The Protestant Reformation: Many Issues Are Still Relevant Today

(Following is the text of the evening service recognizing 506th anniversary Oct. 31 of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, presented at Penney Memorial Church in Penney Farms, Florida, on Sunday, October 29. Presented by Dr. Lawrence Roff and myself.)

Martin Luther

A Brief Overview of the Reformation

The Reformation was a series of reform movements birthed as early as the late fourth century to criticize some of the Roman Catholic doctrines and practices (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia). The reform movement culminated in the 16^th century with Martin Luther and other reformers. They were not attempting to separate from the Roman Catholic Church, but rather to reform certain church doctrines and practices and bring the church more in line with biblical teachings.

Martin Luther nailed his
"95 Theses" to the Castle Church door
Oct.31, 1517.

Most Christians relate the Reformation to Martin Luther’s act of nailing his “95 Theses” a little more than 500 years ago to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517.

In his document, Luther exposed what he saw as the corrupt institution of the sale of “indulgences” by the Pope and clergy, primarily to raise money for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Indulgences were written decrees that promised full or partial remission of the time someone, either the buyer or a loved one, had to suffer in purgatory for their sins. Luther was a devout, honest, and ethical priest who objected to this practice, and he called for reform.

But the opposition of Luther and the reformers to the Church quickly soared beyond the issue of indulgences. Luther challenged the pope on the doctrine of salvation, the interpretation of Scripture, and the significance of Church tradition. As a result, he formulated statements we know as the "five solas" of the Reformation:

·      •    Sola scriptura: God’s Word alone

·      •    Sola fide: Faith alone

·      •    Sola gratia: Grace alone

·      •    Solus Christus: Christ alone, and

·      •    Soli Deo gloria: God’s glory alone

It is important for us to note that none of the relevance of these insights has faded over the last 500 years.

Sola Scriptura: God’s Word alone

Sola scriptura, is Latin, meaning “God’s Word alone.” It is a declaration that scripture is the sufficient and final authority for doctrine and practice in the church. Sola scriptura was and still is a foundational doctrinal principle of Protestantism. Scripture is divinely inspired, without error, and all-sufficient for the Christian’s faith and manner of life.

Sola scriptura was one of the main theological beliefs that Martin Luther proclaimed against the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation.[23]

Paul describes scripture concisely for us in his second letter to Timothy, where he wrote:

“¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The doctrine of sola scriptura means what it says—God’s word alone, without additions and without being subject to a church authority or extra-biblical traditions. As such, the scripture is our chief, supreme, and ultimate source not only for doctrine in the church but also for the way we live as Christians.

Sola scriptura directly contradicts the teachings of the Catholic Church, which has historically elevated its traditional dogma and practices, as well as the Pope’s authority, to the equal of or even superior to, scripture. The doctrine of sola scriptura rejects any authority over the church other than the Bible.

The scripture is the personal witness of the Holy Spirit to the heart of every Christian.

In his first letter to the Corinthian Christians, Paul reminds us:

“² By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:2) and warns: “…Do not go beyond what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6).

Peter tells us in his second epistle:

“²⁰ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. ²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21).

We must be guided by the words of Scripture rather than our feelings or emotions, or the pressures from our culture to conform to changing ideas and practices, because the idea of sola scriptura is just as important today as it was 500 years ago. Today, the message of scripture competes with skepticism…the questioning of all certainties and stable truth, especially in our western culture. So we find, perhaps more than ever before, that we must heed the words of Jude, one of the brothers of our Lord, who wrote in his short epistle that he “…felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 3).

Sola fide: Faith alone

Martin Luther considered justification by faith alone—sola fide—to be the article on which the church stands or falls. He asserted that it is by faith alone that we receive the righteousness of Christ, enable Him to live in us, and the basis on which we stand as forgiven and justified before God. Our acceptance by God, he asserted, comes not from the pope or the measuring of one’s works, but it comes from solely through God’s grace.

The doctrine of sola fide is as vital to us today as it was to the Luther and his fellow reformers. On the basis of our faith alone we are justified, and not on the basis of what Paul calls “…works of the law…” (Galatians 3:20). We are righteous not by virtue of our works, but by virtue of the righteousness of Christ, which we receive through faith alone.

On the contrary, Paul, referring to the writing of the prophet Habakkuk(Habakkuk 2:4), tells us in his letters to the church at Galatia and the church at Rome: “…‘the righteous will live by faith’” (Galatians 3:11; Romans 1:17). This is a thought also echoed by the writer of Hebrews (10:38).

Paul also wrote in his letter Rome: “…For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified…” (10:10) and that “…the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness…” (4:5), and in his letter to the Galatian church, he wrote: “…a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ…” (2:15).

The modern theologian J.I. Packer explains sola fide this way:

“…where Rome had taught a piecemeal salvation, to be gained by stages through working a sacramental treadmill, the Reformers now proclaimed a unitary salvation, to be received in its entirety here and now by self-abandoning faith in God’s promise, and in the God and the Christ of that promise, as set forth in the pages of the Bible” (Sola Fide: The Reformed Doctrine of Justification, article at www.ligonier.org).

The doctrine of sola fide—faith alone—upholds the truth of the biblical gospel. It is of such importance that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians: “…If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!...the gospel I preached is not of human origin…I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (exerpted from Galatians 1:9-11).

Sola fide assures us of our salvation and is a vital doctrine to Christians today, as we affirm our Lord’s atoning work and the righteousness He has imputed to us.

Sola gratia: Grace alone

The doctrine of sola gracia is closely related to the doctrine of sola fide and may best be summed up for us in the very familiar and widely quoted passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Christians:

“⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast” (2:8-9).

Sola Gracia means that salvation comes by divine grace or “unmerited favor” only, not as something earned or deserved by the sinner.

Martin Luther long struggled with the idea of works and his constant fear was that he would not be accepted by God, Before coming to his convictions about salvation by faith alone though grace alone through Christ alone, Luther had found that monastic life failed to ease his guilt, because he doubted that he could earn God’s favor through his works.

In his book, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, 20^th-century historian Roland Bainton quotes Luther about his struggle:

“…if ever a monk could get to heaven through monastic discipline, it was I” Luther said, “…yet my conscience would not give me certainty…I always doubted…The more I tried to remedy the uncertain, weak and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more daily I found it more uncertain, weaker, and more troubled…” (p. 45).

Whatever good works a man might do to save himself, Bainton added, these Luther was resolved to perform.

In addition to his marvelous observation to the Ephesians that “…it is by grace you have been saved, through faith,” the apostle Paul offers us this assurance in his letter to Titus:

“¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹² It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ…” (Titus 2:11-13).

Sola gratia is descriptive of the “good news,” that our Lord “…came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). It is He who draws sinners to Himself, gives new life to people who are “…dead in (their) transgressions and sins…” (Ephesians 2:1), and who causes a people to accept Him as their redeemer.

Sola gratia is important today simply because it continues to be the basis of our assurance of salvation…based not on what we do but on what Jesus Christ has done. Thanks be to God that we can know that Jesus lives in us and will deliver us at the last day (John 6:39).

Solus Christus: Christ alone

Solus Christus expresses the biblical conviction that Paul defines in his first letter to Timothy: “…⁵ For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5).

In addition, Luke reports in the book of Acts that after Peter and John were seized in Jerusalem for preaching Christ, Peter testified before the Jewish rulers, elders and teachers of the law that “¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

We rely on Christ’s as entirely sufficient as our Savior and Lord, with no need for any new revelation or any priest to mediate between us and God. Our confidence is in Christ alone standing at the center of God’s eternal purposes, Christ alone as the object of our saving faith, and Christ alone must be at the very center of our spiritual life.

We are saved by Christ alone, apart from the merit of any other person. He alone is our Savior and Lord; He alone is our “…great high priest who has ascended into heaven…” (Hebrews 4:14); He alone “…redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…” (Galatians 3:13) and the “…one mediator between God and mankind…” (1 Timothy 2:5).

Our righteousness does not save us; it is Christ’s alone; as Paul told Titus: “…He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5). He also wrote in his letter to the Romans: “²² …righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…” (Romans 3:22).

The gospel preaches Christ and Christ alone—the One who came from heaven to seek the lost (Luke 19:10); who obeyed the Law perfectly; who was crucified and rose again; and, as Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, Christ is the one who at this very moment “…is at the right hand of God and is…interceding for us…” (Romans 8:34) and to the Colossians, he wrote: “…He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Colossians 1:18).

Against the prevailing moral relativism of today in our western culture are the eternal truths of the claims of Christ:

• He is the only Son of God: “…God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life...” (John 3:16).
• “…there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved...” (Acts 4:12) .
• Jesus tells us He is: “…the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me...” (John 14:6). 
• He is the only “…mediator between God and men…” (1 Timothy 2:5). 
• Jesus is the head and king of the church, and we owe allegiance to Him, even in the face of our culture’s pressure change or adapt our faith to its changing standards.

Soli Deo gloria: God’s glory alone

John Piper, a contemporary American theologian, pastor, and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary, defines soli Deo gloria in a few short words: “The glory of God is the holiness of God put on display. That is, it is the infinite worth of God made manifest…” (desiringgod.org/articles/rebuilding-the-basics-the-centrality-of-gods-glory). He adds that the doctrine of soli Deo gloria is the “heart and soul of the Reformation” (desiringgod.org/messages/soli-deo-gloria).

Soli Deo gloria addresses a core purpose of our lives as Christians: to reflect the glory to God in our ministries and in our manner of living.

The Reformed theologian R.C. Sproul put it this way: “In all that we do, the driving passion of the Christian must always be Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory. And the only way for this passion to be realized is to honor God as God, to understand Him as He has revealed Himself in His Word…”(ligonier.org/learn/articles/for-glory-god).

Isaiah, witnessed the expression of wonder at the glory of God when he saw the vision of the seraphim around God’s throne calling to one another about God’s boundless glory, saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory!”(Isaiah 6:3).

Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome, expresses his wonder at the glory of God: “³³ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!…³⁶ For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:33, 36). To the Ephesians, he wrote that God “…²⁰ is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

And David acknowledged the magnificent glory of God in the Psalms, when he wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands…” (Psalm 19:1) and “¹ Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. ² Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness” (Psalm 29:1-2).

And today, we still echo the thoughts of Solomon, who tells us: “Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen” (Psalm 72:19).

We continue the commitment of those who have gone before us…the 16^th-century reformers…devoted to the idea of soli Deo gloria—God’s glory—and pledge with the apostle Paul: “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

There is no room for the glory of man in God’s plan for salvation. The glory is God’s alone. We all were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1) and could do nothing to help ourselves toward life. But, praise the Lord, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). The glory is God’s, not ours.

Consequently, we are called to live with ever-increasing humility, not with the pride of considering ourselves better than others. It is the Lord, and He alone, who deserves credit for any good found in us. May He continue to be glorified in our lives!