Martin Luther experienced a revelation from the Holy Spirit about the grace of God that sent forth far reaching waves of reform, renewal, and revival, creating a ripple effect that would have great impact through the nations and history. In fact, the Reformation became the foundation for the revivals that followed in its wake.
From Law Student to Monk
Luther had originally been studying to become a lawyer. However, he had a near-death experience on the way to law school one day: He got caught in a thunderstorm and a bolt of lightning struck the ground right next to him knocking him down, and in terror he cried out to Saint Anne, the patron saint of the miners (as his father was a miner) vowing that he would become a monk if he survived.
Having survived the storm, he entered the monastery and became a Catholic monk seeking to find peace with God. However, he was soon bogged down and struggling with all the rituals imposed upon him within the Catholic structure. These rituals didn’t bring forth the peace with God he sought but rather served only to drive him further away from God,
He sought to earnestly follow the Catholic teaching that says: Each and every sin ever committed must be remembered and confessed to a priest in order to be forgiven. In obedience to these teachings, Luther would rack his memory and confess his sins hours and hours a day. After leaving the confessional, he would often remember something he’d done as a child and return for more confessing.
The leader of the monastery grew so tired of his coming so often to the confessional he finally blew up at him, “Why don’t you go out and commit some real sins and come back when you actually have something worth confessing.”
Seeking to find a way to distract him and redirect his attention, and frankly get him out of the monastery for being such a bother, the leader of the monastery decided to have Luther go and study the Bible at Wittenberg.
This, however, was not the norm for monks, priests, nor any of the clergy, except some of the highest Catholic theologians who were permitted to read the Bible and interpret it. In fact, the Catholic Church had forbidden common people from even possessing a Bible at the Synod of Toulouse in 1229. Furthermore, the Catholic Church only allowed the Bible to be in Latin—a long dead language even then that very few could understand.
As pointed out by David Daniell: The Bible might have well been in Chinese for all the good it did forcing it to be kept only in Latin. Very, very few could read Latin, and this included the vast majority of the clergy. Instead of the Scriptures the church substituted a book called “The Little Hours of Mary” promoting the cult of the Virgin and her worship.
Because Luther had studied law, he wouldn’t have to begin by learning Latin first. He was moved from Eisleben to Wittenberg, Germany and began to read the Bible and study Paul’s Epistles in the New Testament.
He subsequently began wrestling with Paul’s words about justification especially in the book of Romans. After some time wrestling and contemplating it, he finally had the light break forth and received revelation from the Holy Spirit as he gained understanding of Jesus’ full payment for sin on the cross.
He understood after a long period of struggle that Jesus had paid the price for our sin on the cross, and simply through faith in Christ we are justified and put right with God through His grace, the grace that comes through faith in Christ’s atonement.
Indeed, Paul communicates about: A Righteousness that comes from God and is by faith and through God’s grace we are justified. (Romans 1:16-17, 3:21-23)
Luther finally understood that all his sin was paid for “once for all” by Christ when he took our sins on the cross. Once one repents and receives Christ there is no need to remember each and every sin and confess it to a priest, just believe upon Jesus. Luther spoke of how he was born again when he finally understood this.
A Revelation That Reverberated
This rediscovery of this central truth of the New Testament and teaching of Jesus and the Apostles (John: 1:12, 3:16, 6:29, Romans 3:21, Ephesians 2:8-10) had far reaching implications and brought forth waves of renewal, reform, and revival, causing a ripple effect throughout the nations and history.
This revelation caused Luther to challenge some of the teachings and practices that the Catholic Church was engaging in, especially when indulgences began to be sold in his region—basically the selling of forgiveness to reduce time in purgatory—by a priest named Tetzel.
Luther drew up some Theses, his intention however was only to debate with some of the other theologians.
Before he knew it though he was in the middle of a conflagration, as unbeknownst to him some students had taken Luther’s Theses that he’d nailed to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg on October 31st 1517—which marks the beginning of the Reformation—and reprinted and distributed them widely. As they went out it caused a widespread “Ja wohl” by many who had grown tired of the errors and abuses in Catholicism.
This reverberation spread to where even the Pope down in Italy eventually got wind of it and reacted: “Who is this drunken German?! I’ll have this heretic burned at the stake within two weeks!” An onslaught of reaction by the powers that be sought to silence Luther who, having been touched in the heart by the grace of God, was of no mind to back down now.
The accusations against someone who would dare challenge the established religious system—especially against a system that was producing large amounts of money —flew fast and furious at Luther.
Didier Erasmus, a well-known reform-minded professor, jested that Luther’s “sin”was to dare touch the money-making system of the church and dare challenge the authority of the pope who saw himself as some type of king now.
As Luther was railed against, he actually grew bolder and spoke and wrote out more, which was touching many and causing him quite a following.
The religious system was not tolerant of any dissent and sought ways to silence him—as they had done to all those who had sought reform and a return to Biblical principles in the past—usually with a formal condemnation labeling them a heretic and then burning them at the stake.
Jan Hus had sought a similar return to Biblical teaching a century earlier and was condemned and burned at the stake for it. However, right before his death, he prophesied of another reformer being raised up in 100 years who they would not be able to burn: It was one hundred years later when Luther experienced his revelation of the grace of Jesus Christ while reading Romans, which set the Reformation in motion.
Attempts to Silence Luther
As Luther had already garnered a following, with some even in higher positions agreeing with him, there was a cautionary approach in dealing with him lest the public revolt.
Thus, a debate with one of their staunch theologians was proffered. Luther would debate Johan Eck, who the Catholic leaders thought would make quick work of Luther and then begin the process afterwards of condemning him as a notorious heretic.
However, Luther stood up to Eck in the debate and proved to be an equal match. Eck thus resorted to calling Luther a Wycliffite and a Hussite, two men who had earlier attempted to bring reform and a return to Biblical foundations and were condemned for it.
During a break in the debate, Luther went to the library to make a quick study of Hus and Wycliff and came back declaring: I am a Wycliffite and a Hussite for they were not wrong and were wrongly condemned. Quite the bold statement for someone who would not want to be condemned and burned himself.
By and large the debate backfired, and Luther only grew more renowned. He displayed a fluency in the Scriptures and a boldness that was clearly coming from on high; it wasn't his natural inclination.
In time Luther was called to answer before a Diet—a type of trial—in the city of Worms. Luther was called before a panel that included even the emperor himself, who was the most powerful person in the world at that time, to be examined regarding his teachings. Having been assured he would be able to discuss his views, he came willingly. Yet when he was called before the Diet, he was only given the option to recant all his teaching or face the consequences, which would mean being labeled a heretic and executed.
Luther was sweating profusely while being examined, but in the end refused to recant and took his stand saying: “My conscience is captive to the word of God, to go against conscience and the word is neither right nor safe, I cannot and will not recant anything. Here I stand, so help me God.” The room erupted, some with outrage, others cheering Luther on with bravos, as he walked out. Some of those on the panel dropped out and refused to condemn Luther, saying he was only returning to the Bible. However, a rump of the panel decided to condemn him and have him arrested the next day.
During the night however, divine intervention took place and the peasants’ Bundschuh was placarded on the building. This was the sign of the Peasants’ Revolt and signaled that if Luther was arrested there would be riots by the peasants throughout the region. The Diet was thrown into a panic and decided it would be better to arrest him quietly after he returned home. He'd surely never make it home, however, since Catholic fanatics—keepers of the Inquisition—would be waiting to assassinate him on the way.
Divine Intervention Again
The Elector Prince of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, had been persuaded Luther was doing nothing wrong and was only seeking to return to the church's original Biblical foundations. Frederick set up a ruse and had his knights secretly kidnap Luther as soon as he began his journey back. They surrounded him and with much screaming, yelling, and cussing, made a big show of grabbing him while secretly whisking him away, having riders all take off in different directions, as he was snuck off to be hidden at an old, abandoned castle in Eisenach called the Wartburg.
For nearly a year Luther was hidden away at the Wartburg, where while stuck hiding out, he worked on a translation of the New Testament into the common German tongue. Luther’s German Translation of the Bible became one of the biggest boons and blessings spreading the Gospel and the Reformation throughout Germany and into other nations.
The word had spread about how Luther had taken a stance for the truth at the Diet of Worms, and he had become a hero to many Germans as time had passed and he was only more popular. There was no chance now of being able to apprehend him without widespread uprisings after this. This one they were not able to burn, fulfilling Jan Hus’s prophecy he had made as he was about to be executed for trying to bring about reform as well a hundred years earlier.
The Reformation Spreads to England
One of the places to eventually get impacted, amongst many others, was England and the British Isles.
Luther’s teaching began to cross the channel from Germany into England and began to be regularly discussed and debated, especially at the University in Cambridge.
The White Horse Inn, a pub on campus, became a central location for discussions about the teachings of the New Testament and about Christ’s payment for sin being received by faith versus the Catholic Church’s teachings on rituals, masses, holy water, confession, the papacy, etc.
Amongst some of the early adopters of a return to the roots of New Testament Christianity influenced by Luther were Thomas Cramner, who would become a reforming Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as William Tyndale.
Tyndale transferred from Oxford to Cambridge because Oxford was resistant to reform and held a prohibition against the Bible being translated into the English language—this became a stain on Oxford’s historical legacy—standing against one of the greatest contributions to the English language and culture in history.
Tyndale had in mind to do just that and translate the Bible into common English. He was a Catholic priest who had also a l experienced a personal conversion to Christ like Luther. He’d also come to understand that it was faith in Christ alone through His grace that salvation is received. Tyndale knew that if people could read the New Testament for themselves, they could see that simple faith in Christ alone is all that was necessary for salvation.
Tyndale writes: “Repent and Believe the gospel...and begin life anew! And his Spirit shall dwell in thee and be strong in thee and his promises shall be given thee at the last…and all things forgiven for Christ’s blood’s sake…Commit yourself to Him without respect either of thy good deeds or thy bad, repentance and belief is all! Works count for nothing in Christ’s blood!”
He thus saw the need for the Bible to be made accessible to the common person. This required it to be translated into the English language. The Catholic Church opposed translations into vernacular languages and only allowed the Bible to be in Latin—a language that had been long dead even then. Against persecution, oppression, and misunderstanding, Tyndale set out to make a translation from the original Greek into English. Erasmus had recently assembled and published the original Greek version of the New Testament into a whole manuscript, making it available and taking the control out of the hands of the Catholic Church.
Tyndale, like Luther, used Erasmus’s Greek manuscript to begin translating the New Testament into English. Soon persecution ramped up and he eventually left England and met with Luther in Germany. Luther’s German translation was another blessing and helped Tyndale finish his New Testament translation. Tyndale printed the first editions of his New Testament in Germany, at Cologne, and had them smuggled as pocket Bibles into England. They were popular amongst the people but opposed by the Catholic clergy and his Bibles were even rounded up and burned by the Bishop in London.
Tyndale’s Bible and the Spread of the Gospel
The Bible being accessible eventually spread movements of faith and reform through the land and eventually gave rise to further spread of the Gospel and the rise of renewal and revival movements.
Amongst them were the Puritans in England which, according to historian Sydney Alhstrom were a revival movement that sought a return to the Christianity found in the New Testament. They also taught that believers need to experience Christ in their lives and should receive His grace in their hearts, as head knowledge by itself alone is insufficient.
They were increasingly marginalized in England. A group of Separatist Puritans eventually left seeking freedom to worship as they desired. Sailing across the sea on the Mayflower and arrived on the shores of America in 1620. They started the first colony that would sustain and last and grow into a continued movement of Puritans coming across the sea, in the process creating the early Christian fabric of America.
That first colony that landed in Plymouth was dedicated to the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. In time, many revivals that were connected to that still-reverberating revelation from Luther and the Reformation, would be spawned in the New World. Though there may be some differences in theology and ideas with different individual groups over time, that core remained the same: It is by grace you are saved through faith, it is the gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. And God freely gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask and believe and will fill to overflowing those who call upon him.
Some of the Movements and Revivals that followed in the wake of the Reformation:
- The Great Awakening: https://youtu.be/QcV3_H1DM9M
- William Tyndale: https://youtu.be/ZEAl5iOyY6c
- The Pilgrims: https://youtu.be/xRM3-jqexe0
- George Whitfield and the 18th century revivals: https://youtu.be/sq1B2qNX-Ks
- John Wesley and the Methodist revivals: Wesley was converted during a reading of Luther’s Preface to his Commentary on Romans: https://youtu.be/Hh4m6oSKvyM
- The Finney Revivals: https://on.soundcloud.com/HEgZi
- The Cane Ridge Revivals
And even into modern times :
- Harald Bredesen and the Charismatic renewal: A Lutheran who becomes Spirit-filled and shares his experience with other Lutherans and other mainline denominational believers: https://youtu.be/K7Xciiw2ebI
- Lonnie Frisbee and the Jesus people Revival: It was a Reformational type of return to the priesthood of all believers and the simplicity of the New Testament and God's grace to save whosoever calls upon him, even Hippies (!) that brought forth one of the biggest modern revivals: https://youtu.be/0OgfmU13sPI
