Tuesday, October
31, 2017
But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him
without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of
Moses and the prophets long ago. We
are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no
matter who we are. For everyone has
sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right
in his sight. He did this through Christ
Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for
sin. People are made right with God when
they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair
when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for
he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present
time. God did this to demonstrate his
righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in
his sight when they believe in Jesus. Can
we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on
obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith
and not by obeying the law. Romans
3:21-28(NLT)
In
last Sunday’s worship at First UMC, Lexington, which included a commemoration
of the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant
Reformation, I was listening to the Pastor describe Martin Luther’s focus of
the Three Onlies, only Scripture,
only grace, and only faith. Today is the
day, 500 years ago, Luther nailed his faith in Scripture and Grace to the door
of the chapel at Wittenberg, Germany.
One
thing the pastor, Rev. Jamie Armstrong, said shook me into Google-mode,
searching for connections. He stated
flatly: …and without the Reformation Luther started, there’s a good chance the
American Revolution never happened.
The
point is, and was aptly made by the pastor, that God is always working on us. It took 249 years from Luther’s bold move to
that day in Philadelphia Hall and the signing of the Declaration of
Independence. But it displays the reality
that God is always working to reform and call us back to Himself; we see this at
every point in history.
One
author expressed it this way:
By the time Luther died, of natural causes, in
1546, his revolutionary beliefs had formed the basis for the Protestant
Reformation, which would over the next three centuries revolutionize Western
civilization.[2]
“Troublemakers”
in the church are generally shown the back door. Luther was no exception; he was
excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and the edict of Worms declared him an
enemy of the state and Christ, and fair game for being killed on sight by
anyone without consequence.
Luther
held in 95-theses nailed to the door, only
grace, only faith,
and only Scripture. Three onlies,
extolling the singular true theme of the ages:
ONLY CHRIST!
Five
hundred years later we honor Luther’s sacrifice and bold stand for the grace of
God, holding up Scripture as our authority and faith as our daily bread. We can never forget that Luther (as Wesley
decades later) would never want to be remembered above the Christ for whom he
gave his entire life in service. And
that is the very thing that compels us to remember troublemakers like Martin Luther.
For You
Today
Kids
in costumes looking for candy will probably knock on your door sometime today. When they smile and say “Trick or Treat” be
gracious and generous.
But remember
to wish the parents with them a Happy
Reformation Day. In the
spirit of Martin Luther, our freedom to worship Christ is too important to let
goblins and witches have the day.
