October 31 is Reformation Day. However, many professing evangelicals think that the Reformation was something of a mistake, and in any case, is over now. We should ask first what October 31 is meant to commemorate. Back in 1517 Johann Tetzel, a Dominican salesman, came near Wittenberg, and the townspeople rushed to purchase indulgences from him. The idea was that one could obtain spiritual favours by paying for pieces of paper which supposedly guaranteed them. Viewing relics or performing some pious deed might mean, for example, that one’s grandmother might be released from purgatory two hundred years earlier than she otherwise might have expected.
An Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, reacted to this sixteenth century version of Simon Magus’ view that spiritual power could be bought (see Acts 8:9-24). So on 31 October 1517 he nailed his 95 theses (in Latin) to the door of the Castle Church. They are mild, unco-ordinated, remote, academic, and hardly revolutionary in tone, but they are evangelical. As the Reformation gathered momentum, Luther clarified his thoughts as to what constitutes the gospel. How can God who is infinitely holy reconcile filthy sinners to Himself? In the end, Luther’s answer was the same as the apostle Paul’s in Ephesians 2:8-10. Here, Paul speaks of grace, faith and works. During a debate, a well-known Roman Catholic apologist informed all and sundry that he believed in grace, works and faith, but he was not particularly concerned about the order.
In fact, the order is crucial. Grace must come first, as Paul says: ‘For by grace you have been saved’ (Eph.2:8a). What is grace? It is not what you say before a meal. It is God’s free, unmerited favour, a gift of undeserved loving kindness from Him. It cannot be merited in any way; we cannot pay for it; we are utterly unable to earn it.
Augustus Toplady called himself ‘a debtor to mercy alone’. That is our only claim to heaven:
And when I’m to die,
Receive me, I’ll cry,
For Jesus has loved me,
I cannot tell why.
When Thomas Scott was dying in 1821, Daniel Wilson tried to comfort him by telling him what a great benefit he had been to the church. Scott stopped him: ‘Now this is doing me harm. “God be merciful to me a sinner” is the only ground on which I can rest.’ It is free grace at the beginning and free grace at the end, and free grace all the way through life.
We receive this grace by faith. ‘And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast’ (Eph.2:8b-9). The word ‘this’ is neuter and the word for ‘faith’ is feminine, but Paul is still saying that either faith comes from God or the whole act of salvation is His – which amounts to the same thing. Most of the Protestant Church today will tell you that it is up to you to exercise faith. So it is, but you can only do so if God grants you to do so. It is not the exercise of your free will but of God’s election. Faith is the gift of God (1 Cor.12:3; Acts 13:48; 16:14; 18:27; Phil.1:29). Even our capacity to receive God’s gift comes from God Himself (John 6:44).
This means that we have no room for boasting – a point which the Pharisee in the parable missed badly (see Luke 18:9-11). God leaves us no room to be proud (1 Cor.1:30-31; Rom.3:27-28; 4:2-5; Phil.3:3). At the end of his life, Thomas Aquinas (nicknamed ‘the dumb ox’) was much praised for his works on theology. He replied that they reminded him of straw. ‘Nothing can I boast in’ is all that we can sing.
It is here that works take their rightful place: ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them’ (Eph.2:10). Works are not the ground of salvation but the goal, not the basis but the result. We should feel an enormous obligation to the one who saved us. We would surely feel this way about anyone who pulled us out of a dangerous surf or a burning car. This is like that, but more so.
The order is crucial. Grace leads to faith in Christ, and onto works in Christ. To return to the sixteenth century for a moment, the shoemaker/poet Hans Sachs heard Luther’s gospel and wrote The Wittenberg Nightingale:
Luther teaches that we all
Are involved in Adam’s fall.
If man beholds himself within,
He feels the bite and curse of sin.
When dread, despair, and terror seize,
Contrite he falls upon his knees.
Then breaks for him the light of day.
Then the gospel may have sway.
Then sees he Christ of God the Son,
Who for us all things has done.
The law fulfilled, the debt is paid,
Death overcome, the curse allayed,
Hell destroyed, the devil bound,
Grace for us with God has found.
Christ, the Lamb, removes all sin.
By faith alone in Christ we win.
That is what the Reformation was about, and it is what the gospel is about.
With warmest regards in Christ,
Peter Barnes