God as our Refuge Part 3
God as our refuge: Part 3
God as our Fortress and Stronghold
Martin Luther
In this blog series, I have covered why we need a refuge in God, and how one of the ways He is our refuge is that He is our Hiding Place. This blog will discuss another aspect of God being our refuge: as our Fortress and Stronghold. The Scriptures are replete with references to God as our fortress and stronghold.
Psalm 144:2 “My lovingkindness and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer; my shield and He in whom I take refuge; who subdues people under me.”
Psalm 46:7 and 11 “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”
Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Psalm 62:6 “He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken.”
Psalm 31:3 “For You are my rock and my fortress; for Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me.”
What is a fortress or stronghold?
When my husband and I visited England and Scotland in Summer of 2024, we saw lots of castles, as I mentioned in my first blog in this series. Castles were used as fortresses to defend against an oncoming enemy. The history of the world is one of many conflicts because of the sinfulness of mens’ hearts. Castles were built because they were an effective way to have a good defense against the enemy, and also to have a place of safety in times of conflict.
The castles that we saw had many security features built into them such as:
*Superior location to gain a defensive advantage against intruders.
*Tall, thick exterior walls equipped with high towers for guards to be ready to alert insiders to enemies approaching.
*A guard house at the entrance for soldiers to be ready to defend against invaders.
*The entrance usually included gates that could be lowered in the case of attack.
* The walls had high slits so that the defenders of the castle could shoot arrows at the intruders below, yet be at minimal risk of getting pierced with oncoming arrows.
*To be ready for a siege, the castle had storerooms for food and ammunition for all who might take refuge there for as long as the siege lasted.
* A fresh source of incoming water was crucial.
Yet invasions came. Defeats were common. Castle security failed.
The imperfect fortresses of this world gives us a taste of the perfect fortress and stronghold we have in God. That fortress can never be defeated and its walls will never be breached.
When we say that God is our fortress or stronghold, what do we mean?
God uses the imagery of fortresses and strongholds purposefully. We all need a place of refuge, a place of safety, defense, support and solace during the trials of life. In the verses where God is depicted as our fortress and stronghold, there is an unshakeable confidence that He will protect us and defend us against our enemies. He will uphold us and give us strength when the storms of life overwhelm us. We can run to Him as our fortress and find peace and safety. For a practical example of God as our fortress and stronghold, we will look at Martin Luther’s life.
Martin Luther was born in Germany on November 10, 1483. He started in obscurity but would become a driving force in the Protestant Reformation. In our day and age, God as love is emphasized while His anger and justice against sin is often ignored. Not so in Luther’s time. The Catholic church was the only church at that time. The God that the priests in the Catholic church taught was an angry and vengeful God. The church taught that penance and good works were needed to atone for sins or the people would face the wrath of God. Because of this teaching, from a young age, Martin was terrified of the wrath of God for his sins. In a moment of terror during a thunder storm where lightning was all around him, he promised that if God saved him, Martin would become a monk.
But even becoming a monk and doing all the “good deeds’ that entailed did not take away his fear of God’s wrath for his sins. It only intensified it. He began to study the Bible and came to know well the verses that show clearly that God is a God of righteousness and justice. He hates sin and will punish it. Martin knew that he was a sinner. God’s standard is perfection and he often broke that standard. Psalm 14:1 has this condemnation of all mankind: “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. Martin knew that he was an enemy of God because he was a sinner. That is terrifying. Ephesians 2:1, 3 has this to say about all of us: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,…among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the heart and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
If anyone could have become righteous and earned heaven by his own good works, it was Martin. He tried valiantly. He also did extra “good works” like depriving himself of food and earthly comforts, going on pilgrimages, and confessing his sins at great length to a priest. He said, “When I first opened a Bible, at Erfurt University, I was loath to close it again until I’d read it from cover to cover. But oh, the Scriptures only made my own sins-my faults and failings-more apparent to me…I kept making vows and promises, but I never seemed to be able to keep them.”(page 41 Mike Fearon’s Luther biography) The Scriptures themselves say, “Therefore the Law became our tutor to lead us to Christ….” (Galatians 6:24a) So, Martin was learning the truth, but only half of it. Martin knew that he could never do enough good works. But how could he be saved from the wrath of God? It took him a lot more time in Scriptures to find the glorious hope of grace and full forgiveness offered in Christ that the Catholic church was not preaching.
The Catholic church was not and still today is not focused on teaching the Scriptures alone. They teach that Christ’s death only opens the door to be able to earn enough good merits to get to heaven. They also believe in purgatory, which is a place where you pay for your sins after death before you can go to heaven in case you don’t do enough good works to make it to heaven right away.
Through the study of the book of Romans, God gave Martin a breakthrough to the truth of how he can have full salvation and forgiveness and deliverance from the wrath of God. Romans 5:7-9 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. But God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” Romans 3:28 “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” Suddenly Martin realized that he could never earn forgiveness for his sins, because his sin was too great. But Romans was showing him that all he had to do was cast himself on the mercy of God, and accept the substitutionary death of Christ for his sins.
“The righteousness of God had demanded that a sinner could not be let off unpunished. But God’s abundant love had required Him to pay the penalty Himself. All Martin had to do was to have faith that God had indeed paid the price, and he could be forgiven. Not only that, but God’s righteousness would become the sinner’s righteousness.” (Fearon page 66) Martin finally understood that salvation was all of God. He only had to take hold of the gift of salvation offered to him freely in Christ, and surrender his own efforts. He finally was free from dread of God and guilt from his sin. He was fully forgiven in Christ!!! Romans 8:1-2 says “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” He had found a perfect and eternal stronghold, a sure defense from the wrath of God by trusting in Christ’s work on the cross and Christ’s perfect life lived in Martin’s place and applied to him. John Newton a couple hundred years later beautifully wrote these words in his hymn Amazing Grace that express Martin’s feelings also: “T’was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.”
Here is a song that also beautifully sums up the truth that gave Martin his freedom and a refuge from God’s wrath: His Robes For Mine (Hymn 181)
With this understanding and deliverance, a fire was lit in Martin’s heart of love for God and for His word in the Bible that had shown Martin the way to full forgiveness in Christ. Martin then learned to find a fortress and stronghold in the authoritative, inerrant, inspired word of God in the Bible. He powerfully preached God’s word to whoever would listen.
The Catholic church was a much larger and more powerful entity than the current day Catholic church. They not only had spiritual power over the people, but also political power. All of Europe was under its thumb. But that kind of widespread power needed money. This was especially true because many of the Catholic officials in Rome were completely corrupt. So they came up with a wicked scheme to convince people that they could buy their dead loved ones out of purgatory and into paradise by buying indulgences. The sellers of these indulgences had this saying: “When a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs”.
Martin knew this was against Scripture, but thought that he could convince the Catholic church to come back to the truth of Scripture by persuasion. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed to the castle door at Wittenberg a document with 95 theses detailing why the indulgences were not in accordance with the words of the Bible. This document became one of the catalysts for the Protestant Reformation. Martin quickly learned that the Catholic church was not going to bow to the authority of Scripture. He was hunted and put on trial and eventually excommunicated for his belief in the authority of Scripture over the dictates of the Catholic church. Many powerful officials in the Catholic church and Europe’s monarchies were seeking his life. For a period of several months he had to go into hiding. God protected him from all of the forces arrayed against him. Martin diligently continued to study the Bible and wrote prolifically. He also translated the Bible into the common German language. That was heresy in the Catholic church. The Bible in the Catholic church was only written and read in Latin, which the common people couldn’t understand. Martin wanted all people to find the truth that he had found in the Bible.
At his final trial before the Catholic officials before his excommunication, he said, “Unless I am shown by the testimony of Scripture and by evidential reasoning-for I do not put faith in the pope or councils alone, because it is established that they have often erred and contradicted themselves-my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for itis neither safe nor right to act against conscience.”
This deep conviction in the authority and supremacy of Scripture over any other authority or word was the main cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation Martin helped launch. The Bible teaching that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in Scripture alone was the battle cry of this movement. That truth is in opposition to what the Catholic church taught then and teaches today, but is faithful to the Bible. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works that no one should boast.”
Martin and the other Reformers’ courage and conviction about the authority of the Bible and its teaching on salvation led to a return to the true gospel. Martin found a stronghold and fortress from God’s wrath in the teaching of Scripture about Christ. He then found a stronghold and fortress in the teachings of the Bible that gave him the courage to stand on its truth no matter what forces were arrayed against him. He could face all of Europe with confidence because he knew the truth in the Bible. He wrote the famous song “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” Here is a video of my church singing this song:
A Mighty Fortress is Our God (Hymn 53) | Grace Community Church Congregation & Orchestra
I hope that you all will find the fortress and stronghold that Martin Luther found in God’s saving grace and in His word in the Bible. Since God’s word is so precious, will you make time to study it so you too can have that stronghold and confidence through all the storms of life?
In the next blog I will focus on how God is our Rock. I will discuss the Scottish Covenanters.
Verses to memorize in response to this blog: Romans 8:1-2 and Psalm 18:2.
Email me with comments or questions at Candice_anastasi@hotmail.com