This weekend, we are celebrating the Reformation, a movement in the Christian Church which is said to have begun on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses (statements for theological debate) to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. If you read through the 95 Theses, you may wonder what all the fuss was about, but back in 1517, anything that questioned the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church was equivalent to leading an insurrection. Yet the questioning of current church practice was not the most important matter; rather, it was how one would now answer whether something was right and wrong. No longer was the standard of Church teaching tradition and what the leaders were saying, but did tradition and what the leaders were saying go along with what the Scriptures actually teach?

In Luther’s day, one popular practice that contradicted what the Scriptures actually taught was the selling of indulgences which would grant people forgiveness of sins and release from purgatory (a place, so it was taught, that people would go before heaven to make up for all the sins that had not been satisfactorily covered through penitential works on earth). In other words, forgiveness was not the gift of God given through faith in Jesus Christ and what He did, but something that was also earned by us. If that were the case, Jesus would either not have had to die as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, or His death was not sufficient.

When I am truly repentant, I am going to want to show that I am truly sorry. But forgiveness has already been given. My new lifestyle reflects the Holy Spirit working in me a response of thanksgiving to our gracious God and joy in following King Jesus in His Kingdom.

What a great privilege to live in a day in age when the Scriptures are so accessible to us so that, as we read them, we may hear not someone’s opinion about God, but God speaking for Himself. As Jesus says in our verse for the week: “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)

You may wish to prepare for this weekend’s worship by reading Revelation 14:6-7, Romans 3:19-28, John 8:31-36, and Acts 22:3-22.