In Christ Alone
Our Faith is in Christ Alone Through Faith Alone
on October 31, 1517, a German Monk named Martin Luther posted his 95 Thesis on the Roman Catholic Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
he BASICALLY outlined all the errors he viewed of the CATHOLIC church.
After easter and christmas, this is perhaps the next most important day of remembrance for Christians.
it is Reformation day which carried on the protestant movement which was started 100 years earlier by jan hus.
jan hus was a priest who objected to many practices of the CATHOLIC church, specifically the selling of “INDULGENCES” which would SUPPOSEDLY pay for someone who had died get out of a place called PURGATORY and get into heaven. ABSOLUTELY none of this is biblical. it was just done to raise money to support the pope and his lavish lifestyle.
because of this, he was then arrested, tried as a HERETIC, and burned at the stake in the year 1415.
for more on Jan Hus, click on the link below:
jan hus
after the apostle paul, jan hus and martin luther are arguably the most important people in Christendom.
sadly, over the last few centuries, their important accomplishments have been darkened and forgotten because of a pagan holiday called Halloween that is celebrated on the same date, October 31.
we just do not hear anything about these two men these days…even in the church environment.
instead of focusing on the great awakening of the Gospel that this caused on this date, most people instead are preoccupied with dressing up like ghosts, skeletons, zombies, witches, spiders, and devils while gathering large quantities of candy. so sad.
so why did jan hus and Martin luther do this?
what would cause them to commit such a radial act?
It is because of the corruption, the heresy, and the apostasy they saw in the Roman Catholic Church.
In their studies of the Scriptures, they noticed that what they were reading in the chapters and verses was not lining up with what the church was teaching the people.
Back then the scriptures were written in latin or greek on large scrolls and were stored in the church.
they were only available to the Priests and not the general public.
The church was teaching then, and still is today, that a person has to earn favor and Righteousness with God by doing good works or giving money to the church.
faith in jesus alone in not sufficient.
in addition, the way to God’s ear was through Saints, and Priests, and even Jesus’ mother Mary.
It also taught that after death, a person had to go to a place called purgatory and wait for someone to pay money through “indulgences” to the church for enough “merits” in order to get to Heaven.
This is done, according to the Roman Catholic Church by the sacraments.
It starts with the sacrament of Baptism which puts a person in a position of Grace.
It is in no means immutable…it can be lost by a mortal sin.
If one does this, they can be restored by penance.
Confession, contrition, Priestly forgiveness, plus works of satisfaction
None of these things are Biblical and they significantly distort the teachings of the New testament gospel.
The Scriptures say the opposite; that God’s Favor and Forgiveness is a gift of Grace through Faith.
It also teaches that the only way to God and Heaven is through His Son, Jesus Christ.
That Justification is by Faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
Not Christ + Any Works.
Justification means to make Righteous (before God)
hus and luther always struggled with the wide chasm that they knew existed between the Righteousness of God and the unrighteousness of man and how to successfully bridge that gap.
The main verse of Scripture that caught Luther’s attention was:
“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:17 NIV
this is what began to illuminate luther’s understanding of the central message of the gospel.
they both realized that the righteousness of god in His Grace was making available required to bridge that gap was a righteousness offered to those who would receive it passively, not to those who would receive it actively.
they would receive this righteousness by faith and therefore would be fully and permanently reconciled to a Holy and Righteous God.
they would be regarded as righteous.
they would be counted as righteous.
they would be declared as righteous
that person would be redeemed by someone else’s righteousness as a free gift.
not by trying to earn it.
that someone else is the person of jesus christ who had already paid the price for ours sins when he was crucified on the cross in our place for those sins.
this was the moment of awakening for luther.
he called this an “alein righteousness”
a RIGHTEOUSNESS that is “outside of ones self”
that righteousness was the perfect righteousness of His Son jesus christ.
it was being offered freely to those who would receive it
by faith.
now that wide chasm between god and man could finally be bridged.
permanently.
when luther discovered this, he said that he was born again of the holy spirit.
and the doors of paradise swung open
and i walked through.
other verses that supported this are;
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 NIV
Today, with the invention of the printing press, and the translations into our own languages, we have the privilege of being able to read for ourselves exactly what the Bible says.
We learn that we do not, and even can not, earn God’s favor on our own merits, it is a free gift,
That there is only One who has the authority over all things and has direct access to God,
That Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God and is the only one who can intercede for us.
that He is the only one who can save us from our sins.
and most importantly, that that saving grace and forgiveness can never be lost.
when we do mess up and sin, we then go directly to jesus in genuine repentance for forgiveness of those sins.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 NIV
Our responsibility is to repent of our sins, believe in our heart the God raised Jesus from the dead, and profess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. (Acts 3:19, Romans 10:9-10)
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Matthew 28:18 NIV
Because of Luther’s actions this day, he was put on trial for heresy.
On the day of his trial he stood before the Pope and a table full of his writings on these subjects that were used as evidence against him.
he was ordered to recant or take back all that he said.
to say that justification was transformative and not declarative.
That Justification was by faith and then by works performed to preserve and increase it.
Rather than by faith alone and then by works as evidence of it.
he bowed his head and ask if he could have 24 hours to decide, which was granted.
that night, isolated and alone in his cell, he poured out his heart to god in prayer.
the next day he again stood before the pope and a room full of angry accusers.
he refused to recant his statements because he said that “my conscious is held captive by the Word of God”.
Because of this, he was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
miraculously, unlike jan hus who before him who defied the church and was burned at the stake, luther was preserved by god.
there was more work to be done.
he spent the next year in hiding translating the Bible from Greek into German.
as time went on, the bible was translated into many more languages making it understandable to peoples of all nations.
this was truly the beginning of the protestant movement where people could learn the Truth of God’s Word for themselves.
for more on Martin Luther, click on the link below:
martin Luther
ligonier ministry has an amazing podcast all about martin Luther.
click on the link below to listen:
martin luther in real time
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 NIV
the truth is that from the moment a person possesses saving faith in christ alone, they are transformed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, are declared to be Justified before god based on the righteousness of jesus christ and are adopted into the family of god, having their sins removed, and taken away forever, to be thrown away as far as the east is from the west, to be remembered by god no longer.
In other words, God Supernaturally transfers our sin onto Jesus
Declaring Him guilty
And His Righteousness onto us
Declaring us Innocent
God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5;21.
we then demonstrate our righteousness and living faith to those around us by our obedience and trust in the lord by our words and deeds.
We believe that all of life and all of Doctrine is from and for the Glory of God Alone.
We believe that the Christian’s conscience is bound by the Scriptures Alone.
We believe that man can only be saved from our sin by Grace Alone.
We believe that the sole head of the Church is Christ Alone.
We believe that man’s righteousness is justified by the imputation of Christ’s Righteousness Alone.
to god alone be the glory!
all of this is accomplished only by the providence of God.
a third great reformer of the christian faith, a man who protested the views and practices of the catholic church was john calvin.
