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.
Five hundred years ago, people said, “Jesus is the Savior BUT 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 hoops., less on living and more on emotions. “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!”
Essentially what Luther said…. What the Reformation proclaims…. What the Reformation was all about.... what Protestantism orginally 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.
Sola Gratia - Solus Christus - Sola Fide! Soli DEO Gloria!
- Josiah
