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Happy Reformation Day!
12 years ago
Today is the day we celebrate (or at the very least observe) what people consider the start of the second major division to occur in the organized Christian faith, the Reformation. October 31st is when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenburg Chapel. This was pretty much how people made "blog posts" back then. If they wanted something to be read, understood and acted on, they'd write them down and post them somewhere relatively public.
To be historically honest, the Holy Spirit started stirring God's people to re-examine themselves, their corporate faith and the traditions that had built up centuries before with the testimonies and lives of priests and monks like John Hoss and Girolamo Savonarola, and merchants and philosophers like Peter Waldo and John Wycliffe.
Martin Luther himself was great man, but did have his flaws and missteps. He was a rough German, possessed legendary flatulence, a gruff lawyer, and not known to be all that gentle. Not everything borne out of the Reformation was immediately positive either. But with his re-discovery of justification by grace through faith, and his own love of God's Law, he set the stage for a massive public reawakening of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the good news that even though we are enemies of God and have willfully cut ourselves off from him, God himself did everything necessary to remove that hostility between us and him. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and becoming joined to Him in faith is all that God requires so that we can be fully accepted by him. Our good works may be necessary and meaningful, but they don't determine our eternal fate or our standing with God.
So ultimately, a celebration of the Reformation is a celebration of our Lord Jesus, a festival of love and of learning more about Him and His ways, with our eyes opened by his grace to see his grace.
To be historically honest, the Holy Spirit started stirring God's people to re-examine themselves, their corporate faith and the traditions that had built up centuries before with the testimonies and lives of priests and monks like John Hoss and Girolamo Savonarola, and merchants and philosophers like Peter Waldo and John Wycliffe.
Martin Luther himself was great man, but did have his flaws and missteps. He was a rough German, possessed legendary flatulence, a gruff lawyer, and not known to be all that gentle. Not everything borne out of the Reformation was immediately positive either. But with his re-discovery of justification by grace through faith, and his own love of God's Law, he set the stage for a massive public reawakening of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the good news that even though we are enemies of God and have willfully cut ourselves off from him, God himself did everything necessary to remove that hostility between us and him. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and becoming joined to Him in faith is all that God requires so that we can be fully accepted by him. Our good works may be necessary and meaningful, but they don't determine our eternal fate or our standing with God.
So ultimately, a celebration of the Reformation is a celebration of our Lord Jesus, a festival of love and of learning more about Him and His ways, with our eyes opened by his grace to see his grace.
