Romans 1:17 & 5:1-5

Mike Davies considers the impact of the life of Martin Luther

At one stage he wrote, "You ask me if I love God, I hate God." Because he saw God and he saw Christ as angry judges who would apply the measuring stick of the absolute Law of God to the life of Martin Luther and he knew he would come up wanting. He had a serious guilt complex.

On one occasion he was riding home on a horse and a fierce storm arose around him and a lightning bolt landed right next to him and he was thrown from his horse. It is said that he cries out in panic, "Help me St Ann. I will become a monk."

To his father's utter consternation Luther gave up law and joined the monastery to fulfil his vow to St Ann. This was in 1505.

Even after he joined the monastery he was still not getting relief from this relentless hounding of guilt which was overwhelming his soul.

In 1510 Luther is assigned, alongside another brother from the monastery, to be a delegate of that monastery in Germany to a convocation that was taking place in the city of Rome. These two men went all the way on their pilgrimage from Germany to Rome by foot.

When Luther was told that he had been chosen to make this pilgrimage to Rome he was elated. Because at this time, in the church, making sacred pilgrimages had great value in terms of penance and Luther could gain some merit for his soul by making this pilgrimage to the holy city of Rome.

Luther's experience on reaching Rome was similar to Paul's experience on reaching Athens. Paul stood at the gates of Athens and his soul was moved within him because he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

Luther arrived at Rome and he was shocked at the visible corruption of the clergy in the city. Sexual corruption, financial corruption, and he was appalled to see priests rushing through the Celebration of Mass at such speed just to get it done, rather than to worship God. He saw no sense of devotion to the things of God.

Part of his pilgrimage was to go to the sacred steps. The steps had allegedly been the steps that Jesus had walked for the judgement of Pontius Pilot. These steps had been moved from Jerusalem to Rome.

Thousands of pilgrims would travel to Rome and to these steps and say a prayer as they went up each step in turn. Luther went to the steps and said, like all of the others, a prayer on each step. He went all the way to the top and was hit with the thought that maybe this didn't work!

He said out loud, "Who knows if it is true." So, his visit to Rome only exacerbated his torment.

He returned to Germany. By the year 1515, Luther had received a doctorate in theology and was actively teaching. He had recently finished a series of teachings on the Book of Psalms and now it was his responsibility to lecture to the church on Paul's letter to the Romans.

In his preparation he read all the classic sources available to him. He read some of the works of the patron saint of his own order, St Augustine. As he was reading he stumbled across a passage where Augustine commented on the first chapter of Romans where Paul says, "Now the righteousness of God is revealed by faith. The just shall live by faith."

When he was reading this he assumed the righteousness was all about God. This is what Luther feared the most. Luther knew he was not righteous, but that God was righteous and he could not see the good news of the righteousness of God revealed to people who were not righteous.