Trinity Mount Barker

This Sunday is Reformation Sunday

On the last Sunday in October, Christians around the world remember the Reformation in the church in the 16th Century, in which the gospel of Jesus was restored to the heart of western Christianity.  It was October 31 1517, when Martin Luther, a priest and scholar in the church, nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in the German town of Wittenburg.

Luther’s goal had been to reform the church from within, but in fact he was unsuccessful in this endeavour.  What followed was a sharp divide between Roman Catholicism and what came to be known as the Protestant Church.  The Protestants, led by men like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli in Europe and Cranmer and Tyndale in England, sought to return the church to the Bible’s message that salvation from sin and rebellion against God is not earned by doing good works, but can only be received as a free gift.  In God’s grace, his undeserved favour, we can be saved from the penalty of sin and rebellion by faith in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

The Reformers had a very high view of the Scriptures, naturally, for they knew that through them God makes himself known.  Luther translated the Bible in the German language and Tyndale into English. The significance of this achievement is easily lost on us who might have one Bible for study, one to bring to church, another on the shelf at home and easy access to dozens of English translations on the Internet.  Previously the Bible had been almost exclusively kept (chained up, actually!) in churches and monasteries and written only in Latin, our of the reach of almost everyone.

For the Reformers, taking a stand on such important issues as the nature of salvation and the value of the Scriptures cost them their lives.  The Marian Martyrs were the Christians martyred for their faith during the reign of Queen Mary.  In less than four years, nearly 300 evangelical Christians were burned at the stake for their profession of faith and their love for the Bible.  The first to be executed were church leaders, but most of the martyrs were ordinary Christians; linen weavers, tailors, carpenters and labourers. A fifth of them were women, among them elderly widows and teenage girls.  

These men and women knew the supreme value of being able to know God through Christ as he is revealed in the Scriptures.  As we remember the flame of that candle, that as Hugh Latimer said as he was tied to the stake, "by God's grace ... shall never be put out", let’s make sure we thank God for their legacy.