The Protestant Reformation: What's the Big Deal?

George Washington Carver became one of the most honored and respected scientists of his generation by focusing on the very simple peanut. Eventually he would discover some three hundred uses for this most basic and seemingly insignificant common food. Carver attributed all of his scientific discoveries to God.

He once said that he had asked God to explain the universe to him, but that he felt God saying that was too large a task. When he asked for something he could handle, Carver said that God directed his attention to the peanut.

His focus and search for value produced amazing results. Carver never doubted that God was rewarding his faith and effort, and he said, “Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.”

A New Day for Truth.

In a day when many people deny that truth even exists as an absolute reality, those of us who know God need to be more focused than ever on seeking for it. Truth is not an abstract concept that varies with time and place and can never be fully known. Truth is part of the very nature of God.

Our Scripture today is about truth, from Romans chapter one. Paul is writing to this church and his letter would arguable contain the clearest presentation of the gospel: that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

In verse eight, Paul thanks God for the congregation of believers in Rome. He testifies of his earnest prayers for them. Paul planned to visit the church in Rome (verses 13 through 15), and he was ready to preach to them and encourage them.

In Romans 1:16, he says I am not ashamed of the gospel. The reason that he was not ashamed is that it was “...the power of God for salvation to the Jew first and to the Greek.” The reason for this, he said, was that the gospel revealed God’s righteousness.

Romans 1:16 ESV

16 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.

Martin Luther, the 16th century, Augustinian monk, read this verse, and it made a decisive impact on his understanding of justification. Kenneth Scott Latourette states:

“Somewhere along the way, at what precise hour we cannot tell, the phrase “the just shall live by faith,” brought him the illumination by which he was thereafter to live. “Justification by faith” became, through him, the distinctive principle of Protestantism.” (Latourette, A History of Christianity: Reformation to the Present, 706).

There were a handful of important men that brought about the Reformation.

Erasmus was a Dutch man born in 1469; he was an Augustinian monk and sought to reform the church from within. He never broke away, but wrote as satirical work known as The Praise of Folly, which sought to poke fun at the mistakes of the church and culture. As Christian History Institute states he:

“…focused his sarcastic gaze on the corrupt excesses of the Late Medieval church. He challenged Christians to get back to the first-century faith. He produced new versions of the New Testament in the hopes that everyone would be able to read it. Erasmus never left the Roman Catholic Church, but the Reformation might never have happened without him.” (Glimpses Issue #165).

Martin Luther was born in 1483 and entered the priesthood in 1507 when he was just 24 years old when he was 34 years old, he nailed his famous 95 theses or protests on the church doors in Wittenberg Germany. This eventually got him excommunicated from the church.

Ulrich Zwingli was born in 1484 and entered the priesthood in 1506. He worked for the reformation in Switzerland and wrote a few tracks before being killed in battle. He was influenced by Erasmus who was the father of the Reformation.

John Calvin was born in 1509 in France he wrote his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion, and went on to write 49 commentaries on different books of the Bible. While a student in Paris, he became a Protestant, and was forced to flee his home country. He eventually came to Geneva in 1541 and led the reformation there. Geneva became a center of Protestant education under Calvin.

John Knox was born in 1514 and entered the priesthood in 1536. He went to Geneva in 1553 and was influenced by John Calvin. He returned to Scotland and led the reformation there in 1559. Queen Mary said that she feared the prayers of John Knox, more than she feared all the armies of Scotland.

And Casper Schwenckfeld was born in 1489. He finished university studies in 1510 and became a court reporter. He was sympathetic to Luther’s teachings for a time and in 1519 he had a personal awakening and began to take spiritual life more seriously.

In 1522 he experienced a second awakening and became convicted over various thoughts on the Lord’s Supper, and broke away from Martin Luther, a loyalty he adhered to for nine years.

In 1523, Schwenckfeld retired from court life and turned his attention to the Reformation in Silesia (SE Germany). In 1529 he went into exile and led a secluded life until his death in 1561 in Ulm, Germany. He never wanted a Church named after him. He taught a Reformation of personal life.

There were many causes for the Reformation.

Certainly, there were political as well as economical ones. Today, I would like to emphasize the spiritual causes for the reformation.

First, there was the issue of salvation. It was not a result of works or participating in the sacraments. 1 Peter 3:18 tells us:

1 Peter 3:18 ESV

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

Romans 1:17 tells us that the righteous/just shall live by faith. This had dropped from view in the established church. Preaching salvation by grace through faith, although present in Augustine’s writings more than a thousand years prior, had vanished from Catholic pulpits in the Middle Ages. There needed to be a recovery of the preciousness of Christ’s sacrifice, which produced righteousness in the believer’s life through faith. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 states:

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone or the glory of God alone. Ephesians 2:8-10

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Secondly, there was the question of authority in the church. Those of the Roman Catholic persuasion taught that authority rested in the Bible and church tradition: whatever the Pope said. For Protestants, they had to get back to the source of truth, which is the Scriptures. The Bible alone is the authority in the church. Not church tradition. Not what the Pope says. But the Bible alone. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And then, lastly, there was widespread clergy corruption. There was a profound need for a moral reformation, as well as a doctrinal. Many priests had concubines. Church offices were often bought. And overall there was a taking advantage of laity. The sale of indulgences were highlighted by Johann Tetzel going from village to village in Germany, preaching: “As a coin in the coffer rings, so a soul from purgatory springs.” Proverbs 30:6

Proverbs 30:6 ESV

6 Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

So, the Protestant Reformation was a renewal movement. The Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology states: "Historically, the reformation refers to the renewal of the church in the 16th century, by revitalization from its source in the word.” WDT, 440).

A. Skevington Wood states:

"It was a reform, not a revolt. Continuity was preserved, so that the reformers could justifiably claim that what seemed to be the new church was indeed the old church, purged of offenses and reconstituted, according to the scriptural Norm." (Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology, 440).

The Reformation is important today because...

Truth matters. And that doctrine is important because it addresses eternal matters of truth. The five Solas of the reformation are critical for the church today. Sola is the Latin term for “only.”

Sola Scriptura: scripture alone is the authority in the life of the church.

Sola Fide: that faith alone is how we can be reconciled to God.

Sola Gratia: grace alone is the instrumentation of God, drawing us to himself, and precedes faith.

Solus Christus: Christ alone is the object of our worship in our faith.

Soli Deo Gloria: we exist for the glory of God alone.It teaches us that works come from faith. They do not precede faith.

Martin Luther once said “the life of Christianity consists of possessive pronouns. It is one thing to say Christ is a savior; it is quite another thing to say he is my savior, and my Lord. The devil can say the first; the true Christian alone can say the second.“

Historian Earl Cairns states “Glaring abuse of the indulgence system in Germany was the direct cause for the coming of the reformation in that country.” (Cairns, Christianity Through the Centuries, 283)

The reformers sought to go back to the Bible and found that the Bible taught what Augustine taught about man’s will in the need for salvation.

CONCLUSION

Today, people talk of “my truth,” and “your truth,” as if truth is something you make it out to be. But the Protestant Reformation taught that truth is objective; it lies outside of ourselves and must be discovered.

So let us not loose sight of the need for truth: in the 16th century and now, whether it be in doctrine or ethics.

The church always needs to be reformed and reforming, always getting back to what the Scriptures say. This was the glacier that cut through the church then and must be what cuts through the church now. Historian Philip Schaff said that

"...next to the introduction of Christianity, the greatest event in history was the Protestant Reformation. It marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern times. It made Protestantism the chief propelling force in the history of modern civilization."

In closing, in 1914, Ernest Shackleton and a team of explorers set out from England to do something that no one before had accomplished—cross Antarctica from one side to the other across the South Pole. Disaster struck when the team’s ship, Endurance, became entrapped in ice and eventually sank after her hull was crushed. Marooned on nearby Elephant Island, there seemed little hope for their survival.

In a desperate effort to get help, Shackleton and five others set out in a twenty-foot lifeboat across some of the most dangerous and storm-filled waters in the world. It was an eight hundred-mile journey to South Georgia Island where help could be found. For fifteen days the men battled the treacherous seas and massive storms with waves of up to one hundred feet.

Using only a compass and a sextant, Frank Worsley (who had captained the Endurance) navigated their course until they safely reached land and found help. Shackleton procured another ship and returned to rescue all of his men. He became a national hero in England for his courage and persistence.

All of us are making our way through a stormy world. Ever since the first sin in the Garden of Eden, mankind has struggled to make wise decisions about an uncertain future. The only way to ensure that we do not go astray is to have an objective source of truth that will guide us. Just as a compass can guide sailors through dark and uncharted waters, God’s Word can guide us through uncertain and difficult circumstances. We must simply trust it—over our feelings, over our own wisdom, and over contrary advice others may give us. Because the Bible is inspired by God, it is without error, and we can always trust it.