Dear Cornerstone Family,
On June 15, 1520, Pope Leo X issued a papal bull of which the Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, was the subject. Citing Luther with 41 instances of doctrinal deviation, Luther was given sixty days to recant or further action would be taken. Luther wasted no time publishing his answer. He promptly lit a match and burned the papal bull.
Surprise, surprise Luther’s in-your-face rejection of the papal bull wasn’t received kindly. In January of 1521, Pope Leo responded to Luther with an edict of excommunication. And just like that, Luther was no longer a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
It’s difficult for modern Christians to grasp the gravity of this action. In the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church wasn’t just a church among churches. It was the church. There were no other branches of the church for Luther to join. To be cut off from the Roman Catholic Church was to be cut off from the church. Period. End of story.
Or was it?
Luther responded to the Pope’s excommunication with an excommunication of his own. Luther argued that Rome’s rejection of justification by faith alone—“the article by which the church stands or falls”—was proof enough that Rome could no longer be regarded as a true church. To support this claim, Luther returned to the Bible’s doctrine of the church. Luther argued that the true church does not consist in its history or in its institutional structures. Rather, the true church is found wherever the true gospel is preached. “The sure mark by which the Christian congregation can be recognized is that the pure gospel is preached there. For just as the banner of an army is the sure sign by which one can know what kind of lord and army has taken the field, so too the gospel is the sure sign by which one knows where Christ and his army are encamped” (Luther’s Works, 41:231-232).
Summarizing the Protestant Reformation’s teaching on the church, Michael Reeves and Tim Chester write, “It was not the Reformers who had departed from the true church. It was Rome that had departed from the true gospel…The church is the universal body of people on earth and in heaven who have been formed by the gospel. You are not saved by being a part of the church. You are a part of the church by being saved.” (Why the Reformation Still Matters, p. 164-165).
In worship today, we join with thousands of churches across the world remembering and giving thanks for the truth of the gospel recovered during the Protestant Reformation. At the same time, we recognize the work of reformation is not done, for even the purest churches today are “subject to mixture and error” (Westminster Confession of Faith, 25.5). Therefore, in humility, we labor in hope for the continued reformation—for the peace, purity, and progress—of the church. Until Christ returns and a yet more glorious day dawns (Philippians 1:6).
Your servant,
