The Insanity of Luther

Renewing Your Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Reformed, Study, Jesus, Preaching, Christianity, Scripture, Spirit, Bible, Holy, Theology, Christian, God, Teaching

4.8 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What will a holy God do with sinful people? This question nearly drove Martin Luther to despair. Today, R.C. Sproul explains where Luther found relief: in the righteousness that God Himself provides to all who trust in Jesus Christ.

Request the new 40th-anniversary edition of R.C. Sproul’s book The Holiness of God, plus lifetime digital access to both the classic teaching series and the extended teaching series, with your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3885/donate

Meet Today’s Teacher:

R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.

Meet the Host:

Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.

Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before Luther ever studied theology, he had already distinguished himself with brilliance as a student of the law.
0:08.3	And he took that sharply acute, trained, legal mind, and he applied it to the law of God.
0:15.8	And then he would look at the law of God and its demands.
0:19.5	He kept evaluating himself, not by comparing himself to other human beings, but by looking at the law of God and its demands. He kept evaluating himself, not by comparing himself to other human
0:23.4	beings, but by looking at the standard of the character of God, the righteousness of God,
0:27.8	and he saw himself so awful in comparison to the righteousness of God that after a while
0:33.7	he began to hate any idea of the righteousness of God.
0:43.8	Was Martin Luther, the 16th century reformer, insane?
0:48.9	Some have suggested he was, or perhaps he understood the law of God and the demands of the law, and just how
0:55.9	far he fell short of it. This is the Thursday edition of renewing your mind as we spend a week
1:02.3	reflecting on God's holiness and marking the 40th anniversary of the publication of R.C. Sproul's
1:08.6	landmark book, the Holiness of God. Today, R.C. Sprole's landmark book, The Holiness of God.
1:12.2	Today, R.C. Sprole considers Martin Luther, what led to his perceived insanity,
1:18.5	and then Luther's discovery of the good news as he read the Book of Romans.
1:23.3	Here's Dr. Sprole.
1:26.7	I'd like to begin this session with a question from church history.
1:32.1	See if you can identify for me the famous theologian who was once described by a contemporary
1:40.7	who had more authority than he did as a wild pig.
1:48.3	By now, obviously, the name has popped into your mind. I'm referring, of course, to
1:54.0	Martin Luther. And the one who referred to him as a wild pig was Pope Leo.
2:04.6	In the papal bull that excommunicated Luther,
2:10.6	the name of the bull was ex-surgey Domene, which is taken from the opening lines of this papal statement
	...

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