Happy Reformation Day!
Treasured Friends,
On All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) in 1517, when an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on the door of the local castle in Wittenberg, Germany, he merely hoped for the opportunity to engage in a debate. What he could not have fathomed was the far reaching revolution that would ensue which would touch nearly every aspect of society in Europe and North America. Indeed, were we all to drill down to our core assumptions and convictions – not only religious, but social and political as well – we would find they are shaped in large part by the ideas central to the Protestant Reformation.
Each Sunday as we gather, we celebrate the very gospel good news that Luther believed had become buried under a burdensome religious system that largely left believers more fearful and less certain of their standing before God. In so many ways, medieval Catholicism had replaced the clear message of Scripture that sinners are saved completely by Christ alone with one that drew a strong connection between one’s salvation and their regular participation in the ministries of the Church. Only then could a believer have the assurance of God’s favor. The gospel of God’s own work in Christ to justify and save was replaced by a system that emphasized the believer’s need to earn God’s favor by stacking up a record so faithful God could not ignore it.
Dear friends, our religious participation is vital, but for a far more fundamental reason. Each Sunday, we come before God to confess our sins and hear again the wonderful promise and declaration that He has forgiven us and is making us anew, not by our strength or goodness but His own. We do not worship God in order to save ourselves, rather we worship the God who alone can save us, and who has freely chosen to do so in Christ. The gospel is the message of God’s radical gift given freely, not of a reward we have somehow forced Him to give. This is what makes grace what it is. It is God handing over to us in complete freedom what we could not supply ourselves. To paraphrase the words of the Apostle Paul from Galatians 2:21: “if we could save ourselves, Christ died for nothing.”
Thus we never escape the so-called “solas” (“alones”) of our Protestant and Reformed faith. Through Scripture alone (sola Scriptura) we receive the gospel guarantee that we sinners are saved through Christ alone (solus Christus). This gift of grace (sola Gratia) is one we receive only by faith (sola Fide), which is also God’s gift to us; and therefore, even our very ability to trust and find peace through Christ is only to the glory of God (soli Deo Gloria): Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Happy Reformation Day…and to God alone be all the glory, forever and ever!
On the journey with you,
Mike