OPEN: October 31st was Halloween… but it was also the date of something even more significant. Many churches celebrate the last day of October as “Reformation Day” – the day (500 years ago) when Martin Luther nailed a document to the door of a Church building in Wittenberg, Germany that challenged the Roman Catholic Church on its doctrine. But we’ll get to that historical event in just a moment.
A little over 500 years ago, the Catholic Church had a problem – his name was Giovanni de' Medici. From his youth, Giovanni was a rising star in the Roman Catholic Church: at age 7 he’d been made a monk, at age 13 he was a cardinal, and at age 40 he became Pope. When he ascended to the Papacy he took the name - Leo X.
Now Leo X wasn’t really a very good Pope. His predecessor - Pope Julius II – had left a fairly healthy treasury for the Vatican, but because Leo lived a luxurious lifestyle he blew through that surplus in a little under 8 years. Adding to the problem the fact that Leo had been committed to an upcoming building project. The Vatican was building a new church – St. Peter’s Basilica – and it was going to be HUGE! Up until the 1990s it was the largest church building ever built, covering nearly 6 acres of ground - and it is still the 2nd tallest building in Rome. To this day, it is still considered one of the most famous works of Renaissance culture and it was designed by some of the most famous architects of the day (including Michelangelo).
But back in 1500s it still hadn’t been built because there was no money to build it … Leo had spent it all. So now he has to raise the money. BUT how was he going to do that? Well, he fell back on a tried and true method used by other Bishops and Popes of the past, (PAUSE) he sold forgiveness. They called it the “selling of indulgences”
Now, this is how it worked: Catholic theology held (and still teaches) that even if you were a good Catholic and were were bound for heaven, you were still required to spend time in Purgatory to work off your sins. Indulgences were papers you could buy that forgave those sins. Basically they were “Get Out Of Purgatory Free Cards.”
Now, just to be clear: the word purgatory does occur in Scripture, and neither does the word indulgences.
Just to make sure I wasn’t misrepresenting Catholic teaching on these topics I went online and found this description of Catholic doctrine on Purgatory (https://www.olrl.org/Lessons/Lesson12.shtml). The following are questions and answers on that page:
1. “What does the word "Purgatory" mean? It means "cleansing" (or "purging"). Purgatory is a place where… people who die with Sanctifying Grace in their souls, but -- who die with venial sin on their souls, or who have not completed (satisfied) the punishment still due to their ALREADY FORGIVEN (emphasis mine) sins.”
(My words: “This means that, even though God forgives your sins, He still requires that you be punished for them - i.e. "pay" for them - either in this life or in the next.
2. “Do you suffer in Purgatory? Yes. Besides not being allowed to see God face to face, the souls in Purgatory suffer a great deal.”
3. “Can you help the souls in Purgatory? You can shorten their stay by having Masses said for them (which unless I’m mistaken, must be paid for), by praying for them and by doing good works for them. All Souls' Day (Nov. 2nd) is the day set aside by the (Catholic) Church for special prayers and Masses for all the souls suffering in Purgatory.”
4. How can you avoid Purgatory? Avoid even the smallest faults, do penance for sins already forgiven, gain INDULGENCES (emphasis mine)….”
Now, let’s digress for a moment here… can you SELL forgiveness? No! Can forgiveness of sins be BOUGHT?
Of course not!!! There’s not enough gold in the world, and there aren’t enough good deeds that anyone could do to pay off our sins.
That’s why Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the GIFT of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Romans 5:16-17 “… the FREE GIFT is not like the result of that one man’s sin (Adam). For the judgment following one trespass (Adam’s sin) brought condemnation, but the FREE GIFT following many trespasses brought justification…. (and we) receive the abundance of grace and the FREE GIFT of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
Did you see that phrase “free gift”? It’s in this passage no less than 3 times. Now how much money does it take to buy a “free gift??” None!!!… it’s FREE!!!!
Did I mention that indulgences aren’t mentioned in Scripture? And have I mentioned that Purgatory isn’t referred to anywhere in the Bible? Do you know why they’re not mentioned in the Bible? They’re not there because God never intended this type of thing to be taught. Both indulgences and purgatory are FALSE doctrines. They falsely teach that you have to pay for your sins after being forgiven.
AND Purgatory and Indulgences are direct insults to God. I John 1:9 declares that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.”
What is the promise in that verse? The promise is: If I confess my sins God’s going to do something. What will God do if I confess my sins? He will cleanse me from… SOME of my sins? Is that what it says? No? How many of my sins will God forgive me of? ALL of my sins! How much is ALL? It’s everything. God promises that when I confess my sins God forgives of everything I’ve done, everything I’ve said, and everything I’ve thought.
And what is the basis of that promise? “If we confess our sins, HE IS FAITHFUL!!!!”
But Purgatory and Indulgences declare that God isn’t faithful. Purgatory and indulgences declare that God isn’t willing to back up His promise. You gotta pay off your sins EVEN AFTER BEING forgiven of them. Even after confessing them to Him.
Essentially, purgatory and indulgences declare that God lied!!!!
(PAUSE)
You can’t sell forgiveness… but Pope Leo X did. Of course, Pope Leo X didn’t directly sell the indulgences. He hired salesmen to do that for him, and one of the most effective salesmen he had was a man named Tetzel. Tetzel was a selling machine. His famous line was: “As soon as the gold in the casket rings; the rescued soul to heaven springs.”
And Tetzel did a banner business. He brought in money hand over fist… that is until a Monk named Martin Luther came along. Martin Luther was enraged by these indulgences, and he nailed a challenge to the sale of indulgences to a door of a Church in Wittenberg. The document he nailed to the church door was called the “95 Theses”, or the 95 CRITICISMS he had of the sale of indulgences.
Now, let’s talk a little bit about Martin Luther. Luther was a good Catholic priest, and bought into just about everything the Catholic church taught. In fact, at one time he would have embraced the concept of indulgences, because he was constantly trying to pay off the guilt of his own sins.
Luther’s sins were so deeply troubling to him that he felt unworthy of God’s love, and so he repeatedly did acts of contrition and penance trying to purchase God’s forgiveness.
• He’d fast repeatedly
• He slept in the snow without blankets
• He endured repeated beatings
• He even kissed the steps that led to the Pope’s throne
But nothing seemed to help. No matter what he did, he still felt unworthy and unloved by God.
Then one day he was studying through book of Romans he came across Romans 3:28 “For we maintain that a man is JUSTIFIED BY FAITH apart from observing the law.” Those words shook him. He suddenly realized it wasn’t works of contrition that bought God’s love. God’s people were justified by faith…not works. You didn’t have to work off your bad deeds, you simply had to have faith that God would honor His promise that He would forgive you.
He suddenly realized: You can’t buy forgiveness, because Jesus had already done that for us on the cross. And if you can’t BUY your forgiveness… the church can’t SELL it either.
That was the thing that angered Martin Luther so much about the indulgences. Indulgences were based on a LIE - the LIE that God would not forgive a person unless they had purchased it.
ILLUS: This is the concept known as KARMA. Every other world religion buys into the concept of Karma - except Christianity. Now let’s be clear, Karma is not just the idea that “What goes around comes around” or “you reap what you sow.” No, Karma is the teaching that you can gain Heaven/Nirvana/God’s approval by doing enough good deeds to outweigh your bad deeds. If your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds then you can receive relief from your guilt. In other words, Karma is just another way of saying that you need to buy forgiveness!!!
BUT Scripture teaches it doesn’t work that way. Scripture teaches that you can’t be good enough to be good enough to please God. Why? Because - while your good deeds CAN PLEASE God - the problem isn’t the good deeds… it’s you (and me).
ILLUS: I have a “comfort drink”. It’s chocolate milk. When I get home from a hard day, I’ll pour myself a tall glass of milk and mix in a couple spoons of Nestle's Chocolate and sit back and relax. Sometimes I’ll even drink 3 or 4 glasses in an evening. I really like it. When I’m done with my glass, I’ll often set it out on the counter to wash later. I rarely even rinse it out. As you might imagine, in the morning that glass looks pretty cruddy with the chocolate caked all the way up the inside of the glass.
Now, let’s say you come over to my house some day. It’s a hot day and you’re obviously thirsty. I’m trying to be a good host and so I ask if you’d like something to drink. “Of course,” you reply. “You want a Pepsi?” says I. “Yeah” says you. And so I to the refrigerator and I pull out a fresh cold can of Pepsi that never been opened – I pop the lid and reach over to the glass I used for my chocolate milk the night before and I pour the contents of the Pepsi can into that glass… then I offer it to you. Are you going to drink of that?
No? Why not? The Pepsi can had never been opened. The Pepsi itself was fresh and cold. Why wouldn’t you want to drink what I’ve offered you? Well, you know the answer: the problem isn’t the Pepsi… it’s the container. Until the glass has been cleaned, anything you pour into it becomes nauseating. It’s disgusting.
That’s the same reaction God has with our good works when we offer them to Him while our hearts are unclean. It’s not the good deeds, it’s us.
That’s why good deeds aren’t going to change anything. We have to be cleansed inside and our good deeds aren’t going to get that done. It’s only the blood of Jesus that can cleanse us so we can be acceptable to God.
Now I’m not sure Martin Luther liked Chocolate milk… but I do know he understand that truth. And so when Tetzel came to town selling indulgences, Martin Luther knew it was wrong. From that point on - from the Church door in Wittenberg, and all across Germany - Luther went a tear. And when he was done – Tetzel was done too.
From that day on Tetzel didn’t sell much forgiveness to anyone anymore.
Now – this didn’t set well with the Catholic Church. Leo X was counting on that income to build his new church building. And so Leo issued a Papal Bull (a legal document) condemning Luther’s teachings, calling him a heretic and calling his opposition to Indulgences heresy.
Luther got hold of some of the copies of that Papal Bull… (PAUSE) and he burned them. As you can imagine, that didn’t go over real well with the Catholic church either. So the church authorities went out and arrested Luther and brought him to trial. They piled pamphlets and books that contained his teachings on a desk and essentially told him he had one chance (and one chance only) to recant or deny that what he’d written was true. Martin Luther understood what was at stake: men had died for less—burned at stakes or tortured for hours in punishment. And Luther knew that his very life hung in the balance. At that moment of time Luther must have wondered if what he was standing for was worth the risk. He asked for time to pray and consider his answer. He was given 24 hours.
The next day, Luther attempted to make a defense of his works but he was brusquely told: "Will you, or will you not, retract?" Pausing, Luther looked at his accusers and replied: “Unless I am convinced by proof from Scripture or by clear and plain reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen!”
He’d pretty much signed his death warrant. But shortly afterward, Luther was kidnapped by a friendly German prince who swept him off to safety, and Luther died peacefully about 30 years later. During that 30 yrs., Luther laid the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation. He almost singlehandedly broke the stranglehold that the Catholic Church had had on Christendom and he translated the Bible into the language of his people so that they could understand God’s Word for themselves.
What Luther did 500 years ago made it possible for churches like ours to exist, and for Bibles like the ones you have in your hands to be read and studied. We owe Martin Luther a huge debt of gratitude because he was a man of great courage and faith.
But when such men arise in history (men of courage and faith) people tend to build their theology around the man… and not Scripture. For example, after he died, Luther’s followers named themselves “Lutherans” (followers of Luther). Now they did this, despite the fact that Luther himself said:
“The first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans, but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone. St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, would not tolerate Christians calling themselves Paul’s or Peter’s, but only Christians. How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?” (https://www.livinglutheran.org/2017/01/reformation-500/)
Luther understood that identifying ourselves as anything OTHER THAN Christians created divisions within the body of Christ. There are churches out there who are named after their founders (as with the Lutherans) or after a religious practice they’re known for (as with the Methodists who are called Methodists because they have a “method”). Or the one that drives me nuts right now are churches that are called “Community Churches”. It’s like they are saying that the community owns their church? (I hope not). Who owns the church? Jesus does. Now it’s not like these folks are going to hell because they’ve named their churches like that. But this is why our marquee out front says “Church of Christ” – not because we’re the only “Church of Christ” or that we’re the only Christians. We’re simply declaring that this church belongs to Christ alone, and that all we intend to be Christians and Christians only.
One of the other things some folks who honor Luther misunderstood about Luther has to his teachings had to do with salvation. That one fateful day over 500 years ago when Luther read these words “… one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28) and the words of that verse almost leaped off the page at him. He suddenly realized that it was faith, not works, that was the foundation of being accepted by God. It was faith that saved us, not our good works. And Luther was so overwhelmed by the power of that simple phrase that he added these words in the margin of his Bible: “sola fide” – or “Faith Only”.
Now Luther didn’t change Scripture, but many of those who have admired him have. These admirers of Luther will constantly talk about the idea that people can be saved by “Faith only”… despite the fact that that phrase is NEVER found in Scripture. It’s always dangerous to add to God’s Word. Proverbs 30:6 says “Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.”
Now Luther hadn’t meant any harm by writing that phrase in the margin of his Bible. He was just so overwhelmed by the contrast this verse had with the religious practices of his day that he wanted to drive that truth home. He wanted to emphasize that you can’t buy God’s love with good works and you can’t be good enough to be good enough to buy your way into heaven. But even Luther knew that it is NOT true that we are saved by faith alone.
Now it is true that you can’t be saved without faith, but faith isn't all there is to it.
* Ephesians 2:5 and 2:8 tell us that we are saved by God’s grace. In fact, if it weren’t for the grace of God you could believe all day long and it wouldn’t do you any good.
* Acts 3:19 tells us we are saved by our repentance of our sins.
* Romans 10:9-10 declares that we are saved by confessing Jesus as Lord—accepting Him as the Master of your life.
* And Mark 16:16 and I Peter 3:2 teach us that we are saved when we allow ourselves to buried in the waters of baptism.
Faith is foundational for our salvation, but it must be based on God’s grace. And it must reflected in our repentance, our confession of Jesus as our Lord and Master, and by our being buried in the waters of baptism with Christ.
INVITATION
