Dear Trekker,
In a few days, the Church in all its disparate forms will celebrate the 500th commencement of what history has come to call “the Reformation.” For three quarters of the time since the Son of God, Jesus Christ, made Earth “the visited planet,” church history has been seen primarily through the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church. After October 31, 1517, all that changed.
Who and what sparked such a cataclysmic reformation? Martin Luther, a professor and Augustinian friar posted his now famous “Ninety-five Theses” on the door of the Cathedral in the small town of Wittenberg, Germany. He was reacting to and proposing theological debate on the Catholic Church practice of indulgences (payment for one’s sins).
What was at stake? To be blunt, the very heart of the “good news,” the Gospel. If good works or money can remove the stain and punishment of sin, the Gospel as spoken of in Scripture is transformed into nothing more than human endeavor. Do you pay for forgiveness of your sins or repent of them and be transformed by the power of God? Two radically different approaches! My mind goes to the encounter of the Apostle Peter with Simon, the magician in Samaria (Acts 8:1-25). Simon supposed he could “buy the power of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit clearly was the gift of God’s grace and forgiveness. Peter was quite adamant, v. 20, 21: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God.”
Now let’s be clear, trekker, this whole idea of “saving man,” this specially created being, made in the image of the eternal God, was all God’s idea. It was His initiative in the infinite past. His provision played out in history (John 3:16), and the reality is it “simply is what it is” and the parameters of its effectiveness and efficacious removal of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus cannot be changed. It is a Divine provision, to be believed, disbelieved, or ignored as if it were not an issue of life. The Spirit brings Ephesians 2:8,9 to mind: “For it is by grace (alone) you have been saved, through faith (alone) and this (is) not of yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works (money), so that no one can boast (“Look what I did.”).
Whenever the essence of the Gospel is lost, changed or tainted to the degree that the uniqueness of God’s work in salvation disappears or is obscured, the need for reformation in the church emerges. It was true in 1517; many would say it is ever present even today.
St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians underscores the singularity and purity of the Gospel God ordained and carried out through the willing death of His Son (Galatians 1:1-18). The gospel is “free grace” because God Himself paid for it. “Jesus Paid It All” as the gospel hymn so clearly states. There is nothing a person can ever do to win the favor of God apart from the cross. Neither salvation nor forgiveness, available only through God’s unconditional love and personal sacrifice, can be gained through “good works.” All man can do is throw himself/herself at the foot of the cross and accept the love and mercy of God in an act of faith.
The Gospel implies man’s gratitude; so it is not what we can do for ourselves, but what God has done for us. St. Paul is holding up the cross and saying in essence, “God loves you this much; He died for you.” So our faith never rests on anything we might do. Religion, the Apostle implies, becomes not a matter of rule keeping, good works or self-improvement to gain Divine approval and affirmation. Rather, religion must be based on God alone and should always be about carrying out God’s purpose of redemption, and loving Him back as well as loving our fellowman as He loved (see John 13:33-35).
So why the Reformation 500 years ago? The Church had lost the essence of its nature. It was not propagating God’s truth; it was slinking back into old ways of self-justification and human derived provision… the very antithesis of the Gospel. God steps in when His Gospel is perverted. God is holy and just…giving holiness and justice in his death for all.
Yet, in the 16th Century and for centuries leading up to the Reformation, the Good News was hidden from the “common man in the pew.” He could not read the Latin Scriptures. The Scriptures were only understood through the filters of the Catholic Church. Hence, translation by Luther, Calvin, Tyndale and other reformers was an essential quality and most positive result of the Reformation. Our salvation is proclaimed today directly through the Scriptures, and that direct proclamation is a result of the Reformation. The freeing of the individual to be all God intends emerged anew when the Scriptures were translated into the language of the people. Another result… widespread (universal) education was begun. The industrial revolution and the Enlightenment each trace their heritage back to the Reformation. Likewise, capitalism (economics) and the concept of separation of church and state (politics) grew out of the seedbed of the Reformation. The Reformation liberated!
Has the Reformation been all good for humanity? Unfortunately not! The thousands of denominations today, as a result of the Reformation, should be an embarrassment to the Church. Each separate denomination can be as off-base as the Roman Catholic Church was in the 16th Century. In essence, each denomination risks saying “We’re the Church and you are not if you don’t believe as we do.” Individual salvation was never to be fostered at the expense of communal unity in the Body of Christ.
Martin Luther believed that to “pay for repentance” was the gravest of sinful error; such practices obscured the universal Divine call for repentance. “Come back to me” was the Savior’s siren call. “I love you!” “Won’t you simply believe and accept ME?” “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Little wonder the only ultimate condemning sin is the sin of unbelief, i.e. failure to believe in what Jesus said and did (John 3:17).
Sinful humanity always needs to repent, i.e. return to God. John 1:12 brings hope and comes to mind: “To all who receive (believe) Him, to those who believe in his name, he gives the right (the freedom and power) to become children of God.”
Your trekker friend,
Jim Meredith
