Martin Luther On Trusting in God and not in Ourselves
Early in his treatise, Luther writes that he has high hopes for the new Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Luther writes, “God has given us a noble youth to be our head and thereby has awakened great hopes of good in many hearts; wherefore it is fitting that we should do our part and profitably use this time of grace.”
The “noble youth” to which Luther referred was Charles V, who twenty years old at the time. Charles had been elected emperor the year before in 1519 – Luther wrote his treatise in 1520 – and would preside over the Diet of Worms the very next year in 1521.
What Luther wrote next is our chief concern today.
In this whole matter the first and most important thing is that we take earnest heed not to enter on it trusting great might or in human reason, even though all power in the world were ours; for God cannot and will not suffer a good work to be begun with trust in our own power or reason. Such works He crushes ruthlessly to earth, as it (Ps. 33:16) is written in the 23rd Psalm, “There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.” On this account, I fear, it came to pass of old that the good Emperors Frederick I and II and many other German emperors were shamefully oppressed and trodden under foot by the popes, although all the world feared them. It may be that they relied on own might more than on God, and therefore they had to fall. In our own times, too, what was it that raised the bloodthirsty Julius II to such heights? Nothing else, I fear, except that France, the Germans and Venice relied (Judges 20:21) upon themselves. The children of Benjamin slew 42,000 Israelites 11 because the latter relied on their own strength.
That it may not so fare with us and our noble young Emperor Charles, we must be sure that in this matter are dealing not with men, but with the princes of hell, who can fill the world with war and bloodshed, but whom war and bloodshed do not overcome. We must go at this work despairing of physical force and humbly trusting God; we must seek God’s help with earnest prayer, and fix our minds on nothing else than the misery and distress of suffering Christendom, without regard to the deserts of evil men. Otherwise we may start the game with great prospect of success, but when we get well into it the evil spirits will stir up such confusion that the whole world will swim in blood, and yet nothing will come of it. Let us act wisely, therefore, and in the fear of God. The more force we use, the greater our disaster if we do not act humbly and in God’s fear. The popes and the Romans have hitherto been able, by the devil’s help, to set kings at odds with one another, and they may well be able to do it again, if we proceed by our own might and cunning, without God’s help.
What’s the first thing that Luther writes here? He writes, “In this whole matter the first and most important thing is that we take earnest heed not to enter on it trusting great might or in human reason…for God cannot and will not suffer a good work to be begun with trust in our own power or reason.”
One of the besetting sins of Israel, and one of the besetting sins of the church in our own time, is a tendency to trust in our own skill and fortitude and wisdom rather than trusting in God. One of the most famous examples of this in Scripture is Peter’s spectacular failure at Jesus trial, where, trusting in himself, he failed to hold up under the questioning of a servant girl. If Peter, an apostle, couldn’t stand in his own strength, what chance to we have of standing in ours?
In his letter, Luther cites in support of this idea Ps. 33:16, which reads, “No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.” There are other passages in the Old Testament that make a similar point. Ps. 20:7, for example reads, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” The prophet Isaiah chastises those who went down to Egypt to seek Pharaoh’s help but did not turn to the Lord.
“That’s all very well, this business of seeking the Lord,” someone may say. “But what does that mean for me in our present circumstances?”
Good question.
Luther answers, in the first place, we are not to trust in our own power or reason. I take this to mean principally that we do not act in ways that seem good to us, but take our instructions on what to do from the Word of God. Luther provides a couple of examples of men who sought to fight the pope in their own strength and lost. Let us learn from their example and not make that mistake.
One thing the Bible tells us is that we are to speak out against wickedness. In Ephesians, we read that we are to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness. How do we know what are unfruitful works of darkness? We know it from the Scriptures. Therefore, we must study the Word of God, for through it we become wiser than the rest of the world and have our senses honed to discern good from evil.
Second, we must know what we’re up against. Luther noted that “The popes and the Romans have hitherto been able, by the devil’s help, to set kings at odds with one another.” Ultimately, we’re not fighting against political progressives, Critical Race Theory hustlers or the media. This is a spiritual battle. As Paul tells us, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
One way we can see the truth of this is the constant stream of propaganda (official lies) we’re all subject to constantly, every day from mainstream news outlets, which propagate the official explanations of events that America’s corrupt ruling class wants us all to believe The liars who lie to us have as their father the devil, who himself is the father of lies.
Third, worth noting too is that Luther specifically names Rome as the enemy against whom the Christian nobility of the German Nation was contending. In like fashion, Christians today are engaged in a struggle against the Babylonian Harlot and her Antichrist pope.
This is a highly unpopular point to make in the 21st century, even amount Protestants who of all people should know the identity of Antichrist and speak out against him. Yet not only do American Protestant watchmen remain silent while Jesuits, popes, priests, bishops, and cardinals subvert their republic, destroy their nation’s sovereignty and push every sort of evil under the guise of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, they have become so blind as to think these great enemies of Christ, of life and of liberty are somehow their allies in culture wars.
Christians must speak out and pray against Rome. As Charles Spurgeon once remarked, it is the duty of every Christian man to do so. And there is no better time than the present, seeing that we now have a loyal son of Rome in the White House.
Closing Thoughts
Yes, you and I as Christians face some difficult times ahead. But rather than falling into despair, let us take a lesson from Luther, the man who, by God’s grace, took on the seemingly all-powerful Roman Church-State and won. And he won, because he knew to trust in God, not in his own strength, he knew it was a spiritual battle he was fighting, not one of flesh and blood, and finally he understood what Rome was.
Five Hundred years after Luther, Christians must one again learn these lessons if, against the wishes of America’s corrupt ruling elite, we are to advance the kingdom of Christ and preserve our civilization.
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Steve, so true. Here’s one for the Bidens in the White House from Luther: “The world and the masses are and always will be unchristian, although they are baptized and nominally Christian. Hence a man who would venture to govern an entire community or the world with the Gospel would be like a shepherd who would place in one fold wolves, lions, eagles, and sheep. The sheep would keep the peace, but they would not last long. The world cannot be ruled with a rosary.” Here I Stand, Martin Luther, Roland Bainton