Church History
“Freedom of Christian”
It was in the sixteenth-century that a “Reform Movement “began in the Western church of Europe. The office of the papacy had been involved in the political life in the Western Europe over the centuries. These resulted in corruption and abuse of power in the church. One of the dominant figures in this movement is Martin Luther. His “Freedom of a Christian” was published around 1520 is his letter to Pope Leo X on the eve of his excommunication from the church. This letter confirmed Martin Luther’s loyalty to the pope but also ripping some of the Pope’s staff and those people who been challenging Luther to retract his teachings. His treatise is his way of emphasizing his teachings on God’s grace, Good works and teachings on “Faith”.
To quote him “ A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone”. For Luther, a person gains freedom in Jesus Christ through the Word of God. It is through God’s Word that we hear the good news of God’s promise and attain his love and grace. Within the Word is Christ himself, who demonstrated God’s power in Christ crucifixion and Christ’s death for human kind.
The freedom we have in Christ is the freedom from those things that connect us and the freed ...