Gospel Courage

In Sunday's sermon, Pastor Mike mentioned that “gospel courage isn’t confidence that things will work out as I would like them in the moment – but trusting that what I will gain is immeasurably greater than what I will lose through my courageous obedience.” When I think of someone who embodied such gospel courage, I cannot help but think of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms of 1521 (this is not as gross at it sounds... an imperial diet is simply an assembly meeting of the Roman Empire).

During the middle ages, the Roman Catholic Church had risen to power and had corrupted many of the foundational doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. In 1517, Luther lit the initial spark of the Protestant Reformation when he challenged the medieval doctrine of penance and indulgences in the 95 theses that he nailed to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Though this was a common and acceptable way of challenging doctrines during the time, due to the recent invention and rise of the printing press, the 95 theses were printed and distributed far beyond Wittenberg.

At this point and time, Luther, a German Monk, had not experienced true conversion. However, as he began to study the Scriptures in their original languages, he began to see more corruption in the Roman Catholic Church than he had initially realized. Some time between 1518 and 1519, Luther came to a mature understanding of the gospel as he began to comprehend the true nature of justification by faith alone apart from works. By 1520, Luther had published three Reformation treatises (Freedom of a Christian, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation), all of which dealt with the implications of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. This was contrary to the Catholic understanding of justification which had evolved into a doctrine of justification by faith plus works.

By 1520, Pope Leo X's patience had worn thin with Luther. He issued a papal bull (official decree) titled Exsurge Domine ("Rise up, O Lord!") in which he outlined forty-one errors of Luther. The papal bull's name, comes from Psalm 74. Pope Leo X used the psalm's description of a boar uprooting grape vines in a vineyard as a metaphor for what Martin Luther had been doing through his writings and teachings at the University of Wittenberg where he served as a professor.

The bull objected to Luther’s teachings about penance, indulgences, the pope’s authority, good works, purgatory, and whether monks could beg for alms, among other things. The papal bull declared that anything that Luther had said or written about these topics was condemned. Luther was thereby summoned to Rome, and his books were to be burned. What’s more is that those who supported Luther were subject to the same penalties.If someone even provided lodging for Luther they could face excommunication. Furthermore, Universities would lose their privileges if they did not support the coming ban.

When Luther received this bull, instead of submitting to it, he publicly burned it and told his followers that by condemning his teaching, the pope was condemning the Gospel itself.

Due to Luther's popular support, Luther represented a serious threat to the Roman Empire. To maintain political and religious stability, emperor Charles V summoned Luther to the imperial Diet that was to be held in the German city of Worms. Luther was promised safe conduct to and from this Diet, yet he remained leery. About one hundred years earlier, the same thing was promised to Jan Hus, yet Rome pronounced him to be a heretic and had him burned at the stake. Nevertheless, Luther obeyed this summons.

On April 17, 1521, Luther was called before the Diet to be questioned. Johann von Eck, the papal theologian led the proceedings. When Luther entered the room, he thought that he would have an opportunity for a debate. But instead, he noticed a pile of his books and Eck asked him two questions: were the pile of books before him his, and would he recant of the doctrines within them? Luther acknowledged authorship of the books, but requested a day to consider his second answer, and spent much of the night in prayer seeking God’s help.

The next day, when Luther came back into the room, he answered the second question with some of the most memorable words in Christian history:

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason – for I can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves – I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen.”

Church historian Philip Schaff summarized what happened on that day in this way: "Luther’s testimony before the Diet is an event of world-historical importance and far reaching effect… He stood there as the fearless champion of the supremacy of the word of God over the traditions of men, and of the liberty of conscience over the tyranny of authority.”

A friend of Luther's, Friedrich "the Wise", staged a fake ambush in order to rescue Luther from those who wanted his head at the Diet. From there, Luther would go on to work tirelessly in translating the Bible into German so that the Word of God could be put into the language of the common people. The Diet of Worms proved to be a turning-point for Christianity. Luther saw God's Word as the supreme rule of faith and obedience for Christian living. He was willing to die for this truth. Following the Diet of Worms, many other reformation movements sprang up, sparking a fire that to this day has not been quenched. This is an example of "trusting that what I will gain is immeasurably greater than what I will lose through my courageous obedience" as Pastor Mike stated. Luther thought that his condemnation at Worms was the end of his life and the Reformation...but it proved ultimately to be the beginning.