Date: October 27, 2009
INTRODUCTION
Few times in our lives are we able to witness someone standing up for truth; bucking the system, standing up to a bully, or going against the odds. Such was the case nearly 500 years ago in a town in Northeastern Germany. Today is Reformation Sunday. You might wonder what happened on this day. It marks the observance of Martin Luther, the Augustinian monk, nailing his 95 theses upon the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517.
Luther had some "beefs" with the Church of his day. There were 95 things which unsettled him, namely the sale of indulgences. This practice conveyed that by donating some money to the church, you could be forgiven, or your deceased loved ones could be forgiven, of their sins. It sounds foreign to us today, but it was a common practice in 16th century Europe. Johann Tetzel, the itinerant preacher would proclaim: "As a coin in the coffer rings, so a soul from purgatory springs."
Luther's concerns were not just mere complaints. He interpreted the situation as an abuse of authority and ultimately saw that Biblical truth was a stake. He did not necessarily want his concerns made public. His theses were written in Latin, for teachers only. But they quickly became public to the point of no return. We won't take the time to go into each of Luther's concerns. That is not my purpose today. But as Protestant Christians, we owe him a lot. His boldness led to a breakthrough for believers everywhere. The event was later hailed as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
What I aim to do is expound on a key Scripture that gave birth to the Reformation, and speak of the need for rediscovering Protestant truth; why we need a Reformation in the church today. Let's first ask…
I. WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
Namely, our standing before God. Can the guilty be declared innocent? If so, that's a big deal! For our answer, let us look at Romans 3:21. Paul writes: "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets (i.e. the Old Testament) testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." What follows is Paul's explanation, namely that everyone is guilty before a holy and righteous God.
Here, we see our primary spiritual problem in the face of perfection: our sin. All of us have it; all of us are guilty. We come into this world with a predisposition towards sin and we struggle with it throughout our lives. Who has not broken the Ten Commandments? James 2:10 tells us: "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." It makes no difference if we're Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. All of us have sinned and fallen short… (Romans 3:23).
But the good news is that there is a solution: The atoning death of Christ is available to all. Sometimes we talk about the way to heaven. For the record, there are two ways: You must be absolutely perfect; or, you can accept the precious death of Jesus as payment for your sin. Righteousness from God was revealed through the Old Testament law as an indicator of sin, not as a means of righteousness. For the Reformation, the material cause was Faith Alone. By material cause, we mean that out of which something is made. In other words, Justification is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Whereas the Catholic Church taught that the righteousness of Christ was infused into the believer through participation of the sacraments, the Reformation taught that the righteousness of Christ is added to the believer on the basis of faith alone. There is nothing we can do to earn or invoke God's righteousness. We can only look to the cross. In His mercy, through the death of His Son, Jesus, a way of justification, or being declared innocent, is possible. But by faith the righteousness of Christ becomes our righteousness, while our innate lack of righteousness, which is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), is transferred to Christ. Carl Trueman said it this way. "God declares the believer to be righteous in his sight, not by virtue of any intrinsic righteousness (anything that the believer has done or acquired), but on the basis of …the righteousness of Christ that remains external to the believer."
Why is this subject so important? Is there something practical to this? It is vitally important because it has to do with our standing before God. No one can stand before God in their natural state, apart from Christ. But through His Son, God has made the way that we can be made righteous in His eyes, by the transfer of Christ's righteousness towards us. For this to be effective, we must be united to Jesus by faith. Think about this for a moment, from God's perspective, illustrated in these two glasses. When He looks upon a believer, he no longer sees his sin, the moral dirt upon your life (pour flat Diet Coke into a glass). Rather, He sees the clean spotless righteousness of His Son: (pour milk into a glass). You go from dirty to clean. How's that for self esteem!? This rediscovery of the Biblical gospel would get Martin Luther excommunicated in January of 1521, and then condemned in April of that same year. But we must ask…
II. WHY DOES IT MATTER?
One, because such Jesus saves my life and establishes me with God. And in a larger sense, truth must be (re)discovered and applied! Such Biblical teaching as justification by faith takes the human boasting out. What can we take credit for? Absolutely nothing! Paul the apostle writes in Romans 3:27: "Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."
The formal cause, the design or idea that follows an event was Scripture alone. In other words, the Protestant Reformation taught that Holy Scripture is the sole authority in doctrinal matters, as opposed to the history of the church. We heard last week from Pastor Bill why spiritual matters are important. I just returned from a conference in Boston called, "Renewing the Evangelical Mission." There were many engaging speakers there, seminary professors and cultural critics. There were many things shared that were riveting and absolutely important. Let me share a few.
People have deep questions about truth, self, God, Christ and the church. And they formulate their own opinions before they ever hear a word from the Bible. And their view of the Bible is dropping, as well. From data compiled over the last three years, George Barna discovered differences in perception about the Bible, based on age, in the following six general areas : It found that the traditional views of the Bible and interaction by the general public are fleeting. People today are seeing the Bible as less sacred, less accurate, teaching the same thing as other "sacred" writings, and being read less. Finally, we are losing our appetite for Biblical truth. With such findings, it is plain to see that our culture is becoming more secular, drifting further and further from God. And the church is following suit, becoming more like the culture than having a positive impact on it.
The biggest danger facing the church today is one of individualism and isolationism. In America, we believe that we can be our own brand of Christian, isolated from the genuine or what it is in other parts of the world. In America, we have a quarter of the world's Christian churches, and yet the church is losing its effect on our culture.
Never before have we had so many choices, and yet possess so little value. And yet we have mounting problems with depression, emptiness, and a hollowness of soul. For instance, David Myers writes in his book, The American Paradox: "Since 1960, the divorce rate has doubled. The teen suicide rate has tripled. The recorded violent crime rate has quadrupled. The prison population has quintupled. The percent of babies born to unmarried parents has sextupled. Cohabitation (a predictor of future divorce) has increased sevenfold. Depression has soared- to ten times the pre-World War II level, by one estimate. …It is hard to argue with Al Gore: "The accumulation of material goods is at an all-time high, but so is the number of people who feel an emptiness in their lives."
What we need is renewal. Renewal that changes us as individuals and as a church, and ultimately the world. This comes not as a result of human effort or a certain political party in office. It comes only from God the Holy Spirit. People need the Lord! Truth matters! And it is only by turning to the Lord can our dilemma be fixed. The Reformation recovered the good news of Christ. And we need a new Reformation today!
CONCLUSION
We must recover the truths of the Reformation, which are Scripture and justification by faith. Caspar Schwenckfeld said, "Nothing is more instructive, inspiring or helpful than a true spiritual insight into the Gospel." The Schwenkfelder Church came out of the Reformation. The Christian Church today needs a moral reformation, where we walk the walk and talk the talk. In this next hymn, sing the words with awareness: "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent word! What more can He say than to you He hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?"
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