This past Sunday, our pastor
emphasized Martin Luther and the doctrines of the Reformation, as this month
marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Often skeptics accuse Luther of
Antisemitism and of giving fuel to the Nazi holocaust as they used his words to
insight gross inhumanity to the Jews at that time period in history. During the
sermon, our pastor didn't gloss
over Luther's sin, but he highlighted that this is exactly why Christians (and
Luther) needed the doctrine that Luther spent his life teaching and clarifying:
Justification by faith alone. Jesus died for Christians too. We are simul
justus et peccator. We all stand accused by our adversary, and often by our own
consciences.Until we are taken home to glory, we will struggle and fail,
being at once justified and sinners. But we have a faithful Savior, who gave us
His life and died the death that we deserve. In Him we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We stand upon the great doctrine
of justification with great assurance and full conviction, that Jesus has satisfied
for all our sins. One day we will be presented faultless before the
throne, not in our righteousness, but in the righteousness of the Lamb, along
with Luther and the great cloud of witnesses who were saved by grace alone,
through faith alone, by Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
