The Message That Changed The World
“Love God? Sometimes I hate Him!” Startling words. Honest words. Words that instinctively compel you to create distance between yourself and the one who uttered them for fear of being collateral damage if fire fell from heaven.
These religiously embarrassing words erupted from the heart of one who is universally recognized to have had one of the greatest impacts on the Western church and the world. His name is Martin Luther. Luther uttered these jarring words as a monk and theological professor in the service of God and the Church.
It was shortly after this moment, what was certainly an Alka-Seltzer for his fellow monks and wide-eyed students, that Luther discovered the message that forever changed his life; a message that shakes the church and the world to this very day. The re-discovery of this Divinely empowered message amidst a very religious and yet spiritually dark age led to the greatest gracious work of God in all post-resurrection history outside of Pentecost. What is this message?
The Question That Refuses to Be Suppressed
It is impossible to escape breathing the cultural air around you. So take that into consideration when you hear that the most crucial question for Luther was, “If God is Holy and man is sinful, what hope is there for man?”
According to the Bible this ancient question finds its origins in the moment after the serpent slithered out of the garden, smiling as he left behind a man and a woman devastated by corruption and a creation flipped upside-down as a result. I know, I know this ancient question is not “culturally relevant” like How do you raise your low self-esteem?, 10 Steps to a Victorious Christian Life, Seeking Coffee Shop Spirituality, God’s purpose and plan for your wonderful life, or Implementing the New Perspective on Paul into Your Church. However, this pesky question has refused to be silenced in every generation since Adam against all cultural, academic, or churchy distractions.
Does Your Message Have Good News In It?
As out of touch with today’s issues as it is and as unhelpful for those of us still seeking “spiritual success”, the ancient question drove Luther to despair and eventually to discover the good news message that unleashed what he called “the clearest light of heaven.” Before we look at this life-changing, world-shaking message of good news, let’s remember what good news cannot mean.
For someone deeply wrestling with the question, “If God is Holy and man is sinful, what hope is there for man?” good news cannot mean “pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps.” The key phrase that turns a message like “pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps” into “bad news” is “man is sinful.” Therefore it is never good news to rely on your own goodness or righteousness to be right with God, even if it is footnoted with Divine assistance.
The more common messages today that pass for good news are: Open the door of your heart to Jesus, surrender your life to Jesus, make a decision for Jesus, accept Jesus as your Savior, or make Jesus Lord of your life. The confusion with these messages is that they sound like good news, don’t they? The problem with these messages is that they are mostly about your responding to Jesus rather than what Jesus has done for you.
The good news in the Bible is not about what I do with Jesus or what I do for Jesus, but rather what Jesus has done for me. Period. None of my work creeping in anywhere, only Jesus doing, dying, rising, and reigning for me.
The Good News Message That Changed The World is Justification
The message the changed Luther’s life is a biblical concept called justification. What!? What is justification? When Luther was preparing to teach Romans 1 for his theology students, he was in the depths of despair, trying to live righteously enough to find God’s assurance, acceptance, and eternal life. He despaired for he reasoned that if he saw that even his best efforts were saturated with self and sin, then what does God see? “Love God? Sometimes I hate Him!”
Then he ran into verse 17 of Romans 1 during his lesson plan for the week: “For in it (i.e. the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed …” Luther’s reaction was instantaneous. “What? The righteousness of God is revealed? The righteousness of God is revealed not in me but in the gospel?” And he saw the answer like “the clearest light of heaven.” Yes it is.
This is justification: God provides in Jesus what no one is able to provide for himself or herself – perfect righteousness. The Bible tells us that there is no salvation without it. No Divine assurance, no acceptance, no eternal life without it.
If the good news of justification was a two-sided coin then the tails side of the coin would be “Debt Paid” and the heads side of the coin would be “Credit Given.” “Debt Paid” is Jesus’ death paying the debt of sin, the holy and just wrath and curse of God. “Credit given” is Jesus’ life of perfect righteousness credited to those who have no righteousness in themselves.
On a more tactical level justification means Jesus died on the cross for those who do not love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, neither do they love their neighbor as themselves; that is the debt paid. Jesus loved God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength and his neighbor as himself twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year for some thirty-three years. This is credit given for he accomplishes this on behalf of those who did not and do not do it themselves.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5.21).
Wherever this message of justification is re-discovered, heaven is unleashed, the ungodly are justified, and struggling Christians arise from the ashes of working for God’s love. Wherever justification is recovered, Christians are renewed with life and freedom, lives change in the context of Biblical community, and churches fill-up with unshockable people ready to minister to others and lead them to Christ. Wherever justification is re-discovered, the world is changed and God gets the glory.
These religiously embarrassing words erupted from the heart of one who is universally recognized to have had one of the greatest impacts on the Western church and the world. His name is Martin Luther. Luther uttered these jarring words as a monk and theological professor in the service of God and the Church.
It was shortly after this moment, what was certainly an Alka-Seltzer for his fellow monks and wide-eyed students, that Luther discovered the message that forever changed his life; a message that shakes the church and the world to this very day. The re-discovery of this Divinely empowered message amidst a very religious and yet spiritually dark age led to the greatest gracious work of God in all post-resurrection history outside of Pentecost. What is this message?
The Question That Refuses to Be Suppressed
It is impossible to escape breathing the cultural air around you. So take that into consideration when you hear that the most crucial question for Luther was, “If God is Holy and man is sinful, what hope is there for man?”
According to the Bible this ancient question finds its origins in the moment after the serpent slithered out of the garden, smiling as he left behind a man and a woman devastated by corruption and a creation flipped upside-down as a result. I know, I know this ancient question is not “culturally relevant” like How do you raise your low self-esteem?, 10 Steps to a Victorious Christian Life, Seeking Coffee Shop Spirituality, God’s purpose and plan for your wonderful life, or Implementing the New Perspective on Paul into Your Church. However, this pesky question has refused to be silenced in every generation since Adam against all cultural, academic, or churchy distractions.
Does Your Message Have Good News In It?
As out of touch with today’s issues as it is and as unhelpful for those of us still seeking “spiritual success”, the ancient question drove Luther to despair and eventually to discover the good news message that unleashed what he called “the clearest light of heaven.” Before we look at this life-changing, world-shaking message of good news, let’s remember what good news cannot mean.
For someone deeply wrestling with the question, “If God is Holy and man is sinful, what hope is there for man?” good news cannot mean “pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps.” The key phrase that turns a message like “pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps” into “bad news” is “man is sinful.” Therefore it is never good news to rely on your own goodness or righteousness to be right with God, even if it is footnoted with Divine assistance.
The more common messages today that pass for good news are: Open the door of your heart to Jesus, surrender your life to Jesus, make a decision for Jesus, accept Jesus as your Savior, or make Jesus Lord of your life. The confusion with these messages is that they sound like good news, don’t they? The problem with these messages is that they are mostly about your responding to Jesus rather than what Jesus has done for you.
The good news in the Bible is not about what I do with Jesus or what I do for Jesus, but rather what Jesus has done for me. Period. None of my work creeping in anywhere, only Jesus doing, dying, rising, and reigning for me.
The Good News Message That Changed The World is Justification
The message the changed Luther’s life is a biblical concept called justification. What!? What is justification? When Luther was preparing to teach Romans 1 for his theology students, he was in the depths of despair, trying to live righteously enough to find God’s assurance, acceptance, and eternal life. He despaired for he reasoned that if he saw that even his best efforts were saturated with self and sin, then what does God see? “Love God? Sometimes I hate Him!”
Then he ran into verse 17 of Romans 1 during his lesson plan for the week: “For in it (i.e. the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed …” Luther’s reaction was instantaneous. “What? The righteousness of God is revealed? The righteousness of God is revealed not in me but in the gospel?” And he saw the answer like “the clearest light of heaven.” Yes it is.
This is justification: God provides in Jesus what no one is able to provide for himself or herself – perfect righteousness. The Bible tells us that there is no salvation without it. No Divine assurance, no acceptance, no eternal life without it.
If the good news of justification was a two-sided coin then the tails side of the coin would be “Debt Paid” and the heads side of the coin would be “Credit Given.” “Debt Paid” is Jesus’ death paying the debt of sin, the holy and just wrath and curse of God. “Credit given” is Jesus’ life of perfect righteousness credited to those who have no righteousness in themselves.
On a more tactical level justification means Jesus died on the cross for those who do not love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, neither do they love their neighbor as themselves; that is the debt paid. Jesus loved God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength and his neighbor as himself twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year for some thirty-three years. This is credit given for he accomplishes this on behalf of those who did not and do not do it themselves.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5.21).
Wherever this message of justification is re-discovered, heaven is unleashed, the ungodly are justified, and struggling Christians arise from the ashes of working for God’s love. Wherever justification is recovered, Christians are renewed with life and freedom, lives change in the context of Biblical community, and churches fill-up with unshockable people ready to minister to others and lead them to Christ. Wherever justification is re-discovered, the world is changed and God gets the glory.
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