Monastery and Rome Crisis
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
During his days in the monastery, Martin Luther wrestled with how he could be justified before God as a sinful man. Today, R.C. Sproul explains Luther's desperate struggle to reconcile his guilt with the holiness of God.
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Meet Today's Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Luther's trip to Rome was the most significant disillusionment of his life. |
| 0:05.7 | When he got to Rome, instead of finding a holy city, he found a city that was marked by |
| 0:11.7 | unprecedented corruption, and that scandalized this idealistic young monk. |
| 0:26.6 | Martin Luther didn't have peace with God. He had searched for it in the monastery, but didn't find it. |
| 0:30.6 | So perhaps he would find it when he took a pilgrimage to Rome, |
| 0:33.6 | known to some as the Holy City. |
| 0:36.6 | Welcome to the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. |
| 0:40.3 | I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. |
| 0:44.3 | God used Martin Luther, an obscure Augustinian monk, to stand up against popes and emperors |
| 0:50.3 | in defense of the gospel. |
| 0:52.3 | And I'm thankful that the Lord did, as the good news that he |
| 0:55.9 | recovered and defended spread like wildfire. And if you're a believer today, it's this gospel |
| 1:02.8 | that we believe and proclaim. But Luther's journey to discover the good news would begin with a moment of |
| 1:10.6 | crisis. |
| 1:12.1 | So today, R.C. Sprold will explain the crisis Luther faced as he ventured to the city |
| 1:17.3 | of Rome in 1510. |
| 1:20.3 | Here's Dr. Sprole. |
| 1:24.4 | In a book I wrote several years ago, entitled The Holiness of God, I included an entire chapter |
| 1:31.3 | called The Insanity of Luther. |
| 1:36.2 | And the reason why I chose that title for the chapter was in the 20th century, there was |
| 1:42.7 | something of a fashion among scholars to examine the personality |
| 1:49.0 | and the behavior of Luther from a distance. And some of those who were involved in the field |
... |
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