This week’s devotions are based on Week 1 of Unlikely Heroes – A Monk (CLICK HERE)
“The doctrine of justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls. The article that is so important that he said, that if we lose it, we lose Christianity. If you don’t have the doctrine of justification by faith alone, you don’t have the gospel, and if you don’t have the gospel, the church has no reason to exist. The church itself ceases to be a church and falls into apostasy because it is the article that answers the question, what must I do to be saved?”
While these exact words may not be an exact quote of Luther, they were certainly his sentiment. This quote summarizes what is at the heart of the Bible’s teaching and the theology of the church.
Truly it is the essential teaching of the Bible on which the Church was formed and upon which the church stands. It is the only teaching of grace that gives true peace and comfort and any hope of an eternity in heaven.
Human nature will work as hard as it can to assure itself of God’s satisfaction. Yet personal effort will always leave a person desiring to know, “have I done enough.” Human nature will lower the standard and say that the standard of perfection is too much and that all God desires is a best attempt, yet inside there is an emptiness because God never said that or lowered the standard. Human nature will hope that if there is a dividing of the population, somehow they end up on the “sheep” side of the judgment rather than the “goats” but yet can never really be sure.
Unfortunately, the church at Luther’s time spoke of grace, but it was a grace that only forgave guilt, but not punishment of sin, that was up to you. Grace gave you the opportunity to overcome your sins on this earth or in purgatory. In fact they would teach that the system of works was a gift of grace…and still do today. Here’s a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 1473: The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the “old man” and to put on the “new man.”
This is why Luther wrote the 95 Theses. Indulgences were directly contrary to the doctrine of justification by grace. Theses 62: The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of
the glory and grace of God.
The gift of the Lutheran reformation is God using an ordinary man with a spiritual struggle to connect with the power of the Gospel and become so convinced of the truth of the Word and the true answer grace gives to the guilt of a soul that he dedicated the rest of his life to proclaim it, defend it and ensure as many people as he could heard it.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Faith in the Gospel of God’s grace is what you and I and every person need for certainty, hope and peace in our eternity.
The Gospel of God’s grace is worth believing and for us to defend and boldly proclaim in our generation and era.
May we have the conviction of the importance of grace and defend it as clearly and vehemently as Luther did:
Martin Luther – Diet of Worms 1521: Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.
Apply: What does the pure Gospel of God’s grace mean to you?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for taking my sin and putting it on Jesus. Strengthen my faith in the Gospel and lead me to proclaim it boldly and clearly to all who will listen. AMEN.