Does the Reformation have a future?

Five hundred years ago, 32-year-old Martin Luther lived as a monk in Wittenberg, Germany. He earned his doctorate and soon began lecturing on the Psalms and Romans and would eventually preach well over 2,000 sermons in the City Church before he died in 1546. What began with Luther studying and lecturing on Scripture eventually led to an explosion that rocked the Christian world and continues to do so. That explosion can be summarized by the three “solas” — that salvation is free by grace alone, apprehended by faith alone and believed from “Scripture alone.”

As we approach the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, you will increasingly see reports of what Luther and his message meant and means today. 

So what is the Reformation? Lutheran pastor, theologian, and author Hermann Sasse described it as an episode in the history of the Church. It is foremost about the Church of Jesus Christ. “All [other] attempts to explain the Reformation are abortive . . . because they do not approach the Reformation from that point of view from which alone it can be understood—from the point of view of the reality of the church” [Sasse, Here We Stand (Harper, 1938), p. 50].

The real story of the Reformation is about the march of the Church of Jesus Christ in the face of impossible odds — thirsting for Christ and His means of grace, trusting in the Bible as God’s inerrant Word. The Lord’s Church is one church, facing Islam and secularism — strong in the weakness of Christ, confident of eternal life.

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