Martin Luther--The Monk Who Followed the Path of Reforming the Church

A Hammer, a Nail and 95 Theses changed the world of Christianity forever.  It was with these three items that Martin Luther proclaimed the need for the church to reform.  The Church, meaning the Roman Catholic Church, had started doing things that Martin Luther and others felt were against the very fiber of the Bible.  Martin Luther in those 95 theses outlined why the Church had to take action and change their ways.

One of the most important issues dealt about the way grace s achieved.   The church was turning away from the divine grace that comes from a relationship with God.  They had started saying that grace could be achieved by the work that was done.  There were also others that were accepting payment for grace.  Martin was totally opposed to this way of earning grace.  He felt that grace would be achieved with a personal relationship with God.  Those that accepted Jesus as their savior were given everlasting grace.  He was totally against the theory that works or payments to the Church could lead to an individual’s salvation.

The church had also taught that God was out to punish those that sinned.  The principal was that sin had made us unrighteous in the eyes of God.  Therefore the only way to ever be forgiven was to work and daily ask for penitence.  God became a hateful vengeful image in the eyes of Martin.  He felt that God is more about the love and faith.  Not a vengeful God out to condemn the world.  

Another very important view that Martin had was the teaching of the purging of sins.  That people had to go through intercession and continue to ask for repentance.  It was thought that the person was not fully forgiven until they had ever sin purged from their soul.  Martin taught the idea that a person was forgiven of sin as soon as they had faith in God.  This does not mean that they were sinless.  It basically meant that they were both saved and a sinner.  In this theory a person could go to heave through their faith even if they had not had all their sins forgiven.  The principle is that God is powerful enough that the forgiveness that comes from God overcomes the sin a person would commit in their life.

Those were not the only reasons that he believed that the church needed reformed.  We have to understand that Martin Luther was a man who thought differently than anything he was taught.  This only skims the surface of what Martin Luther means to Church Reform.  The main thing that we have to realize is that he went down a path of reform that others had tried and failed.  There were also those that wanted to that never attempted.  This alone makes Martin Luther one of the most influential people to shape Christianity today.