Paul was not talking about God's righteousness, but rather a righteousness that was made available. to believers by faith. And so Luther said, whoa. You mean the righteousness by which I will be saved. is not mine.
It's what he called an alien righteousness. A righteousness that belongs properly to somebody else. It's a righteousness that is outside of us. Namely, The righteousness of Christ. Why did Martin Luther stand up against popes and emperors in defense of the gospel?
because he had finally understood the gospel. He now knew what made the good news Good. This is the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Thanks for joining us. We're walking in the footsteps of Martin Luther this week.
to better understand the significance of the Protestant Reformation. We're also offering a significant resource package. that includes the Lutheran and Reformation DVD set. digital access to that series and its study guide. Digital Access to the Justified by Faith Alone series and its study guide.
and the hardcover book, The Legacy of Luther. When you make a donation this week in support of Renewing Your Mind, at renewingyourmind.org. I'll be sure to remind you again at the end of today's message.
Well, Luther knew that God is holy, that God is righteous. But he also knew that he wasn't. and he had looked for answers in a monastery. He took a pilgrimage to the city of Rome. but it was during his studies in Paul's letter to the Romans that the good news became clear.
And to quote Luther, the doors of paradise swung open and I walked through. Here's RC's sprawl on this critical moment in Luther's life. And as it would turn out, also in the life of the church. Earlier in these lectures, I mentioned that in. the younger years of Luther, he had a propensity for having A serious crisis.
every five years. In fifteen oh five he had the lightning bolt experience that sent him into the monastery in 1510 as we looked at the last time. He had his experience of disillusionment. on his journey and pilgrimage to Rome. but perhaps the most significant crisis of his entire life, that Episode that defined him as a man.
As a theologian, As a result of the mm-hmm. And as a Christian, took place in the year fifteen fifteen. in what has been called His hour experience. But before we look at the tower experience, We want to get looser from Erfurt. Over to Wittenberg.
Let me begin by saying that shortly after He returned from his experience in Rome He was called to move from Erfurt to the Augustinian cloister. of the village of Wittenberg. Erfurt was a major city in Germany with a major university. And Wittenberg was basically a small village of about 2,000 Inhabitants and extent of the city was less than One mile long. The name Wittenberg means white hill or white little mountain.
And it was situated on a Stretch of white sand. and border the Elbe River.
Now, the significance of Wittenberg at this time in history was that it was a village. that was basically established by a man whose name was Frederick the Wise, Frederick Elector of Saxony. And if you're not familiar with Frederick the Wise, I have to say at this point that he was one of the major players. of the Protestant Reformation, albeit in large measure unintentionally.
Now Frederick's dream. was to create a cultural intellectual center in Wittenberg that would rival the University of Heidelberg and the greatest intellectual centers. of Germany. And to that end he scoured the German countryside asking various monasteries to nominate their finest young scholars. to join his new faculty at Wittenberg.
and he was able to procure the services of three Brilliant young scholars. one of whom was Martin Luther. Luther had not yet completed his doctor's degree. He had his master's in biblical studies. And he was summoned to the town.
to be the professor. of Bible On the faculty there at Wittenberg.
Now, in addition, to founding the university there. Frederick also wanted to create the finest reliquary. be found anywhere in Germany. His dream was to make Wittenberg the Rome. of Germany.
And so over a period of ten or so years, He searched far and wide to collect various relics, that he could house in the church there at Wittenberg. that would attract pilgrims from literally all over Europe. to make their pilgrimages to Wittenberg. for the value of indulgences from purgatory. that accompanied such a trip.
And so he was able to amass a collection of relics Over 19,000 of them. Whose indulgence value, if you would look at each one of them during your pilgrimage. would amount to One million 902,000. 2022. Two years and about seven months.
worse of time relieved From Purgatory. And so his dream of establishing A giant reliquary there in Wittenberg was accomplished. And among the relics that he was able to assemble include a piece of straw from the manger of Jesus. hair from the beard of Jesus. A piece of the cross, a piece of the stone.
from the Mount of Ascension. Even a branch from the burning bush. of Moses. And so this was quite A collection.
Now Frederick the Wise is called Elector of Saxony. because he was one of several men in Europe that had a vote In the selection of the Holy Roman Emperor. That one who would preside over the Holy Roman Empire, which scholars have said. was neither holy Nor Roman Or really an empire. And In fact, in the year 1518, I believe it was.
The emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian, died. and the Emperor's throne was left vacant and there were three major candidates to succeed maximum. Two of them were the front runners, and the third was kind of a dark horse. The frontrunners were Francis, who was the king of France at the time, Charles, who was the king of Spain, who didn't speak Spanish and was considered something of a Moron. Uh even by his contemporaries.
And the Third candidate who was lagging far behind, Francis. And Charles was The King of England. Henry The eighth. And so the plot thickened as the race continued, and the Pope in Rome, at this time, Leo X. desperately did not want either Francis or Charles to become the new emperor.
of the Holy Roman Empire. And so he tried to lobby Frederick To throw his hat, as it were. End of the ring. And run for the office of emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. And to that end, Leo X honored Frederick.
by giving him the highest honor that the Pope could give. A secular ruler, and that was the Order. of the golden rose. And he bestowed that honor upon Frederick, hoping that it would induce Frederick. to seek the emperorship of the Holy Roman Empire.
Frederick, however, One of the reasons he was called the wise Was he declined the invitation, was not interested in Running for emperor, and in fact, cast one of the most significant deciding votes that put Charles on the throne. as the emperor Of the Holy Roman Empire.
Now, what is also significant for Frederick. In addition to his being the man who brought Luther to Wittenberg, where The whole Reformation began. was that because of his political power in Europe. Frederick was able to serve as Luther's protector. During the critical years.
It's been said by historians, if it weren't for the influence of Frederick the Wise. Luther certainly would have been hunted down. And would have been executed. But even though Frederick remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. He also was loyal to his faculty.
and wanted to make sure that Luther wasn't unjustly persecuted or prosecuted And executed, and so he stood in his defense for many, many. years, even though, ironically, it's been said that Luther and Frederick never had more than three conversations. And the whole history. of their relationship. But in any case, when Luther was brought to Wittenberg, As professor of Bible, He began his lectures in fifteen thirteen.
giving lengthy lectures On the book of Psalms. One of the things that we often overlook about Luther is that Luther was a master. Linguist. And he was an outstanding interpreter of sacred scripture. In fact, His method As it matured, a biblical interpretation changed the whole shape.
of biblical interpretation from the Middle Ages.
So modern approaches to scripture. In the Middle Ages, the favorite means of interpreting the Bible. was through the use of what was called the quadriga. The quadriga was a fourfold method. Of interpreting the Bible so that you looked first of all at the literal sense of a text.
And then you find the ethical meaning of the text. You find the mystical meaning of the text. and you find the allegorical meaning of the text. And this led to all kinds of wild speculation and imaginative interpretations of the Bible. to such an extent that Luther said that under that system The Bible became a waxed nose that anybody could twist and distort.
to make it fit whatever theory they wanted to bring to the scripture. And so Luther gradually came to the position that the proper method of interpreting Scripture. was by finding what he called the sensors Literatilis. Let's take a look at that. The census Litter a list.
Which, being translated, means simply. The literal Scripture. I've had people ask me from time to time. The question of whether I interpret the Bible literally, but they usually don't ask it in that manner. They usually You don't interpret the Bible.
Literally, do you? And when anybody says that to me, you don't interpret the Bible literally. Do you? I never say yes. And I never say no.
I always answer that query in the same way. If someone would say to me, You don't interpret the Bible literally, do you? My answer is always, no. Of course. Like Duh.
What other legitimate way is there to interpret the Bible. Other than to interpret it literally. But I understand it when people ask me that question. They don't mean what Luther meant by the literal sense or what I mean. What Luther meant by the census literalis was that we are to interpret the Bible according Two How It is written.
If it's historical narrative, you interpret it according to the rules of historical narrative. If it's poetry, you interpret it according to the rules of poetry. If it's didactic, you interpret it according to those canons and so on. that there's no such thing as Holy Ghost Greek. In the Bible, a noun is a noun, a verb is a verb.
And you are to treat the Bible in that sense. as though it were just like any other book.
Now, of course, it's not like any other book because it and it alone is the Word of God. But nevertheless, Luther built a hedge around all attempts to have a mystical spiritualized interpretation of the word of God. to look for the plain sense and the plain meaning of Scripture. that we understand The word of God as it was originally written and given. This principle of biblical interpretation was developing.
during his teaching years there. at Wittenberg, which began I say with this lengthy Exposition of the book of Psalms. In 1515 is the year I said that he underwent the most significant crisis perhaps of his entire life in What is called the hour Experience. And it began when He was given the task of lecturing on the book of Romans. And in the very beginning of his lectures, as he was reading through the first chapter.
of Romans and came to Romans one sixteen He read these words. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation. For everyone who believes For the Jew first, and also for the Greek. And then in verse 17, which most scholars Grant to be the thematic statement for the entire Epistle of Romans.
Paul writes this. For in it. That is in the gospel. The righteousness of God is revealed. From face to face.
as it is written The just shall live. By phase Now when Luther first perused that text And began to read the sentences of Lombard and other commentators from the Middle Ages. He was struggling with the concept in verse 17. That he found Personally. Repugnant.
This verse spoke of the subject that terrified Luther. more than any other subject. Mainly the righteousness of God. It was to salve his conscience that he had worked so hard in the monastery. as being so rigorous in his asceticism.
And in his pilgrimages and confessions and all that, Because he was haunted by the specter of a righteous God whom Luther knew. If he judged Luther, According to God's standard of righteousness, that Luther would perish. He also understood that no matter how hard he tried, And no matter what he did. He would never be able to satisfy. The demands of God's justice.
or God's righteousness in order to make his way. Into heaven.
So the ultimate barrier. that stood between Luther and his God. Was the righteousness of God. Understood. In the deepest part of his soul.
The chasm. That exists between the righteousness of God. And the Unrighteousness. of the sinner. And Luther saw no possible way to bridge the gap.
But as he was reading this text and studying this text and preparing his lectures. He came to a completely new and radical understanding. of what Paul was saying in Romans. Chapter one, verse seventeen It says, in it, in the gospel. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written, The just shall live By face. A verse taken from the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament that is cited three times. in the New Testament, as Luther was stopped short, he said, what does this mean? That there's this righteousness. That is by faith.
And from face to face. What does it mean that the righteous shall live. By face. Which again, as I said, was the Thematic verse for the whole exposition of the gospel that Paul sets forth here. in the book of Romans.
And so The lights came on for Luther and he began to understand that what Paul was speaking of here was a righteousness That God in His grace. Was making available to those who would receive it. Massively. not those who would achieve it actively. but that would receive it by faith and by which A person could be reconciled to a holy and righteous God.
Now there was a linguistic trick that was going on here too. And it was this. that the Latin word for justification that was used at this time in church history. was I mean, it's the word from which we get the English word justification, the Latin word. Eusta Focare.
And it came from the Roman Judicial System And the term Eustafakare It's made up of the word justice, which is justice or righteousness, and the verb, the infinitive fakare, which means to make. And so the Latin fathers understood the doctrine of justification. Is what happens when God, through the sacraments of the church and elsewhere, makes unrighteous people. Righteous. But Luther was looking now at the Greek word that was in the New Testament, not the Latin word, the word dicaios, dicaiosune.
Which didn't mean to make righteous. but rather to regard as righteous. to count as righteous. to declare as righteous. And this was the moment of awakening for Luther.
He said, you mean? Here, Paul is not talking about the righteousness by which God Himself is righteous. But a righteousness that God gives freely by His grace to people who who don't have righteousness of their own. He was confirmed in this understanding by reading an essay from. Augustine, on the letter in the spirit, in which Augustine made that very comment that in Romans Paul was not talking about God's righteousness, but rather a righteousness that was made.
available to Two believers. By faith. And so Luther said, whoa. You mean the righteousness by which I will be saved? It's not mine.
It's what he called a Eustitia alienum. An alien righteousness. A righteousness that belongs properly to somebody else. It's a righteousness that is extra nose outside of us. Namely, The righteousness of Christ, Luther said.
When I when I discovered He said. I was born again. of the Holy Ghost. And the doors of paradise swung open. And I walk through.
There's no way to understand Luther's tenacity. Luther's unwillingness to compromise on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. apart from this life-changing born-again experience. when for the first time in his life, He understood the gospel. and what it meant.
to be redeemed. by somebody else's righteousness. Hearing the good news today, against the historical backdrop of what the Roman Catholic Church was teaching, Makes the good news shine even brighter, doesn't it? That was R. C.
Sproll from his series Luther and the Reformation. You can own the complete series on DVD and gain lifetime digital access to those messages and the companion study guide when you give a donation today at renewingyourmind.org. Or when you call us at 800-435-4343. When you donate, we'll also unlock the Justified by Faith Alone series and its study guide in the app for you. and send you the hardcover volume, The Legacy of Luther.
Request this special Reformation Week resource package when you donate at Renewing Your Mind dot org or when you use the link in the podcast show notes. These are series to return to each year as we approach Reformation Day, and series that remind each of us what it was that the Protestants. were protesting. and why it's still relevant today. Give your gift at Renewing Your Mind dot org and for our global listening audience respond now at Renewing Your Mind dot org slash global.
Thank you. For those of you joining us tonight in Anaheim, California, for Renewing Your Mind Live. I look forward to seeing you. Don't forget that you can register for upcoming Renewing Your Mind live events, including ones in San Jose, California and Riley, North Carolina. when you visit renewingyourmind.org slash events.
If you know anything about the life of Martin Luther, you probably know about his nailing of the 95 Theses. But perhaps you also remember his bold stand. when he declared, Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.
Tomorrow, R. C. Squirrel will explain this watershed moment of the Reformation.
So join us Thursday here on Renewing Your Mind.
