Chris Howlett

Re•forming Church: Grace Alone

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” – John Newton

 

October 31, 2017 is the 500^th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. In honor of this important date, I offer these devotional thoughts on “Grace Alone.”

Roman Catholic dogma, to this day, teaches the doctrine of the Treasury of Merit. It basically works like this: in heaven there is a balance sheet and all your sins are on the debit side of the sheet and your good works are on the credit side. When you die you have to go to purgatory until the sheet is balanced in favor of credits. Because sins are so grave a debit, it will take a long time in purgatory to purge your sins and open the door to heaven. Saints, however, go straight to heaven because of their lack of sin and abundance of good works. Because they don’t need all the credit they’ve built up, it’s deposited into this Treasury of Merit, where the credits can be drawn upon for oneself or one’s dead relatives. Prayers for the dead and masses said for the dead can shorten a person’s time in purgatory, drawing on this Treasury.

Martin Luther saw it differently. Salvation is by grace through faith, not by works of merit. Grace, itself, means “unmerited love.” Grace is available to us, not based on our prayers or the prayers of others, nor on our giving to the church or someone else giving to the church on our behalf. Grace is available because of the merit of Christ and Christ alone. The Church does not function as a grace dispenser. 

God the Father, because of God the Son, through God the Spirit, ministers his grace to us. Our decision is about whether or not we receive and cooperate with the work of God’s grace in our lives. We do this through faith. We absolutely do good works, but not as a means of earning extra credit. We perform good works out of the overflow of gratitude and thanksgiving we have for God’s goodness.

As we celebrate the Reformation, let’s be open to God’s continued reformation project of reforming and conforming us to the image of his Son by the power of his Spirit.

Re•forming Church: Faith Alone

“Now I should like to know whether your soul, tired of its own righteousness, is learning to be revived by and to trust in the righteousness of Christ.” – Martin Luther

In honor of the 500^th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation I offer these devotional thoughts on “Faith Alone.”

There are about 45,000 self-help books in print. A thriving $11 billon industry awaits to help us help ourselves learn to cook, lose weight, think positively, fix our relationships, and find ultimate happiness. You’d think with so much assistance out there we’d be better off, but our society doesn’t seem to be getting better. Perhaps the opposite is true.

Martin Luther attempted the spiritual version of self-help. He believed he could do enough good deeds, receive enough sacraments, say enough prayers to make up for the sins he'd committed. After years of earnest effort, he came up short. Self-help let him down. Then, as he was reading the Bible he discovered a truth that hadn’t sunk in until then, that self-help is really no help at all. He needed something he couldn’t give himself, God’s grace.

When he discovered that the only way to salvation was by receiving it as a gift from God through faith, it changed his world. It changed the world. “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” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV). 

God is in the redeeming business. He launched a rescue mission a long time ago and he’s been working at it, drawing people into relationship with himself, ever since. Our efforts at self-improvement never measure up. Thankfully, God sent Jesus on the mission to the cross to make a way for us to trust in him and then join him in his mission of rescuing the world.

Simple faith, simple trust, that’s the work God wants. We can put our faith in Christ and see God transform our lives as we learn to live by the leadership of the Spirit. Martin Luther found joy and hope, not in his abilities, but in God’s. You can, too.

Re•forming Church: Scripture Alone

“The difference between us and the papists is that they do not think that the church can be 'the pillar of the truth' unless she presides over the word of God. We, on the other hand, assert that it is because she reverently subjects herself to the word of God that the truth is preserved by her and passed on to others by her hands.” ― John Calvin

October 31, 2017 is the 500^th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. In honor of that anniversary I offer these devotional thoughts on “Scripture Alone.”

The idea that Scripture is primary, not church tradition or church teaching or church authority, is the idea that drove Martin Luther and the subsequent Protestant Reformation. Authority lies in the Bible itself, which is God’s Word. Scripture guides decisions we make about how we experience salvation, how to live a life of discipleship, and how we serve God’s purposes of instituting his Kingship in this world so his will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is a good time to reflect on how I am allowing Scripture to speak into my life. The psalmist wrote, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105 KJV). Prior to the Reformation the only way God’s Word informed the life of an ordinary person was for that person to hear about it from a priest. With the Reformation, the Bible was translated into the languages people could actually read and the number of people who could read grew exponentially as Reformers founded schools to educate the masses. Today, the Bible remains a worldwide number-one best seller and is available anywhere over the internet. We’re blessed with the availability of the Word of God, but are we taking advantage? Is dust gathering on our bibles? How are we utilizing the incredible resources at our fingertips?

Take time every day to read the Bible. It’s God’s primary means of communicating his will for our lives. Without direction from God, lives drift off course and miss the blessing and happiness God intends as we partner with him in his mission.