A Brief Look At The Reformation

Romans 3:22-25 For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

The Reformation is recognized to have begun in 1517, when Martin Luther, a German monk and university professor, posted his ninety-five theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. In the years following this landmark, yet seemingly innocent event, the Reformers read and preached the Word of God, and the gospel was unleashed.

However, before discussing salvation, the Reformers needed to enlighten their listeners in regard to the Biblical teaching on sin. Sin had become an issue of quantity, that is, ‘sins’. The remedy was to store up merits (graces) alongside of demerits (sins). Then sins committed through a person’s life could be dealt with through the sacrament of penance, by obtaining (buying) indulgences, and by being purified after one’s death in purgatory. It was precisely this abuse of indulgences in the early 1500s that led Martin Luther to begin his offensive against the Church of the day.

As Luther continued reading Scripture, especially Romans, he learned that our problem far outweighs sins in quantity. We are sinners at the core. No matter how saintly we might act, we can never overcome our utter unrighteousness in the sight of a holy and righteous God. Sin, in essence, is both quantitative (the number of sins we commit) and qualitative (we are sinners at the core).

Confronted and challenged by Paul’s letter to the Romans, Luther also learned that the righteousness that God demands of us is one that we cannot muster up ourselves. Instead, it is the righteousness that Christ accomplished for us through His active and passive obedience in His life and in His death on the cross. It is a righteousness that comes to us through Christ alone. We cannot earn it. It is precisely because this righteousness comes through Christ alone that we receive it by grace alone (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide) in Christ alone (sola Christus). And all this is for the glory of God alone (Soli Deo gloria)!

The gift and the legacy of the Reformation entrusted to us is the rediscovery of the Biblical doctrines embodied in the five Solas. The church of our current age would do well to reform much wayward theology by submitting to the authority of Scripture alone, proclaiming the gospel of grace and justification by faith alone through Christ alone, and by seeing all of life in the service of our primary vocation – living for the glory of God alone. Let’s join together in praying….

‘Father, awaken me to the truth of Your Word. Show me where I have been distracted and deceived by the unscriptural practices and beliefs of the church of today. Give me a hunger for you and the purity of the Word, so that my life will be to the glory of you alone. Amen.’

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