Personal Reformation

It is the time of year that my love for history draws my attention to the Reformation. Though it has been over 500 years, the Reformation is still impacting the Church today.  While I believe it is important to understand the people involved in the Reformation and what they did, I think it is even more important to understand what truly makes a lasting impact of that nature.  People cannot change other people.  We are all sinners in need of a Savior.  However, that Savior can and does change people and history!

All people are sinners.  As Paul reminds us in Romans 3:10-25, "'None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one'...'There is no fear of God before their eyes'...For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins."  We would never seek God on our own.  We are helpless to change ourselves.  Someone may make changes in their life, but it is not a true reformation of the heart unless God himself makes the changes.  Self-made changes are temporary and can never make us right with God.

Thankfully, Jesus came into the world to do what we cannot do.  He lived the perfect, sinless life we could not live, completely fulfilling the law and the prophets.  He was the perfect sacrifice, fully God and thus eternal, and fully man and thus an acceptable sacrifice.  He died for His people so they could be made right with God.  Their sin was cast on Him and His righteousness was placed on them.  What an amazing exchange!  I believe it is beautifully explained in Ephesians 2:1-10, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

This truth of God's saving grace was at the center of what many of the reformers were trying to accomplish.  They also acknowledged that people are sinners in need of a Savior.  They knew that God would have to change the hearts of people, and they saw corruption within the Church that could no longer be tolerated.  They wanted their theology to be based on Scripture alone, not the traditions of the Church or other sources.  They wanted to refute the idea that people could do good works to help save themselves.  They preached the Gospel that God alone is working in the salvation of His people.  He saves His people by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.  He does all the work.  This is why Jesus declared the work to be finished when he died on the cross.   He has accomplished all that he came to do, namely the salvation of his people!

I am thankful for history and people in the past who fought for the truth and purity of the Church.  I am thankful for the reminder that no matter what we do or how we do it, we cannot change people's hearts.  God must change someone's heart.  Over 500 years ago the Reformation was "successful" not because of what the people did or didn't do.  It accomplished God's will.  God is the one who changed hearts and opened eyes and made the truth known.  To God Alone be the Glory!