Sola Graita

Good morning. Discussing the 500th anniversary of Reformation, I would like to begin with a personal testimony of January of this year. After a brief explanation from the Lutheran pastor, I followed the funeral procession into the church, deeply moved.

Why? For sure I was going to miss my wife's arms, who had been a dear family member to us. What impacted me was the symbol on her casket that illustrated truth in this period of mourning. You see, the casket was a cover and a light bulb, symbolizing righteousness.

It was the only thing God would accept from another, as she would be presented to him for judgment. But, whose righteousness? The symbolism goes further. On the cover was a shape of a cross, one of the great symbols for Christ.

Whose righteous works is God accepting? Would he see any of my mom's works? No. For he would not accept them. She was being presented to God, covered by the righteousness of our blessed Christ. And this was our family's comfort in our loss.

Grace Alone and the Righteousness of Christ

Ephesians 2, 8 -10 says,. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before him, that we should welcome him.

In this short statement is the sum of the biblical teaching of the work of grace. It begins with God working in us faith, which justifies us, giving us Christ's righteousness. Which, in turn, results in good works, which please him, according to his working in us.

Sola Scriptura and the Medieval Drift from Grace

Over time, as the Church of the Middle Ages abandoned the supremist authority of Scripture, Sola Scriptura, in favor of traditions, other doctrines began to emerge. Not only those absent from the Bible, but also changes to the understanding of grace itself.

The Medieval Church's teaching gradually drifted to the assertion that God's grace would help us produce the works that he would accept for justification, rather than the grace of Christ's finished work of cross and resurrection for us.

It is in this world that Martin Luther sought to be right with the Holy God. In keeping with Church traditions, he followed the rules of the monastery and did penance. All to a radical extreme, and even in the appointments of his fellow clergy.

All the time, being under condemnation in his heart because of the majesty of God's holiness and perfection over Rome. At this point, as he studied the Bible, he discovered that it is not his righteousness that God will accept, but Christ's, and that he should, by faith, abide in him.

Luther received God's gracious gift of eternal life. Luther and the other Reformers returned to the biblical, apostolic understanding that good works and a changed life flow from Christ's righteousness into us.

The Gospel of Grace and Christ's Finished Work

Instead of bleeding to it, God will not have his glorious gospel assisted by human will. Our Christ, as God in human flesh, takes on himself all of our sins and forms on the cross, and gives us all of the righteous obedience of his perfect life.

We call this teaching totoratia, or grace alone. In short, God's grace justifies us completely in Christ's work, and gives us a heart of repentance rather than demanding we do penance. Church historian Stephen Nicholas tells us that Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer, was portrayed in a painting with an open Bible.

In an illustration of this grace to us, the Bible was opened to Matthew 11, 27 -30. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to revolt nor worry and annihilate him.

But I will give you rest. Take my milk upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. My milk is easy, and mine alone is light. This is Christ's gracious invitation to us, then and now.

Reformation Hope in Sola Gratia

On this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we celebrate our salvation in Christ, sola gratia, by grace alone, in the words of the Apostle Paul, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us.