SOON after Luther's return from Rome, he was invited to be a doctor of divinity.
Luther greatly shrank from it, but his friend Staupitz insisted. "The Holy Ghost alone can make a doctor of divinity," exclaimed Luther. But it was of no avail, he must yield.
In October 1512 Luther was ordained by Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt, and had to take this oath, "I swear to defend the truth of the gospel with all my strength." This was altogether an unscriptural proceeding, but we are merely relating what actually took place. Luther had truly said that the Holy Ghost alone could make a true servant of God. Quite so. But if the Holy Spirit had made him this servant, he needed not the appointment of man, except as to his place in the University: but Luther did not see this. His taking an oath too was all wrong. If God had appointed him to preach and defend the truth of the gospel (as doubtless He had) he was bound to do it; as Paul said, "Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel" (1 Cor. 9:1616For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16)), but we never read of Paul taking any such oath as Luther took.
It was well that Luther had to defend "the truth of the gospel" instead of the Catholic or any other religion. Luther was thus bound to the scriptures. He studied them sedulously, and taught the truth as he himself increased in the knowledge of it.
The people still thronged to hear him preach. To those whose hearts the Lord had touched the truth he proclaimed was as a great light on a dark night, and they flocked to the church. There they might be seen bending with eager intensity to listen to what was to them new truth—truth which they could get in no other way, for they had no scriptures to which they could turn.
“The desire to justify ourselves," said he, "is the spring of all our distress of heart; but he who receives Christ as a Savior has peace, and not only peace, but purity of heart.”
“Faith in Christ strips you of all confidence in your own wisdom, and righteousness and strength; it teaches you that if Christ had not died for you, and saved you by His death, neither you nor any created power could have done so.”
He was of great value too in the University, where so many young men were attending his lectures, "He refuted the error," said Melanchthon afterward, "then prominent in the church and schools that men by their own works obtain remission of sins, and are made righteous before God, by an external discipline He pointed to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.”
All this, perhaps we think, is now well known; but then it was all newly-recovered truth, that had been hidden away from men for centuries, except as God Himself taught one here and there and saved them by His grace.
Hence we come to see the great work for which God had raised up Luther: it was to bring to light hidden truth, and especially the truth of justification by faith. Man had thought that it was to be obtained by works and by punishing himself. Luther thought so once, and, as we have seen, he nearly killed himself in his endeavors to attain to it. Now he knew better. Now he preached that “sin is pardoned on account of God's Son, and that man receives this blessing through faith.
We have called this recovered truth, and so it was, and Luther saw it to be so. He denied that what he taught was new truth. He said it was in the Bible. "Let any one read that book, and then say whether our theology is a new thing. For that book is not new.”
The light that God had given Luther was yet to be further spread. He was directed to make a tour and visit certain monasteries, and wherever he went he made known what God had taught him. Among other places he visited Erfurt, where he had formerly opened the doors and swept the church. He had now authority to some extent to reform abuses; and of these he found plenty. He returned with a still deeper sense of the sad state of that which was called the church of God.
But if Luther had the light—and he had—it must make manifest what was being done in the surrounding darkness. We shall soon see what a contest this caused.
“What is the world? a wildering maze,
Where sin hath track'd ten thousand ways,
Her victims to ensnare;
All broad, and winding, and aslope,
All tempting with perfidious hope,
All ending in despair.
Millions of pilgrims throng these roads,
Bearing their baubles or their loads,
Down to eternal night;
—One only path that never bends,
Narrow, and rough, and steep ascends
From darkness into light.
Is there no guide to show that path?
The Bible!—he alone who bath
The Bible need not stray;
But he who hath and will not give
That light of life to all that live,
Himself may lose the way.