Joe Slunaker
September 24, 2017 • Joe Slunaker
Sermon Meditation:
Refocusing the Church,
Looking Back and Looking Forward
Romans 1:16,17
As we approach the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we are challenged to look back in time. We need to remember the correctives God brought to the abuses suffered by His church in that day. The abuses began to be exposed by a monk named Martin Luther on October 31st, 1517. The initial war-cry of the Reformation took the form of a list of “95 Theses” nailed to the front door of the chapel in Wittenberg. These were his 95 contentions intended for debate in hopes that the Holy Catholic Church might be reformed.
The catch-phrase of the Reformation was “The Just Shall Live by Faith!” At the heart of these 95 objections was a cry for a return to Scripture as the “sole” authority for faith and practice. Due to the doctrines of Papel apostolic succession and the infallibility of the Pope (when speaking ex cathedra), Catholics placed church teaching and tradition on the same level as Scripture. This was the major issue leading to the Reformation.
Luther confronted the Catholic Church with extra-Biblical abuses such as “indulgences.” Indulgences referred to money given to “spring” loved ones from purgatory, which was used to build the mighty cathedrals in Europe. Luther also confronted excesses of Papel infallibility, in hopes that the church could return to a purely Biblical basis for authority. Instead, he was excommunicated on January 3, 1521, by Pope Leo X.
The key issue flowing from a return to Biblical authority was the nature of salvation; did it come through church authority, sacraments, and good works, or by grace through faith alone? The Reformation set the hearts and minds of Christ-followers free with the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone. No longer was the believer to be enslaved by works-based salvation, but instead set free by the love of God and His unmerited favor. What a day of rejoicing that was!
Blessings,
Pastor Steve
