The Freedom of the Christian

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Luther's exposition on the freedom of a Christian. I think it was informative and an accurate representation of the thought process behind the Reformation. Luther gave did an excellent job of describing how works and faith relate in s Christian life. Up until Luther, works were largely emphasised as a vital part in the Christian's life. However, as Luther pointed out, works aren't the basis of our faith but the result of it. One does not perform works in order to maintain or earn their justification (right standing before God), they perform them out of a love and appreciation for Christ and His saving work on the cross. There is no need to try to earn God's love, since that was already accomplished through God's son, Jesus Christ coming to earth and dying in the place of sinners who otherwise deserved His wrath. This is how the Christian has freedom as Luther described, they are no longer in bondage to the law(rules), they no longer have to live under the crushing weight of guilt that is produced when they fail to keep the law because they realize that freedom from their sin was already accomplished for them. They now live under a grace which requires nothing more than faith. "Sola Fide" (faith alone) is one of the five foundational truths that resulted from the Reformation. Because of Luther's teaching Christians reached a whole new understanding of how works relate to faith, teachings that were very contrary to what the Roman Catholic church was teaching in that day. Not only were Luther's teaching relevant to his time period, but remain to give Christian's a greater understanding of their faith in relation to works.

The Reformation

What was the main cause driving the Reformation? This question was briefly discussed in the text, but is a question that still can lead to many possible answers. It seems to me that there is not merely one cause leading up to the Reformation, but several. One obviously main reason, probably the most central of them all is once The Bible started being interpreted by individuals instead of the church, there was found to be many inconsistencies in the way the Catholic church interpreted it. For instances, the church at the time, taught that the pope was the mediator between God and men, where as Scriptures make it clear that Jesus Christ His Son was the mediator between men and God. Also, the act of justification wasn't a continual process of rituals of forgiveness as the church taught, but a once and for all act of grace by faith, where one repentance of all sin as an act of faith was satisfactory for all sin committed past, present, future. Both of these concepts pointed toward something that people were starved for; a personal relationship with God, a way for them to have a personal connection with God beyond the church. This is what Luther was inspired by, this is what led him to post his 95 thesis on the door of the The Castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. Upon examining the Bible for himself, Luther found many inconsistencies with what the Bible said and with what the church said the Bible said. Un-intentional or not, it doesn't matter, the fact of the matter was there was much mis-interpatation going on in the Catholic church. Because men such as Luther, were granted the ability and the chance to read the Bible for themselves, they were inspired to reach the conclusion that a relationship with Christ was so much more than a set of rituals, it was in fact a relationship. This concept led way to the desire for that relationship and furthermore inspired people such as Luther and Calvin to break away from the church therefore leading way to the Reformation.