Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World

by Eric Metaxas

“The meaning of Luther’s entry into the monastery is simply this, that the great revolt against the medieval church arose from a desperate attempt to follow the way by her prescribed.”

It was something entirely apart from every book in the world. It was the living Word of God and therefore could not be read like any other book. It was inspired by God, and when one read it, one must do so in such a way—with such closeness and intimacy—that one fully intended to feel and smell the breezes of heaven.

In fact, we are not sick and in need of healing. We are dead and in need of resurrecting. We are not dusty and in need of a good dusting; we are fatally befouled with death and fatally toxic filth and require total redemption. If we do not recognize that we need eternal life from the hand of God, we remain in our sins and are eternally dead. So because God respects us, he can reach us only if we are honest about our condition.

“So unser Herr Gott in diesem Leben in das Scheisshaus solche Edle gaben gegeben hat, was wird in jhenem ewigen Leben geschehen.”

According to this Reformation breakthrough, all the marmoreal and golden splendor of the Vatican was nothing more or less than a monument to mankind’s efforts to be as God—indeed was a monument to the very devil of hell. It was our attempt to be good without God, to impress God and be like him without his help. It was all far worse than excrement could ever be, for it pretended to be good and beautiful and true and holy, and in reality it was not just not these things but the very bitterest enemy of them.

It was but a declaration to other theologians, all of whom read Latin, and it meant to say that this was a very important subject worthy of debate.

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Luther wrote, “May both sides regret this argument begun by the devil.”

Once we embrace Christ, we are instantly made righteous because of his righteousness, and not because of anything we have done or could do. So our good works do not earn us God’s favor. That favor we already possess, even though we are sinners who sin and cannot help sinning. By turning to God in faith—as sinners who understand that we are sinners—and by crying out for God’s help, we do all we can by acknowledging our helplessness. At this point—in which our faith acknowledges the truth of our situation—we are instantly clothed with the righteousness of God. And it is now our gratitude to God for this free gift of his righteousness and salvation that makes us want to please him with our good works.

So all that is in this world—including our bodies and every corporeal activity, including our sexuality—far from being things that must be escaped or transcended through our pious efforts, are things to be fully accepted with our open arms, and then with God’s open arms they are fully redeemed. All things, rather than be lost forever or discarded away into despised oblivion, are joyously and in every aspect redeemed unto God’s eternal glory.

is vintage Luther that he says that praying over and over is in fact not only utterly useless but actually counterproductive because it demonstrates our lack of faith. By praying in that way, we are only proving that we don’t know to whom we are speaking and are insulting him. It is as though we were to bribe a kindhearted policeman who is already trying to help us, or as though we were to bribe our own dear parents. It would not help the situation but in fact bring them grief and horror to see that we do not know them at all and actually deeply distrust them. It would create distance between us where there had been none, except in our own minds.

Christian truth was eleven parts paradox out of ten. This was its essentially mysterious and glorious nature.

Like his namesake Martin Luther King Jr., Luther was not advocating doing nothing, but he was strongly advocating against violence as a Christian means of solving social injustices. Luther’s advice was to trust God and to trust him radically. His message was scriptural: if we do not take these things into our own hands, but cry out to the Savior, we will see how he fights on our behalf. But it is clear from history that people rarely have the kind of faith that believes this sufficiently to resist taking action.

What Luther had done was something else entirely. Far from saying there is only this material world, he said God originally created this material world as good and had suffused it with his presence, but in Eden we fell away from that union with God. Thus the split between the “material” and the “spiritual” is the wound at the heart of the universe, and only Jesus can heal it. Therefore let us now allow him to do so by inviting him into this world. He came to Bethlehem and died on Calvary, but we must invite him into our hearts and must accept him so that he can do in our lives what he came to do. When we do this, everything is restored. So whatever we do in our humble, daily lives—whether having sex with our spouses, or raising our children, or working at our jobs—we may now do unto God’s glory and may therefore redeem in him.

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