When Martin Luther began publishing abroad his new teaching, the time came for him to take a stand and he took it. The gentle and scholarly Erasmus advocated many of the same ideas as Luther, but he had not the courage to take his stand so boldly. Scholars sometimes quip, somewhat inaccurately, that Luther hatched the egg Erasmus laid. Nevertheless, when Luther was called before all the ecclesiastical and political power of medieval Europe to answer for his teachings, as to whether they were his, he replied: "I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. Amen." No wonder Luther's teaching had a ring of authority heard all over the world. He staked his life on it. Amidst the blizzard of information available today, you can be sure we are on to something significant when the teacher begins to stake his reputation, even his life, on it. Talk is one thing, but commitment to the subject matter of the talk is quite another.

As in Luther, so in Jesus we have a man who takes a stand on what he is saying.