Martin Luther’s influence on Christianity is profound. And complex.
As a German pastor and theologian of the 16th Century, he re-discovered St. Paul’s doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, based on passages like Ephesians 2:8-9.
He courageously stood up against the corruption of the state church.
He is regarded as the father of the Protestant reformation. Without Luther, for all practical purposes, there would be no Lutherans (obviously), Presbyterians, Baptist, or even Methodists.
Yet he also held highly objectionable and deeply offensive views of the Jews.
And he most definitely did not like the book of James, the subject of our series, Rubber, Meet Road.
I guess you could say that Luther liked Jesus, just not everyone in his family.
Luther’s work has served to cast James and Paul as enemies and faith and works as contrasts. His influence has assured that James’ theology is regarded as inferior to Paul’s.
So Sunday’s message will deal with the objections people raise to James. And then it will reach a highly practical and somewhat unexpected conclusion.
To prepare, read James 2:14-26.
Sunday. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.
There are 4 comments
love the title of your sermon series!
Stop teasing us! Can’t wait for Sunday! -Ben S.
I was just reading about this the other day. Luther called it “an epistle of straw, for it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel in it.” Wow. Hope the sermon goes well.
Yeah, I read that line, as well as one in which Luther wrote:
In sum, James . . . had neither the spirit, nor the thought, nor the eloquence equal to the task. He does violence to Scripture and so contradicts Paul and all of Scripture . . . I therefore refuse him a place among the writers of the true canon of my bible . . . how then shall this single and isolated writer count against Paul and all the rest of the bible?
It all went well, and I believe people learned something along the way. Thanks for keeping up.