Happy Reformation Day! The Reformation and the Gospel

Does Reformation Day matter?

Today marks the 503rd anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing the 95 thesis on the door of Wittenberg castle. His actions inadvertently brightened a light in Europe that would spread around the world and has never gone out. In years past many protestant churches avoided such things as trunk-or-treating and celebrated October 31 as “Reformation Day.” It is approbate for Christians to remember the faithful providence of God in history for at least three reasons: 1) That we would not fall into the same errors and sins of years past; 2) That we would hold fast to and earnestly contend for the pure faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints; and 3) That we would remember God who has been faithful in the past will certainly be faithful in the years to come. 

Throughout the dark ages and into the middle ages, the Roman Catholic Church had taught that Salvation came by the grace of God plus the works of man (Semi-Pelagianism). The necessary works were so tedious that few if any could expect to go straight to Heaven upon death. Most would first spend time (and lots of it) suffering in a place Rome invented named Purgatory. According to Rome, the work of Christ was good but was insufficient for eternal life.

Whereas Scripture teaches that Scripture is the final and supreme authority over all of life and doctrine, Rome taught that the Pope was equal to Scripture in authority and above Scripture in interpretation so that faithful followers would do best to avoid the Bible and simply listen to the Pope and his priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals. For Rome, Jesus died for sinners but His death only brought Salvation part way, while works, prayers, sacraments, and obedience to the church were ways of attempting to individually merit the rest of Salvation and Heaven itself.  To help enforce these and many other lies on the laity, the Roman Catholic Church kept the Scriptures from the language of the common man, only reading them from the pulpit in Latin, and persecuting those who would dare to translate the Scriptures into English, German, French, and other common languages. 

By the providence of God and to the fury of the Roman church, the darkness brought upon England by the lack of the knowledge of the Word of God  was pierced in the 1300’s by John Wycliffe’s English translation of the Bible from Latin. Known as the “Morning star of the Reformation”, Wycliffe planted the seed for the coming Reformation in Europe that would eventually spread around the world and continues today.

Following Wycliffe, the Lord provided men such as John Huss (burnt alive at the stake), Knox, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others to promote the Word of God over the words of men such as those in Rome. Where Rome taught Salvation by grace plus works, the Reformers preached Salvation by Grace alone (Sola Gratia) according to the Scripture. 

Because God so loved the world for nothing the world had done, He sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross and redeem whosoever believed in Him (John 3:16). “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10). “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8). Because salvation comes by grace alone there is no need to fear condemnation for those who are in Christ. There is no need even to fear death itself for it is the Christians’ passing into glory. There is no need to fear hell (which is a real physical place) or purgatory (which is invented by Rome) because we are saved by God’s grace alone and not by our works. 

This free grace of God is received through Faith alone (Sola Fide). 

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).  John Calvin defined faith as “a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.” Faith is not self-produced, rather, like grace, it is the gift of God. The only work taking place in faith is that of the Holy Spirit who enlightens our minds to the knowledge of Christ and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ and His work on the cross as He is freely offered in the gospel. Belief and faith are not arbitrary aimless ideas. Saving faith is faith in the truth. Faith is not holding on to a dream but has an object. The object of the Christian’s faith is Jesus Christ alone (Solus Christus). 

Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #83 asks, “What is Faith in Jesus Christ?” The answer, “Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for Salvation, as He is offered to us in the Gospel.” Jesus Christ alone saves sinners. 

This Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, eternally begotten of the Father, conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary (who herself was a sinner and in need of a Savior), and born without sin. This Jesus is both God and Man in two distinct natures yet one person forever! This Jesus lived perfectly on Earth, fulfilling the whole law, and suffering the miseries of this life, the wrath of God and the painful and shameful death on the cross. This Jesus rose from the dead in the flesh, in History, on the third day after His death, conquering sin and death that all those whom the Father had chosen before the foundation of the world might have eternal life. This Jesus lives today and reigns exalted in Heaven above. He is both Lord and Savior to His people, Mediator, Friend, King, and just Judge of the wicked. This Jesus is not one who can be imagined or modified according to personal desire but is found in one source and declared by one final authority and that is the Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura).

Jesus Christ is revealed only in Scripture, the Word of God, the Bible, and it is Scripture alone that declares Christ and His benefits. Any other source seeking to proclaim Christ must be in conformity and subjection to the final authority of the Word of God. “Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17).  

Because all mankind is sinful and unrighteous, all that is written and proclaimed by man is imperfect and tainted with sin. Therefore the only final authority for all of life is Scripture alone. Scripture is perfect, unchangeable and infallible. Scripture is all of these things because it is the very word of the infinite, eternal, unchangeable, perfect, infallible, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign, and merciful God. It is this same God, Jesus Christ, who will come at the last day and whose sheep will joyfully hear their Shepherd’s words because the words are the same as those that have been revealed in Scripture (John 10:27). It is this same God, Jesus Christ, from whom the wicked will run in fear and cry out for the rocks to fall on them because they know the just eternal punishment awaiting them for their sins.

The Word of God is powerful. By God’s Spirit it liberates men from the bondage of other gospels, it liberates men from the bondage of other laws, it liberates men from the bondage of false religions (such as that propagated by Rome), it liberates men from the bondage of sin and death and brings them into Eternal Life through Jesus Christ whom we now worship in spirit and in truth.

Why has God poured out His love in such a manner? Why has He been so gracious and merciful to save some to everlasting life? Why has He revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ? For the glory of God alone (Soli Deo Gloria). 

All that the Lord has done, is doing, and will do, is for His glory alone. Salvation is all of God’s work so that all praise, thanksgiving, and glory might be ascribed to Him alone. If we boast, we boast in the cross of Christ. If we glory, we glory in the Lord. For the glory of God alone we were created. For the glory of God alone we are saved. For the glory of God alone we have the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures. For the glory of God alone Jesus Christ will return at the last day and every knee will bow and every tongue confess, in Heaven and in Earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord.

With such truth reclaimed through the preaching of the Word by men like Knox, Luther, and Calvin, the Holy Spirit caused the chains of Rome to be broken, and sinners joyfully set free to worship and adore God who accomplished salvation to the uttermost.

These doctrines known to history as the five solas of the Reformation are simple yet denied by many. Without them there is no hope for eternal life. Any other way of Salvation apart from grace of God alone denies Christ. None who die in their unbelief are saved. Only through faith in Jesus Christ alone, the way, the truth, and the life, can one have Salvation and the benefits of Salvation, namely eternal life. So dear reader, may you search the Scriptures and with the help of the Holy Spirit, repent of your sins, believe in Jesus Christ alone, and have eternal life.

Praise be to God that He used the Reformation more than 500 years ago to illuminate, instruct, and remind the church that Salvation is by Grace alone through Faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, found in the Scripture alone, all to the Glory of God alone!

Happy Reformation Day!