As we remember another year the blessings God brought the world through the Reformation, it would be good first to pause and consider what kind of world it was into which Martin Luther was born.  First, he was fortunate to be born at all with the high mortality rate of his day.  Families may have been large, but one in four babies didn't live six months.  The average lifespan was about 45 years and the average man's height five feet two inches.  Luther was larger than most at 5 feet four, but his friend Philip Melanchthon, author of the Augsburg Confession, was only four feet eight.

          Only half of the people were literate, and the medical cure for nearly everything was herbs and bloodletting.  They lived in a feudal system in which most everyone depended on a Prince or Elector to provide protection and work.  It was rare for a common man to raise himself up, so when Hans Luther made good money as a copper miner and insisted his son Martin attend school, he was more modern than other men of his day.  And when Katie, Luther's wife, bought 100 acres and had Luther's students farm it, she was truly a "liberated" woman.  Roads were poor, mail delivery rare and indoor plumbing non-existent.  Smoke filled the air at all hours and nearly everything was done by hand.

          Life was just plain difficult.  People worked long hours for meager wages, often sending their children to work in mines or shops to keep food on their tables.  School was considered a luxury after the fourth grade and children were whipped in school if they didn't know their lessons.  Children had few books and learned purely by rote memory.  Songs and chants trained them in both church tradition and some elements of science.  All studies centered on theology and older students studied the Greek or Roman classics.  The entire body of learning was designed to instill in students the fear of God and reverence for the church.

          Worship was required and religion was mostly motivated by fear.  There were no church seats except for the wealthy, so most people stood for two hours on bone-chilling stone floors wearing only rudimentary shoes.  No one owned a Bible - not even priests.  The few existing Bibles were in Latin and stayed in the monasteries or the emerging University libraries.  Only the church had the right to interpret the Holy Scriptures.

          Christianity had some elements of paganism, so Christians believed the woods, winds and waters held elves, gnomes, fairies, mermaids and witches who held sway over the weak, played pranks on the strong and seduced many to sin.  Houses were small and churches were huge.  Laundry was done by hand and sundials told the time.

          Steeples, relics, monks, the ringing of bells and religious processions were everywhere.  Illnesses terrified the common folk, and the sick prayed to be healed by the tolling of the Vesper bell.  People in church and market place smelled from body odor because they rarely took baths, believing body washings left them open to disease.  The rich used perfume but it didn't help much.  The sewer was the closest street gutter and poor sanitation often brought fever and plague, leaving hundreds or thousands dead in the villages of the valleys and rivers of 16th century Germany.  Transportation was mostly on foot with the occasional carriage, and life in general was hard.  Put in perspective, life in medieval Germany was primitive compared to life at the time of Jesus Christ.  The Romans were far ahead of medieval Germans.

          And yet the grace of God was present that terrible day when a young man in a violent lightening storm took a vow to become a monk.  Martin Luther, with his brilliant mind and unsettled spirit, would become the vessel through which God would shine the light of His grace, and the dark ages would never be so dark again.  And because he stood against the abuses of the Church, the entire western world would be changed forever.

          My message today is titled, "Saved By the Grace of God."  But what is the grace of God?  Put simply, grace is God's love which mankind does not deserve.  Luther was priest of a church which suppressed people with fear and guilt.  Church rulers forced the people to try to please God, and to atone for their own sins by good works.  Luther himself was tortured by a vengeful God.

          But in studying the Bible, he "discovered" God's grace.  Instead of knowing God's love, Luther had known only a God who demanded perfection which no one could achieve.  Luther's Gospel message to the church shattered the church's hold over people and forced people to think independently.  His message was this:  "We are not saved by what we do, but by God's grace alone.  By grace alone we are children of God, by the scriptures alone we know of God, and by faith alone we are made right with God."  Sola Gratia (by grace alone), Sola Scriptura (by scriptures alone), and Sola Fide (by faith alone), were the three pillars on which the Word of God stood.  But not the church of Luther's Day.  It stood on works, relics and fear, so it was an act of pure grace that God brought these three pillars of truth back to hold up the church from collapsing upon itself.

          Still today most of us still want to get to heaven by what we do.  We think we're like the frog that fell into the cream can.  It tried as hard as it could to leap out, but found it was trapped by the sloshing cream.  But it kept paddling and sloshing until it finally churned the cream into butter -- and presto! -- the frog jumped out of the can from its self-made launching pad and saved itself.  Many Christians think that's Christianity.  They say, "I'm not perfect, but I'm doing the best I can.  There are plenty of others worse than me.  I'm not so bad.  I think I've done more good than bad, so I should be okay.  God will take me to heaven."  A recent study among Americans showed nearly 80% believed there was a heaven and 79% of those believed they were going there.  Today, as in Luther's day, most believe they'd get there by what they did.

          But that's not what the Bible says.  God's Word says we are sinful, separated from God by our sin.  We're in a can so deep we'll never escape.  We are in trouble over our heads and are headed for death.  We can jump and slosh all we want, but we'll never get out.  But the Bible also tells us that God in His mercy rescues us.  He sees our plight and wants to rescue us.  His Son Jesus reaches down to remove us from the can.  Without Him, we'd all drown, so we trust Him and rejoice in our rescue.  We praise God for our release from bondage.  His grace sets us free, so we don't just GIVE thanks, we LIVE our thanks.

          A large prestigious church had a mission church in the slums.  Once a year the two churches held a combined Communion service.  The mission church had some converts who had been thieves and cutthroats, but at that service, all knelt side by side at the Communion rail.  At one such service the pastor saw a former burglar kneeling beside the very judge who had sent him to jail for seven years.  This burglar had come to Christ and there at the rail, judge and convict knelt in faith.  After the service, the judge said to the pastor, "Did you notice who was beside me at Communion this morning?  What a miracle of grace!"  The pastor nodded and said, "Yes it's a miracle how far he has come."  The judge said, "I wasn't referring to him but to me.  It was natural for that thief to come to Christ -- he knew how much he needed God's help.  But look at me.  From earliest infancy I was taught to be a gentleman, to go to church, say my prayers and be honest.  I've known about God but have always depended on myself.  You see, Pastor, only recently have I opened my heart to receive Jesus.  I'm a greater miracle of His grace than that man."

          So, which are you, the thief or the judge?  Whichever you are, if you believe in Christ, if you trust Him for all your life, you are saved by God's grace.  Faith is not merely intellectual knowledge.  There is a certain understanding about Christ we all must have, but that knowledge must grow into trust.  We know He died for all, that He paid the penalty for the sins of the world.  But we must make His salvation our own by faith.  We must trust in Jesus as our only hope.  Faith begins with knowledge but rests on trust.  Faith trusts Christ with our very lives.

          A cable is stretched across Niagara Falls and a professional wirewalker will go across it.  He will push a wheelbarrow across the cable above the deadly churning waters that will consume anyone who falls in.  And the wirewalker has advertised he will put someone in the wheelbarrow before he starts across.  Who will be the lucky one?  Will it be you?  You know he will do it and you know he will probably succeed.  But will you trust him enough to get in the wheelbarrow?  We can talk about faith all day, but sooner or later we have to let go and let God push us.  What a thrill it is to let go of ourselves and let God direct our lives.  Never let your fear of getting in rob you of the joy of knowing true, genuine faith.

          The grace of God is our invitation to get in.  True faith stakes its life on Jesus.  It commits our whole self to Him and awaits His gifts.  Job in his misery said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." (Job 13:15)   We give ourselves totally to Him, and burn our old bridges behind us.

          Without grace there is no trust; without trust there is no faith; without faith, there is no life with God.  Today we give thanks for the "true treasure of the church, the most holy Gospel of the glory and grace of God." (#62 of Luther's 95 Theses).  May God give each one of us here today the courage to get in that wheelbarrow.  Amen

Copyright © 2003 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.