Claimed, gathered and sent

Reform #3 Teaching of Justification by Grace through Faith This was not a new teaching discovered by Luther. There were reformers prior to him that spoke and wrote of God's work of grace of being something outside of us, something we ourselves cannot effect. Rather than a discovery, it was a rediscovery of this truth of God's Word. For Luther , this was the chief article, upon which everything depended. Freedom in our Christian lives and forgiveness of sins is all a free gift that we cannot do anything to earn. We are justified by grace without any merit or work of our own. God makes us God’s own. “On this article stands all that we teach practice…” ( The Smalcald Articles, Lull, p. 357). It is well explained by Luther ’s explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” God does the work, not us. flickr foto

The door on the right is the door of the Wittenburg church in Germany. The 95 Theses were nailed here which spelled out church abuses during the Renaissance. Is any of this relevant for the church today? This is the beginning of a short series on some of the main reforms and why we should care. Clergy marriage Prior to the Reformation and even in today’s Roman Catholic Church, clergy were/are not allowed to marry. The choice was clear; you could either get married or serve God in the church as a priest. This excluded a number of people with genuine calls of God, yet who did not have the gift of celibacy. It was a requirement the church had put upon candidates for the priesthood that scripture did not. Even before Luther ’s time, there were those who were against this prerequisite. Those who were already priests, but lacked the gift of celibacy, because they could not marry, often had mistresses and children by them. Though this ran counter to their vows, it was overlooked....