Redeemed by Faith

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

The doctrine of justification by faith alone, over which the Protestant Reformation was fought, means that justification is by Christ alone. There is nothing we can do to merit our salvation. Rather, redemption from slavery to sin is freely given to all who trust in God.

Theologians representing the papacy argued against the Reformers that James 2:24 says, “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” They argued that human works contribute to meriting salvation, though the primary work was done by Christ alone.

The Reformers replied from Romans 4:2–3, “If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ ” Obviously, they said, it is belief, not meritorious works, that makes us just in God’s sight.

How can we reconcile James and Paul? We have to remember the theme of James 2. James is arguing against those who profess faith but have no good works to prove it. Consider this question: Is justification by faith or by profession of faith? Clearly, justification is only by true, humble faith, which always and inevitably issues in faithful works. Thus, James asks, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save Him?” (James 2:14).

Like Paul, James illustrates his principle from the life of Abraham who, he says, was justified by his deeds. When? When he offered up Isaac in obedience to God (James 2:20–24; Genesis 22). Was this at the beginning or toward the end of Abraham’s life? Obviously, the latter. Paul, however, uses Abraham as an example of justification by faith alone because Abraham believed God before he did the works of the law (Romans 4; Genesis 15).

Thus, Paul is speaking of legal justification before the eyes of God, while James is speaking of visible justification before the eyes of men.

If you were on trial as a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? True submissive faith always produces faithful works of obedience. Ask God to help you manifest your faith through good works.

Reformation of the Mind

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21).

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther tacked 95 theses to the castle church of Wittenberg University. As we saw yesterday, Christians need to be able to debate differences in an atmosphere of charity, and this is what Luther hoped to do. When we look back on this event, we call it the birthday of the Protestant Reformation.

The Reformation was a rebirth of biblical theology. It was the concern for scriptural truth that motivated Luther and the other Reformers. Sadly, today we find throughout the evangelical world a great contradiction. On the one hand, there is a great aversion to the study of theology, while on the other hand there is tremendous interest in discovering God’s will. Notice how Paul puts these together here in Romans 12:2. It is by becoming transformed in our minds that we can acquire the wisdom and perspective to be able to discern God’s will for our lives. It is on the basis of the theology of Romans 1–11 that Paul is able to move to the admonitions of Romans 12–16.

This is why we are to study God’s Word. It is not simply to acquire a knowledge that puffs up, but rather to know what is pleasing to God, and to know how to make appropriate decisions in our daily lives. This has been Paul’s concern throughout Romans 12, as he gives us a whole series of particular injunctions for our lives.

Paul concludes these injunctions by telling us in verse 19, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.” Revenge, or vengeance, is not itself evil, “For it is written, ‘It is Mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” We are to rest in His perfect justice and not take matters into our own hands.

Read Romans 12:19–21. Here we see how we are to deal with those who abuse us. On this Reformation Day, can you think of any “enemy” to whom you can show love? Find a way to help that person without trying to triumph over him. Make this Reformation Day a day of reformation for yourself.

The Reformation and Peace with God (by David Strain)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1

Martin Luther was a man racked by the agony of a sin-seared conscience. His spiritual struggles, his Anfechtungen, seemed to have no remedy. And so, Luther said, “I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him.” In the Pauline expression “the righteousness of God,” Luther heard only a terrible thunderclap of divine condemnation. It was that righteousness by which God judges the wicked, and thus also that righteousness thwarted his every attempt to find rest for his troubled soul. But then, one day, the storm clouds parted, and shining from that same expression “the righteousness of God,” Luther at last saw not the justice of God to condemn sinners but the gracious provision of God in Jesus Christ to declare sinners righteous in His sight. The words that once seemed to signal only his exclusion from the presence of God became the instruments by which God drew him into His saving embrace, silencing his troubled conscience and giving him peace. Now he saw that through the gospel he could be simul justus et peccator, both sinner and saint by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

By faith, Paul says, we are justified, and because we are counted righteous in Christ, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). The cause of the divine hostility—the guilt of our sin—has been washed away in the wounds of Jesus Christ. The wrath of God is satisfied in the cross for all who believe. “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10). “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19). “[Having] sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law,” God makes His enemies into His friends. More than that, we even “receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4–7).

But the great rediscovery of the gospel at the Reformation taught us not only that we may have peace with God, but also that we might have peace from God. Justification by faith alone is a blessed gospel truth, but it is not a truth we experience. It is an objective, legal verdict passed over us in the courtroom of heaven on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. One does not feel justified. It is a status, not a sense. It is a declaration made over us, not a feeling communicated to us. Yet those who have stood in the dock will tell you of the peace and joy that overwhelms them when the “not guilty” verdict is returned. Precisely because our right standing with God is not based on something in us but is wholly based on the obedience and blood of Jesus Christ, we may have the greatest confidence in it. We have peace from God to assure and comfort our hearts because Christ has established peace with God by His cross.

Sadly, it is here that Christians often go wrong. Much like Luther before his spiritual breakthrough, we too readily establish our belief in the solidity and permanence of our salvation on our subjective experience. If we do not feel peace, we assume there can be no peace. If we do not experience the intimate presence of God, we conclude that we must still be alienated from Him. But this is to rest our hope once again on something in ourselves, on some feeling or quality or sense of spiritual things. In contrast, the gospel recovered at the Reformation declares with joy that our “hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” We have an objective and immovable rock upon which to anchor our confidence before God. It is not to be looked for in the murky depths of our hearts or in the shifting sands of our effort or experience. It is found in Christ crucified, risen, and reigning. We must look to Him for peace.

To be sure, subjectivity is not sin, and the Scriptures themselves call us to self-examination. Paul’s call is to “examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). The “if . . . then” syllogism that fills the first letter of the Apostle John reminds us that there are practical tests we must apply to our hearts and lives that will help us discern evidences of spiritual life. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (2:15). “If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father” (2:24). “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (3:17). One of the tools we have been given to dispel fears and settle our hearts is the discipline of self-examination. Those in whom the Holy Spirit has worked the miracle of new birth are those who bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and we are indeed to seek that fruit in our lives. Yet Robert Murray M’Cheyne was undoubtedly correct to counsel us that for every “one look at self” we should “take ten looks to Christ.”

That is fine pastoral wisdom. If we seek our peace in our own progress in Christian obedience alone, if our gifts and graces are the only source of comfort and assurance in our lives, then we may find ourselves tempted to one of two extremes. Either we will give in to a naive self-congratulation, overestimating the progress we have made and overlooking the sin that still so easily entangles us, or we might find our peace collapsing under the pressure of guilt as we allow our sin and failure, eclipse-like, to obscure all progress and growth. M’Cheyne was right. We must take a look at self, often and carefully. We ought frequently to assess ourselves with sober honesty. But how shall we overcome the danger of false assurance based on a faulty overestimate of our own worthiness if not by looking at the pristine faultlessness of Christ in His obedience to the Father? In the bright sunshine of His perfections, the stains of sin in us are clearly revealed. How shall we answer the accusations of a conscience that sees only failure and sin if not by looking at the Righteous One whose obedience even unto death was for us and for our salvation? His all-sufficient atonement alone can silence the sting of a condemning conscience and humble the boasts of a self-reliant heart. Only by the ballast of the gospel of free grace can the ship of our Christian lives avoid listing to one side or the other. May the Lord help us all to find peace from God because we have first found peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why the Reformation Still Matter (by Michael Reeves)

Last year, on October 31, Pope Francis announced that after five hundred years, Protestants and Catholics now “have the opportunity to mend a critical moment of our history by moving beyond the controversies and disagreements that have often prevented us from understanding one another.” From that, it sounds as if the Reformation was an unfortunate and unnecessary squabble over trifles, a childish outburst that we can all put behind us now that we have grown up.

But tell that to Martin Luther, who felt such liberation and joy at his rediscovery of justification by faith alone that he wrote, “I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” Tell that to William Tyndale, who found it such “merry, glad and joyful tidings” that it made him “sing, dance, and leap for joy.” Tell it to Thomas Bilney, who found it gave him “a marvelous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones leaped for joy.” Clearly, those first Reformers didn’t think they were picking a juvenile fight; as they saw it, they had discovered glad tidings of great joy.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Europe had been without a Bible the people could read for something like a thousand years. Thomas Bilney had thus never encountered the words “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). Instead of the Word of God, they were left to the understanding that God is a God who enables people to earn their own salvation. As one of the teachers of the day liked to put it, “God will not deny grace to those who do their best.” Yet what were meant as cheering words left a very sour taste for everyone who took them seriously. How could you be sure you really had done your best? How could you tell if you had become the sort of just person who merited salvation?

Martin Luther certainly tried. “I was a good monk,” he wrote, “and kept my order so strictly that I could say that if ever a monk could get to heaven through monastic discipline, I should have entered in.” And yet, he found:

My conscience would not give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, “You didn’t do that right. You weren’t contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.” The more I tried to remedy an uncertain, weak and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more daily I found it more uncertain, weaker and more troubled.

According to Roman Catholicism, Luther was quite right to be unsure of heaven. The confidence of a place in heaven was considered errant presumption and was one of the charges made against Joan of Arc at her trial in 1431. There, the judges proclaimed,

This woman sins when she says she is as certain of being received into Paradise as if she were already a partaker of . . . glory, seeing that on this earthly journey no pilgrim knows if he is worthy of glory or of punishment, which the sovereign judge alone can tell.

That judgment made complete sense within the logic of the system: if we can only enter heaven because we have (by God’s enabling grace) become personally worthy of it, then, of course, no one can be sure. By that line of reasoning, I can only have as much confidence in heaven as I have confidence in my own sinlessness.

That was exactly why the young Martin Luther screamed with fear when as a student he was nearly struck by lightning in a thunderstorm. He was terrified of death, for without knowledge of Christ’s sufficient and gracious salvation—without knowledge of justification by faith alone—he had no hope of heaven.

And that was why his rediscovery in Scripture of justification by faith alone felt like entering paradise through open gates. It meant that, instead of all his angst and terror, he could now write:

When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: “I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.”

And that was why the Reformation gave people such a taste for sermons and Bible reading. For, to be able to read God’s words and to see in them such good news that God saves sinners, not on the basis of how well they repent but entirely by His own grace, was like a burst of Mediterranean sunshine into the gray world of religious guilt.

What is Reformation Day? (Stephen J. Nichols)

A single event on a single day changed the world. It was October 31, 1517. Brother Martin, a monk and a scholar, had struggled for years with his church, the church in Rome. He had been greatly disturbed by an unprecedented indulgence sale. The story has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. Let’s meet the cast.

First, there is the young bishop—too young by church laws—Albert of Mainz. Not only was he bishop over two bishoprics, he desired an additional archbishopric over Mainz. This too was against church laws. So Albert appealed to the Pope in Rome, Leo X. From the De Medici family, Leo X greedily allowed his tastes to exceed his financial resources. Enter the artists and sculptors, Raphael and Michelangelo.

When Albert of Mainz appealed for a papal dispensation, Leo X was ready to deal. Albert, with the papal blessing, would sell indulgences for past, present, and future sins. All of this sickened the monk, Martin Luther. Can we buy our way into heaven? Luther had to speak out.

But why October 31? November 1 held a special place in the church calendar as All Soul’s Day. On November 1, 1517, a massive exhibit of newly acquired relics would be on display at Wittenberg, Luther’s home city. Pilgrims would come from all over, genuflect before the relics, and take hundreds, if not thousands, of years off time in purgatory. Luther’s soul grew even more vexed. None of this seemed right.

Martin Luther, a scholar, took quill in hand, dipped it in his inkwell and penned his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517. These were intended to spark a debate, to stir some soul-searching among his fellow brothers in the church. The 95 Theses sparked far more than a debate. The 95 Theses also revealed the church was far beyond rehabilitation. It needed a reformation. The church, and the world, would never be the same.

One of Luther’s 95 Theses simply declares, “The Church’s true treasure is the gospel of Jesus Christ.” That alone is the meaning of Reformation Day. The church had lost sight of the gospel because it had long ago papered over the pages of God’s Word with layer upon layer of tradition. Tradition always brings about systems of works, of earning your way back to God. It was true of the Pharisees, and it was true of medieval Roman Catholicism. Didn’t Christ Himself say, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light?” Reformation Day celebrates the joyful beauty of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is Reformation Day? It is the day the light of the gospel broke forth out of darkness. It was the day that began the Protestant Reformation. It was a day that led to Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and many other Reformers helping the church find its way back to God’s Word as the only authority for faith and life and leading the church back to the glorious doctrines of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It kindled the fires of missionary endeavors, it led to hymn writing and congregational singing, and it led to the centrality of the sermon and preaching for the people of God. It is the celebration of a theological, ecclesiastical, and cultural transformation.

So we celebrate Reformation Day. This day reminds us to be thankful for our past and to the Monk turned Reformer. What’s more, this day reminds us of our duty, our obligation, to keep the light of the gospel at the center of all we do.

The Next 500 Years: 2017 Ligonier National Conference (Videos)

Reformation occurs when the light of God’s Word shines into places of spiritual and cultural darkness and transforms the people of God. This is why the motto of the Protestant Reformation became “After Darkness, Light.”

You can now stream on-demand all 26 messages from the 2017 Ligonier National Conference. The videos are accessible for free here.

Reformation Day 2016

Reformation Day 1516 brings us to the final year countdown to the 500th anniversary of Luther's call for a debate about the nature and scope of indulgences, the event which is popularly seen as the start of the Reformation.

What was the formal issue of the Protestant Reformation? R.C Sproul answers briefly...



Were the issues under debate during the Reformation matters of importance. Yes! They were matters of life and death because they were at the heart of the gospel.



Is Reformation still necessary today? Yes! Michael Reeves briefly explains...

500 Years Have Proven the Reformers Were Right

Here is a quick primer on the doctrinal biggies of the Reformation, the so-called “Five Solas.”

Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura)

While the Catholic church taught that authority lies in two main sources: the Scriptures (Old & New Testaments) and the magisterium (the official dogma of the Pope and his councils), the reform Luther wanted was that the church should recognize only one source of revelation: Scripture alone. See 2 Pet 1:21; 2 Tim 3:16; Mark 7:7; 1 Cor 4:6

By Grace Alone (Sola Gratia)

Where the Catholic church taught that salvation came to an individual by means of Christ’s work on the cross and man’s work in response (including necessary sacraments such as baptism into the Catholic church and communion administered by an authorized Catholic), the Reformers insisted that salvation came by one means: God’s free, unmerited favor initiated by him, or simply put, by grace alone. Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." See also, Titus 3:5; Romans 3:24

Through Faith Alone (Sola Fide)

Similar to the previous one, this doctrine emphasizes that the instrument by which grace is administered is not faith in combination with the practice of certain sacraments, but faith alone. Good works follow salvation from sin, but those works are not accounted as the means of saving grace.

Through Christ Alone (Solus Christus)

Integral to the Catholic system of salvation is the role of priests. These are men who mediate between sinners and the Savior. The Reformers emphasized that anyone can go directly to the Savior, and that he is the only needed mediator…

1 Timothy 2:5, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

Although priests did have a mediatorial role in the Old Testament, once Christ came he fulfilled that role once for all and is the only needed mediator (Heb 7:23-25). Especially relevant today is that this doctrine is the opposite of the Catholic assertion that Mary occupies an office of “co-redemptrix” alongside Christ.

To God’s Glory Alone (Soli Deo Gloria)

Johan Sebastian Bach famously signed the written score of his compositions with this Latin dedication. The Reformers were ardent about reserving all glory for God (á la Jude 25) and not sharing it with deceased saints, Mary, the Pope, or anyone who occupied an elevated position in the Catholic system. See Isaiah 46:5-11.

The church is always in need of reform. Even in the New Testament, we see Jesus rebuking Peter, and we see Paul correcting the Corinthians. Since Christians are always sinners, the church will always need reform. The question for us, however, is when does the need become an absolute necessity?

The great Reformers of the sixteenth century concluded that reform was urgent and necessary in their day. In pursuing reform for the church, they rejected two extremes. On the one hand, they rejected those who insisted that the church was essentially sound and needed no fundamental changes. On the other hand, they rejected those who believed that they could create a perfect church in every detail. The church needed fundamental reform, but it would also always need to be reforming itself. The Reformers reached these conclusions from their study of the Bible.

Happy Reformation Day.

Halloween?

There, there, Martin. We'll straighten them all out.

The Reformation Wall Redux

Ecclesia semper reformanda est, ya'll