“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Martin Luther knew how to get right at the heart of the matter. When the common folks purchased indulgences, he understood that they believed they were actually buying the forgiveness of sins. Luther could see that the people, in effect, were relying on pieces of paper rather than on Christ for their hope of heaven. When the people were taught to make intercession to God through the Virgin Mary, he understood that they were looking to Mary, and, again, not Christ, for grace. When monks and others were sent on pilgrimages to view relics or some such thing, he could see that the people were being taught to trust in their own merits for salvation, and, again, Christ was left completely out of the picture. Luther knew how to expose all of these things for what they were, namely, Satan using the antichrist church of Rome to lead simple people into a false security regarding their souls’ salvation.
We still need faithful preachers to help us clearly see the heart of the matter. We may not be tempted to think that buying an indulgence will get us closer to God. Yet we may be tempted to self-righteously believe that we are nothing like our blatantly immoral next-door neighbor. Or we may be tempted to think that the generous support we give to our church somehow makes up for our many sins. Even things like our prayers, our personal Bible reading, and our faithful church attendance can become props we begin to trust in for spiritual security. The point is that our sinful hearts can easily deceive us into believing that we can somehow make ourselves right with God. Martin Luther once wrote: “The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands.” The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9)
The heart of the matter is that by nature we are sinful through and through, deserving nothing from God but eternal punishment in hell. An honest evaluation of our hearts and lives reveals sins of idolatry, pride, hate, lust, greed, deceit–and the list goes on.
There is only one reason why we are accepted by God, and that is on account of the sinless life and substitutionary death of His Son, Jesus Christ. At the heart of all Scripture is the blessed truth that Christ gave His life a ransom for all, and that, as the sacrificial Lamb of God, He has taken away the sin of the entire world. The red heart in Luther’s coat of arms is a vivid reminder that Jesus’ crimson blood has washed us clean of all sin, so that God, for Christ’s sake, now sees us as righteous and pure. Salvation is God’s doing entirely, and not in any way man’s doing. Martin Luther did not write the hymn, but he would have agreed with the one who did: “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling . . . . Thou must save and Thou alone.”
Thank God for pastors like Martin Luther who, from Scripture, make clear to us that there is nothing we sinners can do to save ourselves from death and hell. Even more, thank Him for pastors who, in their preaching and counseling, point us to the loving heart of our Savior God, Whose redeeming love covers the multitude of our sins. In Luther’s time, and in our time, the heart of the matter is that “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
is pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Saginaw, Michigan, and president of the Church of the Lutheran Confession.
