Why do we protest and reform?
- Details
- Published: Sunday, 04 March 2018 22:02
- Written by James Dean
An illustration Mark shared in the sermon Sunday morning was about standing out - being "red dots" in a world full of "grey dots". The challenge this brings is a decision we must all make at some point: will I follow Christ and stand out or compromise and blend in?
Finding ourselves in a difficult situation - whether at home, at school, at college or work - can make compromising on what we believe and just blending in seem like the simpler route. But we must, as Daniel and his friends did, stand firm and trust our ever-faithful God. We must not bend or abandon our principles, no matter what the culture says or how it tries to coerce us to change what we believe.
The gospel was something that Paul was never ashamed of. He called it, "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16) and it was while reading that verse and the verses immediately after it that the eyes of an unknown German monk called Martin Luther were opened to the wonder of God's grace.
October 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of what happened next. This was the start of the break of the "protesting" church from the Roman Catholic church. History calls it the Protestant Reformation; we see it as the time when the church rediscovered the true, biblical gospel.
Is this something we at BEChurch should be celebrating? How does our church fit into something that happened in Germany so long ago? I heartily suggest that this IS something we should celebrate. The Reformation was a complicated series of events but if it hadn't happened it's very likely that we'd still believe that God's word wasn't sufficient and needed to be added to; that grace alone wasn't enough for salvation and we had to work to earn it, and that we could never know full assurance of eternal life.
The church has been given so much by those who have gone before. We should do all we can to learn from our our own history so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. In that sense the Reformation is not over. The church must keep protesting and keep reforming... "soli deo gloria"... for the glory of God alone!
James
