Editor’s Note: Our text is taken from a pamphlet of this same title, printed by Chapel Library in Pensacola, Florida. Their address will be given at the end of this page. No copyright is claimed in the pamphlet, and the author wrote over a century ago, so the text is in the public domain.
Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) was a Bible-believing preacher in nineteenth-century Scotland—a man completely committed to His Lord and the faithful preaching of His Word. He wrote over six hundred hymns (many of which are still sung today), the best known of which is “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say.” Bonar describes how Martin Luther, a most devout Roman Catholic, eventually saw that the teaching of Roman Catholicism—that man’s good works were needed for salvation, in addition to God’s grace through faith—could never bring him to salvation. Rather, he learned that saving grace is to be found in Christ’s blood alone, and to be received by faith alone. Luther’s faith became unshakable, and the Holy Spirit used him mightily in the years to come, for, as Bonar notes, “The conversion of Luther was the dawning of the Reformation.” Our prayer is that you will be greatly blessed as you read.
Luther now began to try to make himself holy. He fasted for days together. He shut himself up alone in his cold cell. He passed many nights, sometimes for weeks, without sleep. He read, he studied, he prayed, he wept, he watched, he strove, but all in vain! He found himself as far from holiness and peace as ever! If ever anyone could have gained heaven by his own merits, Luther would have gained it. To those around him, he seemed the holiest man alive. But the light of the law showed him that within all was vile. His soul cried out for rest, but he found it not, for he was seeking it not in God’s way, but in a way of his own. He wanted to be sure that his sins were forgiven him, for he felt that until he knew this, he could not have peace. But his fear increased upon him, and he knew not what to do, nor which way to turn. He saw everything that he thought and did to be sin, and how could he rest until he knew that all was forgiven! His friends told him to do good works and that would satisfy the justice of God. Miserable comforters!
“What good works,” said he, “can proceed out of a heart like mine; how can I, with works like these, stand before a holy Judge.”
The terrors of the fiery law compassed him about and consumed his soul. His “sore ran in the night and ceased not.” He saw nothing in God but the angry Judge. He had not yet learned the riches of His grace through Jesus Christ.
His bodily health gave way. “A wounded spirit, who can bear.” He wasted away. He became thin and pale. His eyes, which were peculiarly bright, looked wild with despair; and death seemed just at hand. In this state he was visited by an old priest. His name was Staupitz. He pitied the dying monk, and all the more so when he was told the cause of his suffering, for he had himself passed through the same conflict. But he had found the peace of Christ in his soul, and was therefore well fitted to give counsel to Luther.
“It is in vain,” said Luther to him, “that I make promises to God; sin is always too strong for me.”
“Oh, my friend,” said Staupitz, “I have often made vows myself, but I never could keep them; I now make no more vows; for if God will not be merciful to me for Christ’s sake, I cannot stand before Him with all my vows and works.”
Luther made known to him all his fears. He spoke of God’s justice, God’s holiness, God’s sovereign majesty. How could he stand before such a God?
“Why,” said his aged friend, “do you distress yourself with these thoughts? Look to the wounds of Jesus, to the blood which he has shed for you; it is there that you will see the mercy of God. Cast yourself into the arms of the Savior. Trust in Him—in the righteousness of His life—in the atoning sacrifice of His death. Do not shrink away from Him. God is not against you; it is only you who are averse from God. Listen to the Son of God. He became man in order to assure you of the divine favor.”
Still Luther was dark. He thought he had not repented properly, and asked, “How can I dare believe in the favor of God, so long as there is in me no real conversion? I must be changed before He can receive me.”
He is told that there can be no real conversion so long as a man fears God as a stern judge. “There is,” said his friend, “no true repentance but that which begins in the love of God and righteousness. That which some fancy to be the end of repentance is only its beginning. If you wish to be really converted, do not try these penances. Love Him who has first loved you.”
Luther listens and is glad. The day breaks, new light pours in. “Yes,” said he, “it is Jesus Christ that comforts me so wonderfully by these sweet and healing words.” In order to true repentance we must love God! He had never heard this before. Taking this truth as his guide, he went to the Scriptures. He turned up all the passages which speak of repentance and conversion; and these two words which were formerly his terror, now became precious and sweet. The passages which used to alarm him, now “seemed to run to me from all sides, to smile, to spring up and play around me. Formerly I tried to love God, but it was all force; and there was no word so bitter to me as that of repentance. Now there is none more pleasant. Oh, how blessed are all God’s precepts when we read them not in books only, but in the precious wounds of the Savior.”
Thus he learned that we are not forgiven because we love God, but we love God because we are forgiven. We cannot repent, we cannot love, until we have known and believed the love that God hath for us. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Still Luther’s darkness at times returned. His sins again went over his soul, and hid the face of God.
“Oh, my sin! My sin! My sin!” cried he, one day to his aged friend. “What would you have?” said Staupitz. “Would you like if your sin was not real? Remember, if you have only the appearance of a sinner, you must be content with the mere appearance of a Savior. But learn this, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of those who are real and great sinners, and deserving of utter condemnation.”
“Look at the wounds of Christ,” said he, on another occasion, “and you will see there shining clearly the purpose of God towards men. We cannot understand God out of Christ.”
But Luther’s peace sometimes gave way, and his fears returned. He was taken ill and brought down to the gates of death. Terror again took hold on him. Death seemed full of gloom. It was a fearful thing to meet a holy God! An old monk visited him in his sickbed, and in him God gave him another comforter and guide. Sitting at his bedside he repeated this sentence of the Creed, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” These words, thus simply and sweetly brought to mind, were like balm to the soul of Luther. “I believe,” said he to himself, “the forgiveness of sins.” “Ah, but,” said the old man, “we are not merely to believe that there is forgiveness for David or Peter; the command of God is that we believe there is forgiveness for our own sins.” Luther’s spirit was revived. He found on this rock a sufficient resting place, and his soul rejoiced in the forgiving love of God.
Thus his weary soul found rest. He was now like a vessel that has reached its haven. No storm can reach or harm it. He was like the dove in the clefts of the rock. He was like the man who had reached the city of refuge. He found himself safe and at rest. Jehovah his righteousness was his song, and his joy. It was what he saw in Christ that gave him hope and confidence toward God, and not what he saw in himself. It was what he knew of Christ and His righteousness that took away all fear and filled his soul with peace. He believed and was forgiven. Nor did he reckon it presumption to count himself a forgiven soul. He glorified and rejoiced in this. He counted it one of the most grevious of all sins to doubt it. He saw that the gospel was intended to bring us forgiveness, and to assure us of it. He saw that whenever we really believe the gospel, then that forgiveness is as completely and certainly ours as if we were already in heaven. This was the very life of Luther’s soul. It was this that made him so bold in the cause of Christ, in all his future life. He was assured of the favor of God, and that took away all fear of men.
There was one text of Scripture which seems to have been greatly blessed to him. It was very frequently on his mind during his many struggles. It was the text which Paul quotes from Habakkuk, to prove that we are justified by faith alone: “The just shall live by faith.”
Once, he was sent to Rome on some business, and he thought that good works done at Rome were better and had more merit than those done anywhere else. He was told that if he would crawl up a very long stair, called Pilate’s staircase, on his bare knees, he would acquire a great stock of merit. With great earnestness he set himself to do this miserable penance. While he was crawling up the steps, he thought he heard a voice like thunder, saying aloud to him, “The just shall live by faith.” Immediately he started from his knees, and stopped in the middle of the ascent. The words went to his soul like the voice of God reproving him for his folly. Filled with shame, he instantly left the place. He saw that it was not by his works that he was to save himself at all, far less by works such as these—“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).
At another time, he was appointed to lecture on divinity. After explaining the Psalms, he came to the Epistle to the Romans. In studying this he took great delight. He used to sit in his quiet cell for many hours with the Bible open before him, meditating on that Epistle. The seventeenth verse of the first chapter fixed his eye, and filled his whole thoughts: “The just shall live by faith.” In this he saw that there was another life than that possessed by man in general, and that this life was the fruit of faith. In the midst of much darkness these simple words were “a lamp to his feet, and a light to his path.” Clearer light soon dawned upon his soul, and through him the bright beams of the gospel shot forth upon the benighted nations of Europe. The conversion of Luther was the dawning of the Reformation.
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Firstly, to all those of you who don’t know Christ. You know that you are a sinner. You may think that you’re better than a lot of other people who may be openly immoral or in jail, but deep down inside you know that you have rebelled against God by sinning. Perhaps you yourself are openly immoral or in jail, and you know it and freely acknowledge it. Perhaps you think there’s no hope for you. But there’s good news. “Gospel” is an old English word that means “good news.” What good news does Jesus have for you? What is this “gospel,” this “good news,” of which we are speaking? Here it is: Jesus didn’t come to die for people who kid themselves into thinking they’re good, but for people who know they’re bad! Jesus will never refuse the worst of sinners, if they will but cling to Him by faith alone. He promises you in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” When He was dying on the cross, He was enduring God’s wrath, the equivalent of millions of people spending an eternity in hell, in order to pay for your sins. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Will you cast yourself upon the mercies of God, and trust Jesus Christ, who saves all who simply trust Him to do so?
Secondly, to all those of you who claim to be Christians. Do you really know what it means to be a Christian? If you think that Christianity is simply your religion, and that you’re a Christian because of your baptism, your churchgoing, and your good works, then be assured that you are not a Christian. Friend, you are told this in love. If I did not have a deep concern for you soul, then I would tell you that all was well, but all is not well. Your good works will not save you, and neither will any church rituals—water baptism, receiving communion, confessing your sins to a priest, etc. You must trust Christ by faith, and by faith alone! Salvation is free for the asking. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). “Now to him that that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. ~ But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. ~ Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, ~ [Saying,] Blessed [are] they whose iniquites are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. ~ Blessed [is] the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:4- 8). “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: ~ Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). This isn’t a matter of interpretation. It is crystal clear in the passages which you have just read. The Bible teaches justification by faith ALONE, your “good works” excluded, and this is the precious truth which the Holy Spirit showed to Martin Luther when He saved him. Will you also trust Jesus alone, by faith alone, trusting that when He died on the cross, He died for your sins? He is ready to save you at this moment, if you will only cast yourself upon Him in faith, forsaking hope in your good works, your church membership, and all else. Rely on Him. He is able to save you unto the uttermost.
Lastly, to those of you who are truly born-again believers. God, in His mercy, sent someone to share the gospel with you. Through that witnessing, He opened your eyes to the truth and saved your soul; as we read in Romans 10:17, “So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Luther, once he was converted to Christ and became assured of his salvation, boldly went forth and preached the gospel. To say that God used him mightily is quite an understatement. God may not be calling you to change the course of world history, but if He opens the door for you to share the gospel with a single soul, and calls you to enter that door, then by all means do so without delay! If God could use the likes of Luther to reach the masses, then He can just as easily use you and me to reach one person at a time for Christ, in accordance with His sovereign will as the Holy Spirit gives us grace to do so. And He calls you, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. ~ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16). Christian brother, with Christ’s words as your awesome charge, go forth and share the gospel with whomever God gives you the opportunity. Will there be fruit? In due time, yes. You may sow the seed, and another may reap it without you ever seeing it this side of Jordan, but He promises, “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: ~ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11). Do you trust Him? Do so—only trust Him, and He will not disappoint you, His precious child.
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