By nature, Martin Luther was not a rebel.
The protest that has come to be called the 95 Theses took him along a pathway he never envisioned when he first put pen to paper. What began as a simple critique of the misguided piety of the Roman Church ended in taking Luther and his colleagues at the University of Wittenberg to the remarkable place of forming a new church, or, as Luther would have put it, guiding the church back to its biblical foundations.
The 95 Theses were designed to initiate a theological conversation. They worked far better than their author imagined! And in the year following their publication, Luther was asked to speak about his theological convictions at what has come to be called the Heidelberg Disputation. It bears remembering that when Luther burst onto the stage of history in this debate he had a deep knowledge of Latin literature and was firmly acquainted with both scholastic philosophy and theology, as well as with the writings of the Renaissance humanists of his own day. Most importantly, he was deeply read in the Latin Fathers and had a profound knowledge of the Bible.
28 Theses at the Disputation
In April of 1518, Luther walked some 350 miles to give an account of his views to various papal representatives at Heidelberg in the Palatinate. His spiritual mentor Johann Staupitz had urged him to be non-controversial, which meant saying nothing about the practice of indulgences. Luther appears to have followed his advice, for the 28 Theses he presented for discussion say nothing about indulgences, which had formed a major subject in the earlier 95 Theses.
At the outset, Luther stressed that he was reliant upon the thought of ‘St Paul, the especially chosen vessel and instrument of Christ, and also from St Augustine, his most trustworthy interpreter’. He began by maintaining that God’s Law, though it was ‘the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance man on his way to righteousness, but rather hinders him’ (Thesis 1). Face to face with the Law, human beings are accused of their sin, judged and condemned (Thesis 23).
Not a recipe for despair
Moreover, the darling of humanity, free will, is actually a fiction and can never, without grace, lead to righteous deeds (Theses 13–15). Thus, ‘the person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty’ (Thesis 16). Lest some think this a recipe for despair, Luther rightly reasoned that this should push sinners to humble themselves and ‘seek the grace of Christ’ (Thesis 18). Thus, Luther concluded: ‘He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes much in Christ’ (Thesis 25).
Three of the Theses – numbers 19–21 – deal with the nature of the true theologian. The latter is one who makes the crucified Christ and suffering foundational to his understanding of life (Thesis 20). Such a ‘theologian of the cross’ sees the world as it really is, knowing that without the cross we are nothing and all our works mere vanity (Thesis 21).
Augustinians embrace the gospel
One of those present at this theological conference was Martin Bucer, who later led the Reformation in Strasbourg and whose latter years were spent teaching in Cambridge. His view of Luther’s conduct at the debate bears quoting at length: Although our chief men con- tradicted him with all their might, their wiles were not able to make him move one inch from his prop- ositions. His sweetness in answering is remarkable, his patience in listening is incomparable, … his answers, so brief, so wise, and drawn from the Holy Scriptures, easily made all his hearers his admirers. On the next day I had a familiar and friendly conference with the man alone and a supper rich with doctrine rather than with dainties.
The net result was that almost the entire German contingent of Luther’s monastic order, the Augustinians, went over to Luther’s views!
As Jeremy Jackson rightly noted in his history of the church, we often forget the nature of the Reformation as a great spiritual revival. We identify the Reformation simply with the reforming of doctrine. But there would have been no Reformation unless it had been accompanied by the Spirit’s reviving work of regeneration and conversion. The impact of Luther’s preaching at the Heidelberg Disputation 500 years ago is nothing less than a tremendous illustration of this truth.
