The writer to the Hebrews, in the closing chapter of his book, offered his readers this encouragement: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Heb 13:7 NIV). Most likely, he wanted his readers to call to mind those who had served as their spiritual leaders, what we might refer to as pastors. The writer desired that they consider carefully not only what their pastors had taught them, but also how those leaders had conducted themselves as children of God. Though they faced persecution for their Christian testimony, perhaps even martyrdom, they refused to abandon the Christian faith in fear. With their hearts fixed on the sure and certain promises of God, they remained faithful to the end. It was as if the writer to the Hebrews were saying, “You witnessed their faithfulness in trials. The Lord who enabled them to be faithful is your Lord, too. So imitate their trust in the promises of God, because you know how their story ended—God was glorified, God’s people were encouraged, and they were blessed.”
Though the writer to the Hebrews almost certainly was pointing his readers to spiritual leaders alongside whom they lived, it isn’t wrong to think of the “leaders who spoke the word of God to you” in broader terms. None of us had the privilege of sitting at Martin Luther’s feet as he lectured on the Psalms or preached at the city church in Wittenberg. Yet he has spoken the Word of God to us through his many writings that have remained to this day.[1] None of us witnessed personally how the Reformer conducted his life, unless watching Luther movies counts. (And I don’t think it does.) At the same time, we do know quite a bit about how Luther carried out the ministry entrusted to him. While Luther was a sinner in desperate need of the grace of God in Christ, a fact he readily confessed, he still serves as a helpful model for us five hundred years later. We want to imitate his God-given confidence in the Lord’s promises, with the prayer that the Lord would enable us to stand firm in Christian faith, confess the Savior’s gospel with humble confidence, and trust him to work through us for the benefit of others and the glory of his name.
There is much for Christians to learn from the way Dr. Luther conducted himself throughout his years of ministry. This essay means to focus especially on what the Lord accomplished in and through the Reformer at the Diet of Worms, the quincentennial of which we celebrated earlier this year. There Luther stood before some of the world’s most powerful leaders, with his life on the line. There he took a stand against the teachings of the Roman church that obscured the merits of Christ, deprived the Lord of the glory he deserved as the one who chooses to love undeserving sinners, and robbed consciences of the comfort God desired them to have. By reviewing the events of the Diet of Worms and the way the Reformer conducted himself, this essay aims to identify ways in which we can imitate Luther’s faith today.
From “Here We Stand: Imitating Luther’s Faith” by Earle Treptow, written for the 2021 WELS Synod Convention.
[1]. This was not Luther’s wish. In his Preface to the Wittenberg Edition of Luther’s German Writings, Luther wrote, “I would have been quite content to see my books, one and all, remain in obscurity and go by the board.” His desire was that his writings would lead people to search the Scriptures and make his writings superfluous. It is a good reminder for us as we read Luther today—his writings function best when they drive us to the Scriptures. Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Volume 34 (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1960), 283. Hereafter Luther’s Works will be noted by LW, followed by the volume and then the page number.