505 years ago, a German monk named Martin Luther nailed 95 theses for debate to the Castle Church door of Wittenberg, Germany. This was quite normal, as the door functioned as a community bulletin board. But little did he know that these 95 theses would spark a change in the entire Western World.
Luther's theses were not his mature thought, as he still had allegiance to the Pope and was still a loyal Roman Catholic at the time. But over time he would see that the Roman Catholic Church had abandoned the pure Gospel, and God would be pleased to use this man to bring the Good News to the world. Indeed, before Luther Jan Hus had come, and when Rome burned Hus at the stake Hus correctly claimed that another one would come and they would not be able to silence the Gospel.
But as Luther was opposed by Rome on one end, he was opposed by the Anabaptists and the Calvinists and the Zwinglians on the other end. While for Luther Rome had added to the Gospel, the Calvinists and Baptists had taken away from it. Rome had added works of merit, and the Baptists had taken Christ out of the Sacraments and turned them into mere ordinances or commands from God to merely remember a past event. The Calvinists had taken the “for you” out of the Gospel and turned it into amorphous categories of “the elect.”
Indeed, Luther's Reformation was all about the fact that the Good News is that Christ is God's Word to mankind, God's final Word. We have a gracious God in Christ, gracious for you in Word and Sacrament.
Consider Psalm 15, for example. Is this Psalm about who we are before God, trying to be those things which no one can truly be if he is honest, or is it about Christ? Christ is the One Who is characterized by the traits of Psalm 15, and only Him.
Christ is on every page of the Bible. Christ is in the Sacraments. Christ is in the Sermon, and it is not a morality lesson for us to follow, but it preaches Christ.
This was Luther's Reformation.
It was all about Jesus Christ.
Happy Reformation Day my friends.
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