Reformation (3)

(NIV)

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

A reformation is when something changes. October 31 is the anniversary of the start of a series of events that brought about tremendous changes in the Christian church. The most important change was a renewed understanding of the answer to a very important question. “What must I do to be saved?” Those who believe that there is a God who judges our actions and whose verdict will determine how and where we will spend eternity do well to ask this question. This also involves believing that there is such a thing as an existence after death. After all, if our death is the end of our existence, it doesn’t really matter whether or not there is a God who judges people and determines what happens after we die if nothing happens. We do believe in the following biblical teachings.

There is a God to whom we are accountable.

That God is concerned about what we believe and do in this lifetime.

1 Timothy 2:3–6 NIV

3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

There is an existence after death and how we will spend it is determined by what we believe and do during our lives.

There is an existence after death and how we will spend it is determined by what we believe and do during our lives.

He has

Jesus will return to judge the living and dead on the Last Day.

His verdict will announce whether we will spend eternity in heaven or in hell.

The key question is: What is Jesus’ verdict dependent on? What we believe concerning that question should have a tremendous impact on how we live our lives.

Over 500 years ago a young man, named Martin Luther, considered this question to be critical to what he would do with his life. He had grown up in the Christian church and had been taught that there is a God, that there was an existence after death (Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory). He believed that Jesus was a real person who lived, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, and from there he would come to judge the living and the dead. He believed that what he believed and did would have eternal consequences. But he was trapped in a faulty belief system. The church at that time put an over emphasis on what a person did and not on what had already been done for them. Faith in Jesus was crucial but it was not enough. The devoted Christian was also shackled with an overwhelming system of law and conditional forgiveness.

Law: This is what God commands you to do.

This is what you deserve because you have sinned.

This is how your sins are removed: Penance.

Protestant Reformers, upholding the doctrine of justification by faith, held that repentance consisted in a change of the whole moral attitude of the mind and soul (; ), and that the divine forgiveness preceded true repentance and confession to God without any reparation of "works".[3] Rather, "God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance" (, ESV). In his Of Justification By Faith, Calvin says: "without forgiveness no man is pleasing to God." Nonetheless, in traditions formed by a Calvinist or Zwinglian sensibility there has traditionally been a stress on reconciliation as a precondition to fellowship.

The attitude of penance or repentance can be externalized in acts that a believer imposes on himself or herself, acts that are themselves called penances. Penitential activity is particularly common during the season of Lent and Holy Week. In some cultural traditions, this week, which commemorates the Passion of Christ, may be marked by penances that include flagellantism or even voluntary pseudo-crucifixion. Advent is another season during which, to a lesser extent, penances are performed. Acts of self-discipline are used as tokens of repentance. Easier acts of self-discipline include devoting time to prayer or reading of the Bible or other spiritual books. Examples of harder acts of self-discipline are fasting, continence, abstaining from alcohol or tobacco, or other privations. Self-flagellation and the wearing of a cilice are more rarely used. Such acts have sometimes been called mortification of the flesh, a phrase inspired by : "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

The attitude of penance or repentance can be externalized in acts that a believer imposes on himself or herself, acts that are themselves called penances. Penitential activity is particularly common during the season of Lent and Holy Week. In some cultural traditions, this week, which commemorates the Passion of Christ, may be marked by penances that include flagellantism or even voluntary pseudo-crucifixion. Advent is another season during which, to a lesser extent, penances are performed. Acts of self-discipline are used as tokens of repentance. Easier acts of self-discipline include devoting time to prayer or reading of the Bible or other spiritual books. Examples of harder acts of self-discipline are fasting, continence, abstaining from alcohol or tobacco, or other privations. Self-flagellation and the wearing of a cilice are more rarely used. Such acts have sometimes been called mortification of the flesh, a phrase inspired by : "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

Such acts are associated also with the sacrament. In the New Testament there was no specific ritual for reconciliation except Baptism. With the delay of the expected Second Coming, there was a recognized need for a means of accepting back into the Christian community those who had been expelled for serious sins. In early Christianity, Bishops did not forgive but rather declared that God had forgiven the sins when it was clear that there was repentance, and the penitent was readmitted to the community.[5] Today the act of penance or satisfaction imposed in connection with the sacrament for the same therapeutic purpose can be set prayers or a certain number of prostrations or an act or omission intended to reinforce what is positive in the penitent's behaviour or to inhibit what is negative. The act imposed is itself called a penance or epitemia.

These teachings had practical applications and sometimes they were abused. In 1517 the Roman Catholic Church has embarked on an extensive building program (research). You can relate to this in part. In both our congregations, the buildings were renovated in the last (how many?) years. The purpose what practical. What options did you have to raise funds for the project?

How did the Roman Catholic Church seek to raise funds for St. Peter’s? One way was through the sale of indulgences.

New St. Peter’s Basilica is the second largest church in the world and considered by many to be the most beautiful. Built mainly during the sixteenth century, it took over a century to complete, and withstood corruption, wars, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, good popes and evil ones, and inched its way toward completion in 1626. The main funding for the early stages of building New St. Peter’s came from the sale of indulgences. Indulgences did more than help pay for the basilica, however. The abusive means of selling indulgences, including lies from priests and the papacy about their efficacy, resulted in an uprising, led by Martin Luther of Germany, and the result was the Reformation and split in the Church. For those who were seduced away from the Church by the allure of the Renaissance and the secular aspects of humanism, Luther’s protestations offered an alternative ideology and the Protestant Church was born.

This makes no sense unless you understand how beliefs impact actions.

Martin Luther was concerned about this practice (why?) For him it was a doctrinal issue. He had come to believe that salvation was a gift from God and not something that could be bought or sold. His purpose in writing and posting 95 theses against the sale of indulgences was to debate this with other theologians. Instead, it created a firestorm in part because of the beginnings of what we could call mass media. This led to increasingly open discussions about what the Bible taught and not just what the people were taught that the Bible taught.

This open teaching of the Gospel helped to set people free.

John 8:31–32 NIV

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We still benefit from this today. Because we are sinners and have not yet been glorified as we will be in eternity, we still succumb to temptation. My five year old grand daughter told me last week that we we sin we are “listening to the devil”. Maybe a simple way for children to believe but we do confess that we do violate God’s commands when the world, the devil, and our sinful nature lead us to do things that God forbids in his word or fail to do what he commands.

(NIV)

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

But rather than strive to make up for our sins and do certain prescribed acts of penance in order to be relieved of guilt, we trust that our sins have already been punished and that God has forgiven us. Our confession acknowledges our sin and our trust in that forgiveness. As forgiven children of God, we are freed from guilt to renew our efforts to live holy and godly lives out of love for Jesus and not fear of punishment.

Another benefit was the opening up of access to the Bible for the common person. I don’t think we appreciate just how hidden the Bible was from the common person.

Bible was in a language foreign to them.

Application: We are taught justification by faith alone.

Bibles were very rare and expensive.

We believe that we are saved by grace alone.

Depended on what others told you it said.

We base out beliefs on scripture alone.

Although there value in having those who study the Bible to teach what it says (kind of like getting expert knowledge straight from the doctor instead of reading Grey’s Anatomy or searching WEB MD), we trust that God’s word has the power to speak directly to the hearts of all those who read it for themselves without depending on the experts.

Discuss the access we have to the greatest book of all time and how through it we can learn the teachings of Jesus and be free from falsehood.

(NIV)

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus came to teach the truth of God’s Word and teaches us that the Gospel sets us free. Martin Luther was certainly set free from the fears generated from false teaching. His return to the gospel has helped Christians to be free from guilt for centuries. He translated the Bible into the common language of his people so that they could read the promises of God for themselves.

We today benefit from a clear proclamation of the Gospel and have access to the Bible so that we can be refreshed with this Good News every day from God’s Word.