We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the martyrs and saints of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church (which is to say, the Church in that time) had become an institution of greed, corruption, and spiritual manipulation. Preying on the sincere belief of the people, they sold promises that were never within their power to fulfill. For a reasonable fee, you could reduce a loved one’s time in purgatory by 100 years; trinkets and fraudulent items of religious-historic significance, like a splinter from Jesus’ cross, for example, could be purchased in exchange for the remission of sins. When the Pope spoke, it had the gravity of “Thus saith the Lord,” regardless of whether or not the Lord did, indeed, say so (the Bible and Mass were in languages you did not speak, so how would you know the difference?).
As those excesses reached a fever pitch, one rebellious soul dared to question the Church’s reading of scripture. Martin Luther was, in fact, a devout Catholic monk. He kept the moral standards imposed by the Church more perfectly than most (in hindsight, we could say, even more perfectly than the Pope himself!) and yet he lived in a constant state of self-abhoring penitence for his inability to do better. He knew much of the scriptures by heart, taught them at university, and had begun to translate them into German when he decided to speak up about what he believed to be the Church’s negligent or erroneous reading of the Word.
It was not self-righteous indignation that led Luther to post 95 theses but a sincere desire to begin a dialogue with the authorities about the inconsistencies between their practices and scripture’s teachings. To his dismay, they did not share his high regard for the Word and thus deemed him an extremist, a heretic, and a threat to societal order.
Luther felt that unless someone could prove him wrong on the basis of God’s own Word, then he had no other choice but to dig in, whatever the cost. Truth mattered more than being cancelled, we might say from our own cultural moment. With a faithful reading of scripture, Luther’s convictions would be summarized in five Latin phrases:
Sola scriptura: Scripture alone is the rule of faith and practice.
Sola fide: Faith alone is needed for salvation.
Sola gratia: Grace alone compels God to grant salvation.
Solo Christo: Christ alone is our Priest, granting access to God.
Soli Deo gloria: To the glory of God alone be all of our life and work.
As you prepare your heart and mind for worship this Sunday, take some time to meditate on Ephesians 2:1-9, one key passage for the above “solas.” Listen to Martin Luther’s “battle hymn of the Reformation,” “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” (my favorite performance is linked below). As you read and listen, marvel at the riches of God’s mercy and love toward us, sinners! We did nothing to earn His favor and, therefore, there is nothing we can do to lose it, if we are in Christ. He delights in you! Let us delight in Him together this Sunday.
Your brother,
Ryan