This Sunday in worship, we celebrate the 508th anniversary of the beginning of what’s called the Reformation.
On October 31, 1517, Dr. Martin Luther nailed 95 theses (statements he wished to defend in a public debate) to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, Germany.
His theses challenged the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, which had become misled by a dangerous emphasis on unscriptural traditions and man-made laws during the Dark Ages of medieval Europe.
As an Augustinian monk, a Roman Catholic priest, and a professor of theology, Dr. Martin Luther wanted to reform the many abuses he saw in the medieval church and return to the Holy Bible as the only source of true teaching. This desire for reform led to the formation of a new visible church (the Lutheran church).
Thankfully, through this reformation, God has preserved the truth that our salvation was won for us completely by our Savior Jesus Christ. The exclamation, in Latin, “Sola gratia! Sola fide! Sola Scriptura! Solus Christus!” became the rallying cry for the proclamation of the gospel. In English, “By grace alone! By faith alone! By Scripture alone! In Christ Alone!”
And so as we worship this weekend, we join our voices to say, “Soli Deo gloria” — “To God alone be glory!”