"When A Life is Examined by the Word of God": My Reflection on Protestant Reformation

Sunrise at Mt. Batur, Bali, Indonesia (Jefferson, 2015).

The motto of Protestant Reformation is POST TENEBRAS LUX; "after darkness, light" (Job 17:12 Vulgate). 

Versi Bahasa Indonesia dari tulisan ini juga dimuat di WarungSaTeKaMu.org dengan judul Ketika Hidup Ditilik oleh Firman: Perenunganku tentang Reformasi Gereja.

503 years ago, a monk posted a set of documents to the heads of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. They contained the 95 theses he had written to criticise the sale of indulgences by the church back then to fund the development of Saint Peter’s Basilica and Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. From this event, a legend was born about the monk, one Martin Luther, who’d supposedly nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church on 31 October 1517. This date would be recorded in history as the day of Protestant Reformation. Just like how the actual event was not as dramatic as how the legend unfolded it, Luther had not expected that his 95 theses would have impacted the church as impressively as they did. He simply wanted the teachings and practices of the church to return to their Biblical source; no more, no less. Luther would never have expected that his action would be used by God as the decisive domino that triggered the Reformation and restored the centrality of the Gospel and the Bible in the lives of Christians. Among the many legacies of Reformation which influence Christianity today, I’d like to share my reflection on one concept that I consider to be the quintessence of Reformation: Sola Scriptura, “by the Word of God alone”.

The word of God which gives light to the Word of God

The passage that led me to the conclusion above was written by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4, particularly verses 4–6. The passage opens with Paul’s statement that he and his coworkers do not lose heart in their ministry sharing the Gospel to many cities (v. 1b) despite the threat from various sides, in particular from the Corinthian church themselves (ch. 1–3). The church in Corinth rejected Paul harshly in his previous visit (2:1), deeming him inferior in comparison with those who “peddle the word of God for profit” (2:17 NIV). The congregation demanded letters of recommendation as proof of Paul’s apostleship just like many peddlers of the Word had (3:1). Against such obstacles, how could Paul not lose heart? Firstly, Paul and his coworkers saw their ministry as a form of mercy that God has poured on them (v. 1a). That is why they “refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word” like the peddlers did. In contrast, they presented the Good News of Christ clearly and plainly in the sight of God (v. 2), which is “Jesus Christ as Lord, with [themselves] as [the Corinthian church’s] servants for Jesus’ sake” (v. 5 ESV). If some people still couldn’t understand this Gospel after hearing it, Paul continued, it is because “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (v. 4 ESV). Paul concluded firmly, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (v. 6 ESV). Personally, I have never found any other passages in the Bible that explain Sola Scriptura as clearly as 2 Corinthians 4. Only by the word of God can we learn and know the one true God who revealed Himself realistically and fully in the person of Jesus Christ. Borrowing a term from John Piper, this is the “peculiar glory” of the Gospel as the core of the whole Bible (cf. Luk. 24:26–27): the holy God has come into the world to restore His glory in all creation that was corrupted by sin and humans’ rebellion. 

The light of the glory of the Word that examines the hearts of men

Texts in the Bible are precious because of the Good News that they present. Minds that have been blinded by the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4) couldn’t be healed by mere human words. Only the Word of God Himself who speaks to each person in every age and place through His written word (2 Cor. 4:6; cf. Jn. 1:1–16) can open the eyes of the sinful to the light of the glory of God. This is why Paul did not lose heart in working his ministry: he had encountered the Word in person and seen the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ (Acts 9:1–18). Paul no longer lived in the darkness of sin, but under the examination of the light of Christ “who loved [him] and gave Himself for [him]” (Gal. 2:20 ESV; cf. Ps. 139:23–24). Like Paul had, Luther saw “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” too and found it to be the solution to a great struggle that he had been experiencing for months prior to October 1517. In his study of the letters of Paul, Luther discovered a pair of truths that heavily disturbed his heart: that by his nature he is a sinner, and that the holiness of God demands righteousness from him. Luther couldn’t get these truths out of his mind to the point of developing a hatred towards God for His seeming injustice by demanding what is impossible for sinful humans, namely righteousness. This internal conflict and animosity would persist for a while before vanishing without a trace when he arrived at Romans 1:17. After reflecting on the verse for days and nights, Luther wrote:

There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.'' Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. … And I extolled my sweetest words with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the words “righteousness of God”.

Notice that Luther describes the righteousness which God demands from us as “passive”. What does this signify? It means that we become righteous not because of our own efforts or righteousness, but by the grace of God alone (Sola Gratia) through faith alone (Sola Fide) (Eph. 2:8–9). This righteousness has been obtained by Jesus for us through His death and resurrection (Solus Christus; Acts 4:12) so that the smallest, most insignificant thing that we do subscribes all glory to God alone (Soli Deo Gloria; 1 Cor. 10:31). Only in the Bible (Sola Scriptura) can we learn all these. While the “Five Solas” only took their present, concrete form years after Luther and his fellow Reformers had departed to the presence of God, their writings all contain the five points. We who live in the 21st century would likely look at the Reformers’ earth-shaking achievements and then treat them as something too amazing and far beyond our reach. “Can it be that God will work through me now?” We have to remember here that Luther and his fellow Reformers are basically sinful people who gave their lives to be examined by the Word of God through His words that are written in the Bible. At the end of his life, far from family and in pain, right before he returned to the Father’s house, Luther spoke his final words, “We are beggars. That is the truth.”

Has your life been examined by the Word of God?

We have witnessed how powerful and impactful a life that is examined by the Word of God is, and how even more remarkable and mightier the Word of God Himself is. What we need to reflect on in light of all this is: “Have we given ourselves to be examined by the Word of God through His written words?” What is the Bible to you? An ancient, boring, hard-to-understand tome, whose appeal is way less than TikTok and Netflix and Mobile Legends? or it is the very word of the living God that is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16 ESV)? For Paul, the Bible tells about the Gospel of “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6 ESV). For Luther, the Bible reveals the righteousness of God that is “from faith for faith” (Rom. 1:17) and his mercy and grace for sinful humans. For me, the Bible declares who Jesus Christ is and who am I before Him, reminds me of the love of God in the time of COVID-19, and guided me to make decisions according to the will of God. How about you? How has your life thus far been examined by the Word of God through His written word? When the original Word speaks to one human heart through His written word and works His new creation in the person, one could turn away no more. We who were blind now see, and in the light of the glory of Christ we see all other things (Ps. 36:9). No matter how elaborate our attempt to conceal aspects of our lives from God, everything will be revealed, be it now or at the very end on Judgment Day (Luk. 8:17). Be it now or then, that’s our choice. Will you surrender yourself, right here and right now, to be examined by the Word of God, dying and rising every day with the Lord Jesus? I pray that each and every one of us would really live our days examined by the word of God without a single iota or a dot of it that is not examined and ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The grace of Lord Jesus be with you, soli Deo gloria.