Message of the Reformation Still Needed Today!

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The Message of the Reformation is MORE Needed Today than 500 Years Ago....


It has been said that Luther started the Reformation but that it never ends…. In some ways, that’s true. And this is because the issues he addressed… the “course corrections” he encouraged… well, they are still around today, still needed today. In some ways, more than in 1517, in many ways the situation in Christianity is WORSE now in terms of understanding/proclaiming the Gospel.


In Luther’s time, people believed and proclaim grace and Christ and faith (often and boldly). They taught and preached and sang about these all the time. Christians still do! The problem back then was that justification (narrow) was a “Grace/Christ plus a whole bunch of stuff you gotta do!” God plus you. What happened on the Cross and on Easter was super nice (downright awesome) but insufficient, unfinished, broken… so that WE gotta fix it, WE gotta finish it, WE gotta make it work, so that WE can enter Heaven. As I was taught in my pre-Lutheran days, "You gotta get yourself through the gates of heaven by what you do."


Five hundred years ago, people said, “Jesus is the Savior BUT to be saved you gotta love like God does, you gotta live for others like Jesus did.” Jesus plus. Today, the focus is less on loving and living, and more on decisions and feelings. “Jesus is the Savior BUT you gotta give your life to Jesus in order to be saved!” “…BUT you gotta correctly respond to an altar call!” “… BUT you gotta surrender the steering wheel of your life!” “…. But you gotta, but you gotta, but you gotta…..” Lots of big “BUTS!” Justification being synergistic, a Jesus started it but I gotta finish and fix it. So the REAL Savior.... the REAL cause of my getting into heaven is ME. I saved ME. I earned it, achieved it... by finishing and fixing what Jesus started. Thus Jesus isn't the Savior (PART Savior at best, the part that doesn't actually save anyone).


Essentially what Luther said…. What the Reformation proclaims…. What the Reformation was all about.... what Protestantism originally was all about was: There are no big buts (not even little buts). Jesus is the Savior (thus, I’m not). Jesus does the saving (thus, I don’t).

Jesus IS the Savior...
JESUS (no other name under heaven by which salvation comes - including your own; no one comes to the Father except via Jesus)...
IS (factually, really) ...
THE (the one and only, the all-sufficient) ...
SAVIOR (if it has anything to do, Jesus does it, He's got it).
Yup, it IS that simple. No buts about it. That's the message of the Reformation, that's the basis of Protestantism.


One of Jesus’ last words as He was dying for us on the Cross was, “it is finished.” We think He was right about that. We believe Him. What He gives to us is not unfinished (and we gotta complete it), it’s not damaged goods (and we gotta fix it). Sadly, so much of contemporary Christianity all assumes Jesus essentially blew it… Jesus is not the Savior (maybe a possibility-maker or a divine helper… but when we cross through those pearly gates, it will ultimately be because of something WE did or thought or said or decided… what we did to finish and complete that Jesus left undone, unfinished, broken). That’s why the Reformation is just as needed today! For many, the issue is the same: Is Jesus the Savior or am I the Savior of myself (via my love or my decisions or my surrendering or my __________)? Is it Grace/Christ/Faith ALONE or all that PLUS me (and the part that actually matters is the ME part)? The Reformation and (originally Protestantism) rejected all the big buts, all the Jesus PLUS ME stuff, all the "God helps those who help themselves" stuff. But sadly, the big buts are even more proclaimed in our time - often more by "Evangelicals" than by Catholics. Different "buts" but often bigger ones... and more of 'em.




An Illustration:


Consider the Mona Lisa, that very famous masterpiece by the genius Michelangelo hanging in the Louvue. It's insured for about $1,000,000,000.00. That's one BILLION dollars... billion.... with a "b." If you wanted to buy it, that's what it would cost - if it were for sale, which it's not. ANYTHING you might be able to offer for it would be more than laughable, it would be an insult.

But that's irrelevant because the Louvue is GIVING it to you. Yup, G.I.V.I.N.G. it to you. A free gift. The Louvue wants to bless you. And so it comes over and hangs it in your living room! BUT.... you say...... "it's missing something!" "It's broken, it's flawed!" "It's not finished!!!" And so you rush to the garage and get your box of spray paint, lots of cans of paint. And you spray some purple here and some orange there and lots of black all around. "THERE," you proudly announced, "I finished it! I fixed it! Praise be to me!" Would you do that?

LOTS do! God created a masterpiece! Made not by a talented human artist but by the Incarnate Son of God; created not with paint but by His precious blood on the Cross and His powerful resurrection from the Tomb; by His perfect holiness and vicarious death and victorious resurrection! A PRICELESS divine masterpiece worth a whole lot more than one billion bucks! And it's not for sale (and ANYTHING you could offer for it would be worse than laughable, it would be an INSULT). And one of the last things Jesus said as He created this masterpiece was "It is finished" and it is. He did it. He did it right - there's nothing to fix. He did it good - there's nothing to correct. He finished it - there's nothing to add. Just be thankful for the GIFT.

But many look down at Justification.... "It's missing something! It needs fixing! It needs finishing!" And they appoint self to do it. They run for that box of spray paint - spraying some emotion here, some decision there, some surrendering or whatever - trying to correct what Jesus got wrong. "I must add this.... I must do that....." And the MESS IT UP! Making a mockery of the Cross and insulting the Artist/Creator/Giver.

What the Reformation said.... what ORIGINALLY Protestantism proclaimed.... is JUST SAY THANKS! Jesus is the Savior, Jesus does the saving. It's just that simple. YES - a Christian, a Child of God is to do MUCH as now the recipient of the masterpiece, but those are ways to live as the recipient - not monthly payments on a purchase or yet another application of spray paint.

Unfortunately, we still live in a world obsessed with adding spray paint.... fixing and finishing.... trying to buy what's not for sale and what we can't afford. In stead of living as one BLESSED, as one LOVED, as one GIVEN - and now can bless and love and give.



An Illustration....


Lazarus was DEAD. He had been DEAD for 4 days. Stinking DEAD. He wasn't crying out for help..... He wasn't trying to scratch his way out of the tomb.... He wasn't doing a bunch of good works..... He didn't decide he wanted to live..... he didn't do anything for a pretty simple reason: He was DEAD. And the dead can't do much - certainly nothing to give themselves life. Read Ephesians 2:1-9.

But Someone arrived on the scene that COULD give life! His name was Jesus. The Bible says His heart was stirred, His spirit was stirred. NOT by the cries of Lazarus..... not by the decision of Lazarus.... not by the good works he was doing in the tomb..... not by ANYTHING that dead man in the tomb was thinking or saying or doing. Jesus was stirred, moved by something in Himself - His boundless mercy, His unconditional love, His amazing grace! THEREFORE, Jesus did something (not Lazarus.... remember.... deader than a doorknob? Stinking to high heaven?). Now Jesus didn't just will it - He employed something (a command, the word): "Come out of there!" Could Lazarus "hear" that? Nope, but Jesus gave him life (when means, then he could) and Jesus restored him to his sisters. I think we can be sure he then lived a very different life - one of gratitude.

The Bible says the unregenerate are DEAD. Spiritually DEAD. DEAD in their tresspasses. The ENEMIES of God. But God is the LIFE-giver (as we profess in the ancient Creed). God arrives at our tomb. And His heart is stirrred - not by anything DEAD people do (dead can't do much) but by His own heart, His boundless mercy, His unconditional love.... so that HE does something: gives life. Regenerates/enlivens/justifies. And restores us to the Father.

Of course, now living - we are called to live. Now having spiritual life, we are called to spiritual living. Now blessed - we are called to bless. Now loved - we are called to love. Now that He has given us life - we are called to live this new life. But living this new life is not what caused us to come to life: Jesus enlivens, Jesus justifies, Jesus saves. Us - as He did Lazarus.




Sola Gratia - Solus Christus - Sola Fide!

Soli DEO Gloria!



- Josiah




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MoreCoffee said:

It made them feel good to "cast off restraint".

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.... as the RC Denomination did in 1054. But that's another subject for another day.

But you have a tiny point: I am thinking primary of the "first wave" - of Lutherans and Reform, who agree with what I posted in the Opening Post. It is true, there were others - Henry's that originally was not theological (he remained largely RCC in his doctrine) but primarily political - only later did it become the hybrid we know. And then came the Revolutionaries, who did not want to reform but to destroy and rebuild: I agree with you, they often ended up returning to the RCC's soteriology, which is why the Gospel is still needed - even among some Protestants, the later radical reformations in some ways returned to the Roman idea of self earning salvation - albeit with less stress on loving and more on deciding and feeling (if pressed, I'd probably prefer the Catholic from of Pelagianism). But then the point of this thread is that the Gospel is STILL needed because synergistic Pelagianism still exists (and it's no longer isolated in the RC Denomination). MC, there are Lutherans who would argue we have less "issues" with the RCC than with some radical "Evangelicals" (I'd be among them) but that too is another issue for another day. I yield your point: I am speaking more of the conservative, "first wave" Reformation - which was primarily focused on correcting the Pelagianism (or perhaps semi-Pelagianism) of Catholicism. Since Trent institutionalized it for the RC Denomination, we aren't surprised to see it there to this day... but it's not only there. Thus the point of this thread.

Like the bible warns about in psalm 2 - "Let us shatter their chains and cast their yoke away from us."

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Interesting point.... I think the RCC did that very thing by displacing the authority of Scripture (replacing it with itself) and the lordship of Christ (replacing it with their pope). And then it did it again in 1054 rejecting the college of Bishops and Ecumenical Councils insisting that it itself must shatter the chains of the church and crown itself the infallible Lord over all (a point my Greek Orthodox friend talks about constantly). But that too, of course, is another topic for another day (Maybe I'll get to that soon).


Back to the topic....



- Josiah



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