To You Christ is Born

Excerpted and adapted from a 1530 Christmas sermon by Martin Luther (1483-1546)

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Luke 2:11

We have all heard the story of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Luke.  This account tells us how and where Christ was born and how the angel announced the birth of the Lord and Savior to the shepherds who were minding their flocks nearby.  It tells us what in human logic is hard to believe: that this infant Jesus, who was God in the flesh, was born of a virgin.  Difficult to believe…except for those who, through faith, know him as their Lord and Savior.

This is what separates us from unbelievers: Not just knowing that we know that Christ, born of a virgin, is the Lord and Savior, but that Christ, born of a virgin, is your Lord and Savior.  When you have that personal knowledge, you are able to say in your heart, “I hear the Word that sounds from heaven and says: This child who is born of the virgin is not only his mother’s son.  I have more than the mother’s estate.  He is more mine than Mary’s, for the was born for me, for the angel said, “To you is born the Savior.”  Then you can and should say, “Amen, I thank you, dear Lord.”

It is easier to believe that Christ, born of a virgin, is the Lord and Savior for great people like Peter and Paul, but he wasn’t born for a sinner like me.  But if that is what you believe, it is not enough – unless you were to add that you have faith that he was born for you.

Filed under: Christmas, Jesus, Martin Luther, Salvation

The Disputation of Martin Luther

In 1516-17, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Roman Catholic theology stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot justify man; and that only such faith as is active in charity and good works (fides caritate formata) can justify man. These good works could be obtained by donating money to the church.

On October 31, 1517, Luther wrote to Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his “Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” which came to be known as The 95 Theses. On this day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. This Theses consisted of points for debate that

Filed under: Martin Luther, Reformation, Roman Catholic

The Reformation of the Church, pt. 2

I am pleased this week, while on vacation, to have Jeff Cavanaugh as a guest blogger on Pastor and People. Jeff is someone I have grown to appreciate not only as a theologian, thinker, and writer but also as a dear friend. I trust you will enjoy his posts and be encouraged by his words.

The Reformation of the Church, pt. 2 by Jeff Cavanaugh

The Reformation also resulted in a more biblical understanding of the pastor and his role in the church. In the Roman Catholic Church, the priest was believed to have important supernatural or magical powers, and he was a crucial part of mediating the grace of God to laymen. In the Eucharist, it was held, the priest re-sacrificed Christ by transubstantiating the elements of bread and wine into Christ’s actual body and blood. The priest was also supposed to have the power to grant absolution after hearing confession and assigning penance.

In the Reformation, the role of the priest shifted from performing the Eucharist to the preaching of God’s Word. Since Protestants no longer believed that the sacraments had salvific power, they understood that the priest couldn’t forgive sin or directly administer the grace of God the way Catholics believed he could. Rather, they understood that since salvation comes through faith alone and that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, the priest’s-now the pastor’s-most important duty was preaching the life-giving Word to the people.

This new focus on preaching meant that the standards for being a clergyman in a Reformed church were far different than those for being a priest in the Catholic Church. Though Rome may have had stricter official requirements, many Catholic priests were scarcely literate, since the mere recitation of the liturgy required little education and virtually no knowledge of the Scriptures. In contrast, to be ordained as a minister of the Word of God required thorough knowledge of the Bible and true theology, and substantial training in preaching and exegesis. Pastors were also expected to be examples of personal holiness and devotion to God, which was a stark contrast from the extreme moral degradation of the medieval Catholic clergy.

Finally, the Reformation had important implications for Protestants’ understanding of the nature of the sacraments. Whereas Rome had seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, communion, confession, marriage, holy orders, and last rites), the Reformers rejected all but baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as these were the only ones instituted by Jesus in the New Testament. Though faithful administration of these were considered to be a mark of a true church, they were no longer considered essential for salvation. God’s grace in Christ’s atonement, they understood, was applied to the believer solely through faith, not by performance of any works.

The Protestant view of the Lord’s Supper differed from the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist primarily in their rejection of transubstantiation, though Protestant views varied. Luther continued to believe in the real physical presence of Christ’s body in the elements of the supper, though he understood this to be brought about by the faith of the communicant and not by the magical powers of a priest. Calvin and Zwingli denied Christ’s physical presence in the supper, understanding that Jesus’ physical body was at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven and instead teaching that Christ was spiritually present in the Supper and that the believing communicant fed on Christ in his heart.

The Reformers also rejected Rome’s belief that baptism regenerated the individual (usually an infant) to whom it was given. Though the Anabaptists in the Radical Reformation adopted believers’ baptism immediately, they were marginalized and persecuted throughout most of Protestant Europe. The Magisterial Reformers retained belief in infant baptism and articulated a new doctrine of covenant theology that understood baptism to be the sign of covenant membership and parallel to circumcision in the Old Testament. In the seventeenth century some Reformed Protestants began to embrace believers’ baptism, and Baptists eventually became one of the three major Reformed factions in England, with the Presbyterians and episcopalian Anglicans.

These three areas-the church, the role of pastors, and the sacraments-were perhaps the most notable of the doctrinal changes of the Reformation. They were tremendously important for the way the new Protestant churches developed and how they came to understand the Christian faith. They are perfect examples of the significance of the Reformers’ recovery of the gospel of justification by faith alone, and they are a wonderful picture of how Christ works to reform and perfect His Church.

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Jeff Cavanaugh is pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Originally from central Ohio, he graduated from Patrick Henry College with a degree in Government. Before moving to Louisville, he spent some time in Washington, D.C. where he interned at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and worked for the White House handling presidential correspondence. He is a member at Third Avenue Baptist Church and hopes to pursue pastoral ministry after finishing seminary. He is married to a wonderful wife, Andrea.

Filed under: Church History, Doctrine, Guest Blogger, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Reformation, Reformed

The Reformation of the Church, pt. 1

I am pleased this week, while on vacation, to have Jeff Cavanaugh as a guest blogger on Pastor and People. Jeff is someone I have grown to appreciate not only as a theologian, thinker, and writer but also as a dear friend. I trust you will enjoy his posts and be encouraged by his words.

The Reformation of the Church, pt. 1 by Jeff Cavanaugh

The Protestant Reformation was a world-shaking event. It changed the structure of society wherever its doctrines took root, and the recovery of the Gospel which was its central focus brought millions of people out of spiritual darkness and into the light of Christ. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, which Luther called “the article by which the Church stands or falls”, was at the center of the radically different Protestant understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. Three important areas of thought were particularly affected by sola fide: the understanding of the church, the pastor and his role, and the sacraments.

First, the Reformation turned upside down the doctrine of the church. In medieval Roman Catholicism (and in the Roman church to this day), the church was understood to be the visible structure of priests, bishops, cardinals, monks, nuns, and other ordained officials who all owed allegiance to the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and the Vicar of Christ. The Nicean attributes of the church-one, holy, catholic, and apostolic-were abused by Catholic theologians foundational to the claim that Rome’s visible structure was the only true church and that salvation could only be found in obedience to Rome and her dispensation of the sacraments.

The Reformation changed all this. The Reformers came to understand that ultimately, the bride of Christ is made up not of bishops and cardinals, but of those who truly repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ. Their understanding that the Roman church was corrupt and fundamentally apostate from the Gospel was revolutionary, for it showed them that a true church was distinguished by faithfulness to the Gospel, not allegiance to the Pope.

The Reformation also began to change how the church understood its relation to the world. The Roman Catholic Church had proclaimed its sovereignty over all merely human governments, and for much of the Middle Ages it did indeed control the political life of much of Europe. After the reformation, however, the Augustinian understanding of the distinction between spiritual, heavenly power and earthly power came to be understood once more. In England and elsewhere, the situation was in fact reversed and the secular monarch was considered to be the head of the national church as well. It would be some time later that congregationalism would lead to the disestablishment of religion and the modern understanding of a separate church and state.

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Jeff Cavanaugh is pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Originally from central Ohio, he graduated from Patrick Henry College with a degree in Government. Before moving to Louisville, he spent some time in Washington, D.C. where he interned at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and worked for the White House handling presidential correspondence. He is a member at Third Avenue Baptist Church and hopes to pursue pastoral ministry after finishing seminary. He is married to a wonderful wife, Andrea.

Filed under: Church History, Doctrine, Guest Blogger, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Reformation, Reformed, The Church

One and All, Rejoice for it is Reformation Day!

On 31 October 1517, in Saxony (in what is now Germany), Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. This Theses consisted of points for debate that criticized the Church and the Pope. The most controversial points centered on the practice of selling indulgences and the Church’s policy on purgatory. Among many other things this one act helped begin the Protestant Reformation.

Luther’s spiritual predecessors were men such as John Wycliffe and John Hus. Other reformers, such as Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, soon followed Luther’s lead. Church beliefs and practices under attack by Protestant reformers included purgatory, particular judgment, devotion to Mary, the intercession of the saints, most of the sacraments, and the authority of the Pope.

These reformers are remembered today as we celebrate Reformation Day. As you remember the faithful men and women who paved the road upon which we walk I pray that our eyes would be turned to Christ, the one whom these men consistently pointed. One of Luther’s contributions to the church as a whole was his writing of hymns. From A Mighty Fortress is Our God to Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice; Luther penned many hymns that spoke of his struggle with sin, the second coming of Christ, the cross and other biblical and theological themes. I thought it would only be fitting to post one of my favorite of Luther’s hymns as we celebrate Reformation Day.

“Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice”

1. Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice,
With exultation springing,
And, with united heart and voice,
And holy rapture singing,
Proclaim the wonders God hath done,
How His right arm the victory won;
Right dearly it hath cost him.

2. Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay.
Death brooded darkly o’er me.
Sin was my torment night and day.
In sin my mother bore me.
Yea, deep and deeper still I fell.
Life had become a living hell,
So firmly sin possessed me.

3. My own good works availed me naught,
No merit they attaining.
Free will against God’s judgment fought,
Dead to all good remaining.
My fears increased till sheer despair
Left naught but death to be my share.
The pains of hell I suffered.

4. But God beheld my wretched state
Before the world’s foundation.
And, mindful of His mercies great,
He planned my soul’s salvation.
A father’s heart He turned to me,
Sought my redemption fervently.
He gave His dearest Treasure.

5. He spoke to His beloved Son:
‘Tis time to have compassion.
Then go, bright Jewel of My crown,
And bring to man salvation;
From sin and sorrow set him free.
Slay bitter death for him that he
May live with Thee forever.

6. This Son obeyed His Father’s will,
Was born of virgin mother.
And God’s good pleasure to fulfil,
He came to be my Brother.
No garb of pomp or power He wore,
A servant’s form, like mine, He bore,
To lead the devil captive.

7. To me He spake: Hold fast to Me,
I am thy Rock and Castle;
Thy ransom I Myself will be,
For thee I strive and wrestle;
For I am with thess, I am thine,
And evermore thou shalt be mine.
The foe shall not divide us.

8. The foe shall shed my precious blood,
Me of My life bereaving.
All this I suffer for thy good
Be steadfast and believing.
Life shall from death the victory win.
My innocence shall bear thy sin;
So art thou blest forever.

9. Now to My Father I depart,
The Holy Spirit sending
And heavenly wisdom to impart
My help to thee extending.
He shall in trouble comfort thee,
Teach thee to know and follow Me,
And in all truth shall guide thee.

10. What I have done and taught, teach thou,
My ways forsake thou never.
So shall My kingdom flourish now
And God be praised forever.
Take heed lest men with base alloy
The heavenly treasure should destroy.
This counsel I bequeath thee.

Written in 1523, this was Martin Luther’s First Hymn, Richard Massie, Translator.
Text Transcribed From The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, pp. 277-8.

Filed under: Hymns, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Reformation, The Church