Frohes Reformationstag!

HAPPY REFORMATION DAY!

"To the only wise God be glory for evermore through Jesus Christ! Amen." (Romans 16:27)

On Oct. 31, 1517, a young monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg, Martin Luther, nailed his 95 theses to the bulletin board on the door of the Castle Church. In this document he invited his fellow professors to a debate. The Reformation historian, Myconius, wrote that the contents spread throughout Germany in 14 days and in a month throughout all Christendom.

In challenging the indulgence traffic, Luther was convinced that the answer to the problem of sin lay in God’s Word. While preparing lectures on the Psalms and on Romans, he discovered God as his merciful Father. The key to the Scriptures was God’s promise of forgiveness, to be accepted by faith in the redemptive grace of Jesus Christ. Luther noted that we must be truly humble before God and sincerely penitent to receive God’s forgiveness. In his theses he stressed that the Gospel is the real treasure of the church, stating that we "should not rely on the treasury of indulgences, but upon the real treasury of God’s wonderful grace, the holy Gospel."

This is what the Reformation message is still all about today. To God be all glory!

(From the LCMS daily devotion found here.)