Radical Love for Christ

Martin Luther is a man of major controversy. His contributions to the Church are astounding: a New Testament in German, Sola Scriptura/ Ad Fontes (Scripture Alone, back to Sources), and that we serve a God of Love. All of these revelations actually are contained in the words of our Lord and God Jesus and His Disciples in the New Testament, Holy Bible. Luther's real contribution is Reformation, a return to the Truth of the Bible and believing what it claims, rather than councils and popes. This was revolutionary, and here is why, 

"Luther was not a systematic theologian, trading in logical definitions or philosophical consistency. The systematizers  who followed his wake  picked out two key principles in his thought, Sole Fide and Sola Scripture: "Faith alone" and "Scripture alone." But this risks missing the point. Luther's theology was not a doctrine; it was a love affair. Consuming love for God has been part of Christian experience since the beginning, put Luther's passion had a reckless extravagance that set it apart, and which down Protestantism History. He pursued His love for God with blithe disregard for the bounds set by church and tradition. It was intense, desolating, intoxicating passion, sparked by his life-upending glimpse of God's incomprehensible , terrible, beautiful, and beautiful love for him. Like any lover, he found it incredible that his beloved should love him, unworthy as he was. And yet he discovered over the long years of prayer and study, that God loved him wildly, irresponsibly, and beyond all reason. God, in Christ, had laid down his life for him. This was not as the medieval's subtle theology had taught, a transaction, or a process by which believers to do whatever was in their power to pursue holiness. It was a sheer gift, all that mattered was accepting it. This talk of grace and free forgiveness was dangerous. If grace is free, and all we need do is believe, surely that would lead to moral anarchy? The fact that free forgiveness can look like a license to sin has plagued Protestantism for centuries. But for Luther, to even ask this question was blockheaded. What kind of lover needs rules about how to love? What kind of lover has to be bribed or threatened into loving? God loves us unreservedly. If we recognize that love, we love him unreservedly in return. 

Luther's breakthrough a dazzling, corrosive, simplicity to it. The power of those two principles, "faith alone," and "Scripture alone," lay in the word "alone." There is nothing and no one else other than God incarnate in Jesus Christ worth attending to. Being a Christian means throwing yourself abjectly, unreservedly, on Christ's mercy. Living the Christian life is to live Christ's Life-that is, abandoning all security and worldly ambitions to follow Him "through penalties, deaths, and hell." It is only then that we may find peace. That ravishing paradox is at heart of Protestantism." (The Protestants, Alec Ryrie, pages 20-21). 

Luther challenged the status quo, the theology and doxology of the Roman Catholic Church which was merit and money based. Luther was returning to a theology of God's Love, and being in love with Jesus and following Him everywhere; Solus Christus (Christ Alone). This was not a ideology antithetical to Scripture, but based on it, "Get out of here, Satan," Jesus told him. "For the Scriptures say, 'You must worship the LORD your God and serve only him," (Matthew 4:10), "And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," (Luke 10:27), "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world's interest in me has also died," (Galatians 6:14), and "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you." (Philippians 3:8-9, 15). There is prime evidence in Scripture of making Jesus the sole object of our affections, and ambitions. 

Martin Luther may not have reformed the Roman Church, but another named Thomas Kempis was part of a reform in Catholic Church known as Devotio Moderna, in 14th century. Here is what Kempis said:
"Of the imitation of Christ, and of contempt of the world and all
its vanities
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, saith the
Lord.  These are the words of Christ; and they teach us how far
we must imitate His life and character, if we seek true
illumination, and deliverance from all blindness of heart.  Let
it be our most earnest study, therefore, to dwell upon the life
of Jesus Christ.
2. His teaching surpasseth all teaching of holy men, and such as
have His Spirit find therein the hidden manna.  But there are
many who, though they frequently hear the Gospel, yet feel but
little longing after it, because they have not the mind of
Christ.  He, therefore, that will fully and with true wisdom
understand the words of Christ, let him strive to conform his
whole life to that mind of Christ.
 Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, save to love God, and Him only to serve.  That is the
highest wisdom, to cast the world behind us, and to reach forward
to the heavenly kingdom." (The Imitation of Christ, Chapter One). 

Between Luther's revelation and those of Catholic Monks in Late Middle Ages, and more importantly the words of Jesus Christ himself and the apostles in Bible; it is clear that we must make loving Jesus Christ are chief aim and goal in life. He is all that matters, the One who made us (John 1:3), and who died for our sins (1 Peter 2:24) and rose from dead (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and shall come on clouds to judge the living and dead (Revelation 1:7, Revelation 19:11-16, and Revelation 21:8). Let our chief aim be to abandon the ambitions of this world, and follow after the Alpha and Omega, know him in personal loving relationship (John 17:3), and as Martin Luther believed quoting the Bible, "There is nothing and no one else other than God incarnate in Jesus Christ worth attending to. Being a Christian means throwing yourself abjectly, unreservedly, on Christ's mercy. Living the Christian life is to live Christ's Life-that is, abandoning all security and worldly ambitions to follow Him "through penalties, deaths, and hell." It is only then that we may find peace." (Alec Ryrie, The Protestants, page 21).