A Wild Boar Loose In The Vineyard

In 1520 Pope Leo X exclaimed, there is a wild boar loose in the vineyard and he has trampled the gospel underfoot.  This was one of the most ironic statements in history.  The wild boar that Pope Leo referred to was Martin Luther (1483-1546) a German monk who would rediscover the Biblical gospel and lead the Protestant Reformation.  In Actuality it was Pope Leo X and the Roman Catholic Church that had trampled the gospel underfoot.  

The Roman Catholic Church had obscured the Bible and because of that it had obscured the gospel.  With its sacramental system and the sale of indulgences (basically buying salvation) the Catholic Church had corrupted the gospel.  In the Roman Catholic view it was God and man working together to accomplish salvation.  Grace was seen as an aid or help for a person to achieve salvation.  It was faith plus works, Christ plus your own accomplishment.  There could be no assurance of salvation, a person had to depend on his own righteousness.  

After studying the Bible, particularly Romans Martin Luther had a breakthrough.  He came to see that Romans 1:17 was referring to a righteousness from God.  We can never be good enough or righteous enough to earn our own salvation.   Luther rediscovered the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  One is justified by faith apart from works.  To justify means to declare righteous, not to make righteous.  To be right with God we must have what Luther referred to as an "alien righteousness", a righteousness outside ourselves.  It is the righteousness of Christ that we need.  

Christ takes our sin on himself and gives us his perfect righteousness.  Luther rightly saw grace as God's unmerited favor toward us. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  It is the work of God alone.  

For daring to question the authority of the Pope and the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther was excommunicated and declared a heretic and an outlaw.  But Luther rightly saw that Scripture alone is the ultimate authority and recovered the true gospel.   

Justification by faith alone
Romans 1:16-17
Romans 3:21-28
2 Corinthians 5:21
Galatians 2:16
Ephesians 2:8-9
Philippians 3:9