Martin Luther grew concerned about the selling of indulgences and the message it sent to people who sought forgiveness for their sins. Today, R.C. Sproul shows how Luther’s response unintentionally sparked the flames of the Reformation. Get the book The Legacy of Luther, plus lifetime digital access to R.C. Sproul’s teaching series Justified by Faith Alone and the accompanying digital style guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3657/donate Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
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Carl Barth reflecting on it said Luther had no intention of making this a big public issue. He was going to discuss it simply with his colleagues.
But the metaphor that Barth used was he said that it was like a blind man who was climbing up the stairs in a bell tower and he lost his balance and he reached out in the dark and grabbed a hold of the first thing he could hold on and it was the rope for the church bell. All of a sudden, the church bell started ringing and waking everybody in town. And that was the result of the theses.
Whether or not Martin Luther intended his posting of the 95 Theses to be a big public issue, God did, and he used this moment to fuel reformation and the rediscovery of the gospel. This is the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and it's great to have you with us.
Between now and October 31st, the day that Luther posted those 95 theses, we are spending time considering Luther, his life, what led to his bold stand for truth, and the great truths of the Reformation that we mustn't forget. Yesterday, R.C. Sproul recounted a number of crises in the life of Luther, but left the story before we got to Wittenberg, Germany, and the nailing of those theses.
Here's Dr. Sproul to continue.
Well, we've looked at the crises that Martin Luther had, as I said, in a cyclical manner every five years, 1505, 1510. We're going to look this morning at 1515. I'm not going to get into 1520, which was the year he was excommunicated by the papal bull, ex-Sergei Domino, or his great crisis in 1515. 25 when he was engaged to Catherine von Bora, but that's another story for another time.
But I think the supreme crisis for Luther that shaped his entire life and really was a provocative motivation for the entire Reformation, which was what he experienced in 1515. In 1507, we remember he was ordained at Erfurt as a priest. In 1510, he went to Rome. But in the whole time that he was there at Erfurt, he was studying theology and biblical studies for his doctor's degree.
In 1510, Frederick, a lecturer of Saxony, started a brand new university at Wittenberg. and he was trying to amass in its initial stages an outstanding faculty. And so he got Luther on loan for a couple of years of lectures from Erfurt, and he also brought in Philip Melanchthon as part of that faculty, and Karl Stott, and Jones and a few others.
But in any case, Luther lectured for two years, then went back to Erfurt. He came back again to Wittenberg and lectured for quite a long time on the Psalms. And when he completed that work, he then began his lectures on Romans and Now, I'm using the year 1515. There's all kinds of debates about that. Some people say it was as early as 1512. Some say as late as 1519.
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