Does the Reformation Still Matter?

This week marks the five-hundred and second anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenburg, Germany. Why do we get so excited about this event every year? 

First, the Reformation matters because Worship matters. Indeed, nothing matters more.  This was Calvin’s assessment of the Reformation’s necessity, and in a letter to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, Calvin rated the recovery of true worship above even the importance of recovering the gospel. 

Worship has this importance because human beings so easily worship according to their own wisdom. Calvin says that the minds of men are “labyrinth(s) of confusion” and “vast, full spring(s) pouring forth false gods.” And the false religions of the world do not represent a sincere effort on the part of man to find god, they actually represent our best efforts to hide from Him, and rob Him of His glory (cf. Romans 1:18ff). 

What was wrong with Medieval Worship? Several things: There was no meaningful reading and preaching of Scripture in the language of the people. In fact, the whole service was conducted in Latin, a language ordinary pew-fillers could not understand. The work of the Roman Priest, bringing the worshippers before God, obscured and undermined the glory of Christ as the only mediator between God and man. Congregational singing was practically non-existent. The Roman Catholic abuse of the Sacraments distorted the pictures they were supposed to represent. Rome to this day views Holy Communion as a sacrificial meal in which the body and blood of Christ are repeatedly broken and poured out to God as an oblation for the forgiveness of sins. This completely misrepresents the once for all nature of Christ’s death, and represents a return to the shadowlands of the Old Testament, when one sacrifice was not enough, and the hapless beasts had to be slaughtered and offered again, and again to procure fresh blood to atone for the fresh sins of the people. Instead of viewing the waters of baptism as a picture of the gospel and the covenant faithfulness of God to our children, Rome turned the rite into a magical affair in which the holy water produced the effect it pictures. They used the Latin phrase “ex opere operato”  (which essentially means: just do it and it works) to explain this. 

Such teaching is diametrically opposed to that of Scripture, and to rescue the Church from such abuse, Reformations began all across Europe in Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, Scotland, and England to name but a few.

Second, the Reformation matters because the Gospel matters.  In Luther’s mind, this was probably the central question. Despite his best efforts to “monk” his way to heaven, he just couldn’t satisfy his tender conscience that he had done enough to satisfy the wrath of God.  He hadn’t confessed his sins enough, sincerely enough, and thoroughly enough. He hadn’t made amends for them earnestly enough in the work of penance. Where could he find peace? He found peace famously, and actually several years later (after the hammer and nail incident), reading those pivotal verses in Paul’s epistle to the Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”" (Romans 1:16–17). 

At first, these words tormented Luther because he thought they described a righteousness God required of him. In time, however, the German Reformer came to see this righteousness properly and truly as the righteousness of justification. Three of the famous Five-Solas are dedicated to describing it: It is a Christ-Alone righteousness. We have no part in generating it. The doing is done for us by Another. It is a Grace-Alone righteousness. God justifies sinners, who deserve nothing but His wrath and curse. And it is a Faith-Alone righteousness. God does not justify us because of any work done by us, to us, or in us, but simply because of Christ’s work for us received through the empty, dirty hands of faith.

All of this was (and continues to be) obscured by the errors of Romanism which view our justification as the result of Christ’s life and death for us (the Protestant position) joined together with Christ’s work in us making us holy and righteous people. The addition of this second part is crucial, for it completely destroys the gospel, and places assurance of salvation forever beyond the reach of “normal” Christians. In such a scheme, as Luther discovered only too well, you can never be sure you have done enough to be safe. The recovery of the true Gospel, however, assures the fearful saint, “Take comfort. Christ has done enough to satisfy God for you. Lay your deadly doings down. They don’t help. They serve only to keep you away from the One who has done it all.”

Third, the Reformation matters because Truth matters. How can we know what to believe? Where can we go to get Truth? In response, the Catholic position was: Listen to the Church and her Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests: They are the only ones who can unlock the secrets of the Bible and teach you what it says. While the Protestant Reformers did not undermine the Church’s role in teaching the Scriptures, they made an important distinction from Rome: The authority to pronounce Truth does not rest in the Church and her Magisterium, it rests in the Bible Alone (Sola Scriptura).

We can sum up the difference like this: For Rome, the Bible rests on the authority of the Church. For Protestants, it is the Church that rests on the authority of the Bible. And one man with a rightly read and understood Bible is a majority when it comes to standing against the errors of a thousand Church councils.

The question of truth continues to be relevant in our day. The passing years and numerous scandals have taught us to look askance at church bodies and denominations. Our age is the age of the individual and we have entirely too much confidence in our own autonomous ability to intuit our way to Truth—It’s the “I know truth when I hear it” mentality. It is precisely to rescue us from such prideful presumption that God gave us the Church—a community of faith in which the Truth once delivered to the Saints is believed, professed, protected, and lived out before the eyes of a watching world. 

In the final analysis, the Reformation matters because the Church matters. We are conceived in her womb, nurse at her bosom, learn on her lap, and grow in her embrace. Outside of her, there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. Mark the words, “no ordinary possibility of salvation.” The gospel alone saves. But in God’s ordinary dealings with the sons of Adam, very few hear and respond properly to that gospel outside the fellowship of the Church. Following Christ and raising the children of God is not a solo sport; it takes a church (not a village) to do it properly.