Throughout history God has been pleased to use men and women to preserve and communicate His Word. One such man was Martin Luther. Luther was training to be a lawyer when he found himself one day in the midst of a lightening storm. Terrified he was going to die Luther cried out, "St. Anne, help me! I will become a monk."

The storm passed and Luther survived the moment. But he remembered his vow and forsook law to enter the Augustinian monastery. In the years ahead Luther would witness many abuses within the Roman Catholic Church which disturbed his soul to the point that he took pen in hand and challenged others to a debate on such issues as the true meaning of repentance, the place of penance, indulgences, purgatory and papal authority.

Little did he know that when he nailed his document containing 95 Theses for discussion on the castle door of Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517 he was about to strike a spark that would set the world on fire. But there was no turning back.

Luther would cry out forever against religious charlatans such as Friar John Tetzel who was selling indulgences on behalf of the pope. Changing his message from town to town according to the wealth of the citizens, Tetzel promised people they could do a very good deed by contributing the building of what would become St. Peter's basilica in Rome. Moreover, they could help to get people out of purgatory for, "When ever a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs!" Luther was outraged.

If the pope had so much authority over purgatory, said Luther, why doesn't he just open the door and let everyone out? Moreover, man was not to do penance as the Latin vulgate had translated the word's of Christ, but rather, as Erasmus' Greek New Testament had shown, Jesus called for a change of heart and mind.

Luther did not appreciate the concept of cheap grace in part because he had once struggled long and hard to understand the nature of God's redeeming mercy. Luther had performed many acts of penance until the Holy Spirit revealed to him the true nature of conversion.

As a young monk who had taken seriously his vows and the matter of salvation Luther had struggled with how to please God and find favor in His sight. Luther thought that he had to earn or deserve the merit's of Christ. But how? He would work very hard to please the Father. With that goal in mind Luther began the quest to secure his soul's salvation by good deeds and mortification of the flesh.

Luther would flagellate himself until his skin was raw. He would sleep on the floor in his cell with out a blanket until he was chilled to the bone. He would spend hours confessing sins--both known and those committed in ignorance.

The earliest woodcuts of Luther show his face emaciated, his cheeks hollow, his eyes sunken. He was a scrupulous monk. "If ever a monk could have gotten to heaven by his monkery, it was I" Luther was later to recall. And yet for all of this and more, Luther found no peace with God. Luther was always asking himself, "Am I cold enough? Am I hungry enough? Have I confessed enough? How much is enough to please God?

He did not know and would have to learn more. "I did not learn my theology all at once," he said. "I had to follow where my temptations led me. It is not by reading or writing or speculating that one becomes a theologian. It is rather living, dying and being damned that makes one a theologian. "

In time, Luther would become a theologian as he poured over the Scriptures while engaging in personal and pastoral studies. One day he came to Psalm 22: 1 and read the words, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Luther knew that these were the words which Jesus cried from the Cross. Luther wondered how the Father could forsake His Son and how the Son could feel what he himself had felt, abandoned and forsaken by God. Luther then came to Romans 1 where the apostle Paul quotes the words of the ancient prophet Habakkuk in verse 17: "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

Suddenly, the Holy Spirit illuminated the heart of Luther concerning "the righteousness of God. " The "righteousness of God" was not the basis upon which God condemned the world and punishes the unrighteous, as Luther has always understood that verse. The "righteousness of God" was the basis on which God justified those who lived by faith, because of Christ, apart from good works and self earned merit! "I felt as if the gates of paradise had opened and I had entered in. " wrote Luther "It was as if I had gone from the darkest midnight into the midday sun. I felt as if I had been born again. "

The Reformation was born out of Luther's insight into the graciousness of God. He believed that all people should be able to take the Word of God into their own hands and read it with their own eyes. The man at his plough, the woman at her well, as well as the scholars in the university should have access to the Bible.

With that in mind Luther offered to the German people a translation of the Bible in their own language. Luther had great respect for the writings of the Church council's but he believed the Bible was God's word and should be the final authority of life and practice. "The Bible is God's word clad in human words" he taught. "Just as Christ, the eternal word is incarnate in the garments of His humanity. Christ lies in the crib of the Scriptures, wrapped in swaddling clothes."

Alongside of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone a second principle of the Reformation takes its place, the ultimate authority of the Bible alone. Unfortunately the Catholic Church did not agree with these foundational principles. On 18 April 1521 Luther was brought before the Emperor Charles V to renounce his teachings. This was his reply:

"Since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason-I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for the have contradicted each other--my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right not safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen. "

From that time on there was no hope that the division in the church would be healed. Soon the cry for Reformation was being heard all over Europe.