Lessons from the struggles of Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism
Tan Seng Kong // July 7, 2025, 5:19 pm
Martin Luther struggled with what he witnessed being taught by the Church that contradicted the Bible, leading to his leaving his vocation and registering his protest. Shown here, the Martin Luther monument in Dresden, Germany. Photo from Depositphotos.com.
On July 2, 1505, young Martin Luther was riding back to the University of Erfurt from his parents’ home in Mansfeld when he was nearly struck by a thunderbolt.
Terrified for his life, he uttered a desperate prayer, vowing to enter a monastery if he were spared.
Martin survived the thunderstorm and, with great sincerity – but against his father’s wishes – gave up a promising legal career to join an Augustinian monastery.
Brother Martin wore the monk’s habit for nearly 20 years, a path considered holy during his time.
But at the age of 41, he left his vocation, married an ex-nun named Katharina von Bora, and started a family.
The door of Castle Church in Wittenberg upon which Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses in 1517. Photo from Depositphotos.com.
The priesthood of all believers
Luther did not reject the vocation of the monk in its pursuit of the Christian life but for its corruption during his time. To God, Luther confessed that he took up the monk’s habit “for the sake of disciplining my body, of serving my neighbour, and of meditating upon thy word. I do this just as another man may take up farming or a trade.”
In the 16th century, becoming a monk or priest was regarded as a more perfect way of being Christian. Luther wrote: “There are indeed priests whom we call ministers. They are chosen from among us, and who do everything in our name.”
Participants in the 2017 BGST Reformation Tour standing at the very spot the 95 Theses was nailed. Photo courtesy of Lai Pak-Wah.
Contrary to this, Luther’s view was that “we are all priests, as many of us as are Christians.”
He believed that in baptism, all Christians make the same vow: “To slay sin and to become holy through the work and grace of God, to whom we yield and offer ourselves, as clay to the potter. In this no one is in a better position than another.”
He reclaimed the biblical notion of the priesthood of all believers, emphasising that ordinary believers could live holy lives in everyday places, stations and activities to which God called them.
As “a royal priesthood”, whether one is a monk or a Christian homemaker, both are called to perfect their love for God and neighbour.
The Gospel of grace
Luther also gave up his monastic vows because he saw how it had strayed from the Gospel of grace.
At first, like many of the monks around him, Luther practiced fasting, repentance, prayers, and other works “to attain righteousness and salvation or to make satisfaction for my sins.”
Later on, he would come to realise that one cannot ascend a ladder of good works to please God.
Portrait of Martin Luther (1530) by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Photo courtesy of Lai Pak-Wah.
As an Augustinian friar, Luther was familiar with a common monastic way of praying the Scriptures: Reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation (lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio).
As one practitioner put it: “Reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation … make a ladder for the monk by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven.” In this way, the monk engages in a spiritual journey both upward and inward to find holiness.
However, Luther disagreed that praying the Scriptures should keep one cloistered within the walls of a monastery. Drawing from Psalm 119, he suggested another order: Prayer, meditation, and trial (oratio, meditatio, tentatio).
The Luther House was where Martin Luther spent most of his adult life. Photo courtesy of Lai Pak-Wah.
For Luther, simply reading the Scriptures (lectio) was not enough. Instead, he believed that a spiritual understanding of the Bible should undergird all our prayers, meditations, and trials.
The critical change was his replacement of contemplation with trial (tentatio). For Luther, a Christian grows through the temptations, trials, and struggles of life.
Just as God descended in Christ to serve us, the holy life is a fruit of gratitude for God’s free grace, which leads us down the mountain of contemplation and out into the world to serve others.
What Reformation Day means for us today
Reformation Day, which falls on October 31, is when the church commemorates Luther nailing his 95 theses on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg.
What might the struggles of Brother Martin mean for us today?
There are two takeaways.
First, no amount of good work on our part, whether spiritual disciplines, confession of sins, fasting, giving to charity, helping others, and even praying can save us. No matter how hard we try to climb the spiritual mountain, we will never be able to reach God.
To change the metaphor, we have zero will and strength to pull ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps. And whether one is a monk, Pastor, or Bishop, he is no closer to the summit than a cobbler, barber, merchant, wife, mother or civil servant.
But Luther did not stop at that bit of bad news. He also reminded us of the good news of grace: That God reached down from heaven through Jesus to do the work we cannot do to save ourselves.
The BGST Germany Reformation Tour leads participants in the footsteps of Martin Luther through significant locations of his ministry. Photo courtesy of Lai Pak-Wah.
Second, because of Christ’s work, we are freed by His Holy Spirit into respond to God and do good works for others.
So, we can retreat to the hills – like the monks – to pray as Jesus did. But we do not just ascend the mountain of prayer to remain on the summit. We descend to the valleys to minister to others and do good works. Or, to use Luther’s imagery, by the power of God’s Word and Spirit, we enter into the struggles, trials and temptations of the city.
Modern day Wittenberg. Photo courtesy of Lai Pak-Wah.
In our frenetic 21st-century lives, where East Asian work ethic and meritocracy prevail, we find ourselves often resting in order to work more, and returning from packed holidays more tired than before we left. Perhaps, in our struggles in the city, there is a need for us to recover contemplative prayer.
With Luther in mind, we might add another step to the ancient practice of divine reading: reading, prayer, meditation, contemplation, and action (lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplation, actio). This addition highlights the importance of putting faith into everyday practice while acknowledging our contemporary temptation to activism.
As Protestants in Singapore, we recognise that Luther’s historical and personal context demanded a radical response. Just as Brother Martin’s theology and spirituality changed as he abandoned the monastery to become a pioneering Reformer, the lessons we take from 16th feudal, Christian Germany must be adapted to our own urban, multi-religious, democratic context.
Intrigued by the history of our Protestant roots? The Biblical School of Graduate Theology will be conducting the BGST Germany Reformation Tour 2025 from November 4-12. Walk in the footsteps of Luther as guided by Dr Lim Kar Yong. This journey is more than just history – it’s a spiritual pilgrimage that invites deep reflection on the biblical foundations of justification by faith.
Click here to register. Registration closes August 31, 2025.
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