Happy Reformation Day!
Did you know October 31st is also known as Reformation Day by Protestant Christians?
It’s a day to remember the start of Martin Luther’s protest against the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, 1517, where he was ordained as a Catholic priest. As a priest Luther had been reading the Scriptures and seeing that many of the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church simply weren’t in agreement with what he read in the Bible.
Perhaps the most important difference between the Bible and church teachings at the time was the understanding that we are saved by God’s gracious mercy through faith in Jesus, not by our good works as so many of his colleagues in the ministry believed. Luther took a stand for the authority of the Bible in these matters, which put himself and his followers on a collision course with the Church that had a major influence on western civilization as we know it.
Is it the Reformation still significant to us now? Can we learn lessons from it for our own lives?
Definitely. The same trap Roman Catholics had fallen into – the belief that we can be saved through our good works – is a trap that members from all churches can fall into. It’s basic human nature to think so highly of ourselves that we believe we can have a right relationship with God by our own efforts. It’s much like the law of gravity – if we don’t actively work against this false belief, it will drag us down so far that we forget about God’s gracious gift of salvation in Jesus altogether.
That what was happening with a young man named Anthony I met at the grocery store, who told me he had a very strong church background. Anthony was relying on his own goodness and efforts to be saved, so I reminded him of what I’m sure his church already teaches, that through faith in Jesus, not in ourselves, we can be right with God. Anthony was a Protestant, not a Catholic, but he somehow missed or forgot that point, so I felt like my role was to come alongside him and give him a friendly reminder of what he already knew.
We need these reminders throughout our life. We need these reminders during the sermon, by hearing familiar Bible passages, by singing familiar hymns, and even by remembering and celebrating something that happened as long ago as the Protestant Reformation.
Thanks, Anthony, for allowing
me to record our conversation. It can be
viewed on my YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/fynQqwrH8iI
No comments:
Post a Comment