Embracing Sola Scriptura: Luther's Legacy and Impact

Sola Scriptura is not a motto of the Reformation one of the dangers of the SOLAS is that we will believe that saying them is sufficient they are to be believed they are to be confessed and they are to be preached they're to be taught to every successive generation not just as words not just as a formula but as the living substance of what the Reformers learned that the gospel always has been and always will be standing alone. [00:02:31]

Luther famously said unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason for I can believe neither Pope nor councils alone as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves, I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture which is my basis my conscience is captive to the Word of God thus I cannot who will not recant because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound god help me amen. [00:03:02]

Luther learned that the Bible must be in the hands of the people the progress of the Reformation he understood would depend upon the Bible being in the hands of the people he understood that the health of the church would depend upon the Bible being in the hands of the people. [00:09:22]

Luther's point was to make the Bible accessible to the people the people of God must have the Bible in their hands those translations were probably done they're also very expensive the second clarification is that the Bible was not Luther's first work of Bible translation that is the New Testament and then later the entire Bible that was not Luther's first work of Bible translation. [00:10:29]

Luther understood that preaching is the first mark of the church the preaching of the word of God he believed the most important reality for the Reformation in the church must be that the Bible would be preached but he wanted the Bible to be preached so that it could be heard by the German people he did want the Bible in the hands of the people in terms of printing and in terms of of having the Bible in printed form. [00:14:01]

Luther said that the church is to be a mouth house is to be a place where the preacher opens his mouth and out of his mouth comes the Word of God and that painting we saw chronics altarpiece there inviting Berg when he saw a Luther standing on the right and the pulpit preaching and you saw the people on the Left listening there was Christ suspended in the middle that was Luther's affirmation made visible by chronic of the fact that when the Word of God has preached Christ is present with his people. [00:15:08]

Luther said that he had done his very best to stick to the text but he sought above all to preserve its meaning what he called the sense of a passage that's not original language with Luther since Seuss was a very important where the meaning the essential meaning of the text Luther said he never lost view of the fact the most important thing was the basic sense of the text. [00:13:18]

Luther said concerning is his translation they must hear it as if it's being spoken to them in German and then he said and feel it in the heart you can't talk about Luther without the heart there's Duluth arose with the heart right at the center looks like a valentine card and and by the way when in the heart what I mean by that is if you look at the modern Valentines got the same kind of heart that symbolism was the heart as it became known through successive generations of romanticism. [00:30:44]

Luther understood that by the preaching of the word hearing the word the people's hearts would be reached and thus changed and they would cherish the word in their hearts famous historians have asked the question how is it that in a matter of just one generation people in so much of Europe would go from expecting to see the mass when they went to church to demanding to hear the preaching of the word and the answer is because they'd heard it and it touched their hearts they heard the gospel it changed their hearts they heard the preaching of the word they heard the Word of God read and it warmed their hearts. [00:33:14]

Luther said that the Bible must be in the hands of the people and it must be in the tongue of the people and of course it must also be in the hearts of the people you have to understand that Luther's translation of the Holy Scripture was such that when it was set loose when the word of God was set loose and Germans could read it and they could hear it and understand it and that since the Reformation was unstoppable no way to stop a Reformation once it is underway when the word of God has set loose and then it is preached. [00:34:23]

Luther would tell us why it failed was because when the people had the Word of God the Reformation was unstoppable what Luther learned in the Reformation the Bible must be in the hands of the people in the tongues of the people the tongue for Luther with tongues for us and also in the hearts of the people but the real question as we get ready to leave the Vaart burg castle is what have we learned about the Bible in the Vaart burg castle hopefully we have learned that sola scriptura is more than we ever imagined it to be not just as a Sola as one of five but as the formal principle the Reformation that without which the preaching of the word of God would not happen that which once existing could not be stopped in terms of the Reformation. [00:36:16]

Luther said the first mark of the church wherever the Church of Christ is found wherever Christ Church has found its first mark is the preaching of the word of God and where the Word of God is rightly preached God's people exult in that word they celebrate that word they feel that word in their hearts as they have heard it in their ears and I hope the next time we preach or the next time we hear a sermon we remember what we've learned here not only about Sola scriptura but about the Bible that soul Authority set loose as the preached word in the hands in the tongue and in the hearts of God's people. [00:37:47]