Yesterday many churches observed the Reformation. Its heritage is priceless, salvation by grace alone, not by works, including religious works, and that grace is received through faith. But observing Reformation as a celebration leaves me uneasy. Remember the two men who went to the temple to pray? One, prominent in worship, essentially says, “I thank Thee, God, that my life of faith is better than others.” Some ways of believing are in fact better than others, but “let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31, citing Jeremiah 9:24).
Martin Luther put it this way: “The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God.” You lead a faithful religious life? Be humbled by your innate sinfulness; be awed that God nevertheless saves you. Keep your place. Your place is “pious fear of God.” “If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed…not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:17-19).
Whenever I’m preaching at a church or leading worship in Concordia Seminary’s Chapel, I’m up front by necessity. Up front is a dangerous place to be. I pray my heart will be in the back, and your heart there too. “The tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Only those does God pronounce justified (Luke 18:9-14). Celebrate Reformation? Only “out of pious fear of God.”
“Thy works, not mine, O Christ, speak gladness to this heart;
They tell me all is done, hey bid my fear depart,
To whom save Thee, Who canst alone for sin atone, Lord, shall I flee?”
(Lutheran Service Book, 565, 1)
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