9 / 12
The Amish Voice 9
deserving of utter condemnation.” “Look at
the wounds of Christ,” said he, on another
occasion, “and you will see there shining
clearly the purpose of God towards men. We
cannot understand God out of Christ.”
But Luther’s peace sometimes gave way, and
his fears returned. He was taken ill and
brought down to the gates of death. Terror
again took hold on him. Death seemed full of
gloom. It was a fearful thing to meet a holy
God! An old monk visited him in his
sickbed, and in him God gave him another
comforter and guide. Sitting at his bed side
he repeated this sentence of the Creed, “I
believe in the forgiveness of sins.” These
words, thus simply and sweetly brought to
mind, were like balm to the soul of Luther. “I
believe,” said he to himself, “the forgiveness
of sins.” “Ah, but,” said the old man, “we are
not merely to believe that there is forgiveness
for David or Peter; the command of God is
that we believe there is forgiveness for our
own sins.”
Luther’s spirit was revived. He found on this
rock a sufficient resting place, and his soul
rejoiced in the forgiving love of God. Thus
his weary soul found rest. He was now like a
vessel that has reached its haven. No storm
can reach or harm it. He was like the dove in
the clefts of the rock. He was like the man
who had reached the city of refuge. He found
himself safe and at rest. Jehovah his
righteousness was his song, and his joy. It
was what he saw in Christ that gave him
hope and confidence toward God, and not
what he saw in himself. It was what he knew
of Christ and His righteousness that took
away all fear and filled his soul with peace.
He believed and was forgiven. Nor did he
reckon it presumption to count himself a
forgiven soul. He gloried and rejoiced in this.
He counted it one of the most grievous of all
sins to doubt it. He saw that the gospel was
intended to bring us forgiveness, and to
assure us of it. He saw that whenever we
really believe in the gospel, then that
forgiveness is as completely and
certainly ours as if we were
already in heaven. This
was the very life of
Luther’s soul. It was this
that made him so bold in
the cause of Christ, in all his
future life. He was assured of the
favor of God, and that took away all fear of
men.
There was one text of Scripture which seems
to have been greatly blessed to him. It was
very frequently on his mind during his many
struggles. It was the text which Paul quotes
from Habakkuk, to prove that we are
justified by faith alone: “The just shall live
by faith.”
Once, he was sent to Rome on some
business, and he thought that good works
done at Rome were better and had more
merit than those done anywhere else. He was
told that if he would crawl up a very long
stair, called Pilate’s staircase, on his bare
knees, he would acquire a great stock of
merit. With great earnestness he set himself
to do this miserable penance. While he was
crawling up the steps, he thought he heard a
voice like thunder, saying aloud to him, “The
just shall live by faith.” Immediately he
started from his knees, and stopped in the
middle of the ascent. The words went to his
soul like the voice of God reproving him for
his folly. Filled with shame, he instantly left
the place. He saw that it was not by his
works that he was to save himself at all, far
less by works such as these —“Not by works
of righteousness which we have done,
but by His mercy He saved
us” (Titus 3:5).
At another time, he
was appointed to
lecture on divinity.
After
explaining
the
Psalms, he came to the Epistle
to the Romans. In studying this he took great
delight. He used to sit in his quiet cell for
many hours with the Bible open before him,
meditating on that Epistle. The seventeenth
verse of the first chapter fixed his eye, and
filled his whole thoughts: “The just shall live
by faith.” In this he saw that there was
another life than that possessed by man in
general, and that this life was the fruit of
faith. In the midst of much darkness these
simple words were “a lamp to his feet, and a
light to his path.” Clearer light soon dawned
upon his soul, and through him the bright
beams of the gospel shot forth upon the
benighted nations of Europe. The conversion
of Luther was the dawning of the
Reformation. —End
Luther, continued from page 8
The just shall
live by faith.
Habakkuk 2:4
Conflicting Choices
—Lydia Chorpening
David and his life-long buddy, Jonas, stepped into
the darkness of night as they left the singing and
headed for the barn. Neither one had asked for a
date as they stepped into the late winter night.
Under the cover of darkness, David cleared his
throat and then spoke: “I want to tell you what
happened to me about a month ago. I hope you’ll
understand me better than some did whom I have
talked to about it.”
“Does it have to do with our church rules and
regulations?” Jonas wanted to know.
“Well, you might say that, but it’s really
something of a deeper and personal choice I’ve
made. Do you remember when we were Christmas
caroling in December?”
“I do remember, and I also remember you just
turning sober all of a sudden and it was as if you
lost the luster of your voice.”
“It wasn’t that I lost my voice. It was rather
that it seemed like I heard another voice inside of
me calling me to come to adore Christ the Lord. I
can’t really explain it, but I just couldn’t shake the
call, and so I started reading my New Testament. I
read from Matthew 11:28, which is Jesus’ call for
the tired and weary to come to Him; but later when
I read in Revelation 22:17 where the apostle John
wrote, ‘The Spirit and the bride say come. . . ,’ the
call was so direct to me that I knelt by my bed and
asked Jesus to become my Savior and forgive my
sins.”
Illustration by Lydia
Continued—page 10