Jonathan Arnold on the 500th Anniversary of Luther's NT (1522-2022)

 

JTR

The Vision (11.16.18): Martin Luther on the Psalms as "a little Bible"

At the end of October, we marked the five hundred and first anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing of his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg (October 31, 1517), thus igniting the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s rediscovery of the Biblical doctrine of salvation came not only from his study of New Testament books like Romans and Galatians, but also from his study of the Psalms. Luther described the book of Psalms (the Psalter) as “a little Bible.” He saw what previous generations of Christians stretching back to the apostles has also discovered: The Psalms speak of Christ. Luther wrote:

The Psalter ought to be a precious and beloved book, if for no other reason than this: it promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly—and pictures his kingdom and the condition and nature of all Christendom—that it might well be called a little Bible. In it is comprehended most beautifully and briefly everything that is in the entire Bible. It is really a fine enchiridion or handbook. I fact, I have a notion that the Holy Spirit wanted to take the trouble himself to compile a short Bible and book of examples of all Christendom or all saints, so that anyone who could not read the whole Bible [could] have here anyway almost an entire summary of it, comprised in one little book (as cited in Timothy George, Reading Scripture with the Reformers, p. 186).

May we continue to read, pray, preach, and sing this “little Bible” of the Psalter so that we might learn more of Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Calvin on the man born blind, Luther, and being cast out of the Roman synagogue

Another gleaning from Calvin’s commentary on John 9:

Calvin reflects on the casting out of the healed man (v. 34: “and they cast him out”; v. 35: “Jesus heard that they had cast him out”) by the Pharisees and draws comparison to unjust excommunication of faithful men by Rome:

By this example, are we taught how trivial and how little to be dreaded are the excommunication of the enemies of Christ.

He adds:

But so far are we from having any reason to dread that tyrannical judgment by which wicked men insult the servants of Christ, that, even though no man should drive us out, we ought of our own accord to flee from that place where Christ does not preside by his word and Spirit.

He even reflects on how the casting of the man out from the synagogue worked for his good, for:

If he had been allowed to remain in the synagogue, he would have been in danger of becoming alienated from Christ, and plunged in the same destruction with wicked men.

He then draws a parallel to the experience of Martin Luther and other Reformation men:

We have known the same thing by experience in our own time; for when Dr. Martin Luther and other persons of the same class, were beginning to reprove the grosser abuses of the Pope, they scarcely had the slightest relish for pure Christianity; but after that the Pope had thundered against them and cast them out of the Roman synagogue by terrific bulls, Christ stretched out his hand, and made himself fully known to them. So there is nothing better for us than to be a very great distance from the enemies of the Gospel, that Christ may approach nearer to us.

JTR

The Reformation Polka

 A little Reformation Day humor:
 

Luther's call to follow the "stubbornness" of the apostle Paul

Here is a quote from Luther on the model of  inspired tenacity given by the apostle Paul which I used in last Sunday's sermon on Galatians 2:1-10:

Let us learn this kind of stubbornness from the apostle. We will suffer our goods to be taken away, our name, our life, and all that we have, but the gospel, our faith, Jesus Christ, we will never suffer to be wrested from us:  and cursed be that humility that here abaseth and submitteth itself; nay, rather let every Christian be proud and spare not, except he will deny Christ.  Wherefore, God assisting me, my forehead shall be harder than all men’s foreheads. Here I take my motto, “Credo nulli.”  I will give place to none.  I am, and ever will be, stout and stern, and will not give one inch to any creature.  Charity giveth place, “for it suffereth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things:” but faith giveth no place (as cited in John Brown, Galatians, p. 76).

The milkmaid and baker as God's "masks"

In a section on the cultural challenges to our understanding of the doctrine of providence in The Christian Faith, Michael Horton observes:

Luther spoke of the milkmaid and the baker as “masks” God hides behind in order to answer our prayer for daily sustenance. In every gift, God is ultimately the giver; yet tenderly he hides his blinding majesty and otherwise terrifying sovereignty behind the creaturely means that are familiar to us. However, those of us in technologically developed cultures rarely encounter the milkmaids and bakers whose goods we purchase at the supermarket…. Our piety—praying for our daily bread—often seems remote from our actual experience, at least in highly developed societies (p. 353).