Why Celebrate the Reformation?

Why Celebrate the Reformation?
We should all celebrate the Reformation and the benefits it brought that extend to today.
Each year October 31 is Reformation Day. The Lord’s Day before is known as Reformation Sunday, an opportunity for churches to remember this great event and its continued relevance.

What is Reform?
Reform or reformation means to bring back or return to the original shape (e.g. bent clay, gunk in a pipe, out of level). The Protestant Reformation was the movement that sought to restore the Roman Catholic Church—the Church of Western Europe— to the beliefs and practices of the New Testament Church.

Why Was the Reformation Needed?
Jesus had warned against the build up of man-made tradition (Mk 7:7) and sadly over time—and intermingled with good teaching—this is what happened. The Dark Ages were not called dark for no reason. A traditional perspective was offered by a Baptist in 1811,“But ere long, Christianity became wretchedly adulterated by the inventions of men,” and “At the Reformation, a happy change took place.” [1] For over 1000 years Christianity sat in darkness. The Church taught and condoned many things not in the Bible.[2] Any attempt to Reform was met with the Inquisition. The Bible, in Latin, could not be understood. The free grace of God through faith in Christ was replaced with a system of works. Atop it all was a highly centralized Papacy that controlled the knowledge of God. Without the Gospel, lives remained untouched.

By 1517 there was not an informed person in all of Europe who didn’t know Reform wasn’t in the air.
What was the Reformation?
On the Eve of All Soul’s Day (All Hallows Eve- Halloween), a German Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted 95 Thesis on the church door in Wittenburg (This was the normal way to post debates in a university town). It was timely because All Saints day was when people prayed for, offered Masses for and bought indulgences for the dead stuck in purgatory. However, Luther, had been converted shortly before by reading Ro 1:17 and had become infuriated by the practice of indulgences that robbed the poor so the Pope could build St. Peter’s in Rome. The 95 Theses posited forgiveness in Christ through repentance and faith. These were printed on the new printing press and Luther’s ideas were spread all over Europe.

His grievances didn’t stop there, and he began to write against a whole host of Catholic corruptions, preached justification by faith, published the Bible into German and reformed the German churches in various areas of teachings and practice. He became a leader in the Reformation, which was not just a protest movement but a reformation that brought about renewal—it was the greatest revival since the early Church. He was joined by many others in other countries who similarly desired to see the Church reformed but believed it was too corrupt to do from within the Roman body. The Roman Church eventually realized they had to do something and addressed some surface matters but not the deep and unbiblical traditions that had developed over centuries.

While Luther and other Reformers challenged any abuse in the Church they saw as unscriptural there were a number of doctrinal principles that stood at the heart of the Reformation.

What Principles Did the Reformation Restore?
At its heart the Reformation was about justification by faith (the material issue)— ‘How does a sinner become right with God?’; and the authority of Scripture (the formal issue)— ‘By what authority can I know God and what He expects?’

Being able to read the Bible brought light to people—knowledge of God and how to be in a right relationship with Him (just as Jesus had said, Jn 8:12 and 32). Thus, the motto of the Reformation became post tenebras lux (after the darkness, light; or, out of the darkness light).

The centre of Reformation belief came to be known as the 5 solas:
sola gratia      By grace alone
sola fide          Through Faith alone
solus Christus             In Christ alone
sola scriptura             According to Scripture alone
soli deo gloria             To God’s glory alone

We should celebrate the Reformation because through the courageous faith of many men and women, we who come after them, can read the Bible in our own language, learn of the way of salvation in the Gospel, be in a right relationship with God through faith, follow Jesus by the power of the Spirit and worship and live together in the Church the way He intended.
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And lest we think the Reformation is over, it is ongoing. Every generation must reform to be renewed because of our human tendency to create our own ideas and traditions. Hence another Reformation saying, ecclesia reformanda est (the Church is always to be reforming).
Happy Reformation Day!


[1] John Ryland, Divine Revelation (1811), 34–5.

[2] Especially in areas of Scripture, Church, Salvation, Worship and Christian Living. Examples of abuses include: The sacraments, especially penance (including indulgences) and the Mass (transubstantiation). Papal authority and worldly interests, simony, nepotism, the celibacy of priests, the ignorance and immorality of priests and people alike, justification by works vs. faith, the worship of Mary and saints, idolatry, relics and pilgrimages, purgatory, opulence vs. loving the poor (e.g. the construction of St. Peters).