Martin
Luther made a significant contribution to the reformation. He is
usually credited with starting the reforms within the church but God
used several people to bring about significant changes. These
changes would divide the church for over four hundred years. Holt
describes this as: “Northern Europe broke away from the South and
East in a wrenching struggle that was to divide Europe for more than
four hundred years."
Divisions were strong and at times bloody. The results brought about
change that re-established a clear path for spiritual formation and
restored relationship with God.
Luther realized the problem of the church was spiritual and that
this problem was keeping people from knowing God and experiencing
spiritual formation. “He understood for the first time that God's
righteousness was a free gift, not a human achievement”
Luther never wanted to forsake the Catholic church or establish a new
denomination. Luther truly sought to bring about change and reform.
Luther's understanding was, “that the people are justified (made
right with God) by grace through faith.”
Through his understanding and the use of this knowledge as a guide
and rule, Luther examined basic truths through this new lens of
un-merited favor (grace) from God.
I find it interesting how as the ages of time pass
through church history, we see this reoccurring need to see the
church called back to a piety of holiness for God. In our previous
chapters there is a reoccurring fragmentation of commitment on the
part of believers. The culture seems to embrace the church beliefs,
but over time the next generations reduce commitments to God. The
idea that the church and it's zeal belonged to the past generation
was commonly accepted.
Luther
calls the people to a new zeal in that “the gospel has set us free
from sin, death, and Satan and that it also sets us free to serve our
neighbors.”
This teaching is revolutionary to Luther's time. Yet in past eras,
some of the same teachings exist, including the proclamation of the
Gospel and sacrifical service as a means of development in a person's
walk with Christ. Holt notes: “It is in his Large Catechism that
Luther sets out one of his most basic spiritual teachings that the
Christian life is a daily baptism, a daily dying and rising with
Christ in repentance and forgiveness.”
It is a believers quest to be completely and totally immersed in
Jesus Christ. The renewal call is resonate of the Jesus Prayer and
that of Augustine. No doubt, Luther would have been influenced by
these and many others writers of the past. It interesting that the
church as a whole had forgotten or neglected to apply past
experience. This could be why the saying, “those who do not know
history are destined to repeat it.”
In
addition, Luther and Zwingli had a major disagreement over the Lord's
supper. Both men are seeking reform for the church they love, and
both are seeking an increase in spirituality. One would assume that a
sacrament of remembering Christ and the proclamation of the Lord's
Death would be a matter of unity. Surprisingly, the sacrament would
be the source of division between the two reformation leaders.
Zwingli brings importance to overcoming the human ignorance by
teaching the bible. Holt notes that Zwingli addressed the “aesthetic,
sacramental, and mystical dimensions of the Catholic tradition were
put aside for the sake of a Bible-based rationalism, which was to
affect many parts of the Reformed tradition.”
Luther did not seek to break away from the Catholic church, whereas
Zwingli was committed to reform and to the scriptures even if the
break from the Church universal was necessary. Therefore, a
difference in philosophy will lead in a break of unity, even over
sacraments such as the Lord Supper.
John
Calvin is a mystery to me. His teaching on predestination are
offensive and are usually the most misunderstood. Yet many will hold
to these teachings higher than the Scriptures themselves. Holt
describes Calvin as: “The starting point for Calvin's spirituality
was not predestination but the mystical union of the believer with
Christ.”7
It is in this point that I would embrace Calvin's teachings. Holt
also notes that Calvin “asserted that we are saved not by works but
for them.”8
In both of these teachings there is opportunity for Spiritual
formation. How amazing that we consistently allow the enemy to twist
and manipulate so as to bring confusion and chaos on even the most
sincere teachings.
Ignatius
of Loyola is becoming a favorite of the classic individuals for
spiritual formation. His ideas of embracing the disciplines of the
faith while allowing imagination and artistic creativity to enhance
one's discernment from God is effective. He was a reformer for the
pilgrimage to actual locations for spiritual formation. Ignatius was
also a leader. He desires for people of the church to experience God.
He wrote the Spiritual
Exercises
and encouraged the use of a spiritual director. Holt states: “The
paradoxical feature of the Exercises is their appeal to the
affections and emotions to accomplish their purpose, while remaining
very rational.”9
These exercises and a noble attention to purity creates in a believer
a clear leading of the Holy Spirit for how to follow Jesus.
The reformation era was a a tumultuous time for the
church. Yet, the people of God grew and the numbers of Christ-like
followers flourished through the dedication to God's revelation and
to God's truth. The commitment of the body of believers was rekindled
from desperate mediocrity. The hostilities of change would separate
the differences of the Catholic and Protestant faiths for 400 years.
Looking through the lens of history, we see a truth in piety that
encourages every generation that follows. The division was great, yet
God uses both, Catholic and Protestant to a renewed relationship with
Him.
It is a reminder to remain faithful in Christ in all we do. You know I love ya, Don
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