The Teaching of the Reformation

In my last post, I looked at Luther's discovery and his desire to spread the message that the Bible was actually about God saving humans by His grace, not about humans earning God's favour through their own works. Now I'm going to look in more detail at Luther's key teaching, and the teaching of the Reformation as a whole.

Luther developed three key slogans:

BIBLE ALONE- as the sole source of teaching authority

FAITH ALONE- as the only way to be saved, not through works as well

CHRIST ALONE- as the head of the church, not the pope

Luther realised, as a pious priest, that he could never confess enough. He saw the utter sinfulness of humans, and our inability to be perfectly pure, despite our best efforts to do so. In studying the New Testament, he suddenly saw the Christ offered free forgiveness for those who would trust in Him. This both liberated Luther's sense of guilt of fears of hell, but placed a burden on him: to spread this message.

Initially, Luther acted against corruption within the church. He didn't really see that his complaint (that no extra grace could be bought or sold) attacked the whole system of church ceremony, which was designed to dispense grace. The medieval church had seven sacraments (which the Catholic church still have today), designed to impart grace in a definite, obvious activity. This is the reason the Eucharist became so important, as the sacrament which all could share on a regular basis as a church community. But it had become something almost magical, where the "host", the bread, was stored in an expensive vessel and venerated in front of the whole congregation. The idea had developed that the bread and wine, once blessed by the priest, actually turned into the body and blood of Jesus Christ (transubstantion) in a mystical re-offering of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Luther, as an early reformer, held a strong belief in the presence of Jesus Christ within communion. Other reformers like Zwingli stressed that the Lord's Supper was meant to be a memorial of Christ's death, and nothing more. All the reformers rejected the idea that the Mass was a sacrifice. This became one of the major contentions of the Reformation, because it stemmed from a deeper doctrinal issue. Reformers were teaching that men couldn't do anything to be saved, and Catholics were teaching in their use of sacraments that men obtain grace by offering God the Mass/devotions/penance.

There were certainly issues with the teachings of the Reformation. Some felt that the emphasis upon salvation by grace alone meant that the reformers were de-valuing the importance of holiness in Christian living, and loving your neighbour. Revolutionary reformers, such as the Anabaptists, stressed personal discipleship and sought to establish a church that was distinct from the state and uncontaminated by the world (the violence of Munster in 1534 showed the more extreme radicals in their worst light). But Calvin emphasised sanctification as well as justification. He taught that we are saved, and then the rest of our life is spent being renewed by the Holy Spirit and striving for holiness. Alistair McGrath points out that one of the major problems was that Catholics used the word 'justification' to mean both salvation and whole-life experience, whereas reformers used it in a narrower sense. Calvin himself wrote that "bad Christians" were the worst enemies of the gospel:

"Of what use is a dead faith without good works?"

Calvin here paraphrases the book of James, a book which Luther had problems in understanding. James' main point is that true faith shows itself in the lifestyle of the Christian. Can someone truly come to accept their sinfulness and trust in Jesus' death for them, without coming to hate their sin and striving to overcome it? Whilst we are not saved by what we do, if we truly believe, we will seek to change the way we live. This was part of Calvin's teaching, and is still part of Protestant thinking today.

Why did the Reformation happen?

I'm currently studying Reformation Church History, so I'm hoping to post on this topic to help me to understand and revise it.

The Reformation was a huge change within the Church in the C16th. Whereas the Church during the medieval era was led universally by the Pope, the Reformation marked a separation between "Protestants" and "Roman Catholics". Many people today complain about the division of the Christian church, and many non-religious people find the number of Christian denominations overwhelming. How can one faith cause so many arguments, serious conflict and even wars? Why can't Christians just belong to one church globally?

In looking at why the Reformation happened, these issues become very important. Was Martin Luther simply a man with an axe to grind against the pope and Catholic authorities? Was John Calvin a heartless leader who relentlessly pursued for his own interpretation of the Bible to be accepted?

To start with, both the Catholic church today as well as the Protestants admit to various problems within the pre-Reformation Church. Christianity dominated the world all over the Roman empire, and part of the method of the medieval church to "convert" pagans was to incorporate some of their festivals, practices and superstitions into Christianity. Our main Christian festivals, Christmas and Easter, are timed with the pagan festivals which used to be celebrated at these times of year. Priests would chant and bless various objects or places much like a witch casting a spell, and so increasingly lay people were confused as to how to distinguish between "magic" (which was forbidden) and legitimate religion.

Another major problem within the medieval church was corruption. The huge influence and wealth of the church had made it a lucrative business for men to pose as holy friars and keep several mistresses. The practice of indulgences was widely used and many priests abused the trust of poor peasants who were desperate to avoid purgatory or help their loved ones get to heaven.

After Luther's 95 Theses were nailed to the door in Wittenberg, the Catholic church underwent a "reformation" of its own, to deal with the abuses of authority and to tighten up the discipline system of church leaders.

However, the major concern of the Reformation was not church practices, but doctrine. Because doctrine (beliefs and teachings) was the root cause of many of the practices which the reformers spoke against. And key elements of doctrine are the reason why Catholics and Protestants are divided to this day.

The disputed doctrine is not simply a secondary issue of robes or no robes, candles or no candles. The big question of the Reformation was:

How can human beings find salvation and be accepted by God?

The medieval church had come to the understanding that humans were fallen and sinful, but rational and able to respond to God through reason. Life as a Christian, to them, was all about receiving God's grace and doing your best to love God and your neighbour. They believed God would grant eternal life as a just reward for this. Mystics also emphasised religious, spiritual experience.

Martin Luther, through studying the book of Romans in the New Testament, came to the understanding that God's righteousness is His gift to humankind. He has acted to rescue sinners and bring them justification. Salvation is something God has already done for us, outside us, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Luther realised, after all his soul-searching and rigorous cycle of confession and penance, that humans cannot earn their own salvation. This has been achieved for us through Jesus Christ's death on the cross. Our proper response is to believe, and the experience of the Christian life is one of struggle, as our sinful nature battles against our new identities as children of God.

For Luther, the Reformation had to happen, because the eternal destiny of souls depended on it. If people did not know the liberating truth of the gospel, they would die without knowing Christ. They may attend church every week, but if they didn't understand GRACE (God's Riches At Christ's Expense), then they had no real hope. Luther tried to avoid conflict but it became impossible for him to stay silent. The far-reaching implications of his discovery were only just becoming apparent.