Repeating the Mistakes of the Past

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

(Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV)

October 31^st of this year marks the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation. It was 500 years ago, on this day, that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. He did so to open up debate on some abuses that were taking place within the Catholic Church.

One of the main abuses he protested was the selling of indulgences. It was taught that, because of the faithfulness of the apostles and the saints, there was a storehouse of grace available to the people. And they were able to access this grace through the purchase of an indulgence.

The people paid money to receive an indulgence for themselves or for a loved one. And, in this way, it was taught that their time in purgatory would be lessened. A particular phrase, circulating at the time, provoked Luther. It said: “When the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”

As we read this today, it sounds like an interesting tidbit from history. However, it hardly seems applicable to us today. After all, most of us realize that the concept of purgatory is not found in the Bible. We’re also very familiar with the teaching of Scripture, seen above, which assures us that salvation is a free gift, a gift of grace, given to us by God.

We are not saved by the things that we do. And this is true not only of us. It’s true also of the apostles. This tells us that there is no storehouse of grace earned by them or by anyone that is available to us.

It also tells us that grace cannot be purchased. The only grace that is available to us is that which is received through faith in Christ. It is a gift of God, given to us. And, for this reason, we have no cause to boast in ourselves.

However, even though most of us possess this knowledge, we are often guilty of the same abuse protested by Luther. Even if we can explain the gospel accurately, we continue to think that we’ll be saved by our own actions. We tend to think that God’s grace is available to us by the things we do.

We sometimes think that we’ll be saved by the actions of others. Perhaps we realize that our actions are not enough. But we look to our parents, who were godly examples and who did all that they could to raise us in faith. We look to our grandmother, who’s prayed for us from the day we were born. And we think that, because of their faith, because of their efforts to pass the faith on to us, we’ll be saved.

We must understand, from the Word of God, that no one is good. We must understand that no one will be saved because of the things they have done. And, in the same way, we must understand that the efforts of others are unable to accomplish our salvation.

Salvation is found in Christ alone. We receive his salvation through grace alone. And we receive his grace through faith alone.