Sermon 10-27-24

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Reformation Sunday

Trouble In Augsburg

A combination of bad theology, bad practice, spiritual manipulation, spiritual abuse, political ambition and the need for resources to build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome led an obscure German priest, monk, pastor and doctor of theology to post 95 theses on the church door of Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. At the time, that’s what a scholar did to challenge other scholars to a debate. A thesis is a statement of truth that a scholar is willing to defend in debate.

Luther’s challenge probably would have been a nothing-burger. However, someone saw the theses, thought they were right on target, ripped them off the door and brought them to the nearest printer. The printing press had been invented in 1440 and was making a huge difference in how information was being distributed all over Europe. And that’s precisely what happened. Martin Luther was that obscure German theologian. Via the printing press he was destined to become world famous, even to this day.

Luther got much more than a debate. For his troubles, the Roman Church eventually made him public enemy number one. However, in Germany, many people responded to his writings. For, Luther was a prolific writer. It was estimated that he turned out a new written work about every two weeks. All of it was spread by the printing press.

Germany didn’t become the nation we know today until 1871 when all the states of Germany were united under Otto von Bismarck. In the 1500’s, the present German states were loosely united in a political state known as the Holy Roman Empire. During Luther’s lifetime, the emperor was King Charles V of Spain.

Now, Luther’s writings not only became popular among scholars. Common people who could read responded positively. And, the princes of Germany were very impressed. In the Europe of that time, the prince of a land was a leading person in the church. If the prince went Lutheran, all the churches in his land would go Lutheran. And that’s what happened. These princes were also very devout Christian rulers. And when they held fast to the true Gospel as set forth by Saint Paul, they held fast — even against threats by Charles V.

Now, the empire, as well as the countries on the eastern side of Europe were under constant threat of Muslim invasion. The first Muslim siege of Vienna occurred in 1529. For this reason, having a strong military to oppose the Muslims was a necessity for Charles. He needed all the states of Germany to contribute troops for the defense.

Like the German princes, Charles was also a very devout Christian. Only he stayed on the side of the Roman Church. Political, religious and military unity was very important to Charles. Therefore, to attain unity, he called for an Imperial Diet (or congress) in the city of Augsburg, Germany and called upon the Lutheran princes to explain their deviation from Rome.

The Lutheran princes asked their theologians to put together a confession of faith that they would present to Charles explaining their position on theological matters. This document was written in both Latin and German. The Lutheran princes insisted that the document be read out loud to the emperor, and they had their way. So on June 25th, 1530 the Augsburg Confession was presented to the emperor. The local townspeople were eager to hear this document. But Charles tried to keep it out of their hearing by having it read in a small chapel, instead of the normal large meeting hall. However, the reader read it so loudly in German that it could be heard even outside. So there, emperor!

The confession consists of 28 articles. The first three proclaim standard Christian doctrine on The Nature of God; Original Sin; and the Son of God. These were basically accepted by Rome. The fourth article was where the trouble began — Justification. The Roman Church and the Evangelical Catholic Church — Lutheran — have two very different understandings of our Justification before God. Article Five describes The Ministry of the Church. Article Six defines the New Obedience of righteousness that we have as Christians. Article Seven defines the Church. Article Eight speaks of what the Church is. Article Nine defines Baptism. And Article Ten defines Holy Communion.

Article Eleven defines Confessing of Sin and Absolution. Article Twelve defines what real Repentance is. Article Thirteen describes how the Sacraments are to be used. Article Fourteen describes the right Ecclesiastical Order — Government — to be used in the Church. Article Fifteen defines the type and nature of the Rites to be used in the life of the Church. For instance, the rite of confirmation. Article Sixteen defines the Church’s relationship with the Civil Affairs of Government. Article Seventeen defines a correct understanding of Christ’s Return to Judge the World. Article Eighteen defines the role of Human Will in salvation and the Christian life. Article Nineteen describes the Cause of Sin. Article Twenty describes the relationship between Faith and Good Works. Article Twenty-One prohibits Worship of the Saints. Article Twenty-Two gives the reasons why both Bread And Wine should be administered to the laity in the Lord’s Supper. Article Twenty-Three gives the reasons why Clergy Should Be Allowed to Marry. Article Twenty-Four describes how the Mass is used by Lutherans. Article Twenty-Five further describes Confession of Sins. Article Twenty-Six speaks about the correct way to understand Fasting and/or Abstaining From Certain Foods. It rejects the Roman understanding that not eating certain foods can aid in our justification before God. Article Twenty-Seven disputes that taking Monastic Vows can in any way contribute to our justification before God. Article Twenty-Eight disputes the power of Bishops and the Pope in both the Church and society. All the articles are drawn from and are based on what Scripture actually teaches about all these things. The Augsburg Confession ends with the signatures of the German princes involved, and the leaders of various cities.

At the Diet in Augsburg, the Roman theologians quickly put together a document to dispute the Augsburg Confession. It’s called the Pontifical Confutation of the Augsburg Confession. Luther’s right hand man, Philip Melanchthon then wrote a lengthy and thorough response to the Confutation that’s called The Apology the Augsburg Confession. Here the word, Apology, means defense. So we should understand it as The Defense of the Augsburg Confession.

The emperor rejected the Augsburg Confession. As far as we know, he read the Confutation and accepted that. As far as we know, the emperor received the Apology, but never read it and never accepted it. So the result was that the impasse remained and there would be further conflict — even war. It wasn’t until 1556-57 that Lutheranism was officially tolerated in the Holy Roman Empire.

In my opinion, the stubbornness of Rome is responsible for the breakup of the Church. Scripture is very clear about our Justification before God. While a misreading of the Epistle of James can cause controversy about the role of Good Works in the life of a Christian, when it is properly interpreted and synchronized with the rest of Scripture, the role of Good Works is clear. Good Works do not play a role in our Justification. The value and use of the Sacraments is also quite clear from Scripture. Now, while the Mass is of human origin, its use by the Evangelical Catholic Churches complies with the various verses of the New Testament that speak about good order in the Church. But Scripture is clear about the role of the Mass concerning Justification. Merely attending Mass can’t bring us to heaven. Merely not attending a Mass can’t send us to hell.

In the Evangelical Catholic (Lutheran) Church there is a motto called the three Solas. Sola is a latin word meaning alone.  So there are three “alones”: Grace Alone; Faith Alone; and Scripture Alone.

Grace Alone: Grace means gift or mercy. Scripture is entirely clear that we are saved from our sins by Yahweh’s mercy alone. Forgiveness of sins from Yahweh comes entirely from Yahweh alone. Scripture is clear. We cannot earn any forgiveness from Yahweh by any actions on our part. There is no obedience of the Law that we can present to Yahweh as evidence of our worthiness for forgiveness. Yahweh has accomplished forgiveness of our sins in Messiah Jesus alone. Period.

Here’s a sampling of what Scripture says about the matter.

Exodus 33:19, “And he [Yahweh] said [to Moses], ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name “The LORD.” And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.’”

Romans 9:15-16, “15 For he [Yahweh] says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”

Galatians 2:15-16,   “15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

Galatians 5:21, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

Romans 8:3, “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.” (NIV, 1978)

If there were any way we could participate in our own salvation from sin, then salvation wouldn’t be God’s work alone. It wouldn’t be God’s mercy alone. But that contradicts what Scripture teaches. Our salvation from sin does not depend on human will or exertion in any way. It depends on God alone, who shows us His great and everlasting mercy.

Faith Alone:  Because our salvation from sin, death and the devil depends entirely on the work of Messiah Jesus alone, the only way to receive any benefit from the work of Messiah is to believe that Jesus succeeded in His work and has applied His work to us. This is what is meant by faith alone.

On the other hand, faith that any righteous works or living on our part can help us gain salvation from sin is entirely misplaced faith. “I’m a good person” will in no way help anyone before the throne of Judgment. For, before the throne, you will be shown what a rebellious and sinful thing you really are. But it will be too late then. It’s better to know here and now what sinful and rebellious things we are. For, only here and now can we repent of sin, be forgiven and justified before God.

As I’ve explained many times before, all our troubles come from the Garden of Eden. As creatures of the only righteous, holy and living God, we were not meant to be our own gods, defining good and evil for ourselves and then acting upon our definitions. But that’s what changed when Adam and Eve sinned. As a result, you and I have no choice about being our own gods. We can’t help it, and we can’t escape it. And that alone causes us to live under Yahweh’s condemnation.

Now, Yahweh has given us His Law — His righteous commandments — His definitions of good and evil. We are to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. But as we saw above in Romans 8:3, our sinful nature is stronger than Yahweh’s commandments. So we disobey.

Let’s get real. Do you really love Yahweh so much that you follow Jesus in everything you think and do? No? Well, then you are worthy of eternal condemnation to the place where you can be your own god forever.

And if you don’t like it here when people play god, just wait. You haven’t seen anything. What’s more, you’ll be amazed at the power of your own god playing in that place. Eternal existence will all be zero righteousness, along with godlessness raised to the trillionth power.

So, being our own gods, we’re all doomed. That is unless one more powerful than the sinful nature comes to save the day. The Good News is that superman has come. He goes around in disguise as a lowly carpenter from Nazareth.

Conceived and born in an highly unusual way, Jesus came into this world mortal like us, but without a sinful nature. He was born in the same righteousness and perfection that the original Adam had when he was first created. Adam fell after only being tempted once. On the other hand, Jesus was tempted multiple times. Being the Son of God, Jesus had the right to be Messiah on His own terms. And that’s precisely what the devil tempted Jesus to do  in each temptation. But Jesus faithfully stuck with the plan for Messiah outlined in Moses and the Prophets. As we read in Isaiah 53:5-6, “5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Because Jesus stuck with the plan — even to His death as a disgraced criminal on a cross — we read in Philippians 2:9-10, “9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” So, the crucified carpenter is really the Holy One after all. He can save you and I from the very real eternal doom of Original Sin and all our personal sins. 

Amazing! If you can believe it, that is. And that’s where faith comes in. Only those given the grace to believe the truth about the carpenter who is Truth incarnate will be saved. On the other hand, all scoffers will find their home in the place where complete evil and godlessness will reign in their hearts forever.

And this faith must be pure. All those who put any faith in whatever they style as their own righteous living or righteous actions will be condemned. For they have denied God’s complete and perfect work in Jesus. All those who mix faith in Jesus with faith in whatever they style as their own righteous living or righteous actions also will be condemned. For they, likewise, have denied the completeness of God’s work in Jesus. Therefore, ask for a pure faith that believes the Truth.

Oh. And pure faith moves on from receiving forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Jesus Christ. It moves on to real righteous living and righteous acts in Jesus Christ. So, by faith, the world of the believer is changed. Even the world the believer lives in is changed on account of the believer.

Here are a few sample texts about this matter.

Genesis 15:6, “And he [Abraham] believed the LORD, and he [The LORD] counted it to him as righteousness.”

And the following are the verses that convinced Luther:

Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,⁵ as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

Scripture Alone: Luther and other Reformers made the argument that Christianity, the Church and personal faith rest upon Scripture — the Word of God — alone. The Roman Church continues to argue that human tradition is just as important, if not more important. The Roman Church also continues to argue that the authority of Bishops and the Pope is as great as Scripture, especially the authority of the Pope. Luther argued that Church leaders and even Church Councils have made mistakes. However, there are no mistakes in Scripture.

Here’s some Scriptures that prove the point.

There’s a statement of Jesus in John 10:35 that says, “Scripture cannot be broken.”

2Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. . . .”

2 Peter 1:20-21, “20 . . . no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Unfortunately, Reformation Day is not a day of Church unity. It’s a day of division.  But truth and error cannot function alongside one another. In this Evangelical Catholic congregation we’re committed to the historic faith of the saints. Through the Augsburg Confession and the other Lutheran Confessions we’re kept free of the erroneous teaching and practice that had crept into the Church of Luther’s time. Through the same Confessions, we’re also kept free from the erroneous teaching and practice that has crept into the Church in the present time. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV unless otherwise noted.