A Study on the Understanding of the Law and Sabbath in the Views of Martin Luther

Martin Luther was one of the greatest reformers in the sixteenth century. He led the revolt against the Roman Catholic Church, which hid biblical truths from themasses for many centuries. Luther confronted the Church by posting his 95 thesesat Wittenberg on 31 October 1517. Luther promoted sola scriptura, which meansthe Scriptures is the source of all doctrines and teachings, and they provideauthority for the Church. However, as Luther uplifted Sola Scriptura as theprinciple for understanding the Bible regarding the Ten Commandments, heargued that they did not refer to Christian life objectively. He insisted that Moses’rendition of the Ten Commandments was simply his meditation on natural law ofGod written on all human hearts. Luther believed that the Ten Commandmentswere given to Moses for the Jews only. This meant that keeping the Law does notapply to Christians. During the Protestant Reformation, most Christians worshipGod on Sunday which they considered as the Lord’s Day. As the leading figureof the reformation, Luther did not emphasize the day of worship and thesignificance of Sabbath day. Although Luther believed that the Sabbath day wasthe day of rest and a part God’s law, he considered it equal to all other days andnot a day God sanctified during creation. Luther’s understanding of the Law andSabbath has a huge impact to Christians, generally. This paper studied andreviewed Luther’s view of the validity of the Law and Sabbath, and its relation tothe Christians. To complete the study, the researcher used primary resources asfound in Luther’s Works and included secondary sources