Thursday, November 2, 2006
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
REFORMATION THEME
In the Reformation, many abuses within the church were addressed: purgatory, selling indulgences, transubstantiation in the Lord's Supper, the supremacy of the pope, prayer to saints, and much more. But at the heart of the reformation was the abuse of the Gospel itself, the teaching of the church that people could earn salvation by their own works or efforts.
It was this very thought that brought Luther so much grief as a monk. He found that he could find no assurance of forgiveness or salvation through his own doing. Through the study of God's Word Luther was brought to understand the real power of God in His Grace for sinners. Assurance of salvation can come only from God!
Luther describes this Scriptural truth and the great Reformation theme in one of his first hymns:
My own good works availed me naught, No merit they attaining;
Free will against God's judgment fought, Dead to all good remaining.
My fears increased till sheer despair
Left naught but death to be my share; The pangs of hell I suffered.
Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice, With exultation springing,
And, with united heart and voice And holy rapture singing,
Proclaim the wonders God hath done,
How His right arm the victory won; Right dearly it hath cost Him.
(TLH 387:3,1)
