Reformation Day, October 31: Why It’s Important

As Jude 3 urged, faithful Christians have always needed to contend for the truth of Scripture.

Such diversity is not surprising given the warnings of the apostles Paul and Peter. Most of the New Testament epistles were dealing with false teaching as they taught the truth. Paul warned of “fierce wolves” coming to the church and even church leaders leading Christians astray (Acts 20:28–30). He warned of false gospels and of people preaching a different Jesus (Galatians 1:6–7; 2 Corinthians 11:4). He warned that Christians would not tolerate the teaching of sound doctrine and instead look for teachers to tickle their ears or would even pay attention to doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:3). And Peter said false teachers would arise in the church and secretly introduce destructive heresies (2 Peter 2:1). Most of the New Testament epistles were dealing with false teaching of some kind as they taught the truth. Since the beginning of the church, Christians have had to deal with lots of different views and truth claims from inside and outside the church. As Jude 3 urged, faithful Christians have always needed to contend for the truth of Scripture.

Early Church

The church was born in AD 33 on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). As Christians took the gospel throughout the Roman Empire, they encountered much persecution both from the Jews and the Romans over the next three centuries.

Things changed in the fourth century when the Roman emperors first legalized Christianity and then made it the state religion. This largely ended the persecution but unintentionally opened the door to spiritual corruption as the church was wedded with the political government. In the following centuries of the “dark ages” following the collapse of the Roman empire (476), much happened both to protect and to undermine orthodox Christian teaching.

In eastern and western Europe, the church became divided politically and ecclesiastically with the Eastern Orthodox church’s power centered in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) and Roman Catholic church’s power over western Europe centered in Rome.

The Reformation

By the time of Martin Luther (1483–1546) and the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic church had become morally and spiritually corrupt.

By the time of Martin Luther (1483–1546) and the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic church had become morally and spiritually corrupt. Immorality among the priests was widespread. Justice could be bought and sold in church courts. The celebration of the Lord’s supper (Matthew 26:20–30; 1 Corinthians 11:17–34) had become a magic rite. The Catholic church used relics (supposed bits of the cross of Jesus and bones of dead “saints”) to stir religious commitment. The popes claimed to be the head of the worldwide church (in 1409, three popes simultaneously made the claim), Mary (the mother of Jesus) and other “saints” were venerated, and church traditions and doctrines not found in Scripture were given equal authority with Scripture. As a result, the gospel was obscured or distorted.

Political and economic factors also contributed to the Reformation. Nation-states in northwestern Europe were increasingly opposed to a universal church having authority over the states. Rulers, nobles, and middle-class people increasingly wanted some of the massive property owned by the Roman Catholic church.

Two men, John Wycliffe (1328–1384) in England and Jan Hus (1369–1415) in Bohemia (Czech Republic), are considered forerunners to the Reformation. Both were Roman Catholic priests who spoke out against the immorality and wealth of the church and the church’s doctrine of the Eucharist. Wycliffe and his associates produced the first English Bible, since the common people could not read the church-approved Latin Bible, and Hus preached in Czech in defiance of church law. The church condemned them as heretics and burned both of their bodies (Wycliffe after his burial, and Hus at the stake) and dumped their ashes in a river.

But it was the selling of indulgences that really triggered the Reformation. The practice began in the thirteenth century in order to raise money for the Catholic church and was part of a false gospel of earning your way to heaven. An indulgence was a payment of money to the church to shorten a person’s time in purgatory. Purgatory is never mentioned in the Bible, but according to the Catholic church, it is a place where people suffer for their “venial” (minor) sins before they can go to heaven. People could buy indulgences for themselves, dead friends, or relatives to shorten their time in purgatory.

In 1517, Johann Tetzel, a German friar, was selling indulgences in Germany to raise funds to renovate St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Martin Luther was a professor of biblical theology who had recently come to understand that salvation was by faith alone in Christ alone and that Scripture should be the supreme authority in the church. To humbly protest the practice of selling indulgences, he wrote his “95 Theses” in Latin and addressed them to the local archbishop and purportedly posted them on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517. The theses were soon translated into German and began to be widely distributed in 1518.2 Those theses sparked a chain of events that soon spread reformation all over northern and western Europe.

The pope was not happy with Luther’s theses, and in 1520, he declared them heretical and ordered Luther to recant. Luther refused. So, on April 17, 1521, Luther was called before church leaders and the emperor at the Diet of Worms3 and was again ordered to recant. There he made his bold stand:4

I am but a man, and I can err, but let my errors be proven by scripture. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the scripture or by clear reason, and not by the words of the Pope or of councils which have so often contradicted themselves, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other. May God help me.

As Luther’s writings and preaching and those of like-minded Christians spread, five key truths marked the Reformation. They are five Latin phrases summarized here.

The Five Solas

1. Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone is the supreme authority.

   God’s inspired Word, the Bible, is the only unchangeable, inerrant, sufficient, and supreme authority for the church. Peter and Paul tell us that God moved men to write the Scriptures without error so that they are rightly called the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:20–21). Jesus said that God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). And Luke commended Jews for testing the truth of Paul’s preaching by the Old Testament Scriptures (Acts 17:11). Scripture must be supreme in authority, over church traditions and doctrines and over popes and councils. Applied to our day, it must also be supreme over the claims of the scientific majority, over the claims of the cultural majority, and over our personal opinions and feelings. This is the most important sola because it is the foundational source for the other four truths.

2. Solus Christus: Christ alone is the Savior of sinners.

   Jesus is the only Savior, for he is the unique God-man (John 1:1, 14). He is the unique mediator between God and sinners (1 Timothy 2:4–5) because he alone took the wrath of God for sinners so that those who trust in him can be made righteous in God’s sight (2 Corinthians 5:21). Salvation is not obtained by Jesus plus my good works, or by Jesus plus the work of the virgin Mary or by Jesus plus the works of dead “saints.” It is Jesus alone who saves.

Sola Fide: We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone.

A person is saved from God’s judgment by faith alone in Christ alone. We are not saved by our good works. We are not saved by faith in Jesus plus doing our best. We are not saved by faith in Jesus plus our religious activities. Paul makes this abundantly clear in Ephesians 2:8–10. Good works are a result of being saved, not a means to gaining salvation. We are declared righteous in God’s sight (justified) and, therefore, have peace with God by faith in Christ (Romans 5:1; Acts 16:31).

3. Sola Gratia: Salvation is by grace alone.

   A person is saved from God’s holy wrath by God’s grace alone. Acts 15:11, Romans 3:24 and 11:6, Ephesian 2:8–9, and Titus 3:7 are just a few of the verses that make this clear. We can do nothing to save ourselves. We are morally and spiritually bankrupt, and grace is often referred to with the helpful acrostic God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve and can’t earn: his forgiveness and eternal life. Conversely, mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve: his judgment and eternal death in hell. Both grace and mercy are given to us through Jesus Christ.

4. Soli Deo Gloria: Everything is for the glory of God alone.

   God has created the universe, rules over all creation, and saves sinners for his glory.5

   God has created the universe, rules over all creation, and saves sinners for his glory.5 He will not share his glory with another (Isaiah 48:11). He is worthy of all praise and honor and glory (Revelation 4:11 and 5:13). It should be the goal of our lives to glorify God in everything we think, say, and do.

Those five solas were important for clearly proclaiming the gospel and safeguarding very important biblical truths in the sixteenth century. They are still vital today because the authority of Scripture and the truth of the gospel continue to be undermined and perverted in various ways both by enemies outside the church and by “friends” within the church. God help us all to be faithful to God’s Word and the gospel for his glory alone.6