Why is the reformation still important today
Why Was the Reformation Important? Why Is It Still Today? - Leonardo De Chirico
you
good evening to all it's a great
privilege to be in front of you and let
me begin with a to tell you a story of
personal Reformation this was this
picture was taken many years ago and
much hair ago my father was a devout
Catholic he was not obsessed with
regularly attending Mass but seriously
engaged in Catholic practices he was a
fan of st. Anthony a Portuguese made you
evil Saint he had a picture of the saint
in his wallet he kissed it before going
to bed
he made a pilgrimage to the tomb of the
same every year
he felt part of the Catholic Church he
knew that the church was meant to deal
with his own religious life God was
remote too distant to God to be known
and approached the church was therefore
there to mediate to stay in between
himself and God Saint Anthony was the
Saint he felt near to him my father's
life was religiously respectful but
spiritually empty full of devotions and
yet void of the gospel this is what
Roman Catholicism had taught him his
heart was restless and God was far away
one day many years ago and much hair ago
my family was visited by a missionary
couple they could hardly speak Italian
they asked to simple yet searching
questions the first one very simple are
you Christians and the answer was simple
and straightforward yes of course we are
Italian
the idea was that being Italian meant
being a Christian the second question
was a bit more difficult and here what
it was
have you ever read the Bible turning to
my mother in puzzlement my father
replied dear do we have a Bible at home
no dear she said we have no Bible at
home this is another mark of Roman
Catholicism not really exposing people
to the Bible but rather feeling life
with traditions and practices often very
much contrary to plain and simple
biblical teaching to cut a long story
short reading the Bible was the
beginning of a reformation of a journey
of reformation that led both dad and man
to become born-again Christians
soon after my older brother and I
followed this is a story of personal and
family Reformation this has been the
story of millions of Roman Catholics
around the world people raised in a
religious tradition with little if no
exposure to the Bible and with
wrongheaded ideas about the gospel the
Bennis the medicine for it was the
discovery of the message of the Bible
and the good news of salvation in Christ
alone received by faith alone this was
the medicine for the salvation of my
family and this is why the Reformation
still matters today I want now to take
you to the city of Rome in 1510 five
centuries ago and to tell you another
story of personal Reformation a young
German monk Martin Luther visited the
Eternal City that year
he came as a pilgrim to immerse himself
in devotional practices in the hope to
find peace for his troubled soul apart
from the corruption that is saw in the
church they're undermining the
credibility of the clergy and its
teachings luther saw the gospel that
dominated Rome as encapsulated in the
holy stairs next to st. John the Lateran
their pilgrims would go and climb the
stairs on their knees praying Marian
prayers and after reaching the top they
would pay a certain amount of money to
receive an indulgence an indulgence was
and still is a remission of sin granted
by the Catholic Church to the faithful
who performs a good work in special ears
called holy years or jubilee years the
Roman Church dispenses indulgences more
lavishly Luther came in one of those all
here's the basic idea is that God is far
removed from you in order to reach out
to him you have to do a combination of
good works with a prayers pilgrimages or
offerings and then the church will
dispense God's forgiveness on his behalf
you have to climb the steps of heaven in
order to fulfill the requirements of the
church who will then open for you the
storage of divine grace Luther was
trouble to see what is so something was
wrong about the whole thing he would
soon after discover that the issue was
not the issue was the whole system
system advocated for by the Roman Church
was ill-formed confusing and distorted
Luther understood that is it is not we
who have to reach out to God with our
works ascending the ladder of heaven and
then trusting the church to mediate
God's grace to us the Bible clearly
teaches that it is God who in His Son
Jesus Christ has come down to us to make
atonement for our sins the whole scheme
was wrong and needed to turn upside down
this is the essence of the Reformation
being exposed to the biblical gospel and
turning the whole trajectory of
salvation upside down the son Jesus
Christ
descended to us in his incarnation dying
for our sins raising from the dead for
our salvation
calling all those who believe to eternal
life now what is then the problem with
this kind of gospel that Luther had to
be confronted with the problem with the
Roman Catholicism of the sixteenth
century is still the problem with the
present-day
Roman Catholicism the same holy stares
that Luther saw are still there
attracting millions of pilgrims every
day packing the stairs with people
kneeling up their way to look for God's
forgiveness it has been going on for
centuries without any significant change
there are two main problems in the
Catholic presentation of the gospel as a
whole the first one has to do with the
view in which God's revelation comes to
us and is taught and transmitted and
lived out in the life of the church in
the Catholic understanding the Bible is
part of God's revelation but God's
revelation is far bigger than the Bible
and so that you have the Bible within
the tea
Kings and practices of the Catholic
Church but you also have something very
different at times conflicting with the
Bible you have the scriptures on the one
hand you have the traditions of the
church on the other hand and you have
the Magisterium that is the teaching
office of the church collecting the
revelation come to us through the
scripture come to us through the oral
traditions and presenting the whole of
God's revelation to the people so the
end result is something that is quite
unreadable because it's a combination of
Scripture tradition and Magisterium the
scripture is somewhat somehow hidden
there somehow present there but it's so
inherently combined with the traditions
of the church and taught by the teaching
of the church that is somehow buried
under the weight of many times
unbiblical traditions and teachings
according to the Roman Catholic Church
then and the Roman Catholic early church
now the Bible is important but
inconclusive it is one form of
Revelation but not the final one let me
give you an example how on how this
works in the Catholic understanding one
example comes from the development of
Marian doctrine and practices the Bible
as you know gives us a sober account of
the matter of Jesus Mary
however listen to how the Roman Catholic
Church developed it and I'm quoting for
Vatican 2 the last important council
celebrated by the church the blessing
word Blessed Virgin is invoked by the
church under the titles of advocate of
Xillia tricks and media tricks these are
all christological titles there is
titles that the Bible is
fives to Jesus our lawyer I'll advocate
our help our mediator and our titles
that are have been transmitted and
transferred to Mary what the bible
ascribes to Jesus alone the Roman Church
of tribes to Mary why because tradition
takes precedence over the Bible and can
therefore lead these Mary illogical
developments that detract attention from
the Lord Jesus placing attention to me
on to Mary it is no surprise that in
Mary in many majority Catholic regions
like the country I come from the cult of
Mary is more practiced than praying to
Jesus it is no surprise that the motto
of Pope John Paul the second was totus
Tuus totally yours and yours of course
referring to Mary it is no surprise that
Pope Francis has a strong Mario logical
spirituality and every day he prays the
Marian Marian rosary and speaks about
her all the time last week it was in
Portugal in Fatima celebrating another
anniversary the 100 years of the Marian
apparitions in Fatima claiming that
these apparitions were and our
revelations that the church need to take
account of there is a second fundamental
problem in the 16th century Catholicism
and in the present day one the Roman
Catholic Church violently rejected the
biblical doctrine of salvation by faith
alone at the Council of Trent in the
middle of the 16th century Trent this
Italian City where the council was held
continued to use the word justification
word was there the word was accepted by
the council but it was filled with a
completely different meaning it was
buried in the context of a plurality of
terms and concepts and ideas to the
point that justification the biblical
justification disappeared buried under
the weight of wrongheaded accounts of
justification for trends the council of
trent justification was a process rather
than an act of God a process initiated
by the sacrament of baptism where the
righteousness of God was thought of of
being infused a process eventually
nurtured by the religious works of the
faithful and sustained by the
sacramental system of the church a
process needed to go through a time of
purification in purgatory before perhaps
being enacted on Judgment Day you see
the word was there but it was buried
under the weight of other conflicting
ideas to the extent that the biblical
understanding basic understanding of
justification was lost what was missing
in Trent five centuries ago was the
declarative declarative forensic act of
justification the exclusive grounding in
divine grace salvation coming from God
and been received by faith alone and
also it lacked the full assurance of
being justified because of what God the
Father had declared God the son had
achieved and God the spirit had worked
out Trent came with a confused and
confusing teaching on justification that
has been misleading people since now in
1999
this declaration joined declaration on
justification by faith signed by the
Catholic Church and some Lutheran
churches claims to have bypassed and
overcome the gap between the biblical
understanding of justification and
experience of justification and the
Catholic accounts of it what the joint
declaration did was to further blur the
lines further confuse the language
further stretch the synthesis without
filling the gap but instead making it
more nuanced yet still relevant so what
is at stake then are we only dealing
with a matter that can be accounted for
with a sense that we say the same things
with different words with different
words using the same words but having
different meanings or is it the case
that we are actually speaking different
different languages using the same words
and yet referring to different basic
meanings I would I would say I would say
that it is why is true that the Roman
Catholic Church retains basic Christian
vocabulary still uses them often in a
very unbiblical way take for instance
the word justification as we have
briefly indicated it is the same word
everybody speaks today of justification
but that what do we mean by it and I'm
glad that one of our plenary sessions
during the week will specifically deal
with this wonderful doctrine of
justification by faith alone and I will
refer to that talk for further
discussion
but everybody uses today the word
justification but the Catholic Church
still thinks that justification is the
process a process whereby you receive an
initial push giving you by baptism and
then you have to work it out yourself in
order to achieve something that will
eventually probably given to you
a Judgment Day there is no sense of the
definitive declarative work of Christ
pronounced upon you as a sinner you
hopeless sinners without any
contribution to make just receiving by
faith alone trusting Christ for the
forgiveness of your sin that this is
what it means to be justified rather
than being in the process of becoming a
better person this is the basic
understanding of the word justification
even in present-day Roman Catholicism or
think for instance of the word mercy
this is a the password that Pope Francis
is using every day in order to convey
his basic vision and message to the
world the mercy of God a merciful God
the ear of Mercy Mercy for all Pope
Francis has chosen the word mercy to
define his message and his overall view
of the Christian faith according to him
mercy is the heart of the gospel but
what kind of mercy are we talking about
the word is the same mercy but is it the
biblical mercy that he is referring to
no it is something very different the
mercy he has in mind is a atonement free
judgment less conscience centered
marryin oriented type of mercy and I
repeated for you to ponder on this
definition atonement free speaks always
about mercy but oftenly hides the cost
of mercy for
or God the Son to die for our sins and
to bear the consequences of our sins on
our behalf it is a judgment less mercy
covers all judgment as if the mercy of
God can be pitted over against the
judgment of God the Justice of God the
biblical picture tells us that the mercy
of God is always to be combined and
linked with the justice of God not in
opposition to it not as if mercy would
swallow God's justice but mercy
kissing God's justice on the cross this
is what is missing in this understanding
of mercy a conscience centered sense of
mercy believe what you believe follow
your conscience and God will be merciful
for you and with you this is the basic
message that covers and hide the other
side of the gospel yes God is merciful
but call God calls every man to repent
not to follow his own conscience but
actually to follow God's Word above
one's own conscience our consciences are
mixed-up are diverted by our own sin and
they need to be redressed in the right
journey according to God's Word and it's
a could say it's a mercy marryin
oriented every day speaks about the
maternal role of Mary the way in which
she cares for us the way in which she is
near to us the way in which she is even
more nearer than Jesus she is close to
us and she is an example and a mediator
of God's mercy a kind of mercy that is
silent on sin and superficial on
repentance as it was the case with
justification in this case - it is the
same biblical word mercy that is used
but is excused
it's biblical meaning so we are dealing
with a powerful institution carrying
very basic and important Christian
vocabulary but as it was the case 500
years ago it is still the case today
that this vocabulary has an inherent
disorder inside it there is something
wrong there is something that because it
is not grounded on scripture alone it
can deviate at any time it can go up and
down it can add more ideas it can add
more teachings it can detract
significant important teachings it can
blend different teachings together it
can manipulate and caricature basic
Christian teaching so there are two
biblical options that we can take into
consideration when we deal with the
claims of the Reformation as they relate
to the 16th century Roman Catholic
Church and the present-day Roman
Catholic Church in the early in the 1st
century of course there were divergent
ideas there were different ideas even
within the gospel churches that had been
recently planted and the Apostles always
had to deal with ways in which different
people were saying we were saying the
same gospel in different ways using
different words and emphases this is the
case for instance in Philippians 1 when
Paul clearly writes to the church in
Philippi that there were people going
around motivated out of envy and rivalry
against Paul himself and they were they
wanted to downplay the credibility of
all they wanted to do something bad to
Paul they didn't like Paul and they
preached out of envy
but Paul is able to recognize that
although they were preaching with these
false motivations they were still
preaching the gospel and for him that
was a reason to rejoice because he was
free enough not to concentrate on his
person people may have had bad
motivations wrong motivations but they
were still preaching the gospel because
of its content because of its truth
truth because of its grounding on God's
revelation finally presented in the
person of Jesus but the same apostle in
Galatians 1 when it deals with the
people who were going around teaching
another kind of gospel another account
of the gospel in the Galatian region he
speaks a very different language he
realizes that they may had they could be
good people they could be nice people
they could be friendly people and yet
because they deny the once and for all
achievement of the cross and the reality
of justification by grace alone received
by faith alone is bold enough to do
something that is very politically
incorrect that is claiming that they
were preaching another gospel now I know
that over the history of the Christian
and even in the evangelical church this
text of Galatians 1 has been used and
often misused in order to condemn people
condemned teaching and tell bad things
about others who were preaching
different ideas or different
perspectives on the same gospel but this
centenary of the Reformation is a
wonderful opportunity to ask the
question are we seriously
about the gospel it is not about us it
is not about our reputation it is not
about our own credibility it is about
about the truth of God's Word presented
taught and lived out in our lives and in
our churches what are we dealing with
when we come to terms with the reality
of this institutional big Roman Catholic
Church is it a matter of Philippians 1
is it just another way of accounting for
the gospel another way of telling the
gospel may be motivated by reasons that
we don't understand fully or is it the
case that the bottom line is that in
spite of the similarities and
commonalities what is at stake then
there is another gospel so the question
is the Reformation over the church of
course will continue to be founded on
the authority of Scripture and on
salvation received by faith alone there
is no other basis there is no other
foundation upon which the church can be
founded and grounded upon that is true
as far as five centuries ago is
concerned and that is true as far as
today's situation is concerned there is
no other gospel than the gospel
biblically attested in the message of
Jesus Christ that saves unworthy sinners
like us on the ground or is one and for
all work on the cross of course we may
it should be creative to find new and
better ways to preach about
justification to embody what it means to
be under the authority of Scripture to
apply it and to witness it's living
reality
but the Bible is crystal clear that we
are other under we are either under the
authority of God through his word and
spirit or we are under a false idol the
authority of a false idol we are either
justified by God's grace received by
faith alone or we fall in a kind of self
justification that is a tragic deception
any accommodation to the idea that we
are ultimately capable of saving
ourselves any accommodation to the fact
that salvation is not God's gift from
beginning to end is a slippery slope
towards a false gospel this is what the
Reformation reminds us of five centuries
after the gospel is about the message of
Jesus attested in the infallible works
and writings of the Bible telling us
that God's initiative in salvation
reaches out to us in the person and work
of the son and we can believe in him
trusting him for our salvation and for
the renewal of the world there is no
other way or better way to celebrate and
remember the Protestant Reformation that
remembering the basics of the gospel of
Jesus Christ as it is attested in the
Bible do not think that justification is
just a theological relic of a distant
past do not think that the authority of
the Bible is just an old theological
concept that we can easily dispense from
these are the two pillars upon which any
healthy transformed personal life or
Church can have hope to survive and
finally to be received into God's glory
the race the recent statement is the
Reformation / which was produced last
year preparing the celebration or the
anniversary of the Protestant
Reformation was signed by dozens of
evangelical leaders and theologians
worldwide and the number is growing and
I would also invite you to consider
signing in the statement you have
received it in your conference folder
and it's a brief summary statement
summarizing what I've been trying to
tell you so far of course we look back
at the Protestant Reformation but we're
not interesting in being apologetic
towards everything the Reformation did
what we want to say that the Reformation
was a radical call to the church then to
go back to the sources of the Bible and
to submit the authority of the church
under the authority of Scripture and it
was also called to appreciate afresh the
fact that salvation comes to us through
faith alone
these are standing an unresolved issue
issues in the present day relationships
between the Roman Catholic Church and
evangelical Protestants present day
Roman Catholicism has tried to come to
terms with the Reformation by expanding
its synthesis by redefining its terms by
becoming friendly but not changing the
doctrinal core of its vision this is why
the Reformation needs to be our calling
and mission beat personal Reformation we
always and all need to go through an
ongoing time of reformation otherwise we
easily go astray and we are trapped
into our own little authorities and we
are we are trapped into our own false
Gospels of force justification the
Reformation is a vibrant ongoing call to
stay relaxed and peaceful and find joy
under the authority of God as it is
witnessed in the Bible and to find peace
and joy and the sense of calling and
service in appreciating the fact that we
cannot do anything to achieve to own to
gain our salvation apart from believing
with all our hearts the Christ was the
perfect gift and the perfect giver and
in him we can have eternal salvation the
only personal Reformation but also
reformation of churches the Reformation
was never intended to be a once and for
all event but a process a journey a
trajectory we need our churches to be
constantly reminded of their calling to
go back to the scriptures and to
celebrate the fact that salvation comes
to us by grace alone through faith alone
and also the need for Reformation
movements across Europe this continent
that witness to a significant degree the
impact of the Reformation then but as
lost its grip and it's lost its memory
and needs to be realized with the same
gospel biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ a huge task before us and our
task is not to be nostalgic of the past
but to be looking forward to what God is
doing and will do in our continent even
through people very simple like me and
you
people like us here this European
Leadership Forum but fully convinced
that the only source of our authority is
the Word of God and the only hope of our
life is the fact that we are justified
by faith
less than be encouraged and take this
task forward so that our continent will
be exposed once again to the impact of
the biblical gospel in all these
countries in all its regions across the
generations and hoping to see great
things that God is doing and will do
let's pray father we do thank you
because we stand on the shoulders of
those who have come before us we stand
on their shoulders not because they were
heroes but because they were sinners
saved by grace through faith alone and
they were serious about the gospel we
stand on the shoulders of those who have
gone before us witnessing testifying to
the truth of the scripture and to the
saving reality of the gospel and in this
present generation Oh Lord we pray that
we as representatives of Churches of
movements of mission agencies of
networks will not be afraid of
testifying witnessing heralding
preaching embodying and living out the
same gospel the same apostolic Orthodox
historic evangelical gospel that has
been preached throughout the ages with
different emphases in different ways but
always keeping in mind the need for the
gospel to be grounded in the Bible and
centered on the person and work of
Christ alone we pray that you will bring
about a new window of reformation in
this continent we pray that you will
bring about a new season of renewal
biblical renewal in this continent and
we pray that you will grant us to be
bold witnesses wherever we are in our
southern regions of Europe in the
western part of Europe in the northern
countries of Europe in the eastern
countries of Europe wherever we come
from that the eternal message of the
gospel and it was testified 500 years
ago and it is testified now will go
forth and will attract people and people
and people will come to you in
repentance and faith proclaiming that
Jesus Christ is the Lord of lords and
the King of Kings and the savior of the
world we pray all these things in Jesus
name Amen
