Five hundred and one years ago this Wednesday, October 31st,
Martin Luther posted 95 theses, or statements, in which he challenged the Roman
Catholic Church’s selling of indulgences.
Indulgences were and still are offers of merit to those who purchase them,
which reduce the amount of time a person spends in purgatory. This was something that only the pope could
do because as the vicar of Christ he claimed ownership of the treasury of merit
that has been accumulated by all the saints.
He believed that he was able to transfer the merit that one saint had
achieved with his or her good works to another who would receive them when they
paid for these indulgences authorized by him.
No part of what I’ve described to you is based in the
Bible. There is no such thing as
indulgences in the Bible. There is no
such thing as purgatory in the Bible.
The pope is not the vicar of Christ and he doesn’t own and distribute
the merit of the saints. It is not
possible to transfer credit from one sinner to another, nor is it even possible
to earn this surplus of merit, or extra credit with God that then can be given
to others. None of this is Biblical.
And so we come to one of the great principles of the
Reformation: sola Scriptura or “Scripture alone.” The Roman Catholic Church does not believe
that the Bible is the only source for the teachings from God that we are to
believe. They say that the pope can
establish doctrine when he speaks in an official way, or else Church councils
can establish doctrine so long as the pope agrees with it.
This might sound strange to us, that so much authority
should be invested in someone that doesn’t even have a position that is
instituted in the Bible, but human nature is the same across the
centuries. Think of how some people look
at synodical pronouncements about this and about that. A lot of these documents that are produced by
our synod are pretty good, but they are not infallible. Officially our congregation and synod ultimately
only recognize the Scriptures as authoritative, but practically speaking these
other pronouncements can carry a lot of weight.
A lot of our people look to the synod like the Roman Catholics might
look to the pope or the church councils.
So what is the alternative?
One of the more radical things that Luther taught is that each person
must judge for himself or herself what is being taught. And this takes us to another of the great
principles of the Reformation: sola fide or “Faith alone.” Each person is responsible for his or her own
faith. In the end only you can either
believe what God says or disbelieve it.
This cannot be handed over to anybody else. If you are deceived and led astray by false
doctrine it is you who will pay the penalty, not anybody else. It doesn’t matter what any church says. What matters is what is true.
This can sound kind of lonely, and in a way it is. Think of the great examples of faith that are
given to us in the Scriptures. Abraham
is the greatest example. God gave his
word to him to sacrifice his son, his only son whom he loved. Would he believe it or not believe it? He believed, but he was all alone as he did
so. It doesn’t appear that he told his
wife Sarah. He didn’t tell Isaac, or the
servants who accompanied them to the mountain.
It was just Abraham and God until the angel intervened before Abraham
sacrificed his son.
King David, also, is commended to us as an example. The Scriptures say that David was a man after
God’s own heart. But when you listen to
the Psalms he has written, he often complains about being all alone. His friends have deserted him. His own family has turned against him. His enemies are looking to bring him down. It is just him and God, but he puts his trust
in God and God delivers him out of all his troubles.
Faith is individual to each person, and it cannot seen. Our fallen nature likes things that it can
see and can measure and can then brag about.
That’s why people want to be the best and have the most. This makes its way into churches and
congregations too. The Synod wants to be
big and rich. Congregations want to be
growing and influential. But what the
Christian Church is always to be about is something that is unseen and quietly
dwells in the hearts of those who hear the Gospel, and that is: faith in
Christ.
What matters is that each individual says in their heart, “Have
mercy upon me O Lord, a sinner, for Jesus’s sake.” Wherever there is such a confession of faith
you can be sure that for that person, death has been destroyed, the devil has
been defeated, hell has been closed, and heaven has been opened. But nobody can see this yet. It won’t be plain to see until the apocalypse
at the end of the world when everything will be revealed. But in this life Christians will quietly
believe and hope in Jesus, and the world (which only cares about numbers and
bigness) either won’t pay attention, or if they are forced to take it
seriously, they will fight against it.
The world is hostile to Christ. It is hostile to faith. But there is nothing it hates more than the
third principle of the Reformation that we will consider: sola gratia or
that we are saved by grace alone. This
teaching has an edge to it that makes people upset, because it contradicts our
reason. Being saved by grace alone means
that there is nothing whatsoever in the person being saved, that brought about
their salvation or helped bring about their salvation or kept them in their
salvation. Salvation depends solely upon
God and the mercy he chooses to either withhold or give. God says, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated.” That’s good for
Jacob. Jacob gives thanks and praises
God for choosing him. But Esau gets
mad. He, after all, is the
firstborn. Why should his brother be
blessed instead of him. It’s like Cain,
the firstborn, who can’t believe that his loser of a brother should be
acceptable in God’s sight while his was not.
The world’s reaction to the Gospel of grace alone can be seen in Esau
and in Cain.
What had happened to the Catholic Church was that the
world’s thinking entered into the Church, as it always is, to this very
day. Salvation by grace alone was the
most important dispute of the Reformation.
The Roman Catholic Church also teaches salvation by grace, but they literally
curse and anathematize salvation by grace alone. If you believe that you are saved solely
through the forgiveness of sins that Jesus has won for you, then you are a
heretic according to them and cannot be saved.
In contrast they teach that God is gracious. He will give and forgive. But he will only do so much and the rest is
up to you. God will do his part, but if
you don’t do yours, then you cannot be saved.
This makes sense to our reason, but it is not the teaching of the Bible.
What Luther discovered from the Bible, in contrast to this,
is that the only reason why anybody is going to be saved is because God chose
them in Christ from the foundation of the world, and brought it about that the whole
world should be redeemed by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and
that the person should have the pure Gospel preached to them—that Jesus is
their only hope, but he is a hope that will not disappoint. And that the Holy Spirit should work in the
one who hears the Gospel so that they believe it and are saved through the
faith in Christ that the Holy Spirit works in them. As far as the person himself or herself is
concerned and the works that he or she might do, these do not enter in to God’s
decision to save. Those who happen to hear
the pure Gospel and believe—setting all their hopes on Jesus—are righteous in
God’s sight.
To be sure, this leaves a lot of questions unanswered and
our reason doesn’t like it at all. St.
Paul frankly admits this in 1 Corinthians where he says that the word of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, and that apart from the Holy
Spirit it cannot be accepted because the natural Man fights against it. Because the teaching of being saved by grace
alone is so contrary to the way that we naturally think there are a lot of
books that have been written about it, and you can read them if you’d
like.
But in the end you must realize this: God has not given us
his revelation of the truth so that we can analyze it intellectually. He did not sent his Son Jesus Christ so that
we can look on him from afar, evaluate and judge him, and determine whether he
is worthy of our approval. God is not
putting on a play or a show and waiting for you to applaud or boo him. God acts.
Jesus enters in and does what he does.
He heals and saves, just as you read about in the Gospels. God doesn’t wait for you and he doesn’t need
your approval.
If a person judges and rejects what Jesus does, it doesn’t
change the fact that he has actually done it.
I can believe that I’m the king of England, but that doesn’t change the
fact that I’m not the king of England.
The fact is that God has decided to bring about your salvation through
Jesus’s atonement and the Holy Spirit’s preaching of the Gospel to you. He saves you from soup to nuts by the
forgiveness of your sins, and you never outgrow the forgiveness of your sins
until you die. If you decide to judge
that and reject that and say that it isn’t fair or that God should do it in
some other way, you can do that, but it doesn’t change what God has done and does. God reveals to us that he saves solely by his
grace without our participation. Pulling
it apart and trying to understand it doesn’t change what Jesus has done.
Finally today, we will consider what is the most important Reformation
principle: solus Christus or “Christ alone.” Salvation by Christ alone is the capstone of
all the solas that we have already considered. Scripture alone, faith alone, and grace alone
are all contained in Christ alone.
The true heritage of the Lutheran Reformation is that Jesus should
be magnified and exalted in every way and on every occasion. He is the center of the universe and all
things are beneath him. There is no hope
and no goodness in ourselves or in any other thing. All hope and goodness is in Jesus. The Reformers did not fight against the Pope
because they thought he was getting this little thing wrong or that little
thing wrong. They fought against him
because he was robbing Christ of the glory that belongs him and claiming it for
himself, and encouraging others, also, to claim for themselves the credit of
their own salvation.
“Christ alone” must be our great principle in our dealings
with those of other faiths still today.
Doctrinal disagreements should not be thought of as just technicalities or
quibbles where someone or some group is getting this little thing wrong or that
little thing wrong. What is really
important is what errors do to the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Who is he?
Is he your assistant for living a nicer or more prosperous life? Does he do some of the work of salvation, but
leave the rest up to you?
Or is he love incarnate, seeking out you for your salvation
in spite of all your sins, and by his Word and Sacrament saving you completely,
from baptism to grave? Those who
understand Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior, are true
Christians. Flesh and blood does not
reveal this to them, but the Father who is in heaven by sending the Holy
Spirit.
There is a lot of stuff that people can say and do say about
the Lutheran Reformation, but what is really important about the Reformation is
that Jesus was put forward as the Savior so that people could once again hold
to him by faith. All the other stuff, as
important as it is for history or society, is not what matters on the Day of
Judgement. Hold to that which
matters. Hold to that which saves.
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