Reform Us Again, O Lord!

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Does the Reformation matter? 506 years ago Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis to the door of Wittenberg Castle and the Protestant Reformation formally began in Germany. Churches have been remembering that event and the revival that followed for more than half a millennium. Should we continue remembering the Reformation? Does it have any baring on Christ’s church today?

I propose that the Reformation could not have greater meaning to individuals and churches than it does today for three reasons: 1) The Gospel of Jesus Christ is at stake; 2) We are prone to take our eyes off Christ and look for salvation in ourselves; and 3) The Gospel of God is still the power of God unto salvation. May God reform His church once more lest we fall into the spiritual darkness that was prevalent in Germany and much of the world in the years prior to 1517.

1. The Reformation matters today because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is at stake.

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:6-8 NKJV

Look at the world and what do you see? The celebration, promotion, and advancement of sin. Wars are ongoing and spreading. Rumors of new wars make up the bulk of news headlines. The root issue of these problems was shown in the garden long ago. Men and women are dead in sin and at war with God. Mankind is totally depraved. They are not right with God and do not know how they can be right with Him.   

In the Old Covenant God raised up prophets, priests, and kings. In the New Covenant, He raised up apostles (for a time), evangelists, and pastors. Through both dispensations these men were to make known to the dying world the only way of salvation from the just wrath of God coming upon all sinners. Jesus Christ is that salvation. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). There is salvation in no other name and in no other way but in the name of Jesus Christ and His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. The Reformation recovered this gospel. Today that gospel hangs on the edge of a precipice and seems ready to fall.

Questions resolved in Protestant churches for hundreds of years are being revisited today. Is salvation the work of God alone? Is salvation the work of man alone? Is salvation the work of God and man together? Large numbers of Protestant churches have turned from the God who saves through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ alone and they are looking at themselves for some measure of salvation.

The 2022 State of Theology survey found that 55% of evangelicals believe, “everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.” 53% disagree with the claim that even the smallest sin deserves damnation.”

The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that 52% of evangelicals believe that a person can gain heaven by being good or doing good.

506 years after the reformation, the light of the Gospel is all but out in Europe, fading in the UK, and dimming quickly in the US. Germany knows almost nothing of the gospel proclaimed by Luther. Diversity and inclusion is the gospel of a church where John Knox once preached in Scotland.

150 years ago Charles Spurgeon lamented that the protestant church had come unhitched from the strong anchor of the Bible and salvation through Christ alone and was drifting toward the Vatican. How much more today as protestants openly embrace a works based salvation for people that are pretty good by nature. The Reformation matters today because the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ our Lord is at stake, souls are at jeopardy, and unless the Lord reforms again, many will perish.

2. The Reformation matters today because we are prone to look for salvation in ourselves.

This only I want to learn form you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh ?

Galatians 3:2-3 NKJV

The road to the 95 Thesis was paved centuries before Luther and the Reformers. Jesus and the apostles were addressing the same false gospel in their lifetimes. Scripture is ripe with examples of individuals and churches pursuing salvation through their own works and failing to find eternal life for their souls. The rich young ruler said to Jesus, All these things I have kept from my youth (Luke 18:21). The Jews said to Jesus, Abraham is our father (John 8:39). The Pharisee went into the temple and prayed, God, I thank You that I am not like other men…(Luke 18:11). Those that preached the false gospel to the Galatians, desire to make a good showing in the flesh… (Galatians 6:12).

By the middle ages the false gospel of salvation by works had become entrenched. In early 1100, Pope Urban II proclaimed that crusaders could gain absolution from sin and eternal glory if they joined the first Crusade. Salvation is yours, come and earn it! In this regard there was little difference between the Roman Catholic “martyrs” of the Crusades and the Muslim “martyrs.” Both were seeking to earn eternal life through the shedding of the blood of the infidels.

As the late Middle Ages arrived, men like John Wycliffe and John Huss began returning to the infallible authority for doctrine, instruction, and correction, the Bible. They were persecuted for their beliefs. In Huss’s case, he was burnt at the stake. The conflict was essentially over the question: How can man be saved? By his own works and that of a church, or by the work of Christ alone?

When Martin Luther arrived on the scene, sinners no longer needed to perform great feats in battle for eternal life but could obtain forgiveness and absolution of some sin by purchasing indulgences from the Roman Catholic Church. Forgiveness was available for a price. Buyers of the indulgence papers were not exactly sure how valuable they were but they knew they had to get them for their eternal safety and temporal joy. Men like Johann Tetzel were happy to sell them. Using great oratory and emotional appeal to bring rich and poor to part with their wealth in exchange for a slip of paper, Tetzel preached the following message:

Listen now, God and St. Peter call you. Consider the salvation of your souls and those of your loved ones departed. You priest, you noble, you merchant, you virgin, you matron, you youth, you old man, enter now into your church, which is the church of St. Peter… have you considered that you are lashed in furious tempest amid the temptations and dangers of the world, and that you do not know whether you can reach the haven, not of your mortal body, but of your immortal soul?  Consider that all who are contrite and have confessed and made contribution will receive complete remission of all their sins. Listen to the voices of your dear dead relatives and friends, beseeching you and saying, “Pity us, pity us. We are in dire torment from which you can redeem us for a pittance.” Do you not wish to? Open your ears. Hear the father saying to his son, mother to her daughter, “We bore you, nourished you, brought you up, left you our fortunes, and you are so cruel and hard that now you are not willing for so little to set us free. Will you let us lie here in flames? Will you delay our promised glory? ”Remember that you are able to release them, “for As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.” Will you not then for a quarter of a florin receive these letters of indulgence through which you are able to lead a divine and immortal soul into the fatherland of praise. 

Metaxes, E. Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World – p. 103 – 104

Tetzel’s arrival in Wittenberg with his bag of tricks was not received well by Luther. Luther opposed the practice and wrote to the pope to help stop the practice of selling false promises. Luther would soon see that Tetzel was not acting on his own initiative. The Roman Catholic Church was given over to superstition, idolatry, and trust in man’s devices to deliver souls from the imaginary place called Purgatory. The gospel of salvation by the grace of God alone had been replaced by the gospel of salvation by God and man working together to merit eternal life.

Are we going back to a form of idolatry and superstition in protestant churches today? Images of all or of any of the persons of the Godhead abound not just in books but in church buildings. Men and women alike wear religious charms and cross shaped jewelry. External tokens of religious devotion seem to have a greater grip on many than internal realities bestowed on the Christian by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. The power of the Word is growing dim in minds leading many to pursue the power of the self for their salvation.

Luther and the Reformers preached the pure gospel of salvation through the grace of God alone. As they preached the people gladly heard the Word and followed the Lord. Won’t people receive the Word gladly if the pure Word of God is preached with power and conviction again in our day?  

The Reformation changed hearts, minds, and eventually cities, countries, and cultures, so extensively that the Roman Catholic Church countered the Reformation. The Council of Trent was the capstone to Rome’s decades long battle. There, Rome formalized its rejection of salvation by grace alone through faith alone and cursed (anathematized) all who taught the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ.  

Trent: Canons on Justification

CANON 11. If any one saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favour of God; let him be anathema.

CANON 30. If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.[1]

CANON 32. If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified; or, that the said justified, by the good works which he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life,-if so be, however, that he depart in grace,-and also an increase of glory; let him be anathema.

CANON 33. If any one saith, that, by the Catholic doctrine touching Justification, by this holy Synod inset forth in this present decree, the glory of God, or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ are in any way derogated from, and not rather that the truth of our faith, and the glory in fine of God and of Jesus Christ are rendered (more) illustrious; let him be anathema.

Rather than repent, the Roman Catholic Church responded to the Reformation by solidifying another gospel which is no gospel at all. The Reformation matters because we are prone to wander away from the true and pure gospel of Salvation today. If we are not on guard for ourselves and our doctrine (1 Tim. 4:16), that it is in accordance with the Scripture, we will surely see the church fall away into the religion of the flesh and self-merited salvation.

A note on Wittenberg. Given the importance of Wittenberg to the Reformation, a note is added here on this most unlikely of cities to be the birthplace and protectorate of the Reformation. Similarly, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, was an unlikely ruler to aid Luther and the Reformation. As Eric Metaxes reports on Frederick and his relics:

Frederick was a great lover of relics and Wittenberg was the place to go for souls who wanted to deliver themselves from the fires of hell and of purgatory.

In Wittenberg, indulgence tourists could find among other things, the tooth of St. Jerome; four bones of Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostom; a swath of Christ’s swaddling clothes; fragments of gold brought by the magi to Jesus; thirteen fragments of Jesus’ childhood crib… made by Joseph’s own hands; a strand of Jesus’ beard; four hairs of Mary’s head; a peace of bread from the last supper; a vial containing drops of milk from the breast of the virgin Mary; the complete skeleton of one of the infants killed by Herod in Bethlehem; thirty-five splinters from the true cross; and the very feather of an angel. In all there were 19,013 relics in Frederick’s collection. When viewed in the right way on the right day, a sinner could shorten their time in purgatory by exactly 1,902,202 years and 270 days. The problem of course was that purgatory could be hundreds of millions or even billions of years…

Luther nailed the Thesis to the Castle Church in Wittenberg. In 1517 alone, that same church performed more than 9,000 masses, a rate of 30 per day. When considering Frederich and the city of Wittenberg, it is incredible that the Reformation would begin and be protected from there. God surely confounds the wise, stops the mouths of the wicked, and uses unlikely people in history for the advancement of His Kingdom and the cause of Christ.

3. The Reformation matters today because the Gospel of Christ is still the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

More than 500 years ago, Luther saw that he must take his stand on the Word of God and the God of the Word even if it cost him his life. “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God, Amen.” He was willing to take this stand for in the Scripture alone He found the only way for a sinner to be justified in the sight of God. Justification was not through the sinner’s work, prayer, indulgence purchasing, or self-denial. It was not through the blessing of the church, the sacraments, or the mediation of saints who had gone before. Justification is the act of God’s free grace alone wherein He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. God’s gospel was the power of God unto salvation.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christ died so that men might almost have salvation. To get to heaven men need more than Christ, they must earn their way by their works. The Reformers taught that Christ died so men might be saved to the uttermost degree. Salvation has a great impact on a sinners life. His faith will be a living faith. His love will be an obedient love. Nevertheless the impact, faith, and love in the life of a convert bare no merit for eternal life which is all of the Lord. What says the Lord to these things?

 “For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any-man should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works (Ephesians 2:8-10).” Justification is by grace alone. Sola Gratia.

Men and women receive grace through the instrument and gift of faith alone. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified (Galatians 2:16). We do not receive grace by being gracious, kind, or good. We do not receive grace from our good parents, grandparents, or the good works of St. Peter. Justification is received through faith alone. Sola Fide!

Faith is not blind or a mere idea. Faith is focused and directed entirely toward its object, a person. The Christian’s faith is in Jesus Christ the Son of God. The Christian is accepted as righteous in God’s sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to Him. Have you received and rested upon Christ alone for your salvation as He is freely offered in the gospel?[2] Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-2).

There is no other savior, no other merit that satisfies the wrath of God, but Christ alone. He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of our salvation. We look to Him and no other Savior for all others are idols. “Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole… Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:10-12). Christ Alone – Sola Christus!

Where can you find Jesus? He is seated high in the heavens ruling and reigning over all the earth (Hebrews 1:3). Must we ascend to the heights of heaven and bring Him down to earth that we might know Him? Must we dig into the depths of the earth that we might bring Him up as if He is still buried in the ground? God forbid. Rather, He is very near to us in His Word. We come to know and believe in Christ through His Word for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). The Scripture alone provides the one way of salvation for sinners. So we confess, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. The only rule for faith and life is Scripture alone – Sola Scriptura.  

Why did God send His Son to save sinners? He loved the world that He made (John 3:16). He promised a Savior (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 22:16-17; Isaiah 6:14; 9:6). He is faithful to His promises (Hebrews 6:17-18). Beyond all of these things, God saves sinners for the glory of His name (Romans 9:23). Here is the answer to the question: Why? For His glory alone. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever, Amen (Romans 11:36). Glory to God alone – Soli Deo Gloria!

We are the recipients of a glorious gospel. Jesus saves to the uttermost all who come to God by Him (Hebrews 7:25)! Have you come to God by faith in Jesus Christ? Have your sins been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ? While it is still today, repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that you might not perish but have everlasting life. There is still power for salvation in Christ Jesus which is why Christian’s proclaimed Him 2,000 years ago, 500 years ago, and today. Christians are willing to die for the name and sake of Jesus Christ. Why? For there is salvation through no other name but the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. He is still salvation to all who believe. May God reform His church and bring many more sons to glory!

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[1] See also Roman Catholic Catechism Question #2010 “Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God’s wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.”

[2] Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A #86