Luther's Love for Truth

What we now know as the Protestant Reformation started 490 years ago through the ministry of Martin Luther. It was Luther’s 95 Theses which he posted in Wittenburg that set him on an irreversible course and changed the landscape of church history. Could Luther have possibly known what the posting of those 95 points of debate was going to produce? What was Luther seeking to accomplish? He wrote in the introduction of his 95 theses,

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.

Despite what Luther may or may not have expected, it is clear what motivated him. He posted those 95 propositions “out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light.”

Those of us who admire Luther and the other Reformers can sometimes seek to emulate them without truly understanding what prompted them to act. Luther was not simply looking to shake up the status quo. Luther loved God’s truth and sought to shed the light of God’s truth on as many minds and hearts as possible. We really need not go looking for a “reformation” of our own. All we need to do is what Paul instructed Titus. As ministers of the gospel who are “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching” and who “are able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict” we will be following the footsteps of Luther and the other Reformers. More importantly, we will be following the footsteps of the Apostles who were given to the church by Christ Himself.

Who knows what God may do in our own day if we will simply be faithful to expound the truth of His Word?