The Music of the Gospel

Like many dyed-in-the-wool Protestants, I spent most of my Christian life thinking that Christianity practically died out after the Edict of Constantine and revived miraculously when Martin Luther rediscovered the Gospel in Romans. This study program has really opened my eyes to all the activity going on in those so-called "Dark Ages" - including sound Christian movements and missions!

As we begin our lessons together from Module 3B, we are jumping right into one of the most formative periods for much of what we consider normal "church": the Reformation. Many of our "forms", including hymnals and a pulpit in the center to represent the centrality of the word, spring from the reformation period. But these things are not the heart of the Reformation.

Paul Pierson observes well that the Reformation is best characterized as a rediscovery of an essential aspect of the gospel that had been neglected: justification by faith. Certainly people believed in justification by faith between the New Testament and the Reformation -- numerous theologians and historical references reveal people of vibrant faith. But as a central doctrinal tenet of the church, justification by faith had been supplanted by a works-based theology.

Martin Luther and John Calvin, pillars of the Reformation, didn't set out to start new religious movements. Instead, they wanted to restore this truth to the Catholic Church. They wanted reform, not revolution. They got a little of both.

Let me make this clear: Martin Luther and John Calvin weren't perfect. They didn't have perfect theology and as I studied more this week of their beliefs, I saw how much I disagree with some of their writings. And yet they zeroed in on the heart of the Gospel - salvation by grace through faith, not works - and were used mightily by God. Like all my heroes, these men had feet of clay.

The Reformation restored Scripture to its rightful prominent place in Christian doctrine, and yet it remained a tool to lead us to God, not something we worship. The Reformation also restored lay leadership in churches. In fact, we can trace the emphasis on spiritual gifts to Calvin's church structure (which was based on Scripture). This structure established secret lay missionaries within the Catholic church structure in areas that remained Catholic, and within the Calvinist churches set up a system of joint church government that brought laity and clergy together, helping the church survive under persecution.

The Anabaptists were another important element of the Reformation for what we know as church today. They were part of the "radical reformation" (basically anything but Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism was considered radical). What was so radical? Merely their idea that the church should be comprised only of believers! Both Calvin and Luther had maintained the Catholic diocesan-style structure of all people in a geographic area belonging to the church. Luther's churches were state churches, and Calvin's were the morality enforcers of the state, but both included all people in the church whether believers or not. Our concept of independent churches that are filled with believers stems from the Anabaptist wing of the Reformation. Unfortunately, the Anabaptists saw themselves in complete conflict with their culture and so became separatist rather than engaging the culture with the Gospel. As a result, the church died off except for pockets here and there - most notably in the Mennonites within the US.

The Reformation is really a concise look at missiology. All of the issues we face in spreading the Gospel -- cultural, political, economic, social, theological, contextual -- were faced by the Reformers. Like us, sometimes they got it right and sometimes they didn't.

This is our heritage as 21st century believers. This imperfect, rag-tag group of men and women were used by God to start a renewal movement that changed the world. But as the beneficiaries of their efforts, we have a responsibility to keep the message intact. As Pierson observes:

Any time there is a renewal movement...there seems to be the inevitable tendency for that movement to run down, lose its vitality, maintain the forms, and lose the inner meaning....Every generation needs to re-hear the music of the gospel, when it becomes personal.

Let's keep that music alive for the generation in which God has planted us.