October Epistle: Here We Stand
As we enter the month of October, our thoughts turn with anticipation to the upcoming celebration of the Protestant Reformation. We date the beginning of the Reformation to the year 1517 when, on the eve of All Saints’ Day (October 31), Martin Luther posted 95 articles for discussion on the common bulletin board of Wittenberg, the Castle Church door. The 95 theses of Luther sparked a theological firestorm in the Church.
There are three themes that we commonly associate with the Reformation – Sola Fide (Faith alone),
Sola Gratia (Grace alone), and Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone). These three themes describe how salvation comes to the Christian – by God’s Grace alone, through faith alone, the source and vehicle being Scripture alone.
As a young monk, Martin Luther was troubled by a simple question that all people must face. “How do I know that I am right with God?” This question plagued him for many years. The answer, he found, lies in the Word of God. Scripture tells us that our Savior was made to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), that all our sins were laid on the perfect Lamb of God (John 1:29). Through Jesus’ suffering and death the entire debt we owed to God was paid (Colossians 2:13–14). Christ’s resurrection means that we are justified in the sight of God and can now stand before Him as His redeemed people (Romans 4:25).
Scripture, Luther realized, stands above human authority; this put him in conflict with the papacy and with official church councils, both of which reserved the right to determine Christian truth over and above the authority of Scripture. Luther didn’t claim that a Christian should ignore creeds, Christian tradition, the Church, ancient Church Fathers, etc., but he was adamant that these must be subservient to Scripture, they must remain subject to the authority of God’s Word.
At the diet of Worms in 1521, Luther was asked to recant (retract) his many writings because they went against the Pope or previous councils. Luther’s argument was that popes and councils, being human, could be wrong and often contradicted one another. Therefore, he said, his conscience was captive to the Word of God. Luther was not standing on his own ideas. He was standing on the Scriptures. “Here I stand,” he said, “I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”
Where do you stand? That may be a question that you are asked many times and on many different issues. And the Scriptures certainly guide us as we navigate those issues. For example, we read in Genesis that God created man. There are only two genders:
“… male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
God created man and woman for each other, and marriage for one man and one woman:
“The rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:21-24)
All life is precious to God from conception to the grave:
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made… In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:13-14, 16)
Scripture is not just useful for guiding our stand on issues of the day. But Luther was talking about the ultimate issue and the answer to the most important question: “How am I, a sinner, justified before a holy God?” Paul specifically says God’s Word is “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15), and Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Sola Scriptura does not mean “I don't need the church, pastors, creeds, confessions, Christian teachers, or 2,000 years of Christian history.” Rather, “Scripture alone” is the final and infallible norm by which every Christian teaching is judged.
The Lutheran Confessions themselves illustrate this. The Augsburg Confession, Luther's Small and Large Catechisms and the other Lutheran Confessions don't claim authority over and above Scripture. They simply confess what Scripture teaches.
So, where do you stand?
Praise God we do not stand on the words of man, be it the musings of a Pastor, church tradition, some Christian author or theologian, or our own personal feelings. But we stand with Martin Luther on the solid bedrock of the Word of God. Sola Scriptura!
When the Word speaks about our sin, we listen. When it speaks about Christ's death for sinners and His resurrection from the dead, we believe it. When it tells us that God forgives our sins for Jesus’ sake, we believe it.
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther stood before the emperor at Worms. He was asked to choose between the authority of powerful men and the authority of God's Word. Luther's answer has echoed through the centuries: “Here I stand.” But Luther's confidence was not ultimately in Martin Luther and his own writings. His confidence was in the Word of God. And that same Word still stands today. It tells us that we are sinners. It tells us that Christ died and rose for sinners. It tells us that whoever believes in Him has eternal life. It tells us that our sins are forgiven for Christ's sake. When everything else changes, the Word of God remains. Here we stand—because God's Word is sure and will never pass away.