WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:28.219
 So why study church history? First reason to fight against chronological snobbery. Has anybody heard of that phrase before? Yeah, do you know what that means? Kind of thinking that current, we're the smartest word of our band, I guess. Yes, exactly. Yeah. C.S. Lewis, I think he's like the one who popularized this term in an essay, which he basically says it's snobbery on our part to think that our new ideas are automatically better than the old ones.

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 Just again, because we're modern and we're new, we're fresh. But he argues persuasively that really every age has its own blind spots. Right. So we're no different. Every age, every generation has their particular strengths, particular weaknesses.

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 And so how do we cover our own blind spots? How do we cover our own weaknesses is to read dead people. Right. Read old stuff because they're going to see things from a different perspective than we are. Right. Some of it's good and some of it's bad.

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 And we're going to see that very clearly in the lives of these men. Some of what they taught is very, very good. And we're going to hold on to those truths.

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 There are some things that they taught are very, very bad, too. Right. Some handouts right there.

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 But again, the main thing is that it's different. So because it's different, it helps.

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 It challenges us to see things from a fresh perspective. So if you're not reading dead people right now and you're just reading alive people, I encourage you to to change up your diet of what you're reading.

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 Read some old people, old stuff. It's going to help you.

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 Secondly, is to benefit from the wisdom of those who came before us.

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 There's hardly anything new under the sun. Right.

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 There are some handouts. I think you guys might have missed that.

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 There's hardly anything new. Right.

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 If there seems to be a new theological problem or issue at the hand, I can almost guarantee you that there has been someone who's already talked about this, addressed this.

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 A brilliant mind that God has used in the course of church history to address this issue already.

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 So church history, studying it helps us to avoid reinventing the wheel. Right.

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 So there's a rich resource in tapping into all these old people and what they've taught.

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 So let's study that. I already talked about this with a few of you guys before.

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 But number three, theological development doesn't happen in a vacuum.

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 I think reading doctrine or studying theology without studying church history is kind of like reading, you know, a summary, the conclusion of a major debate.

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 You just read what they concluded without actually like listening to the debate itself.

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 You don't really get to understand the context, why they debate what they're doing. Right.

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 So we're going to see many doctrines.

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 They're clarified in response to specific challenges, controversies, cultural pressures and pastoral concerns.

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 It's very contextual.

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 So we have to understand why they came to the doctrine that they did.

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 Number four, it's your history, too.

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 We're naturally really interested in hearing about the lives of our parents, our grandparents, great grandparents.

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 We want to hear about their lives, what they did, how they lived.

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 Particularly, again, if you are a Protestant, right, this is your history.

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 The Reformation is your history.

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 This is your heritage. Right.

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 So whether you know it or not, you stand on the shoulders of these men.

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 And number five, honestly, I think church history is really interesting.

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 And I think it's really encouraging, too.

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 The stories that you get to read in church history, they're not only engaging, but they remind you that God really is sovereign over all and every single age.

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 Hebrews 12, 2 says, consider that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.

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 I think that's probably mostly pertaining to the Old Testament saints.

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 But I think we can apply that, too, to see the lives of great men and women throughout every single age of church history.

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 To see their faithfulness and to model our lives after the way that they lived, too.

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 So those are five different reasons I just want to briefly cover.

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 I think we don't usually talk about church history, especially at Trinity.

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 But I think it's something that we should all be eager to study.

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 Let's talk about Martin Luther then today.

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 So Luther, he was born to an upper middle class in Eisenberg in Germany in 1483 to a Hans and Margaret Luther.

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 Fun fact, his name is actually not Martin Luther, but Martin Luder.

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 But around in 1517, he changed his name to Martin Luther, adopting the Latinized form because that's what they did in the academic setting.

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 Same with John Calvin, actually.

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 His name is actually John Coven originally, but he changed it to John Calvin.

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 Martin's dad, Hans, he was a very hardworking copper miner.

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 And he worked his way up into owning several mines.

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 And he basically became semi-wealthy.

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 Handouts for you guys.

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 And he really was one of the few people that worked by his sheer grit to come out of peasantry.

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 And he therefore had a lot of aspirations, big aspirations for young Martin.

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 So Martin was sent to good schools with the money that he made.

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 And Martin actually ended up getting his bachelor's degree in one year.

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 And I think, of course, the school system was different back then.

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 But I think it goes to show how brilliant they knew how brilliant Martin Luther was at a young age.

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 And Hans, he desired Luther to study law, become a lawyer, so that he can come back and help with the family business.

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 And as a doodleful son, Martin completely was on board with that.

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 He wanted to go and study law.

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 But then comes a critical moment, a transformative moment in his life.

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 In 1505, Martin was walking back from school, as he always did.

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 But then he got caught in a major thunderstorm.

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 That thunderstorm was so bad that he was terrified he was going to die.

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 He was going to get struck by lightning or something.

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 And so in the midst of the storm, he prays to Saint Anne.

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 I think she's like the saint of the peasants or miners or something like that.

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 He prays to Saint Anne, reminding us he's still a very good Catholic.

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 He's still part of the Catholic Church at this point.

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 And he makes this vow to her.

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 If you help me survive this storm, I will become a monk.

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 I'll become a monk.

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 And, of course, we know Luther survives.

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 And as one who has a very tender conscience, he feels the obligation to then go and obey.

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 So he gives up his career law and goes and becomes a monk.

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 And this is very, very disappointing to Hans, right?

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 His father, he expected big things out of him to come and help with the family business.

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 And he actually thought that Martin was being very, very selfish in doing all this,

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 to abandon the family and go and be a monk.

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 But nonetheless, Martin goes and he becomes particularly an Augustinian monk,

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 which was the toughest and most extreme kind of monks out there.

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 It was the toughest and strictest monasteries, right?

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 But even though it was very, very strict, Martin himself, he takes it to the next level.

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 So he goes above and beyond what all the other monks are doing in his monastery.

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 They didn't ask him to sleep on a stone ground, but that's what he did.

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 They didn't ask him to pray all night, but he did that often.

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 They didn't ask him to beat his own body, but he'd do that.

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 He'd do this because he was very, very concerned about his own sin, right?

00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:10.839
 He felt guilty before God essentially all the time.

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 He had a very, very tender conscience.

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 I mentioned in a sermon in the past that he basically drove his confessor near insane, right?

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 In the Roman Catholic Church, you'd have one assigned father monk

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 to whom you would have to confess all of your sins.

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 And his confessor, Martin Luther's confessor, was a man called Johann von Staupitz.

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 To Staupitz, Luther would visit and confess his sins up to five or six hours a day.

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 Five to six hours a day.

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 The most minute, minuscule sins that you could possibly think of, he would come up and then

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 he'd confess it.

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 Then he'd finish and then he would be on his way back to his dorm and then suddenly think,

00:08:55.819 --> 00:08:59.860
 oh shoot, I forgot about, I got mad at this guy for using my spoon and, you know, I have

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 to confess this thing.

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 So he goes and then confesses more.

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 Can you imagine that for more than half of your workday, you have to listen to this guy

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 just go on and on and on about all the sins that he can come up with, right?

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 God bless the patience of that man.

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 That's why Staupitz, he actually had enough and said, brother Martin, why don't you go to

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 town and really commit a sin, some deep sin, and then come back and confess that, right?

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 Which is understandable, but terrible pastoral counsel.

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 But he later gave great counsel, so great that Luther said that without von Staupitz, there

00:09:39.319 --> 00:09:40.759
 would be no reformation.

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 And that simple counsel was to stop looking at yourself.

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 Stop looking at yourself and look to Christ.

00:09:50.740 --> 00:09:53.879
 Why was Luther so intense about his faith?

00:09:53.879 --> 00:10:01.000
 Well, back then, the late medieval theology of the time was called nominalism or via Moderna.

00:10:01.179 --> 00:10:04.919
 We think of nominalism today as someone who's really like chill about their faith, doesn't

00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:05.860
 really try that hard.

00:10:06.299 --> 00:10:08.259
 But it had a different meaning back then, right?

00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:15.480
 In simple terms, to be saved, to receive the grace of God, all you had to do was do your

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 best.

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 Just do your best and God will show you grace.

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 But it's actually a really tough question.

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 What is my best then?

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 If my salvation is dependent on doing my best, then couldn't you have prayed a little bit

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 longer?

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 Couldn't you have read your Bible a little longer, a little bit more?

00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:39.940
 Couldn't you have fasted a little bit more, right?

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 That line is so nebulous.

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 What is your best, really?

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 And Luther was so intense about his faith because he's actually really the only one that brought

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 nominalism to its logical conclusion, I think, right?

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 He saw that I really have to do my best.

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 And so he would comment on his life later.

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 If anyone could be saved by his monkery, that's me.

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 I was that monk.

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 That's how hard he tried to kill his sin, to beat his body into submission so that he could

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 live a righteous life and do his best before God.

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 So how did he break out of that?

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 I think simply put, it was studying scripture.

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 Reading scripture alone is what transforms Luther.

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 While he's a professor at Wittenberg, he studies Romans 1, particularly verses 16 and 17, which

00:11:35.500 --> 00:11:38.980
 we heard about, heard a sermon by Paul Buckley not too long ago.

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 And Luther, again, would comment that studying these two verses, just these two verses, would

00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:48.960
 transform his life, his perspective completely.

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 If you have your Bibles, you could open up, open up on your phones.

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 I'll just read it for us, Romans 1, 16, 17.

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 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone

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 who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

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 For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.

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 As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

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 The Roman Catholic reading of that time of these verses is that the righteousness of God

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 was a retributive righteousness.

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 It was that it's, that this righteousness was a perfect standard that no sinner could ever

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 achieve possibly on their own.

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 So essentially, it's a, it's a punishing, punitive righteousness.

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 When you read that and see the righteousness of God, you should feel, man, I fall so short.

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 There are some handouts right there for you guys.

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 I fall so short of the righteousness of God.

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 But if you read it closely, it really doesn't fit the context very well.

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 Because verse 16, he's talking about it's the power of God to save.

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 It's the power of God to save everyone who believes, right?

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 So Luther, he agonizes over these verses.

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 He reads them over and over and over again until he finally understands momentously that

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 this is not just the perfect standard, the perfect righteousness of God, but this is an

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 alien righteousness.

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 This is the righteousness that's then imputed to us by Christ if we have faith, if we live

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 by faith, right?

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 We receive that righteousness if we, we live by faith.

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 So this is the moment that I think really sparks.

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 It's, it catalyzes the rest of Luther's story.

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 And I'm going to talk more about justification by faith alone a little bit later.

00:13:37.539 --> 00:13:45.879
 In the meantime, another theological idea is brewing elsewhere that I think would be, again,

00:13:45.939 --> 00:13:48.519
 the powder keg that sparks the Reformation.

00:13:49.379 --> 00:13:56.719
 A man named Albert of Brandenburg, he wants to become the Archbishop of Mainz, which is the

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 highest position in the Catholic Church in the nation of Germany.

00:14:00.740 --> 00:14:05.279
 But Albert, he was, number one, too young.

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 And number two, he actually already held a bishopric.

00:14:08.820 --> 00:14:10.440
 He was already bishop of another place.

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 So you're not allowed to have two bishops back then, according to their, their policy.

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 So the only path to get to this coveted position of Archbishop of Mainz was to bribe.

00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:29.080
 He was to bribe the Pope with a lot of money.

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 So Albert goes, he actually borrows a ton of money from a rich family he has connections

00:14:35.660 --> 00:14:37.180
 with, but that's not enough.

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 And so the Pope, who's all too willing to receive this money, right, he says to Albert,

00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:47.560
 okay, for the rest of this money, you can sell indulgences.

00:14:48.180 --> 00:14:50.660
 Does, do you guys know what indulgences were back then, right?

00:14:51.660 --> 00:14:52.700
 What are indulgences?

00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:53.720
 Can anyone answer that?

00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:54.560
 Yeah.

00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:55.000
 Yeah.

00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.379
 It's like, if there, if you have, um, some members that have got in there for Purgatory,

00:14:59.579 --> 00:15:01.359
 you can pay money to get them out of Purgatory.

00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:01.839
 Yeah.

00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:02.519
 Exactly.

00:15:02.759 --> 00:15:02.959
 Yeah.

00:15:03.779 --> 00:15:04.639
 Um, yeah.

00:15:04.659 --> 00:15:06.739
 Essentially, it's a get out of Purgatory free card.

00:15:07.699 --> 00:15:07.979
 Um.

00:15:07.979 --> 00:15:09.299
 Well, not only for you to pay for it.

00:15:10.019 --> 00:15:10.479
 By the way.

00:15:12.139 --> 00:15:12.500
 Corrected.

00:15:12.539 --> 00:15:13.199
 I stand corrected.

00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.200
 Um, Purgatory, right.

00:15:16.259 --> 00:15:17.500
 Do you guys know what Purgatory is?

00:15:17.940 --> 00:15:19.300
 Anyone know what Purgatory is?

00:15:20.560 --> 00:15:20.960
 Yeah, Dan.

00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:25.960
 It's a fiery you pass through and plunging you pass through upon death for a certain amount

00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:26.340
 of time.

00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:26.660
 Yeah.

00:15:27.060 --> 00:15:27.280
 Yeah.

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 And that time could be a long, long time.

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 It could be hundreds of thousands of years, right?

00:15:33.100 --> 00:15:36.759
 And so they, they believe there was this place of suffering, of purification.

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 And that all people who go to Purgatory, they eventually will go to heaven, but it's really

00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:47.500
 this limbo state that you have to, to wait there and suffer, be purified for, for a long,

00:15:47.659 --> 00:15:48.600
 long, long time.

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 And so the papacy, they propose this idea that, and it's tied to this idea that the church,

00:15:56.019 --> 00:15:57.659
 they had a treasury of merit.

00:15:57.740 --> 00:16:05.259
 They had like a vault of merit, a rich accumulation of good works that all the saints have done

00:16:05.259 --> 00:16:05.879
 in the past.

00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:08.139
 That's kind of their bank, quote unquote.

00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:14.000
 And that you could take what's in that bank if you give, if you give me money, right?

00:16:14.580 --> 00:16:19.639
 I can give you what's in my bank, a rich vault of good works, good deeds that other saints

00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:23.159
 have done that I have in the church and I could give it to you.

00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:26.419
 And you could use it for yourself or you could use it for a deceased loved one.

00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:28.240
 Do you guys kind of understand that, that logic?

00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:35.340
 And so there was a famous motto, as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from

00:16:35.340 --> 00:16:36.519
 purgatory springs.

00:16:38.100 --> 00:16:45.820
 The results of indulgences was that people started to sin wildly without any fear, without

00:16:45.820 --> 00:16:47.580
 any remorse, right?

00:16:47.580 --> 00:16:50.420
 And as a pastor, he was a pastor at this time, Luther.

00:16:50.680 --> 00:16:55.940
 He had some church members that came to him who said, yeah, you know, I can get drunk.

00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:57.680
 I could sleep around.

00:16:58.060 --> 00:17:02.520
 I could do whatever I want because look, I got this indulgence.

00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:04.600
 I paid a pretty penny for this.

00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:06.740
 And now I can live my life as I wish.

00:17:07.120 --> 00:17:10.340
 That was the actual effect indulgences had.

00:17:10.339 --> 00:17:18.799
 So as a concerned pastor over his flock, Luther then famously writes his 95 theses, all right?

00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:25.959
 95 theses and nails them on the church door in Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517, the day

00:17:25.959 --> 00:17:30.179
 that we now call Reformation Day, which is unfortunately also Halloween.

00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:38.100
 In the 95 theses, you can, you know, you can read this very easily online if you just type

00:17:38.100 --> 00:17:40.160
 it up, look it up online.

00:17:41.060 --> 00:17:46.340
 He breaks down logically all that is wrong with the practice of indulgences.

00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:53.460
 For example, he sees how people were led astray to put their trust in this piece of paper and

00:17:53.460 --> 00:17:58.420
 indulgences rather than trusting in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins.

00:17:58.420 --> 00:18:00.800
 It's a terrible, terrible practice, right?

00:18:01.740 --> 00:18:09.400
 He argues in theses 41 to 47 that the purchase of these indulgences, it discourages, it distracts

00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:14.700
 people from doing actually the work that they're supposed to do and being a blessing to this,

00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:16.320
 to the people in this world, right?

00:18:17.060 --> 00:18:22.240
 They're supposed to give generously to the poor, but because they don't have any money because

00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:26.120
 they spend all this money on indulgences, they neglect the poor now.

00:18:26.560 --> 00:18:27.600
 So he sees that.

00:18:28.420 --> 00:18:31.100
 He also gets witty in Thesis 82.

00:18:31.340 --> 00:18:37.120
 He argues that if the Catholic Church had such a rich vault, a treasury of merit, that

00:18:37.120 --> 00:18:42.900
 they can reduce the time of purgatory for millions and millions of souls, if they have this awesome

00:18:42.900 --> 00:18:47.080
 power, then why don't they just do it for free, right?

00:18:47.120 --> 00:18:50.779
 Why in the world do they have to reserve this amazing privilege just to the wealthy, just

00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:52.279
 for the people who have money, right?

00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:57.100
 If the church is supposed to be this loving force upon the world, right, why don't they just

00:18:57.099 --> 00:18:57.599
 give it out?

00:18:58.519 --> 00:18:59.659
 It doesn't make sense.

00:19:00.419 --> 00:19:05.240
 So he really argues that the papacy is exploiting the poor, right?

00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:08.959
 Because they're spending the money that they desperately need today.

00:19:09.199 --> 00:19:13.740
 They need that money today because there are most of them peasants were just eating hand

00:19:13.740 --> 00:19:14.299
 to mouth, right?

00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:15.039
 Living hand to mouth.

00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:21.220
 But now they spend this money to live on for these fake indulgences while rich Rome is just

00:19:21.220 --> 00:19:24.019
 getting richer and richer off of these peasants.

00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:29.599
 All in all, he completely denounces the practice of indulgences.

00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:39.299
 I think it's an important note to share that sometimes this act is framed as like this revolutionary,

00:19:39.740 --> 00:19:42.139
 extraordinarily bold thing to do.

00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:46.240
 But in fact, back then, it was actually quite common to do so.

00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:52.160
 If you had any desire to debate something, you would post your thesis on the church door

00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:56.240
 and then maybe someone will take up you on that and then you'd have like this public debate

00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:57.120
 between you two.

00:19:57.940 --> 00:20:02.559
 And honestly, most likely there probably were other theses on that door already when he

00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:04.440
 posted his 95 theses.

00:20:05.779 --> 00:20:12.640
 And I think another truth, Luther didn't post the 95 theses with the desire to schism and to

00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:15.340
 break off from the Catholic church initially, right?

00:20:15.660 --> 00:20:18.660
 He's still a good Catholic in his mind, right?

00:20:19.020 --> 00:20:23.259
 He thought that he would reform the church and that he'd steer it back on track.

00:20:23.380 --> 00:20:25.560
 He actually thought that he'd be praised by the Pope.

00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:29.300
 He thought that, you know, I have no desire to leave.

00:20:30.120 --> 00:20:33.460
 The Pope must be, you know, not seeing, he's like missing it.

00:20:33.620 --> 00:20:35.920
 He's not seeing exactly what I'm seeing as a pastor.

00:20:36.140 --> 00:20:39.320
 He's up there, so he's not seeing the effect that this could have.

00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:41.300
 He thought he was going to be praised for this.

00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:48.880
 But even when Luther didn't desire to bring attention to himself, these 95 theses, they

00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:52.060
 quickly go viral for that term, right?

00:20:52.180 --> 00:20:52.560
 Back then.

00:20:53.740 --> 00:20:55.759
 It's translated into German.

00:20:56.340 --> 00:20:59.360
 I think it was written in Latin first to German.

00:20:59.540 --> 00:21:02.140
 And then it's transmitted all throughout Europe.

00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:03.940
 It catches like wildfire.

00:21:04.700 --> 00:21:10.360
 And this is the thing that puts the obscure German pastor on the radar of the papacy.

00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:13.399
 So now they know who Martin Luther is.

00:21:14.679 --> 00:21:20.240
 At this point, Luther hasn't fully formed his thinking about key reformational ideas.

00:21:20.479 --> 00:21:26.659
 But over the next three years, he refines his thinking and he develops these ideas that then

00:21:26.659 --> 00:21:28.819
 soon embody the Protestant Reformation.

00:21:28.819 --> 00:21:38.019
 In 1519, he ends up having a public debate with a Roman theologian called Johann Eck.

00:21:38.980 --> 00:21:42.379
 And it's all about this question of spiritual authority.

00:21:43.179 --> 00:21:48.240
 So who has the authority to make theological conclusions, theological determinations,

00:21:48.500 --> 00:21:52.399
 and the ability to declare spiritual dogma?

00:21:52.659 --> 00:21:53.519
 Who has that ability?

00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:57.960
 So Eck is a very skilled debater.

00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:04.119
 He's throwing at Luther all these Catholic teachings, all these quotes from Catholic catechisms,

00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:08.500
 Catholic theologians, quotes from then, canon law, church history, all these things.

00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:12.099
 Luther sees that, and Luther's a great debater, right?

00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:18.500
 He sees that he's not going to win this debate if he stays in the realm of talking about all

00:22:18.500 --> 00:22:19.359
 this Catholic stuff.

00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:24.879
 So then he actually pivots and then starts pointing to scripture because he knew that he

00:22:24.879 --> 00:22:25.859
 knew scripture better than Eck.

00:22:26.199 --> 00:22:28.939
 So he quotes scripture a lot, right?

00:22:29.639 --> 00:22:36.519
 And because Luther is speaking about scripture so much in that debate, Eck then accuses him

00:22:36.519 --> 00:22:37.779
 of being a Hussite.

00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:40.059
 Now, what is a Hussite?

00:22:40.059 --> 00:22:51.779
 Jan Huss was a theologian who came about like 115 or 150 years before, from 1372 to 1415.

00:22:52.779 --> 00:23:00.379
 He argued, Huss argued, that scripture alone, not the papacy, not the Catholic church, but

00:23:00.379 --> 00:23:03.740
 scripture alone is the ultimate spiritual authority.

00:23:03.740 --> 00:23:09.319
 And I think this is, again, another reminder that the Reformation ideas didn't start with

00:23:09.319 --> 00:23:11.920
 Luther and didn't start with Zwingli or Calvin.

00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:14.420
 There are a couple of faithful men who read their Bibles.

00:23:14.660 --> 00:23:18.039
 They just simply read their Bibles and they came up with these same ideas.

00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:23.380
 And so he's accused of being a Hussite in that debate.

00:23:23.940 --> 00:23:25.740
 And Luther, again, he's a Catholic.

00:23:25.859 --> 00:23:26.880
 He hasn't broken off yet.

00:23:27.140 --> 00:23:30.400
 He's actually initially offended by that categorization.

00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:33.100
 He's offended by being labeled a Hussite.

00:23:33.940 --> 00:23:40.180
 But then he goes home and then he studies Huss, studies, reads all that he has to say.

00:23:40.440 --> 00:23:45.900
 And then he comes back the next day in the public debate and he says, actually, yeah, I'm a Hussite.

00:23:47.100 --> 00:23:48.400
 I totally agree with that.

00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:52.400
 And he agrees on the doctrine of sola scriptura.

00:23:53.259 --> 00:23:54.400
 Do you guys know what that means?

00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:55.140
 Sola scriptura?

00:23:55.820 --> 00:23:56.259
 What does that mean?

00:23:56.259 --> 00:23:56.980
 Can I just say?

00:23:58.360 --> 00:23:58.800
 Yeah.

00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:01.540
 Yeah, for sure.

00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:01.840
 Yeah.

00:24:02.420 --> 00:24:04.780
 And it's the same doctrine that we believe.

00:24:05.019 --> 00:24:08.660
 We stand, again, on the shoulders of these Reformation ideas.

00:24:09.259 --> 00:24:15.759
 No pastor, no pope can override or stand equal to the authority of scripture.

00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:23.400
 So, again, a variety of medieval theologians, they believed that the church leadership,

00:24:23.940 --> 00:24:26.160
 they were the true interpreters of scripture.

00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:29.960
 They could not be questioned when they made a theological conclusion.

00:24:30.620 --> 00:24:41.160
 But for us at Trinity Cambridge Church, we believe that our elders, they only have spiritual authority insofar that they teach and preach the true word of God.

00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:41.680
 Right?

00:24:41.900 --> 00:24:48.800
 So, Sean and I and the rest of the pastoral team, right, we're held accountable to scripture.

00:24:49.320 --> 00:24:49.500
 Right?

00:24:49.580 --> 00:24:51.300
 And in effect, to God himself.

00:24:51.299 --> 00:24:57.180
 I think it's important to correct a common misconception, though.

00:24:57.440 --> 00:24:57.579
 Right?

00:24:57.579 --> 00:25:03.139
 Sometimes then you hear people who say, oh, you know, I don't need to go to church.

00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:05.659
 I don't really need to listen to sermons.

00:25:06.039 --> 00:25:07.799
 I don't need creeds from history.

00:25:08.099 --> 00:25:09.859
 I just need the Bible.

00:25:09.859 --> 00:25:23.299
 So, sola scriptura is different from solo scriptura, which, again, is this idea that there is no other spiritual authority out there.

00:25:24.579 --> 00:25:32.559
 I think you have to understand, right, like solo scriptura, thinking that you are the final determinant of spiritual truth,

00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:36.779
 it's the same error that the Catholic Church made.

00:25:37.099 --> 00:25:37.179
 Right?

00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:40.859
 It ascribes all the spiritual authority to one person.

00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:45.319
 So, the Roman Catholic Church says that that spiritual authority belongs only to the Pope.

00:25:45.819 --> 00:25:47.980
 And then those who believe, hey, I just need the Bible.

00:25:48.059 --> 00:25:48.720
 I don't need church.

00:25:48.779 --> 00:25:49.460
 I don't need pastors.

00:25:49.539 --> 00:25:50.579
 I don't need anything like that.

00:25:50.879 --> 00:25:53.539
 Then you essentially make yourself the Pope.

00:25:53.919 --> 00:25:54.019
 Right?

00:25:54.019 --> 00:25:58.899
 You endow yourself with all that spiritual power to then make spiritual conclusions yourself.

00:25:59.119 --> 00:26:01.039
 And nobody else can correct that.

00:26:01.240 --> 00:26:01.279
 Right?

00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:08.180
 But there is genuine spiritual authority that I think God imparts to churches, to pastors.

00:26:08.359 --> 00:26:09.539
 We're called to submit to them.

00:26:09.960 --> 00:26:13.839
 It's only that they are not the ultimate authority.

00:26:14.379 --> 00:26:16.339
 Scripture alone is the ultimate authority.

00:26:16.680 --> 00:26:17.200
 I have a question.

00:26:17.460 --> 00:26:17.740
 Yes?

00:26:18.059 --> 00:26:21.599
 I think the same thing, is it just like a Latin solo or solo?

00:26:22.119 --> 00:26:22.740
 I actually don't.

00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:23.779
 Do you know what it is in Latin?

00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:25.079
 Because I'm thinking like Spanish.

00:26:25.420 --> 00:26:26.480
 It's just like a, you know.

00:26:26.619 --> 00:26:28.139
 I don't even know if solo is.

00:26:28.339 --> 00:26:30.920
 Solo scriptura is not proper Latin.

00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:31.400
 Yeah, yeah.

00:26:31.400 --> 00:26:32.259
 I think it's just like a.

00:26:32.259 --> 00:26:33.900
 Like solo, like English, like go solo.

00:26:34.140 --> 00:26:36.660
 Like kind of the way we use it is kind of a mockery.

00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:37.100
 Yeah.

00:26:37.099 --> 00:26:39.359
 I think it's like a teaching tool.

00:26:39.619 --> 00:26:43.579
 Just, just to differentiate what is truly solo, solo scriptura.

00:26:43.679 --> 00:26:43.819
 Okay.

00:26:43.939 --> 00:26:44.000
 Okay.

00:26:44.119 --> 00:26:44.319
 Yeah.

00:26:44.959 --> 00:26:45.359
 Yeah.

00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:48.619
 Um, yeah.

00:26:48.619 --> 00:26:51.839
 But this is a revolutionary idea, right?

00:26:51.899 --> 00:26:55.739
 That Luther, that he comes up with the sermons, creeds, Christian books.

00:26:55.739 --> 00:26:56.699
 They're all helpful.

00:26:56.839 --> 00:26:57.519
 And it's pastors.

00:26:57.659 --> 00:26:59.219
 Again, they have spiritual authority over their flock.

00:26:59.459 --> 00:27:01.759
 But at the end of the day, they're all fallible.

00:27:02.439 --> 00:27:06.199
 Only scripture is uniquely the infallible word of God.

00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:11.720
 Um, and it's really in this debate too, when he realizes that the bishops, the Pope, the

00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:16.380
 magisterium, um, he starts to question them more and more.

00:27:16.680 --> 00:27:22.799
 They could actually be in error because they were wrong to put Jan Hus to death.

00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:28.279
 So they actually killed him 150 years earlier at the council of Constance for his ideas.

00:27:28.279 --> 00:27:33.399
 Um, and so his confidence at this point in the Pope, in the Catholic church, it's starting

00:27:33.399 --> 00:27:33.879
 to waver.

00:27:36.259 --> 00:27:40.660
 Then in 1520, Luther is thinking he's writing like crazy.

00:27:40.980 --> 00:27:47.139
 And we see the development of his thoughts as we begin, as he begins to see more and more

00:27:47.139 --> 00:27:48.639
 problems with the Catholic church.

00:27:48.940 --> 00:27:54.539
 And so we're going to do a cursory overview of three famous treaties, three of his famous

00:27:54.539 --> 00:27:55.420
 treaties at the time.

00:27:55.420 --> 00:28:00.779
 Um, the first is called an address to the Christian nobility of the German nation.

00:28:01.259 --> 00:28:03.000
 Quite a catchy title.

00:28:04.060 --> 00:28:09.560
 It's not written actually to the leaders of the Roman Catholic church, but Luther directly

00:28:09.560 --> 00:28:16.660
 appealed to the German political rulers to then reform the church because he believed that

00:28:16.660 --> 00:28:22.560
 the Roman church hierarchy, it become corrupt and it's resistant to biblical correction.

00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:24.480
 And he's finally coming to that point.

00:28:25.420 --> 00:28:32.740
 And in this, he, he clearly develops this doctrine called the priesthood of all believers, right?

00:28:32.800 --> 00:28:36.200
 The priesthood of all believers is a key reformational doctrine.

00:28:36.779 --> 00:28:42.539
 And he gets this from passages like first Peter's two, nine to nine to 10, which reads,

00:28:42.539 --> 00:28:48.740
 but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for

00:28:48.740 --> 00:28:52.880
 his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness

00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:54.020
 into his marvelous life.

00:28:54.020 --> 00:28:56.660
 Once you were not a people, but now you are his people.

00:28:56.800 --> 00:28:59.260
 Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:07.060
 So against the teaching of the Catholic church, Luther proposes that all Christians, right?

00:29:07.120 --> 00:29:14.520
 From the laity to the clergy, from lay people to the pastors or the priests, they all share

00:29:14.519 --> 00:29:16.920
 the same spiritual standing before God.

00:29:18.339 --> 00:29:22.500
 There's no two tiered system in Christianity, right?

00:29:23.139 --> 00:29:27.819
 The Catholic church, they believe that there's like this special cast of people who are the

00:29:27.819 --> 00:29:30.319
 priests who were closer to God.

00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:32.279
 They were more blessed by God.

00:29:32.279 --> 00:29:37.740
 But we know in Hebrews four, this is from God's word again, since we have a great high priest

00:29:37.740 --> 00:29:41.279
 who passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, that is hold fast our confession.

00:29:41.779 --> 00:29:45.359
 For we do not have a high priest is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who

00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:48.460
 in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

00:29:49.059 --> 00:29:49.740
 This is the key verse.

00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:55.379
 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and

00:29:55.379 --> 00:29:58.339
 find grace to help, to help in time of need.

00:29:58.339 --> 00:30:04.099
 We all, every Christian who puts their faith in Jesus Christ has full access to the throne

00:30:04.099 --> 00:30:04.419
 of God.

00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:05.419
 We can approach God.

00:30:05.740 --> 00:30:10.099
 We don't have to go through an intermediary like the priests or through the saints.

00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:12.559
 We all can go before him directly, right?

00:30:12.899 --> 00:30:17.019
 And that means every Christian, all of you guys today, if you have faith in Jesus Christ,

00:30:17.019 --> 00:30:22.019
 that means that you are someone else's priests and that we're all priests to one another.

00:30:22.019 --> 00:30:29.160
 And again, just to qualify that, it doesn't mean that pastors or elders, that they're not

00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:30.319
 a thing, it doesn't mean that.

00:30:31.099 --> 00:30:37.180
 Scripture plainly speaks that the office of elders and deacons are a gift, it's a thing

00:30:37.180 --> 00:30:37.799
 to the church.

00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:44.480
 Hebrews 13, 17 commands us to obey our leaders and to submit to them, right?

00:30:44.579 --> 00:30:48.539
 As I said, again, there's a spiritual authority endowed to church leadership.

00:30:48.539 --> 00:30:57.200
 But Luther argues that every Christian, regardless of age, background, education, occupation, whatever

00:30:57.200 --> 00:31:00.819
 it is, we have full access to God, right?

00:31:01.399 --> 00:31:08.500
 So again, in contradistinction, the Roman Catholic Church, they believed that the priests, they

00:31:08.500 --> 00:31:09.920
 were mediators of grace.

00:31:10.059 --> 00:31:13.879
 You needed to have the priests to be able to approach God and receive grace from him.

00:31:13.880 --> 00:31:22.500
 So because of the priesthood of all believers, Luther then, he appeals to the German nobility

00:31:22.500 --> 00:31:26.440
 to call a church council to reform the church, right?

00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:32.540
 In this work, he basically calls out the Roman Catholic Church for its ostentatious lifestyle.

00:31:33.560 --> 00:31:35.020
 It's incredibly worldly.

00:31:35.340 --> 00:31:39.500
 He knows that there, basically, peasants are being used at that time.

00:31:39.500 --> 00:31:45.680
 So he writes to the German nobility, essentially, you know that we're not stupid, right?

00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:47.579
 You know that Germans, we're not stupid.

00:31:47.759 --> 00:31:49.460
 You know that we're being used for our money.

00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:52.180
 So you need to step in and help your people.

00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:53.519
 So he appeals to them.

00:31:53.579 --> 00:31:57.460
 It's a bold treatise that further upsets the papacy.

00:31:58.519 --> 00:32:03.279
 The second one is the Babylonian captivity of the church.

00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:09.700
 In this important treatise, he argues that the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church,

00:32:09.799 --> 00:32:18.440
 which include baptism, marriage, confirmation, communion, penance, anointing of the sick,

00:32:18.819 --> 00:32:23.799
 and ordination, that's all, they have seven different sacraments, right?

00:32:23.879 --> 00:32:25.000
 They're all corrupted.

00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:26.660
 That's what he argues.

00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:31.620
 For one, Luther, he argues that there are actually only two sacraments.

00:32:33.620 --> 00:32:37.120
 Actually, in the beginning of this treatise, he actually thinks that there are three.

00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:40.360
 He thinks that penance could be one, right?

00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:43.660
 Penance being the confession of sin to a priest to be absolved.

00:32:44.100 --> 00:32:48.820
 But then as he writes it, he then convinces himself that there are actually only two.

00:32:49.060 --> 00:32:49.940
 It's only just two.

00:32:49.940 --> 00:32:57.640
 And he realizes that because a sacrament is to be paired with a visible and physical sign, right?

00:32:57.900 --> 00:32:59.980
 And so what are the two that we believe?

00:33:00.080 --> 00:33:00.580
 Do you guys know?

00:33:00.900 --> 00:33:01.580
 Two sacraments.

00:33:06.980 --> 00:33:07.960
 Is this a hard question?

00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:08.559
 Yes.

00:33:08.900 --> 00:33:09.640
 Baptism is one.

00:33:09.900 --> 00:33:10.980
 And communion.

00:33:11.279 --> 00:33:11.799
 Yes, exactly.

00:33:12.340 --> 00:33:15.940
 Do you guys know what is the physical, visible sign of baptism?

00:33:16.740 --> 00:33:17.720
 This is not a hard question.

00:33:18.900 --> 00:33:19.380
 Water.

00:33:19.380 --> 00:33:19.860
 Exactly.

00:33:20.220 --> 00:33:20.360
 Yeah.

00:33:20.600 --> 00:33:22.460
 And then for the Lord's Supper?

00:33:23.460 --> 00:33:24.620
 Bread and youth.

00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:25.000
 Exactly.

00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:25.760
 Or wife.

00:33:27.100 --> 00:33:27.620
 Sure.

00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:32.240
 But penance, right, doesn't have a paired visible sign.

00:33:32.620 --> 00:33:37.360
 So then he eventually convinces himself that that's not a sacrament.

00:33:38.180 --> 00:33:41.700
 But reminder, right, this is a different time.

00:33:41.820 --> 00:33:41.940
 Yeah.

00:33:42.740 --> 00:33:44.200
 I don't know if you're going to get into this.

00:33:44.200 --> 00:33:44.440
 Yeah, yeah.

00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:47.860
 But did Luther believe what Catholics believe about?

00:33:47.859 --> 00:33:49.279
 The Lord's Supper?

00:33:49.519 --> 00:33:49.740
 Yeah.

00:33:49.740 --> 00:33:50.000
 Yeah.

00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:56.679
 I'm going to talk about it much more next week when we talk about Zwingli and how Zwingli

00:33:56.679 --> 00:34:00.059
 debated Luther very vehemently about these issues.

00:34:00.059 --> 00:34:08.559
 But I don't think that we also agree with Luther fully on his stance on the Lord's Supper.

00:34:08.940 --> 00:34:11.759
 And I'm hopefully going to talk about that more when we're going next week.

00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:13.380
 I have a question.

00:34:13.460 --> 00:34:13.840
 Yes?

00:34:16.420 --> 00:34:17.740
 What do you mean by sacrament?

00:34:18.580 --> 00:34:23.900
 Is there a difference between the meaning of sacrament back then and now?

00:34:23.900 --> 00:34:25.099
 Yeah.

00:34:25.099 --> 00:34:25.139
 Yeah.

00:34:25.220 --> 00:34:27.099
 It depends on how we...

00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:29.740
 I mean, yeah.

00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:35.380
 So the Protestant church, they do have different understandings of sacrament.

00:34:35.460 --> 00:34:38.079
 Some people don't feel comfortable using that word sacrament.

00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:46.559
 But I think the idea that we believe in, that we do kind of agree with in the Roman Catholic

00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:53.199
 Church essentially, is that sacraments are a visible sign and seal of God's grace.

00:34:53.719 --> 00:34:56.099
 So baptism and the Lord's Supper.

00:34:56.099 --> 00:35:01.559
 So the sign, of course, we talked about, it's a visible sign that, you know, you get dunked

00:35:01.559 --> 00:35:04.319
 in the water, you eat the bread and the juice or the wine.

00:35:05.179 --> 00:35:10.400
 But it's a seal, meaning that it's an actual impartation of grace.

00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:12.259
 It actually matters.

00:35:13.139 --> 00:35:15.019
 It's not just a spiritual thing.

00:35:15.539 --> 00:35:17.900
 Again, I'm going to talk a little bit more about this next week.

00:35:18.759 --> 00:35:24.739
 But Zwingli, his view of the Lord's Supper, it was simply spiritual only.

00:35:24.739 --> 00:35:34.539
 I think it might be fair to say that if you were to just not even eat of the bread and

00:35:34.539 --> 00:35:39.739
 eat of the juice, but just treated it spiritually, not physically, but just, it's just a spiritual

00:35:39.739 --> 00:35:43.919
 act, spiritual act of remembering, that would be enough for Zwingli.

00:35:44.539 --> 00:35:49.959
 But the way that scripture talks about the Lord's Supper in particular, I think there's

00:35:49.959 --> 00:35:54.459
 an actual impartation of grace that happens when we eat of the bread and drink of the juice.

00:35:54.739 --> 00:35:55.839
 So it actually matters.

00:35:58.039 --> 00:36:06.579
 Maybe this is kind of like a tangent, but last week we forgot to bring out the gluten-free

00:36:06.579 --> 00:36:07.079
 crackers.

00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:11.139
 And Bailey, a dear sister, she can't eat gluten.

00:36:11.579 --> 00:36:12.959
 So then it was not there.

00:36:13.379 --> 00:36:16.459
 And so she came up and just got the wine because she can't eat the bread.

00:36:16.460 --> 00:36:22.019
 And maybe that would have been enough for some people because, you know, it's just a spiritual

00:36:22.019 --> 00:36:22.440
 act.

00:36:22.980 --> 00:36:27.579
 But I think it actually matters that you do partake of the bread and the juice.

00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:29.000
 Like it actually does matter.

00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:34.059
 So I asked Sean to get the crackers and then pass it on to Bailey so that she could partake

00:36:34.059 --> 00:36:36.019
 and receive the full grace of God.

00:36:36.019 --> 00:36:42.460
 So I think that that's kind of a brief snippet of what I'll talk about next week.

00:36:42.500 --> 00:36:43.519
 Feel free to chime in too.

00:36:45.759 --> 00:36:48.539
 We'll definitely talk more about Lord's Supper next week more.

00:36:50.320 --> 00:36:53.719
 Transubstantiation, consubstantiation, all those weird terms we're going to talk about

00:36:53.719 --> 00:36:53.940
 more.

00:36:53.940 --> 00:36:58.200
 And I'm also going to talk more about baptism next week because Zwingli also talks a lot

00:36:58.200 --> 00:36:58.840
 about baptism.

00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:03.519
 So if you're interested about those two things, definitely come next week.

00:37:05.380 --> 00:37:06.380
 Where are we?

00:37:07.460 --> 00:37:08.340
 Last one.

00:37:08.539 --> 00:37:09.619
 Freedom of a Christian.

00:37:10.380 --> 00:37:15.420
 This is a smaller one, but it's probably one of the most significant works of Luther's.

00:37:16.179 --> 00:37:22.360
 And it's essentially his last appeal to the Pope because he sends it to the Pope himself,

00:37:22.360 --> 00:37:22.880
 Pope Leo.

00:37:22.880 --> 00:37:26.940
 He sends it to read it and he opens with these famous lines.

00:37:27.180 --> 00:37:31.119
 A Christian is perfectly free, Lord of all, subject to none.

00:37:31.820 --> 00:37:36.300
 A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to everyone.

00:37:37.180 --> 00:37:40.200
 Luther, if you ever read him, he loves paradoxes.

00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:42.760
 He uses them often in his theological treaties.

00:37:43.660 --> 00:37:49.099
 And this is where Luther lays out the all-important doctrine of justification by faith alone, which

00:37:49.099 --> 00:37:50.680
 we talked about already a little bit.

00:37:50.679 --> 00:37:58.179
 Justification, as it's used in Romans and Galatians by Paul, it's a forensic term.

00:37:58.919 --> 00:38:02.559
 Forensic meaning that it's a legal courtroom term.

00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:11.619
 So when you hear the word justification, it should invoke the image of a criminal standing in court before the judge on trial,

00:38:11.799 --> 00:38:13.599
 awaiting the decree of the judge.

00:38:13.599 --> 00:38:20.299
 And for all of us, this is the story of all of us, although the list of our offenses are long and embarrassing,

00:38:20.839 --> 00:38:26.299
 by faith, by faith alone, this is his argument that we're not only going to be acquitted,

00:38:26.799 --> 00:38:31.579
 considered acquitted of all of our crimes, but now we'd be considered righteous.

00:38:32.079 --> 00:38:32.880
 How does that happen?

00:38:33.019 --> 00:38:33.179
 Right?

00:38:33.179 --> 00:38:35.119
 It's the great exchange.

00:38:35.480 --> 00:38:41.980
 It's that our sins are imputed onto Christ and that his righteousness is imputed onto us.

00:38:42.139 --> 00:38:44.039
 So that's how we are justified.

00:38:44.299 --> 00:38:45.919
 It's a single moment.

00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:47.339
 It's a one-time event.

00:38:47.340 --> 00:38:53.360
 And that's opposed to the Roman Catholic view at the time, right, which is infused righteousness.

00:38:53.559 --> 00:38:54.700
 That's how some people call it.

00:38:55.100 --> 00:38:59.640
 So you have the imputed righteousness of Christ versus the infused righteousness.

00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:05.680
 So infused in their view, righteousness is just understood as something that's initially given,

00:39:06.240 --> 00:39:10.019
 but then it's effectively maintained by your obedience,

00:39:10.019 --> 00:39:18.199
 by, again, obeying the sacraments, doing penance, confessing your sins, being a good Christian, quote unquote.

00:39:19.099 --> 00:39:26.059
 And I think it effectively transforms justification to sanctification, if you guys know what sanctification is.

00:39:26.239 --> 00:39:32.679
 Justification being the one-time declaration of being right before God, being justified before God.

00:39:32.679 --> 00:39:41.139
 Not sanctification being the ongoing transformation, the ongoing work that the Holy Spirit does in us to make us more like Christ.

00:39:41.659 --> 00:39:45.159
 So they effuse those two ideas in justification.

00:39:46.139 --> 00:39:52.199
 And they essentially, again, make justification a process instead of a once-for-all moment.

00:39:52.199 --> 00:40:03.899
 And it creates this kind of credit and debt framework where a believer, he could gain grace, but then lose it in sin.

00:40:04.219 --> 00:40:09.759
 And then gain again if he obeys all the sacraments and confesses the sins to his priest.

00:40:10.500 --> 00:40:17.099
 And so throughout a day, you could go from saved to not saved, to saved, to not saved, to saved, to not saved.

00:40:17.099 --> 00:40:19.879
 Like you can live with that kind of whiplash.

00:40:19.880 --> 00:40:26.000
 And as a result, the assurance of salvation, it essentially becomes unstable.

00:40:26.519 --> 00:40:27.840
 It's effectively lost.

00:40:28.539 --> 00:40:39.200
 And their believers then are pushed through this infused righteousness idea to maintain by their obedience their standing before God, their righteous standing before God.

00:40:39.820 --> 00:40:49.340
 And I think this doctrine is sometimes defended as, you know, a well-intentioned doctrine to protect against nominalism,

00:40:49.340 --> 00:40:52.600
 against, you know, a lackadaisical nominal faith.

00:40:53.240 --> 00:40:57.360
 But I don't think that this is the true biblical way to motivate obedience.

00:40:58.079 --> 00:41:02.960
 So you read that first line, a Christian is perfectly free, Lord of all, subject to none.

00:41:03.300 --> 00:41:04.960
 But you read that second line too.

00:41:05.200 --> 00:41:06.559
 This is equally true of us.

00:41:06.980 --> 00:41:11.500
 A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to everyone.

00:41:11.500 --> 00:41:14.300
 We're dutiful servants, right?

00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:21.119
 This freedom that we have, this justification that we have, it doesn't and should not lead to selfishness, lawlessness.

00:41:21.579 --> 00:41:26.119
 But it should lead to obedience out of gratitude of God's grace.

00:41:26.260 --> 00:41:29.179
 That's the way that we should be transformed, right?

00:41:29.199 --> 00:41:32.460
 We should willingly serve our neighbors out of love and good works.

00:41:32.460 --> 00:41:36.320
 We should care for one another in abundant generosity.

00:41:37.380 --> 00:41:40.480
 You know, these good works, they don't earn salvation, but they naturally flow.

00:41:40.559 --> 00:41:42.119
 That's kind of the idea, right?

00:41:44.619 --> 00:41:47.820
 And so I want us to get to, oh, it's two o'clock.

00:41:49.860 --> 00:41:51.699
 We'll do this exercise, I think it's important.

00:41:52.519 --> 00:41:54.119
 We're going to have a discussion, right?

00:41:54.119 --> 00:41:55.039
 I'm going to pair you guys up.

00:41:55.039 --> 00:42:03.440
 So sola fide, again, which is faith alone, justification by faith alone, one of the most important doctrines of the Reformation.

00:42:04.259 --> 00:42:13.500
 But it seems like Luther's rejection of the Roman Catholic teaching actually made him question the epistle, the book of James.

00:42:14.539 --> 00:42:17.820
 Luther goes as far as to call James an epistle of straw.

00:42:18.460 --> 00:42:20.739
 He really does not like James, right?

00:42:21.420 --> 00:42:24.500
 He questions if it should even be part of canon scripture.

00:42:24.500 --> 00:42:26.159
 He does eventually believe it.

00:42:26.679 --> 00:42:31.760
 But it seems like he consigns James to kind of like a lower tier of scripture.

00:42:32.300 --> 00:42:38.079
 Because he has a hard time wrestling with how Paul and James come together, right?

00:42:39.079 --> 00:42:40.619
 Let me read some passages.

00:42:41.260 --> 00:42:43.099
 And you guys can read them when you guys pair up.

00:42:43.099 --> 00:42:44.840
 But James 2 says,

00:42:45.300 --> 00:42:49.000
 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:50.539
 Can that faith save him?

00:42:50.539 --> 00:42:55.099
 If a brother or sister is clothily poured and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them,

00:42:55.179 --> 00:43:00.480
 Go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving him the things needed for the body, what good is that?

00:43:00.920 --> 00:43:04.940
 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:06.860
 But someone will say,

00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:09.000
 You have works, or you have faith and I have works.

00:43:09.219 --> 00:43:13.460
 Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works.

00:43:13.460 --> 00:43:20.260
 I'm going to skip the rest of the passage for the time's sake.

00:43:21.099 --> 00:43:22.460
 But you guys can read it in your groups.

00:43:23.260 --> 00:43:24.860
 And then here, Paul in Romans 3,

00:43:25.059 --> 00:43:26.619
 What then becomes of our boasting?

00:43:26.800 --> 00:43:27.579
 It is excluded.

00:43:27.820 --> 00:43:28.800
 By what kind of law?

00:43:29.159 --> 00:43:30.059
 By law of works?

00:43:30.220 --> 00:43:31.780
 No, but by the law of faith.

00:43:31.860 --> 00:43:36.480
 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

00:43:36.480 --> 00:43:41.659
 So, are they contradicting themselves?

00:43:42.119 --> 00:43:44.480
 Is the Bible confused?

00:43:45.980 --> 00:43:52.099
 I want you guys to pair up to groups of three or four and basically talk about this.

00:43:52.440 --> 00:43:55.619
 How can we reconcile Paul and James here?

00:43:56.079 --> 00:43:56.840
 And we'll talk.

00:43:57.480 --> 00:44:02.079
 Is Luther right to consign James as, you know, a less than epistle?

00:44:02.320 --> 00:44:03.800
 Or is he just missing something?

00:44:04.460 --> 00:44:05.980
 So, let's get together in groups.

00:44:05.980 --> 00:44:08.240
 You guys can just huddle in with the people that are around you.

00:44:10.579 --> 00:44:12.420
 For the sake of time, I'm going to keep pressing on.

00:44:14.179 --> 00:44:19.480
 Then, we come to the Diet of Worms.

00:44:20.420 --> 00:44:23.440
 With the invention of the printing press at this time,

00:44:24.440 --> 00:44:27.159
 again, these treaties are just flying off the shelf.

00:44:27.679 --> 00:44:28.440
 It's going viral.

00:44:28.579 --> 00:44:29.119
 People are reading.

00:44:29.300 --> 00:44:30.679
 Everyone's talking about Luther.

00:44:31.760 --> 00:44:33.519
 And so, to quell this fervor,

00:44:33.519 --> 00:44:39.800
 the papacy finally calls Luther down in a bowl called the Diet of Worms.

00:44:39.960 --> 00:44:44.840
 And again, this is not, diet is not what you're eating or anything like that.

00:44:45.300 --> 00:44:48.840
 It comes from the Latin word dieta, which is just a formal assembly.

00:44:49.159 --> 00:44:51.860
 And Worms is just the name of the German city.

00:44:51.860 --> 00:44:52.860
 Worms.

00:44:55.300 --> 00:44:55.740
 Worms.

00:44:56.079 --> 00:44:57.000
 Yeah, Worms.

00:44:58.019 --> 00:45:00.920
 They essentially warn him, this is your last chance.

00:45:01.240 --> 00:45:05.480
 This is your last chance to repent and to recant all of your heretical ideas.

00:45:06.340 --> 00:45:08.579
 You're going to be banned from the Lord's Supper.

00:45:08.720 --> 00:45:09.920
 You're going to get kicked out of the church.

00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:10.940
 You're going to be excommunicated.

00:45:10.940 --> 00:45:14.079
 And if you die in this unrepentant state, you are going to hell.

00:45:14.159 --> 00:45:15.720
 That's essentially what they're saying.

00:45:17.260 --> 00:45:21.500
 Some of Luther's friends, they're begging him not to go because, as I said before,

00:45:21.659 --> 00:45:26.240
 not too long ago, Jan Hus, he was called down for a similar meeting.

00:45:26.840 --> 00:45:29.420
 And he was promised a safe trial, right?

00:45:29.460 --> 00:45:30.860
 A safe passage to and fro.

00:45:30.860 --> 00:45:34.860
 But then he was burned at the stake unfairly, without a fair trial.

00:45:35.880 --> 00:45:40.240
 So Luther, he knows all the risks, but he still boldly decides to go.

00:45:41.160 --> 00:45:42.400
 So they bring Luther in.

00:45:43.220 --> 00:45:45.840
 And before they do, the leaders, they kind of have a huddle.

00:45:46.260 --> 00:45:49.900
 And they say, you know, don't give Luther a chance to speak.

00:45:50.079 --> 00:45:51.380
 He's a really good speaker.

00:45:51.500 --> 00:45:52.300
 He's a really good debater.

00:45:52.940 --> 00:45:55.599
 So just only ask him yes or no questions.

00:45:55.599 --> 00:46:01.799
 So they bring him in, and they ask him to recant of all these ideas.

00:46:03.139 --> 00:46:06.900
 And he starts to explain, you know, all this, this is what I believe.

00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:08.339
 No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:46:08.539 --> 00:46:09.719
 Yes or no, only.

00:46:11.339 --> 00:46:14.079
 And so he says, okay, you know, I'll think about it.

00:46:15.119 --> 00:46:17.539
 Give me the night to think about it, and I'll come back.

00:46:17.579 --> 00:46:19.679
 I'm going to pray to the Lord and come back to you.

00:46:20.299 --> 00:46:22.219
 When he comes back, he comes back the next day.

00:46:22.219 --> 00:46:25.420
 He divides all of his writings that they have for him.

00:46:25.599 --> 00:46:26.739
 Into three piles.

00:46:27.519 --> 00:46:32.440
 The first pile is full of teachings that are just scriptural, that they actually would agree upon.

00:46:32.699 --> 00:46:35.039
 Things about the Trinity or, you know, things like that.

00:46:35.679 --> 00:46:36.779
 So no problem there.

00:46:37.860 --> 00:46:40.179
 Second pile, Luther's very humble, right?

00:46:40.219 --> 00:46:45.719
 He admits, yeah, you know, I agree with what I said, but I think I wrote it too harshly.

00:46:45.799 --> 00:46:49.519
 I was a little bit too mean there, so I apologize for that.

00:46:49.559 --> 00:46:50.319
 I repent of that.

00:46:50.320 --> 00:46:57.160
 But then the third pile contains all the ideas of key Reformation ideas.

00:46:57.580 --> 00:47:06.519
 Knowing very much that this could cost them his life, he says, unless you can prove to me by Scripture that these are wrong, then I will not recant.

00:47:06.519 --> 00:47:10.559
 And then he says the famous line, here I stand, I can do no other.

00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:11.840
 God help me.

00:47:12.239 --> 00:47:12.460
 Amen.

00:47:13.500 --> 00:47:15.800
 So he stands by what he teaches.

00:47:15.800 --> 00:47:27.480
 But amazingly, by God's grace, the Pope decides to be a man of his word, and he doesn't execute Luther then, but he was fully excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

00:47:28.180 --> 00:47:35.700
 And so the 95 Theses, they're kind of seen as the start of the Reformation, but really the Diet of Worms, it marks the official schism.

00:47:35.940 --> 00:47:40.440
 The official schism and the break from the Protestants from the Catholic Church.

00:47:40.780 --> 00:47:41.880
 That's the moment it happens.

00:47:41.880 --> 00:47:48.539
 And while Luther survives Worms, there's still a great concern for his safety.

00:47:49.160 --> 00:47:53.960
 So a powerful friend of his, Frederick the Wise, it's kind of an odd story.

00:47:54.059 --> 00:47:57.440
 He decides to actually kidnap Luther without telling him.

00:47:58.380 --> 00:48:01.539
 And as he's being kidnapped, Luther is freaking out.

00:48:01.599 --> 00:48:02.800
 I mean, naturally so, right?

00:48:02.820 --> 00:48:03.640
 He's freaking out.

00:48:03.700 --> 00:48:05.460
 He thinks that this is the end of his life.

00:48:05.880 --> 00:48:08.660
 He thinks that the Roman Catholic Church finally got him.

00:48:08.659 --> 00:48:14.339
 But Frederick decides to kidnap him by sending men.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:16.460
 And he's a rich man.

00:48:16.539 --> 00:48:17.799
 He owns a lot of real estate.

00:48:17.960 --> 00:48:23.639
 So he tells them to put Luther in one of his castles, but don't tell me which one.

00:48:24.879 --> 00:48:34.119
 And the whole idea is so that when people knew that Frederick and Luther were buddies, when the Catholic Church would question Frederick, as they did,

00:48:34.119 --> 00:48:35.119
 where is he?

00:48:35.219 --> 00:48:35.859
 Where is Luther?

00:48:36.279 --> 00:48:38.440
 He would be able to honestly say, I don't know.

00:48:39.059 --> 00:48:40.159
 I don't know where Luther is.

00:48:41.199 --> 00:48:42.739
 Again, it's just a weird thing.

00:48:42.839 --> 00:48:43.559
 But it's true.

00:48:43.639 --> 00:48:44.420
 It's only half truth.

00:48:45.659 --> 00:48:54.440
 It's there in captivity that Luther then translates the Bible from Latin to the ordinary common German.

00:48:54.440 --> 00:48:58.539
 And back then, it was the best translation at the time.

00:48:59.220 --> 00:49:04.579
 And it's really so that the common people can understand and study scripture for themselves.

00:49:04.820 --> 00:49:14.179
 He, again, believes so much in the priesthood of all believers in sola scriptura that he wants to get the Bible in the hands of every common man, peasants alike, right?

00:49:14.220 --> 00:49:15.039
 Or whatever they are.

00:49:15.039 --> 00:49:21.219
 Again, back then, they only read from Jerome's Vulgate, which was a Latin translation.

00:49:21.820 --> 00:49:23.340
 And common people didn't speak Latin.

00:49:23.820 --> 00:49:27.940
 And so they only really had to trust the priests when they gave their homilies.

00:49:28.639 --> 00:49:32.460
 When they, whatever they would say, I don't speak Latin, so I guess I have to believe you.

00:49:32.480 --> 00:49:33.599
 You have more education than me.

00:49:33.639 --> 00:49:34.480
 You know what this is saying.

00:49:34.579 --> 00:49:36.800
 So sure, I'll follow whatever you say.

00:49:37.420 --> 00:49:39.440
 That's how they had to live their lives.

00:49:39.440 --> 00:49:44.960
 But with this new translation, he returns scripture into the hands of the everyday man.

00:49:45.679 --> 00:49:51.260
 And so he makes it possible that the priesthood of all believers, that key doctrine, it plays out as it should.

00:49:52.019 --> 00:49:57.059
 And I think it should really make us appreciate that we have the holy scriptures in our own language that we can read.

00:49:57.519 --> 00:49:59.579
 We should not take this for granted, right?

00:49:59.780 --> 00:50:03.340
 We should cherish it and love it and thank God for it every single day of our lives.

00:50:05.400 --> 00:50:09.360
 The temperature for Luther's head, it gradually simmers down.

00:50:09.440 --> 00:50:13.720
 And so it allows Luther to leave the castle and he starts pastoring.

00:50:14.860 --> 00:50:22.880
 And throughout these years, he leads his Protestant church, the first Protestant church, pastoring, teaching, writing, defending his thoughts.

00:50:23.599 --> 00:50:26.980
 And just a couple of key moments were coming up on time.

00:50:28.320 --> 00:50:30.260
 For one, the Peasants' War.

00:50:30.300 --> 00:50:31.360
 I don't know if you've ever heard of this.

00:50:31.539 --> 00:50:36.920
 This is maybe, it depends on your view of it, but it is a little bit of a smudge on Luther's legacy.

00:50:36.920 --> 00:50:44.720
 So at this point, reformational ideas like, again, priesthood of all believers, they're spreading, they're stirring up actually political revolution.

00:50:45.019 --> 00:50:47.180
 And especially among the poor peasants.

00:50:48.039 --> 00:50:54.659
 And so these peasants were heavily taxed by their rulers and they're increasingly restricted from their rights.

00:50:54.659 --> 00:51:05.940
 So they catch on these reformational ideas about Christian freedom and they then translate it to then social and political reform and freedom.

00:51:06.719 --> 00:51:12.379
 And so initially, Luther, he has sympathy for the peasants' plight and he calls for peace, right?

00:51:12.460 --> 00:51:16.819
 Criticizing both the oppressive princes and the rebellious peasants.

00:51:16.820 --> 00:51:23.300
 But it actually happens that the peasants end up killing a ruler, killing a count and his escort.

00:51:24.120 --> 00:51:26.620
 Then Luther dramatically switches sides.

00:51:26.980 --> 00:51:32.140
 He distances himself very, very far from the peasants, from the insurgents.

00:51:32.519 --> 00:51:40.120
 He actually calls on princes and nobilities to suppress the rebellion with brutal force.

00:51:40.119 --> 00:51:47.579
 And he does this in a pamphlet called Against the Murderous Thieving Hordes of Peasants.

00:51:48.480 --> 00:51:49.759
 He's a very honest writer.

00:51:50.339 --> 00:51:59.440
 And in the end, the revolt ended in really catastrophe, bloody catastrophe, with as many as 100,000 peasants being killed.

00:51:59.440 --> 00:52:10.480
 The obvious result of this is that Luther loses a lot of sway with the working class, but then he gains a lot of influence, a lot of favor from the aristocracy, right?

00:52:10.880 --> 00:52:27.460
 Luther, he ultimately ends up doing this because he wanted to be careful for tying reformation, spiritual reformation ideas to social and political transformation, right?

00:52:27.460 --> 00:52:31.860
 So he sharply distinguishes church and state in that, right?

00:52:31.880 --> 00:52:36.699
 The church proclaims the gospel while the state maintains public order.

00:52:37.320 --> 00:52:45.380
 And he strongly believed that believers should not use the gospel, should not use scriptural teaching as a warrant for violent political rebellion.

00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:51.420
 And so that's one key moment after the Diet of Worms.

00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:54.400
 Another lighthearted one is that he gets married.

00:52:54.400 --> 00:52:58.320
 He gets married at the age of 41 to Catherine von Bora.

00:52:59.180 --> 00:53:01.220
 Luther actually never saw himself getting married.

00:53:01.320 --> 00:53:03.740
 He thought that, you know, the marriage didn't fit his lifestyle.

00:53:03.900 --> 00:53:04.860
 He never really wanted it.

00:53:05.400 --> 00:53:09.220
 He thought he'd also died at any point because he was branded as a heretic.

00:53:09.900 --> 00:53:15.740
 But Catherine, she's a former nun who then escaped her convent because of the Reformation.

00:53:15.960 --> 00:53:17.940
 She became convinced of reformational ideas.

00:53:18.559 --> 00:53:23.740
 She escapes and she meets Luther and she knows she wants to marry him.

00:53:23.739 --> 00:53:26.019
 So she pursues Luther, actually.

00:53:26.559 --> 00:53:31.359
 She really does a lot to cozy up to him and convinces him to get married.

00:53:32.019 --> 00:53:32.739
 And so they do.

00:53:33.739 --> 00:53:36.279
 And it's significant that he gets married, right?

00:53:36.319 --> 00:53:41.039
 If you remember the context is in the Catholic Church, priests must be celibate.

00:53:41.659 --> 00:53:43.379
 They cannot get married, right?

00:53:43.379 --> 00:53:44.479
 They are not allowed.

00:53:45.339 --> 00:53:48.979
 This is, again, another place where we have to follow scripture over tradition.

00:53:48.980 --> 00:53:50.840
 I don't think that there's any place.

00:53:50.920 --> 00:53:51.619
 Thank God for me, right?

00:53:51.639 --> 00:53:56.139
 Like there's no place that scripture requires pastors, elders to remain celibate.

00:53:56.599 --> 00:53:58.360
 And I honestly don't understand this.

00:53:58.460 --> 00:54:01.760
 Like Peter, who is their first pope, he was married, right?

00:54:02.539 --> 00:54:05.219
 But with von Bora, he had six kids.

00:54:05.460 --> 00:54:08.240
 They had a rich, happy family life together.

00:54:08.420 --> 00:54:10.099
 And they had an affectionate marriage.

00:54:10.159 --> 00:54:11.400
 That's what people commented on.

00:54:11.400 --> 00:54:18.280
 And some people think that Luther and these other reformers, they were, you know, rigid and obtuse, just boring maybe.

00:54:18.680 --> 00:54:21.139
 But that simply wasn't true about Luther.

00:54:21.900 --> 00:54:23.860
 He regularly had people over his house.

00:54:23.920 --> 00:54:25.740
 His house was lively and full.

00:54:26.519 --> 00:54:29.780
 He had people like seminary students, disciples, visiting preachers.

00:54:30.180 --> 00:54:35.380
 He had them over for dinner where he would regularly crack jokes and share stories, drink beer.

00:54:35.380 --> 00:54:43.240
 And we were talking about this with Aubrey before, but sometimes he shares very crass and crude analogies to make his point stick, right?

00:54:43.380 --> 00:54:50.000
 And some of his students record these conversations in what is called table talk, which you could look up now.

00:54:50.760 --> 00:54:53.360
 And then finally, the Augsburg Confession.

00:54:53.360 --> 00:55:06.559
 In 1530, after several years of growing religious division, the Roman emperor, the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V, he calls another gathering to store unity in his empire.

00:55:07.360 --> 00:55:13.300
 During that gathering, all the Protestant princes and cities were asked to explain their beliefs.

00:55:14.780 --> 00:55:18.380
 Because Luther is excommunicated, he's not allowed to go.

00:55:18.380 --> 00:55:32.119
 But Philip Melanchthon, who is basically the successor of the Lutheran Church, he goes and he writes the Augsburg Confession, which is essentially the thing that defines and establishes Lutheranism.

00:55:32.880 --> 00:55:38.880
 And it's significant because it systematizes Lutheran belief in concrete, clear documents.

00:55:38.880 --> 00:55:49.460
 So if you kind of were to try to understand what we believe as Trinity Cambridge, if we didn't have a statement of faith and all you had was our sermons, it's kind of hard, right?

00:55:49.460 --> 00:55:56.019
 You just have to listen to a bunch of different sermons over a different period of time and be like, okay, so this is what they believe about this thing.

00:55:56.079 --> 00:56:00.000
 And then you have to wait for half a year to hear about this doctrine.

00:56:00.519 --> 00:56:01.820
 It's not clear.

00:56:01.900 --> 00:56:05.119
 It's not it's it's hard to exactly find out what they believe.

00:56:05.119 --> 00:56:05.359
 Right.

00:56:06.679 --> 00:56:13.380
 This fixes that issue because he essentially systematizes rights, essentially what is a statement of faith for the Lutheran Church.

00:56:13.380 --> 00:56:16.219
 And he establishes what that church believes.

00:56:16.539 --> 00:56:16.699
 Right.

00:56:17.039 --> 00:56:19.920
 And so this is a defining moment in the formal separation.

00:56:21.339 --> 00:56:22.440
 Coming up to the end.

00:56:22.440 --> 00:56:32.500
 In the final years of his life, he started to struggle with a lot of health issues, kidney stones, vertigo, dizziness, arthritis, eye problems, exhaustion.

00:56:32.659 --> 00:56:35.460
 And he he went through depressive episodes frequently.

00:56:36.940 --> 00:56:44.340
 And his writing at the end of his life, it starts to become really quite miserable and increasingly irritable.

00:56:44.340 --> 00:56:57.039
 I think we could show Luther some benefit of the doubt, some compassion, just because, you know, when you're struggling physically, you know, if you if you're battling the flu, it's not like you're necessarily at a spiritual high.

00:56:57.200 --> 00:56:58.460
 Like those things are really hard.

00:56:58.539 --> 00:56:59.539
 We're both body and soul.

00:56:59.660 --> 00:56:59.820
 Right.

00:56:59.820 --> 00:57:09.260
 But unfortunately, at this time, Luther starts to write some very, very frustrated, angry things about the Jews.

00:57:10.519 --> 00:57:13.160
 It's honestly can be labeled as anti-Semitic.

00:57:13.220 --> 00:57:14.640
 It was anti-Semitic.

00:57:14.640 --> 00:57:27.640
 And later, later, it's known that Hitler and the Third Reich, 500 years later, they actually use some of Luther's writings to justify their heinous acts during the Holocaust.

00:57:27.639 --> 00:57:37.279
 And it's a reminder, again, there is no perfect man out there, even the spiritual giants in church history.

00:57:37.920 --> 00:57:39.420
 Every man falls short.

00:57:39.579 --> 00:57:41.119
 Every man commits great sins.

00:57:41.239 --> 00:57:42.500
 Every man has blind spots.

00:57:43.599 --> 00:57:46.319
 No one but Jesus alone can be the savior of the world.

00:57:46.940 --> 00:57:51.339
 But God can use fallible men, weak men like Luther to accomplish good.

00:57:51.739 --> 00:57:53.619
 And I think he has done that.

00:57:53.619 --> 00:57:58.440
 And traveling with his sons to settle a dispute, he falls ill.

00:57:59.099 --> 00:58:01.559
 And he dies at the age of 62.

00:58:01.859 --> 00:58:03.960
 He's laying in his bed, surrounded by loved ones.

00:58:04.099 --> 00:58:07.699
 And he's repeating out loud again and again, Psalm 31 5.

00:58:08.299 --> 00:58:10.380
 Into thy hand I commit my spirit.

00:58:10.679 --> 00:58:13.139
 Thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth.

00:58:14.119 --> 00:58:19.279
 Someone asks him, Father, will you die steadfast in Christ and in the doctrine that you preached?

00:58:19.280 --> 00:58:23.019
 And loud enough for everyone to hear, he says, yes.

00:58:24.760 --> 00:58:26.900
 In the words of historian Timothy George,

00:58:27.640 --> 00:58:30.980
 Luther's legacy does not lie in the saintliness of his life.

00:58:31.640 --> 00:58:32.780
 His warts were many.

00:58:33.460 --> 00:58:36.480
 His vices, sometimes more visible than his virtues.

00:58:37.180 --> 00:58:43.500
 Nor does his legacy ultimately depend on his vast accomplishments as a reformer or theologian.

00:58:43.500 --> 00:58:50.139
 Luther's true legacy is his spiritual insight into the gracious character of God in Jesus Christ.

00:58:50.559 --> 00:58:55.219
 The God who loves us and sustains us onto death and again, onto life.

00:58:56.059 --> 00:58:57.179
 So that's Luther.

00:58:57.599 --> 00:58:58.599
 Do you guys have any questions?

00:59:03.400 --> 00:59:06.000
 Any questions at all?

00:59:07.320 --> 00:59:09.599
 I might not be able to answer everything.

00:59:09.739 --> 00:59:11.139
 I'm definitely not a church historian.

00:59:11.139 --> 00:59:12.940
 But any questions?

00:59:13.139 --> 00:59:13.259
 Yeah.

00:59:14.259 --> 00:59:17.679
 I was a little bit curious about Solus.

00:59:17.679 --> 00:59:18.440
 Yeah.

00:59:18.819 --> 00:59:24.259
 So it seems like throughout Luther's life there was kind of a dating.

00:59:24.719 --> 00:59:24.879
 Yeah.

00:59:24.879 --> 00:59:27.759
 It's like the church historian.

00:59:27.759 --> 00:59:28.139
 Yeah.

00:59:28.139 --> 00:59:28.139


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00:59:28.139 --> 00:59:29.139
 Yeah.

00:59:29.139 --> 00:59:29.139


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00:59:29.139 --> 00:59:29.139