Romans
13:1
King James Version (KJV)
13 Let every soul be subject
unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be
are ordained of God.
Recently we experienced the 500th anniversary of
Martin Luther’s nailing of the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg. They
protested the sale of indulgences that forgave sins for a sum of money. It was
money from these indulgences that the most powerful authority on earth at the
time used to finish the world renowned St. Peter’s Church in Rome.
Luther, a great scholar of Romans, finally decided that his
was the time to react against an abuse of this highest power on earth, not to
destroy the power, but rather to bring it to its senses; to get it to seriously
consider that its actions were actually taking believers who trusted in it to
damnation. His action about tore his own soul from his body. He felt that
indeed he was treading very close to violating Paul’s instructions in in Romans
13:1. He obeyed the summons of the church officials to come to Worms, Germany
for trial in front of some of the
highest secular and ecclesiastical rulers on earth.
He stood before them after answering their questions
trembling because of his resistance to the authorities’ attempt to control his
conscience, his being subject to the greatest authority in heaven and earth.
Meekly he pled, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” They condemned him and would
have burnt him alive except that the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had given him
safe conduct. Luther had already been excommunicated as a heretic. The church
demanded that no contract with a heretic was valid therefore he should be
burned. But Charles V remarked, “I would not blush as did Sigismund;” the Holy
Roman Emperor who had given John Huss a safe conduct and then revoked it.
Instead they issued the Edict of Worms which declared Luther
a heretic and anybody who should meet
him could kill him without guilt. But he was granted safe conduct back to
Wittenberg. He was kidnapped on the way
home and placed in secret hiding where he finished translating the New
Testament into German thus giving the Protestant Reformation a chance to become
permanent.
Thank You Lord for
taking the future of Your church out of the hands of evil men. Please continue
to actively guide Your church!
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