Why the Reformation Matters to Me (and Should Matter to You)

The Extraordinary Works of the Word of God in the Life of Ordinary People

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Exactly five hundred years ago, on the date the world now knows better as the Halloween, a German monk posted a document on a church door in Wittenberg. Its ninety-five theses mainly criticised the sales of indulgences[1] by the church to finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The monk, whom we now know to be Martin Luther, thought he was just expressing his concerns about the false practice. Never would he have expected that God would use this action as the decisive domino that triggered the Protestant Reformation.

What do you feel when you read the story above? Bored? Indifferent? Or are you as fired up and excited as I am? I find myself unable to listen to the history of the Reformation and still feel apathetic about it. Without trying to overstate its importance nor underestimate the crux of God’s redemption plan on the cross, I think we would not worship God as we do now without the legacies of those who fought—and for some, died—for the Reformation.[2] Why? Because it was through them that the Lord restored the true meaning of Christianity that had been twisted far from its roots. We have taken too many things for granted, including what we consider to be “customary”.

For example, sermons would have never been preached in the church had not the Reformers (re)emphasised its importance in the service. Yes, that sermon we often listen to with impatience and our eyes half-closed. Or, take singing. In the centuries before the Reformation, the church had opposed and forbidden the practice of singing. The Reformers must have seen this error as the early church used to sing, even in times of great distress (Acts 16:25). Some of them revived the practice in their respective congregation, which led to fierce and violent opposition from the church at that time. For instance, Jan Hus, a Czech Reformator, was burnt alive for having his congregation sing, among other reasons. I can’t help but feel grateful for the privileges God returned to the church through the Reformers.

Sermons and songs are only a few instances of the legacies of the Reformation, and I would like to bring your attention to one of its most important legacies: sola Scriptura, “Scriptures alone”. It is one of the five Solas that founds the Protestant faith we believe in and one we often ignore. If the Bible were not the chief and final authority through which the Lord reveals Himself to us and, furthermore, if the Reformators had not met with the Lord personally through His Word and learnt from it the salvation from sin and death through the blood of Jesus Christ, we would not be where we are today. We would still think that we could reduce the amount of punishment brought by sins by buying indulgences. We would not hear the Scriptures being preached weekly in the church. And we could not sing the worship songs that we love so much during the Sunday service.

In every part of the history are traces and proofs that God did not direct its course through the mighty and intelligent, but through those who to the world are weak and foolish (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). The Reformation on 31 October 1517 stands tall as a most notable milestone. It is a story where God used ordinary, sinful people like Martin Luther —whose notable sin being anti-Semitism[3]—to do His great works because they knew His will and interacted closely with Him through Bible reading and prayers. To the examples of these heroes of faith and, ultimately, the example of Christ Himself we are called to follow. Hence stands the crux of Christianity that the Reformation (re)discovered: from the Bible alone (sola Scriptura; Galatians 1:6-9) we learn that by grace alone[4] through faith alone (sola gratia[4] and sola fide; Ephesians 2:8-9) the Lord has saved us by the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ (solus Christus; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5) that all things, including our most minuscule action, may be for His glory alone (soli Deo gloria; Romans 11:36; 1 Corinthians 10:31).[5,6]

For Martin Luther and countless other believers, the Reformation began when God broke their sin-hardened hearts by His Word.[7] And so did it happen to me. I grew up in a Catholic household that taught me about Jesus and the Bible, but back then the Gospel was not appealing to me. I turned to humanism, at one point considered Buddhism and Taoism, and was for a period an agnostic and atheist. I would then revert to my lapsed Catholicism until the Lord broke my sin-hardened heart by His words in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. It was Christ, all or nothing; it still is now, and I pray it will be until Christ comes the second time. Since I repented about 6 years ago the Lord has since been nurturing me and making me more like His Son. The lordship of Jesus Christ in all things becomes the foundation of my life, namely in the field of environmental science I am now studying, in my Sunday school ministry, and in the youth ministry at church. And, thank God, I am getting more and more convinced about the importance of devotionals and prayers, for it is through these oft underestimated daily spiritual disciplines the Lord taught the Reformers and teaches us His will that we may do every good work for His glory (Ephesians 2:10).

How about you? Have you considered and reflected on the Reformation as what it is? Has the Lord grown in you the zeal to resist against the sins that have been keeping you from the liberating truth of the Word of God “to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:4)? Here I confess that I often do not. But through my reflection on the Reformation the Lord reminds me that we are “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1), those who have walked the path of the Lord while “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). By considering the lives of the ordinary, sinful Reformers and, chiefly and most importantly, the life of Jesus Himself, I am reminded of the extraordinary works of the Word of the Lord that keeps us from growing “weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3).

Soli Deo gloria!

Notes

[1] Documents that supposedly can reduce the amount of punishment one must undergo in the purifying fire (also known as “purgatory”) as consequences of sins. For a detailed explanation about indulgences and purgatory, read this article by Professor Gregg Allison. His writing concisely presents the theological differences between Protestantism and Catholicism.

[2] And even if they had not, God would still have raised up and used different people to do the same!

[3] Defined as “hostility to or prejudice against the Jews”. For more information about this flaw of Luther’s and how Christians should handle it, read this article by John Piper.

[4] This is Luther’s main argument against the indulgences and also the primary, decisive difference between Protestantism and other faiths: humans can never earn the eternal life through their own works. Instead, it is given to us by the Lord Himself solely because He wants to give it to us. This means that no matter how good we think we are through our deeds or words, they are all filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:4)! Sola gratia directly challenges the claim that we can reduce punishment in the purgatory—if it even existed—by the purchase of indulgences. For an elaborate explanation about this groundbreaking sola, watch this video by John Piper.

[5] While the way I order the five Solas seems to imply a hierarchy between them, that is not the case and it is never my intention to do so. They are all equally fundamental and form the essence of the Christian faith that the Reformation (re)discovered; Christianity would fail if one of these pillars were taken out of its foundation. They are explained in this order because that is how I picture them the best. Think about this account of the five Solas like a description of the different elements of oyakodon, a Japanese rice bowl dish that constituted of rice, egg, chicken meat, onions and soup. The way you list them down does not matter; you cannot leave a single element at all, lest the food you eat ceases to be an oyakodon. So is the same case with my account of the five Solas here.

[6] For a different version of the explanation of the five Solas, which is also a better, more theologically reliable treatment about them, watch this series by John Piper. He notably puts sola Scriptura at the end in contrast to my putting it in the beginning.

[7] David Mathis provides a good analysis of how the Word of God impacted the lives of some Reformators and can also impact ours, which you can read here.