Reformation Day – Confidence

Happy Reformation Day! October 31 is a significant day in the history of the Gospel and God’s work in the world. It’s got nothing to do with Halloween, but it does have something to do with people knocking on doors! I liked this quote this morning from my friend on twitter: “31/10 – Kids knock on doors asking for treats. 31/10 – Martin Luther knocks on Church door asking for Reform”. On October 31, 1517, the young monk Martin Luther nailed his ‘95 Theses‘ to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

That document outlined a number of concerns he had with some specific problems within the Roman Catholic church of his time. His goal in the first instance was to reform the church, but in the end it was the spark that lead to the Protestant Reformation.

One of the legacies of Luther and the Reformation for Christians today is confidence.

Luther had realised through his life as a monk that no matter how many good things he did, he knew that he had fallen short of God’s standard. The church at the time more or less taught that people could be accepted based on the good things they did and the money they paid to make up for their shortcomings. This gave Luther no confidence that he had would be accepted by God or have peace with him.

After much wrestling with God in the book of Romans (here’s a quote from Luther’s stunning preface to the book), Luther in a sense rediscovered what had almost been lost. In the Bible he saw that it was possible to be confident of acceptance and peace with God, namely, that it wasn’t by works of the law and good deeds, but rather through faith in Jesus. Sinners can be declared righteous by God, as they are justified by their faith in Christ Jesus.

We can be confident today. Confident in the Bible as our final authority and confident that through the death and resurrection of Jesus we can stand before God forgiven.

Praying God that he would continue to preserve the gospel of Jesus in the world.

I’ve written a number of things on Reformation Day in previous years (06, 07, 08, 09).

Here’s a great article from Mark Thompson on Reformation Day.