Reformation Day

While the vast majority of Americans including more than their share of Christians celebrated October 31 as Halloween, selecting or making just the right costume and ensuring a bowl of candy was next to the front door ready to be disbursed to the hordes of trick or treaters coming to the house, a vast minority celebrated Reformation Day.  Now, some of you have no idea what I am even talking about…….do you?!

Reformation Day celebrates that event back in history, in 1517 to be exact, when a relatively unknown Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 protests against the Roman Catholic Church on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  Unbeknown to Luther at that time, his actions sparked what has become known in history as the Protestant Reformation.

Whereas, Luther was protesting several abuses he saw in the church, the one which took priority over them all was the sale of indulgences.  The selling of Indulgences was Pope Leo X’s way of raising money to finish building St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  The plan was basic enough—tell people they can buy themselves out of purgatory (an unbiblical teaching in itself) and into heaven by purchasing a certificate known as an indulgence for the “remission of the temporal punishment of sin”.  The money would be applied to a good cause and the person providing it would essentially buy him or herself into heaven.  The Pope’s all-time high producing salesman, a priest by the name of John Tetzel, used to say, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs." 

Luther objected to this practice on the basis that salvation from sin and thus from the wrath of God could not be purchased, earned, merited, or achieved.  It was a gift of God that came through God’s grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone so that God alone would be glorified.  Against the teaching of his day, that the righteous acts of believers are performed in cooperation with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to the one who believes (rather than infused into them) through faith.  "That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," wrote Luther.  He rightly understood and taught that:

"Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24–25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23–25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us ... Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31)."

Once posted on the church door in Wittenberg, the 95 Theses were quickly translated from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied.  Within two weeks, copies had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe and the world has never been the same since.  So, as you enjoy all the candy your Trick or Treaters brought home last night, don’t forget to tell them about Martin Luther and the Reformation.  Better yet, just make sure they know and understand the Gospel!