Lawyer, Lightning, and Luther
By Paul Miller
January 1, 2018
Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483. He was born on St. Martin’s Day, and so his parents named him Martin. Hans Luther, Martin’s father, was a miner. Hans and his wife, Margarete, were able to send Martin to school. Hans had high hopes for Martin and was pleased that he was studying to become a lawyer.
On July 2, 1505, Martin Luther was returning to the University of Erfurt when he was caught in a thunderstorm. You will remember that Saul of Tarsus had a sudden change of heart due to divine intervention, and so it was with Martin Luther. A bolt of lightning hit the ground near where Luther was, knocking him to the ground. Afraid, Luther called out to St. Anne, saying that if he would be kept safe through the storm, he would become a monk.
On July 17, he entered the Black Monastery to become a monk in the strict Augustinian Order. Martin Luther became a good and dedicated monk. He wanted desperately to find peace with God. He knew that he was a sinner and that God was angry with him, and so he strictly followed the rules in an attempt to please God. He fasted, prayed, kept his vows, slept on the floor, and was as religious as he could be. He confessed his sins –even sins that he was not sure were really sins. He wanted nothing to stand between him and God, but he never found peace.
At the age of twenty-seven, Luther had an opportunity to visit Rome, and looked forward to finding answers there. However, he was more disappointed than ever when he saw the corruption, irreverence, and immorality in Rome among the priests.
Luther returned to the monastery and was then sent to study at the University of Wittenberg, where he earned his doctorate degree and became a professor of theology.
How many today are content with a little religion? It is rare to find one like Luther, intent on doing whatever he could to find peace with God. If today’s Christians sought God’s fulness as sincerely as Martin Luther sought God’s peace, we would be vastly different people. John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, was another one who sought God for years until He found peace in Jesus.
As in the days of Luther, people will not find true peace with God through church, through activities, or through denying oneself. Do you have real peace with God, or are you content with religion and church? Luther was soon to find the answer he had been looking for, and the answer would eventually lead both to his breaking with the church of Rome and to the rise of the Protestant Reformation.
—Paul Miller
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