Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

The great Protestant reformer Martin Luther had a radical life change in response to this section of Romans. He grew up in a religious household and was on the behavior track. Luther even went into ministry as a priest and took vows of celibacy and poverty. He grieved and confessed his sins day and night and didn’t eat or sleep well. Though he was behaving the best he could, Luther started to go mad because of his fruitless pursuit of perfection.

Now, you can be a Bible teacher, have a theology degree, and not really understand Jesus. You can’t know Jesus without the Bible, but you can know the Bible and not know Jesus. Luther was one of those guys who knew the Bible, like a lot of religious people do, but he didn’t really know Jesus. The book of Romans, particularly chapter 3, changed everything for him. As Luther taught that chapter to his seminary students, he realized, “Oh, I’m not the savior; Jesus is the Savior. I’m not the one who behaves; Jesus is the One who behaves. I believe in the One who behaved.”

Luther wrote, "Here therefore is the sermon of sermons and the wisdom of heaven; in order that we may believe that our righteousness and salvation and comfort come to us from outside; in order that we may believe that, though in us dwells naught but sin and unrighteousness and folly, we are, nevertheless, acceptable before God, righteous and holy and wise."

Righteousness, salvation, and comfort come to us from the outside, gifted to us through Jesus Christ. As Christians, we don’t go into ourselves; instead, we go out to Jesus. Luther realized, “Everything I’m doing will not qualify me to be declared righteous and stand before our holy God. Jesus took care of everything. I need to trust His words on the cross. It is finished. All the behaving is done, and now the believing begins.”

This issue is called justification by faith. It is such a massive conviction that it split Western Christianity into two groups. When we lived out of state, my youngest son and I liked to split wood and have huge fires in an old fireplace in our home. For the big rounds, we would put a maul in the center and hit, spitting the rounds. The doctrine of justification was the maul that split Western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant. Protestants objected to Catholicism and its teachings about many things, but especially on the issue of how we’re justified (declared righteous) in the sight of God.

Today’s Reflection

How is it possible to know the Bible and not know Jesus?