The Preaching of the Reformation

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First we will briefly cover what the Reformation was all about and what sparked it, and then we will get into what fanned the flames, which was the preaching.

Condensed, the Reformation was a rediscovery of Christ where that light had been put out. What put it out is what we need to look at. There were a lot of theological, cultural, and political things that contributed to the extinguishing of this light, but at the center of all of those was the Roman Catholic Church.

In the early centuries of the church it was ruled by a plurality of councils and bishops. By the 400s and 500s, this power began to consolidate in Rome. Throughout the Middle Ages it grew more and more into a hierarchy giving the power to a few, eventually into one office---the pope.

In addition, culturally and within the Roman church there was a decline in learning. The church came to see learning as a threat to its authority. Illiteracy reigned on the eve of the Reformation. The Medieval Roman Catholicism suffered from a theological decline, departing from the authority of Scripture. It was a theological problem that could only be dealt with by a theological cure. Thus the solas. Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, to God alone be the glory. This is the theological knife with which they incised the theological disease.

The Bible in the church had been obscured in the Roman church by centuries of elevating tradition and the papal office as the church's guides. The only Scripture it consulted was Jerome's Latin Vulgate. It was Erasmus who published a Greek text alongside the Latin in 1516. It was through the reading of this text that Luther, alongside his reading of the Bible, was led away from the traditions that were obscuring the gospel. It was a year after the Greek text was given that he nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg.

Though there is much more to be said about what led to the Reformation and the Reformation itself, with this limited but pertinent background we can now turn our attention to the preaching of the Reformation in Part 2.

 

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The Preaching of the Reformation Part 2

It must be noted here that preaching from the word of God had all but left the pulpit in the RCC. It was all tradition with the means of salvation being the RCC and their traditions. What scripture was read was done so in Latin and never expounded on. Only RCC traditions and obedience to the dictates of the pope were salvific. Any opposition to those dictates or teachings was met with tyrannical imprisonment or death. So it was with great peril to their own lives that Reformers boldly and publically began to preach from the word of God, from Scripture. This raising up by God of these men is not unlike the zeal of Ezra when he returned to Jerusalem from Babylon.

What these preachers began doing was to bring the light of Christ to the people who were lost in darkness as to who Christ is and what he did. They did it by systematically preaching through books of the Bible, building one doctrine upon another, expounding doctrinally and most of all theologically, on each passage, connecting them all to this Light. There is no other authority on truth and salvation than the very words of God, they said. They declared loudly and boldly the gospel that Jesus alone saves by his work. It is by grace alone, and through faith alone, and for God's glory alone. They knew that the only way a person can know who Christ is and believe is if the hear it. Though they believed in the doctrines of grace, they did not concern themselves with that in their preaching. Their job was the speaking of the gospel. The hearing and understanding was up to God.

They did not preach from a lofty, intellectual and superior way, monotone and ceremony. They were enthusiastic and spoke as one those they preached to, using the pronouns "we" and "us". They believed and understood what they preached. They opened the pages of the Bible to those walking in darkness. Reformation preaching was the fuel of the Reformation. It was the light of Christ returning to his church.

The Reformation began in an attempt to reform the RCC from the evil of their ways and bring them back to the authority of Scripture. Instead they were excommunicated (another position of authority the pope took--to speak for God in condemning persons to hell for violating their authority and also something that struck fear in the people because they had no way of knowing it was not true. A very successful way to keep people under your thumb. It still works today as they still make that claim). And so it became a Protestant Reformation.

Sad but true, in today's modern church this type of preaching has all but vanished. Sermons are based on a single scripture or set of passages and interpreted outside of any traditional doctrine. Expositional and systematic preaching within the bounds of sound doctrine, is a rare jewel. Though in many cases when it comes to salvation they keep Christ at the center and his work as the way, which is good, the theology behind that is neglected for more "interesting" things.

The Reformers preached on grace, faith, justification, atonement, propitiation, substitution, etc. not just by mention, but by looking deeply into them from Scripture itself. In doing so, they were able to set a strong foundation beneath the people, the very same foundation that the apostles laid. WIthout that, the people do not have the tools to grow and learn from their own reading of the Bible, and the ground they stand on is vulnerable to being shifted by every wind of doctrine that blows upon them.

 

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They knew that the only way a person can know who Christ is and believe is if the hear it. Though they believed in the doctrines of grace, they did not concern themselves with that in their preaching. Their job was the speaking of the gospel. The hearing and understanding was up to God.

I would make an amendment here. They did concern themselves with the doctrines of grace---it was everything, as it laid a solid foundation. What I mean is those doctrines, as well as all others, were built on the doctrine of God. When preaching in a systematic and expositional way, this flows naturally out of it. What I meant was they did not start there or focus there when preaching the gospel. When preaching the gospel, it was all about who he is and what he did , and how and why he did it. It covered all aspects of the atonement. Substitution, ransom, justice and justification, faith. In other words, they did not skim over it by simply saying the words.

In this way, conversions were based on actual belief, not a response to an invitation to invite Christ into one's life. Or to acquiesce (consent passively without protest.)

For a long time, this was the norm. The church used to be the center of small communities. Children heard this preaching and grew up under it. They either believed or they didn't believe, and that was God's doing. The church's that came out of the Reformation were mostly confessional, and these confessions were taught and at an appropriate age, if someone wanted to become a member of the church, they were tested with catechisms to see if they understood the doctrines of Christianity.

A whole different story today. It is no wonder that we see all the different divides in the church, with those veering off the traditional doctrinal foundation of the apostles unable to support what they profess with any but isolated scriptures used in contradiction to other scriptures.