Declared Righteous!

A Pivotal Moment in Church History

One of my favorite classes that I took in college was on Reformation Theology. It was a history class that studied the time period (1500s-1600s) when a group of people split away from the Catholic Church and formed the Protestant Church. This split is a pivotal moment in church history. While many men in different countries were a part of this movement, it is a monk by the name of Marin Luther who is most synonymous with the movement.

The Legend of the 95 Theses

Here's how Noah Christiansen would describe this moment:

The legend begins on October 31st, 1517, when Luther allegedly nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Similar to the "shot heard 'round the world," this act of nailing the Theses is often seen as the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation — a movement aimed at reforming the Catholic Church. Though many will have never heard of this story, most of us are familiar with Luther's 95 Theses, whether through school, the media, or perhaps even growing up in a Lutheran church. Regardless, this story is unique and fundamental to the history of religion in the west.

So… what exactly were the 95 Theses?

Luther's main concern was the Roman Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences — essentially, a "get-out-of-hell" card for a price. According to Catholic doctrine, when a person dies, their soul goes to purgatory, a waiting place where a soul waits until being judged by God. The Church sold these papal indulgences, which were believed to reduce the time one would spend in purgatory, allowing for a more peaceful, less harsh judgement in the afterlife.

Luther's Struggle

So, why did Luther decide to set the world a flame in the early 1500s with his 95 Thesis, and protest the papacy? Well, Luther struggled early in life with his faith. His struggle was not one of unbelief, but rather he struggled with the concept of works that was propagated by the Catholic Church in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Luther believed that works or earning salvation was not biblical. For Luther, works were a stairway that led to nowhere. There was no objective standard in which to measure faith. How good was good enough? How could one objectively know if they were saved?

Justification by Grace Through Faith

Through the help of Romans, Luther and other Reformers re-introduced the world to justification by grace through faith. Justification is a legal term. It meant to be declared. In the Biblical sense, justification means that we are declared righteous. The Christian does not earn righteousness anymore than we can will ourselves to be born. It is freely given.

Released From the Burden of Perfection

This concept releases people from the oppressing burden of being perfect. As a matter of fact, we will never be perfect. We must have a perpetual measure of grace in our life to cover over our sins. There is no one righteous. Jesus bought our righteousness for us on the cross and freely gave that to everyone who puts his or her faith in him.

Lost in the Beauty of God

If you allow your heart to meditate on that, then you will get lost in the beauty of God. Your heart cannot help to worship Him and glorify Him with your life. He gets all the credit.

A Debt of Gratitude

The Reformers were transfixed with this notion, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. They re-instituted a long held biblical idea that it was God's alone to give this gift. He gave it free of charge. It cannot be earned. He not only gave it, but he gives it to us eternally, so that we have a chance to be called the sons of God.