500th Anniversary of the Reformation

27th September 2017

Nigel Parrott
Deacon, Park Baptist Church

October 1517 – 2017

 
I find it incredible to think only 500 years have elapsed since Martin Luther received the Spirit's awakening. When we look at the church at the time, we see that you were coincided a Christian by default, it was the law that you went to church, and you were taught “you were a dreadful sinner under judgement. That, through the church, you could earn your way to Heaven by paying of your sins by good deeds, rituals, confessions, and prayers said on your behalf (often on payment)
 
The 95 points Martin Luther pinned to the church door in Wittenberg on 31st October 1517 has been simplified by someone much more gifted than me into 5 key truths:

1. CHRIST ALONE: Salvation is not a joint effort. Jesus has done it everything to save us. It's all Him

2. GRACE ALONE: Jesus doesn't save us because of what we are like, but because of what He is like: utterly merciful

3. FAITH ALONE: We do not and cannot pay for the gift of Jesus with any goodness of our own. We simply receive Him

4. SCRIPTURE ALONE: Our supreme authority is not the pope or the church authorities, To learn these great truths we just need the Bible

5. GOD’S GLORY ALONE: All credit goes to the one who does it. And through Christ, God does it all

This year, let’s not sit idly by as Halloween is celebrated by the world around us. Let us reconfirm these truths to the world around us in the face of the devil!

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