It’s the time of year where we decorate our front porches with pumpkins and hay bales. The air is brisk and we bundle up in our sweaters and boots. It’s a season that fills the senses with favorite tastes and smells. Even as I write this, an apple scented candle fills the room with a sweet fragrance. This month, children ready themselves to gorge on candy. Before long, we’ll be stuffing ourselves with turkey and pie, followed by stockings and presents.
It’s a busy time of year and sometimes we miss an important event tucked in amid all the celebration and feasting. Reformation Day. It’s not a holiday but it is an important day to remember for so much of what we experience as believers today, began October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door at Whittenburg. For many of us, the day comes and goes without thinking about it. What happened five hundred year ago is all too often taken for granted.
But what if the Reformation had not happened? What if Martin Luther had not brought his questions and challenges to the church, confronting it with all that the Bible taught about salvation and the church?
Here are just a few things that might be different:
We would not have the Bible in our own language.
We would still be paying indulgences to get loved ones out of purgatory.
We would believe that we are saved by our works instead of by grace alone.
We would elevate church tradition over what the Bible teaches.
We wouldn’t know the extravagant grace of God for us in Christ.
We wouldn’t worship God with our whole hearts and glorify him with our lives.
We would not hear the word preached each Lord’s Day.
Can you imagine any of these things? Each one of them is significant and had the Reformation not happened, the church today would be very different. Every morning when I sit down to read my Bible, I’m doing something that Christians did not do before 1517. Not only do I have the Bible in my own language, but I have multiple versions of it in every size and shape, even digital versions. Through my encounter with God’s word and what it has taught me about the gospel, I trust in Christ alone for my salvation knowing that I am saved by faith and not works. Another reformer, John Calvin, explained the depths of God’s grace in our salvation. From beginning to end, salvation is rooted in God’s grace. There is nothing we did to earn it. There is nothing we can do to lose it. Think of it, had the Reformation not happened, we would not sing the hymn Amazing Grace. It would have no meaning for us.
There are many other things that grew out of the Reformation as well, including how we view vocation. Had the Reformation not happened, we would still separate work into jobs that are holy and important and those that are not. Martin Luther also influenced worship through all the hymns he wrote, inspiring musicians down through the ages.
Luther’s simple act on October 31, 1517 sparked a reformation that continues to ripple down through the ages. May we not take what happened at the Reformation for granted. May we continue the motto from the Reformation: Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda, the church reformed and always reforming. And may we look to the word of God alone to be our authority, as it teaches that we are justified through Christ alone, by faith alone, in grace alone, to the glory of God alone.
How about you? Anything else you would add to the list?
Photo by Wim van 't Einde on Unsplash
