Melanchthon's House

Hi, I’m Pastor Lutzer. Several of us are traveling around Germany learning something about its history. Today, we are in Wittenberg, and we’re actually in the house of Melanchthon. Of course, you don’t hear about him as often as you hear about Luther, but he was Luther’s assistant. He was actually a systematic theologian.

Now, when it comes to Luther, he turned out one book and pamphlet after another, and he didn’t systematize his thoughts. Melanchthon did that. As a matter of fact, Melanchthon is actually buried in the castle church, just a few feet away from Luther. But most interesting, Melanchthon had a great impact upon the Reformation because of the Augsburg Confession.

Now, this is a very fascinating story. Luther was not able to go to Augsburg because Charles V had put a ban on him, and theoretically he could have been killed. So Melanchthon took his place. Luther was in agony because he feared that Melanchthon would give ground and confuse the whole idea of the Reformation. You must realize that Melanchthon was actually very irenic. He was concerned about compromise. But nonetheless, when the Augsburg Confession was finally written, Luther apparently agreed with it, and today, the Augsburg Confession is one of the most important documents of the Reformation.

And I might say that it is an interesting document, not just for Lutheran theology, but for all of us. It helps us to understand the difference between Lutheranism and Calvinism, especially when it comes to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, which of course, both reject, but at the same time, the nature of the Lord’s Supper. Is it literal, even though there’s no transformation, as Luther taught, or is it purely symbolic? Well, no matter where you fall on that question, I have to tell you this. We’re in the house of someone whose impact was huge: Melanchthon, Luther’s assistant. The takeaway is this: famous men oftentimes need good assistants because they can’t do it alone.