1517-2008: The Reformation Continues

Today, October 31, is not just a day for candy overload and crazy costumes. Today is a day to be celebrated for more eternal reasons. On this, day 491 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a door in Germany. This was the beginning of the Reformation.

You may say, “Why celebrate something that happened 491 years ago? What is the big deal?” The big deal is that the gospel won out. The big deal is that acknowledging what happened 491 years ago is a testimony of God’s faithfulness and a motivation to continue to proclaim the truth today.

As I mentioned in my post last year on the Reformation, the church today is in need of another Reformation. I won’t rehash what I wrote last year—you can read it for yourself—but I will say that there is still a need for reform in the church today.

What I want to focus on briefly today on this 491st anniversary is the importance of continuing to preach the gospel both outside and inside the church. Most churches in the West, and around the world, would acknowledge the need to continue to share the gospel with a lost world. But, I believe, in the Western Church today we have reserved the preaching and teaching of the gospel to that only.

Today should remind us that even within the church we need to hear the gospel. I don’t think that we can get very far in the New Testament without seeing the need to consistently and repeatedly be reminded of the truth of the gospel. It is all too easy for followers of Christ to neglect their salvation and forget the gospel. The centrality of the cross and its implications for our lives get moved to the back burner. The result is that we live our lives as people that do not really believe the gospel.

I was reminded this week of the importance of keeping the gospel in front of us at all times. The apostle John says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1a). That is an amazing truth. That is the good news. That God in his extravagant love and grace sacrificed his own son that we might be adopted as his sons and daughters and called children of God. John tells us to see this love, meditate on it, dwell on it, contemplate what it really means. That should give us hope and joy and peace. That should give us the ability to endure and persevere.

But so many in the church today lack joy and hope and endurance. Why? Because they have forgotten the gospel. What happens when the church forgets the gospel? Feel-good messages are preached. Hope is sought in other places. People are not motivated to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ. Complacent and temporal living sets in. Effectiveness diminishes. The Church becomes a social club.

We cannot allow that to happen and the only way to avoid this trend is to continue to proclaim the message of the Reformation, the message of Jesus. God has rescued you. God has redeemed you. God has adopted you. God is transforming you. He is the giver and initiator and he who has promised is faithful. Don’t forget. Don’t live hopeless lives. Live as the sons and daughters of God that you are and find your joy and satisfaction in him alone.

Preach the gospel in the church. Preach the gospel to yourself. Preach the gospel to the world. Let the Reformation continue.

Soli Deo Gloria.
For more Reformation Day blogs check out Tim Challies’s blog.