carlstadt had to go and Luther took the role of bringing order and leadership to the reformation in Wittenberg, where he would remain and be protected the rest of his life.
On the Freedom of a Christian
A couple of notable works of Luther are worth mentioning here. One is On the Freedom of a Christian. This is a short read that packs a punch. I read it one afternoon. Here is where we see Luther lay out his classic position on good works and justification. He succinctly lays out his theology that good works do not justify us, and that while God does not need our good works, our neighbor does. This is where Luther famously states, “A Christian is a free lord of everything and subject to no one. A Christian is a willing servant of everything and subject to everyone.”
I think this is a good place to also state what was the hallmark of Luther’s theology and his way of preaching. Luther had a very drastic law/gospel hermeneutic. For Luther, all commands were law and were useful for showing our condemnation and guilt, and gospel is only promises. This is certainly helpful when it comes to justification. Luther was a bit unbalanced though when it came to exposition and preaching. Every sermon for Luther ultimately had the same point – that being justification by faith. He was profound and a very blessed preacher, but sometimes he forced this doctrine into places that it wasn’t. He basically had a justification-centered hermeneutic, when the more biblically balanced hermeneutic would be a Christ-centered one, which is more broad than just justification by faith.
The Bondage of the Will
The next work of Luther worth mentioning is probably his most important work – The Bondage of the Will. This book was written in 1525 as a response to Erasmus who had written on the freedom of the will. Erasmus argued that man has the capacity within himself to choose God and exercise faith, and he argued against predestination. Luther, ferociously opposed this view. Luther argued that fallen men’s will is bound to sin and cannot choose God of its own accord. This was not a mere philosophical debate, but Luther went to the Word of God to prove God’s prerogative in predestination and the salvation of man, pointing to Romans which says there is no one good, no not one. And John 6:44, where Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Luther himself said that out of everyone, Erasmus had put his finger on the real issue of the reformation. This is the very point – the issue of the will and the sovereignty of God – which Luther saw as the very heart of the reformation.
Calvinism was not a term in use at that time, but on this issue, Luther was a Calvinist, though Lutherans today would mostly not like to be called that, nor would they confess all that Luther did on this issue.
Here are some quotes from Luther, “…a man cannot be thoroughly humbled, until he comes to know that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsel, endeavours, will, and works, and absolutely depending on the will, counsel, pleasure, and work of another, that is, of God only.”
“Free-will is plainly a divine term, and can be applicable to none but the divine Majesty only: for He alone ‘doth, (as the Psalm sings) what He will in Heaven and earth.’”
“…Since God has put my salvation out of the way of my will, and has taken it under His own, and has promised to save me, not according to my working or manner of life, but according to his own grace and mercy, I rest fully assured and persuaded that he is faithful, and will not lie, and moreover great and powerful, so that no devils, no adversities can destroy Him, or pluck me out of His hand.”
Marriage
Let us look now at one of the most important aspects of Luther’s life – Luther’s marriage to Katy. A key area of reformation was that of marriage – the marriage of the priests, monks, and nuns. For a long time, while Luther advocated for the goodness of marriage and the biblical teaching that it is better to marry than to burn with passion, Luther himself was resistant to marriage. His main reason for this was the fact that was condemned as a heretic and believed that he could be captured and put to death at any time, and did want to leave behind a wife or children, or put them through that. But of course, Luther does end up getting married. So how did this come about?
I remember when I first heard the story of how Luther got married, I was working at a bookstore talking with a friend about it, and it was so hilarious, I laughed so much that day. Well, the story goes that as biblical teaching on marriage spread, many of the monks and nuns desired to leave that way of living and to marry, and so Luther played a big role as a matchmaker, finding spouses for those desiring marriage. And so there were a number of nuns in a particular nunnery who wanted to leave their nunnery and marry and Luther arranged for their escape. Luther had connections to a certain merchant who traveled to the place of the nunnery by the river way on boat, and in the midst of the night sprung these nuns out and hid them in the fish barrels on the bout to make their way back to Wittenberg.
Now you have to recall that to enter the monkery or the nunnery you took vows of celibacy, and so to leave and be married was to break these vows. These nuns wrote back to their families telling them of their desire to marry and most of their families were not pleased at this and would not receive them back, so Luther found spouses for all of these nuns, except for one, Katy Von Bora. Katy was a strong-willed, but godly young woman, who would not just marry anyone. Luther had finally found someone to marry her, but she refused because he was so old and disgusting, and she was about 26 years old I believe. And eventually she made the comment that Luther himself would just have to marry her! Luther thought this amusing, and on a visit back to his parents, he mentioned this comment, and his father Hans, was genuinely earnest that Luther ought to marry her. And so Luther did, saying that he would marry her in order to spite the devil!
Well they turned out to have a wonderful marriage, they loved each other dearly, and Katy was probably the best thing to happen to Luther. Katy was the perfect woman to become the first lady of the reformation, as it were. They were married in Wittenberg, it was a great celebration, with Luther’s father being very proud of this moment and in attendance for the wedding and the time of celebration. The Luther’s were given an entire cellar full of beer and wine which lasted them many years, and they moved into the former monkery, which provided a massive living space, with all kinds of rooms for guests, which their home was constantly filled with, Katy throwing herself into being a housekeeper and practicing great hospitality.
There was a lot of adjusting to marriage for Luther. He had developed some less than hygiene personal practices, as Katy had to wash the bedding for the first time in Luther’s life after their first night together because they had been so stained from sweat and gunk. And Luther commented that it was strange to now wake up and find pigtails on his pillow. But Luther loved Katy and often referred to her as his rib.
There is one amazing story where Luther was invited to a friend’s wedding in a distant place, and he wrote to his friend explaining that he would not be able to attend because his wife Katy was worried, literally sick about his travels. This was a constant worry for Katy because there were many enemies of Luther who wanted to kill him. Katy had actually had a dream the night before Luther was supposed to leave and dreamed that kidnappers were waiting to ambush him and kill him, and she cried and implored Luther not to go. So Luther listens to his wife, and a short time later he received a letter in return from his friend saying that it was good he had listened to his wife, because it was discovered there were a couple brothers of former nuns whom Luther had freed who were so angry at Luther for this, that they were indeed waiting along the way to kill him, but Luther never came.
Katy threw herself into making their house a home. They had a number of children together, and Katy took care of them all, and all of their guests, and all of the animals, as they ran a farm, and Katy even brewed her own beer. Their home was a great example of vibrant family worship as Luther led his family and would sing, making music a hallmark of their home. You could even hear the sound of bowling pins late into the night as Luther had installed a bowling alley in their home.
The most prominent feature of their home was the dinner table, which Katy faithfully spread for Luther’s many students and guests, who would regularly gather around his table to hear Luther talk about his ideas. From this came the famous Tabletalk, which was compiled by those around Luther’s table as they wrote down the many things Luther said. This is where you can find much of Luther’s wit and humor.
This is where Luther said, “I confess that mankind has a free will, but it is to milk cows…” Or, “My tribulations are more necessary than meat and drink.”
Katy herself was a blessed saint, who exemplified faith in Christ, through her faithfulness to Luther, her home, and to Christ. Some of Katy’s last words are said to be, “I will stick to Christ like a burr to a topcoat.”
Vocation
Luther was also hugely influential in the idea of vocation. That all kinds of work, outside of formal ministry, is dignified and is a calling on each of our lives. He is famous for saying that “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”
Communion/Zwingli
There is another controversy of Luther’s life, one which saddens me a bit. As reformation ideas began to spread across Europe, there were reformations happening in many different regions. One such Swiss reformation was led by a man you may know named Ulrich Zwingli. There was a great deal of unity they had, and Zwingli desired unity, as there were also political reasons they would benefit from by joining forces. They were able to hammer out 14 points of essential doctrine, on which they agreed on 13 of them. The point of disagreement was on the Lord’s Supper. Luther did reform away from the Roman Catholic view of Transubstantiation, but he could not get away from the physical presence of Christ still being present in the supper. Luther believed in what is called consubstantiation, which teaches not that the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, but “con,” meaning with – that the body of Christ was physically present with the bread and wine. Zwingli denied this saying that the Lord’s Supper was merely a memorial and Christ was not present. We would disagree with both, and align more with the views of Calvin that Christ was not physically present, but spiritually present to our faith in the Lord’s Supper. But Luther had incredibly sharp disagreements with Zwingli on this, even accusing him of being of another spirit. Personally, I think Luther was incredibly uncharitable and unbrotherly on this issue. So Luther would have nothing to do with Zwingli after this.
Luther also maintained infant baptism, as did many of the reformers, which we disagree with. While Luther clearly taught justification by faith alone, that salvation comes not by works, but by divine sovereign grace outside of ourselves, and Christ alone is the savior of sinners, Luther’s, and thus the Lutheran articulation of infant baptism sounds very bad and inconsistent with this, as it would be articulated as a form of baptismal regeneration.
Now, though we would call Luther a Calvinist in regard to his views on the depravity of man, the will of man, the sovereignty of God in salvation and predestination, Luther and Lutherans today would not be considered “reformed” in terms of confessional reformed tenets. Luther continued to allow for the Roman Catholic normative principle of worship, though not in those terms, and continued to bring in all sorts of things in the worship of God, so long as they weren’t explicitly condemned.
I once attended a Lutheran service several years ago and walked away with the assessment that the experience was like an evangelical catholic service. The message preached was evangelical and pure doctrines of justification by faith, but the forms were very much like Roman Catholic forms with images, vestments, priests, and things of that nature. And that was Luther, he was, by and large, an evangelical catholic.
Luther was also a prolific hymn writer. Most famously his hymn based on Psalm 46, A Mighty Fortress is our God.
Luther also wrote a children’s catechism which is one of the things he was proud of. He taught, not only children, but all, to be catechized, as well as to pray using the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostle’s Creed as a guide and structure. Some of those things we may find very helpful and nourishing for ourselves. Often overlooked is Luther’s prayer life, which was fundamental to the reformation happening. It was a work of prayer, and Luther spent much of his life in prayer, which gave him strength and courage to endure. Luther once famously quipped, “I have so much to do today that I must spend the first three hours in prayer.”
And of course the preaching of the Word of God in German was a major driver of the reformation. Luther was a prolific preacher, preaching multiple times per week, spending much of his life expounding the gospels, Psalms, Romans, and Galatians. Luther brought preaching to the fore of the reformation and preaching gained a more prominent and central place in worship unlike it had been in the Roman Catholic church.
Death
Luther died on February 18, 1546. He had traveled back to his hometown Eisleben and preached one final sermon before he died quoting Psalm 68 which says “Our God is a God of Salvation.” And John 3:16. He was a man of courage and controversy. A man of joy and adversity. A man who loved deeply, and was deeply loved. A man who hated devils, and was hated by them. He spoke loudly in his day, and we can still hear him in ours. He is a man we follow in many ways, and a man we depart from in many ways. He was a man to whom we have much to thank God for. For he was God’s man, at God’s time.
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