Tabernacle

Today we conclude our series on the Protestant Transformation with a message about…transformation!  Our last slogan from the Reformation is “semper reformanda”, which means that the Church is always being reformed.  We

haven’t arrived yet, and each of us disciples still has a lot of growing to do.  We’re not home yet, and each of us pilgrims still has some travelling to do.  Let us endeavor to keep following Jesus—believing in Him, loving Him, and being transformed by Him.

“Help me, St. Anne! I will become a monk!”  A terrified Martin Luther shouted this plea after a bolt of lightning concussed the air around him and threw him to the ground.  Indeed, the 21-year-old dropped out of law school and entered an Augustinian monastery.  Two years later he was ordained to the priesthood.  Did you know that you are a priest?  1 Peter 2:9 says that we are part of a “royal priesthood…that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  Luther thought he would become a priest to get close to God, but he had it backward.  Later on, he came to realize that Christ’s sacrifice (not ours) reconciles us to God.  Therefore, we are priests because we have been brought close to God.  Please welcome Rev. Andy Wood from Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at Virginia Tech as we praise the One who has brought us into His marvelous light!

“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”  This was the first of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses.  Contrary to popular belief, the secret to spiritual progress is not perpetual goodness, but persevering in repentance.  None of us is perpetually good, but if we stop repenting, it means we have stopped believing.  Jude calls us to “keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21).  May we persevere in believing that God loves us, and that He sent His Son as a sacrifice for our sins to prove it.

If you really want to eat glass, then you will do it.  You and I generally do what we want, even if what we want to do is harmful to us or to others.  But what if God’s Spirit changed you so that you no longer liked to eat glass?  Would you complain that He has taken away your free will?  Or would you give thanks to Him that he gave you a new desire that saved your life?  Left to ourselves, we choose what is harmful to our souls.  Thanks be to God that He changes our hearts so that we choose Jesus!

Churches around the world today are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenburg, Germany, the catalytic protest for Protestant Reformation.  Yet we are not simply reveling in church history, we are rejoicing that God used the Reformation to bring clarity and beauty back to the Gospel. Today we marvel that God knows our name, that He sent a Redeemer, and that He has fully paid for all our sins.  “Full atonement, can it be?  Hallelujah!  What a Savior!”

When Jesus began His ministry, he chose twelve disciples to follow Him and to train them to be His apostles.  He chose which towns to visit and which homes to stay in.  He chose which people to heal and to touch.  He had a purpose.  He had a plan.  He still does.  He still chooses who will follow Him.  He still calls His sheep by name.  Good thing, too.  Because if His choice was based on me rather than Him, I wouldn’t have made the team.  I wouldn’t have even wanted to play.

Jack Miller once famously said, “Cheer up! You're a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you're more loved than you ever dared hope.” This is the truth of the Gospel. We are all sinners and we all fall short of the glory of God. The more we are able to acknowledge this truth, the more we will be able glory and rest in the Good News about Jesus. Let us never forget who we once were, but let us also not forget who we are now because of Jesus.

Are you living for your own glory or for the glory of God?  Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most gifted composers the world has known.  He would begin most of his compositions with the letters, "J.J." and he would finish them by writing "SDG" at the bottom.  J.J. is an abbreviation for the Latin, Jesu Juva, which means "Jesus help me" and SDG is an abbreviation for Soli Deo Gloria, which means "to the glory of God alone."  Despite his remarkable gifts and talents, Bach understood that he could do nothing without Jesus and therefore all the glory belonged to Him.  God is infinitely more worthy of glory than us.

The old joke about how the answer to every question in Sunday School is always, “Jesus!”, is more true than you know.  Strangely, we forget that Jesus is at the center of Christianity.  You and I cannot properly know a thing about the Bible if we don’t see how it is connected to Christ.  We also forget that Jesus is at the center of the universe.  We cannot properly live our lives if we don’t see how everything is from Him and exists for Him.  There can only be one point at the center of a circle.  And at the center of all things is Jesus Christ alone.

Last week we looked at how unique the grace of Christianity is.  But you and I could be offered all of the blessings of heaven and still not enjoy them if we don’t know how to receive them.  God delivers us from the curse and blesses us forever through faith alone in Christ alone.  “Faith Alone” (Sola Fide), according to Martin Luther, was the truth upon which the Church stands or falls.  But don’t just take his word for it: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9).