This one’s a tough one to read, although it stands today as much as it did when Luther first made the statement:

He who falls from the grace of God upon the Law and imagines that he will be saved through works has as rough a landing as he who falls from grace into idolatry. For outside Christ there is nothing but idolatry and merely a false, imagined notion about God. If you want to be justified before God and saved by that sort of worship, it makes no difference whether you call its basis the Koran of the Turk, the decretal and command of the pope, or even the law of Moses.”

These are some strong words but words that we need to take to heart. So many religions require you to be “good enough” in order to ensure salvation. But how good is “good enough?” How will you ever know?

Even the law of Moses was commanded to be kept perfectly. But, “…whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” We can try and try and try to perfectly keep God’s commandments, but trying and trying becomes idolatry, an idol of work, according to Luther. We must rely on God’s grace in Jesus Christ, for Jesus was the only one that has kept the law absolutely perfectly, fulfilling the “good enough” that we could never become.

Praise God for His grace!

As we looked at Monday, the Word of God must be central in all times of worship. So, also, Jesus Christ must be the focus of all worship. This makes sense of course, because Jesus is the very Word of God Himself. (John 1) Let’s look at these great words from Luther:

“Knowing Christ and knowing the Father are tied together and are one and the same knowledge. This is why I have often said that the Father is known only in Christ and neither will nor can be reached and found, worshiped and invoked, apart form this Mediator.”

What a great promise and warning! Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can know the one true and holy and unreachable God of the universe. He has now become reachable to us through Jesus Christ. (1 Timothy 2:5). But what a great warning that we would never lose sight of the fact that Jesus is the only way to know God and the only way to be able to worship God. Without Jesus, it is impossible for us to draw near to God

Very often we think that worship is only a time when we come together with a greater body of people on a certain day of the week. Or we think that worship is the time that we sing songs during a service. Luther (correctly) thought differently:

“The worship of God is the praise of God. This should be free at the table, in private rooms, downstairs, upstairs, at home, abroad, in all places, by all people, at all times.”

We are free and called to praise God everywhere and at all times. What joy there is in knowing that God is worshipped from the modern church buildings of the United States, to the dirt floors of churches in Honduras, to the crowded rooms of house churches in China. What joy in knowing that God is worshipped by all races! What joy there is in knowing that God can be worshiped at all times! He is always near to us, there for us in an instant if we would just call upon Him.

This week we’re going to be looking at quotes on worship from the great reformer, Martin Luther. As I mentioned last week, while I am a Lutheran I am first and foremost an evangelical Christian and have great respect for other great reformers such as Calvin, Wesley and others. We can learn so much from reading historic writings. So let’s dive in!

“God at first gives faith through the Word, so He thereafter also exercises, increases, confirms, and perfects it through the Word. Therefore the worship of God at its best and the finest keeping of the Sabbath consist in exercising oneself in piety and in dealing with the Word and hearing it. On the other hand, nothing is more dangerous than a dislike of the Word.”

If the Word of God is not completely central in our worship times, both individually and corporately with the body of believers, than what are our worship times centered around? The more saturated with the Word our worship times are, the more saturated with the Word we will become. And, what a great warning to us that “nothing is more dangerous than a dislike of the Word.”