The Reformation of the Church
The Protestant Reformation was a world-shaking event. It changed the structure of society wherever its doctrines took root, and the recovery of the Gospel which was its central focus brought millions of people out of spiritual darkness and into the light of Christ. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, which Luther called “the article by which the Church stands or falls”, was at the center of the radically different Protestant understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. Three important areas of thought were particularly affected by sola fide: the understanding of the church, the pastor and his role, and the sacraments.
First, the Reformation turned upside down the doctrine of the church. In medieval Roman Catholicism (and in the Roman church to this day), the church was understood to be the visible structure of priests, bishops, cardinals, monks, nuns, and other ordained officials who all owed allegiance to the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and the Vicar of Christ. The Nicean attributes of the church—one, holy, catholic, and apostolic—were abused by Catholic theologians foundational to the claim that Rome’s visible structure was the only true church and that salvation could only be found in obedience to Rome and her dispensation of the sacraments.
The Reformation changed all this. The Reformers came to understand that ultimately, the bride of Christ is made up not of bishops and cardinals, but of those who truly repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ. Their understanding that the Roman church was corrupt and fundamentally apostate from the Gospel was revolutionary, for it showed them that a true church was distinguished by faithfulness to the Gospel, not allegiance to the Pope.
The Reformation also began to change how the church understood its relation to the world. The Roman Catholic Church had proclaimed its sovereignty over all merely human governments, and for much of the Middle Ages it did indeed control the political life of much of Europe. After the reformation, however, the Augustinian understanding of the distinction between spiritual, heavenly power and earthly power came to be understood once more. In England and elsewhere, the situation was in fact reversed and the secular monarch was considered to be the head of the national church as well. It would be some time later that congregationalism would lead to the disestablishment of religion and the modern understanding of a separate church and state.
The Reformation also resulted in a more biblical understanding of the pastor and his role in the church. In the Roman Catholic Church, the priest was believed to have important supernatural or magical powers, and he was a crucial part of mediating the grace of God to laymen. In the Eucharist, it was held, the priest re-sacrificed Christ by transubstantiating the elements of bread and wine into Christ’s actual body and blood. The priest was also supposed to have the power to grant absolution after hearing confession and assigning penance.
In the Reformation, the role of the priest shifted from performing the Eucharist to the preaching of God’s Word. Since Protestants no longer believed that the sacraments had salvific power, they understood that the priest couldn’t forgive sin or directly administer the grace of God the way Catholics believed he could. Rather, they understood that since salvation comes through faith alone and that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, the priest’s—now the pastor’s—most important duty was preaching the life-giving Word to the people.
This new focus on preaching meant that the standards for being a clergyman in a Reformed church were far different than those for being a priest in the Catholic Church. Though Rome may have had stricter official requirements, many Catholic priests were scarcely literate, since the mere recitation of the liturgy required little education and virtually no knowledge of the Scriptures. In contrast, to be ordained as a minister of the Word of God required thorough knowledge of the Bible and true theology, and substantial training in preaching and exegesis. Pastors were also expected to be examples of personal holiness and devotion to God, which was a stark contrast from the extreme moral degradation of the medieval Catholic clergy.
Finally, the Reformation had important implications for Protestants’ understanding of the nature of the sacraments. Whereas Rome had seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, communion, confession, marriage, holy orders, and last rites), the Reformers rejected all but baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as these were the only ones instituted by Jesus in the New Testament. Though faithful administration of these were considered to be a mark of a true church, they were no longer considered essential for salvation. God’s grace in Christ’s atonement, they understood, was applied to the believer solely through faith, not by performance of any works.
The Protestant view of the Lord’s Supper differed from the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist primarily in their rejection of transubstantiation, though Protestant views varied. Luther continued to believe in the real physical presence of Christ’s body in the elements of the supper, though he understood this to be brought about by the faith of the communicant and not by the magical powers of a priest. Calvin and Zwingli denied Christ’s physical presence in the supper, understanding that Jesus’ physical body was at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven and instead teaching that Christ was spiritually present in the Supper and that the believing communicant fed on Christ in his heart.
The Reformers also rejected Rome’s belief that baptism regenerated the individual (usually an infant) to whom it was given. Though the Anabaptists in the Radical Reformation adopted believers’ baptism immediately, they were marginalized and persecuted throughout most of Protestant Europe. The Magisterial Reformers retained belief in infant baptism and articulated a new doctrine of covenant theology that understood baptism to be the sign of covenant membership and parallel to circumcision in the Old Testament. In the seventeenth century some Reformed Protestants began to embrace believers’ baptism, and Baptists eventually became one of the three major Reformed factions in England, with the Presbyterians and episcopalian Anglicans.
These three areas—the church, the role of pastors, and the sacraments—were perhaps the most notable of the doctrinal changes of the Reformation. They were tremendously important for the way the new Protestant churches developed and how they came to understand the Christian faith. They are perfect examples of the significance of the Reformers’ recovery of the gospel of justification by faith alone, and they are a wonderful picture of how Christ works to reform and perfect His Church.
First, the Reformation turned upside down the doctrine of the church. In medieval Roman Catholicism (and in the Roman church to this day), the church was understood to be the visible structure of priests, bishops, cardinals, monks, nuns, and other ordained officials who all owed allegiance to the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and the Vicar of Christ. The Nicean attributes of the church—one, holy, catholic, and apostolic—were abused by Catholic theologians foundational to the claim that Rome’s visible structure was the only true church and that salvation could only be found in obedience to Rome and her dispensation of the sacraments.
The Reformation changed all this. The Reformers came to understand that ultimately, the bride of Christ is made up not of bishops and cardinals, but of those who truly repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ. Their understanding that the Roman church was corrupt and fundamentally apostate from the Gospel was revolutionary, for it showed them that a true church was distinguished by faithfulness to the Gospel, not allegiance to the Pope.
The Reformation also began to change how the church understood its relation to the world. The Roman Catholic Church had proclaimed its sovereignty over all merely human governments, and for much of the Middle Ages it did indeed control the political life of much of Europe. After the reformation, however, the Augustinian understanding of the distinction between spiritual, heavenly power and earthly power came to be understood once more. In England and elsewhere, the situation was in fact reversed and the secular monarch was considered to be the head of the national church as well. It would be some time later that congregationalism would lead to the disestablishment of religion and the modern understanding of a separate church and state.
The Reformation also resulted in a more biblical understanding of the pastor and his role in the church. In the Roman Catholic Church, the priest was believed to have important supernatural or magical powers, and he was a crucial part of mediating the grace of God to laymen. In the Eucharist, it was held, the priest re-sacrificed Christ by transubstantiating the elements of bread and wine into Christ’s actual body and blood. The priest was also supposed to have the power to grant absolution after hearing confession and assigning penance.
In the Reformation, the role of the priest shifted from performing the Eucharist to the preaching of God’s Word. Since Protestants no longer believed that the sacraments had salvific power, they understood that the priest couldn’t forgive sin or directly administer the grace of God the way Catholics believed he could. Rather, they understood that since salvation comes through faith alone and that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, the priest’s—now the pastor’s—most important duty was preaching the life-giving Word to the people.
This new focus on preaching meant that the standards for being a clergyman in a Reformed church were far different than those for being a priest in the Catholic Church. Though Rome may have had stricter official requirements, many Catholic priests were scarcely literate, since the mere recitation of the liturgy required little education and virtually no knowledge of the Scriptures. In contrast, to be ordained as a minister of the Word of God required thorough knowledge of the Bible and true theology, and substantial training in preaching and exegesis. Pastors were also expected to be examples of personal holiness and devotion to God, which was a stark contrast from the extreme moral degradation of the medieval Catholic clergy.
Finally, the Reformation had important implications for Protestants’ understanding of the nature of the sacraments. Whereas Rome had seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, communion, confession, marriage, holy orders, and last rites), the Reformers rejected all but baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as these were the only ones instituted by Jesus in the New Testament. Though faithful administration of these were considered to be a mark of a true church, they were no longer considered essential for salvation. God’s grace in Christ’s atonement, they understood, was applied to the believer solely through faith, not by performance of any works.
The Protestant view of the Lord’s Supper differed from the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist primarily in their rejection of transubstantiation, though Protestant views varied. Luther continued to believe in the real physical presence of Christ’s body in the elements of the supper, though he understood this to be brought about by the faith of the communicant and not by the magical powers of a priest. Calvin and Zwingli denied Christ’s physical presence in the supper, understanding that Jesus’ physical body was at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven and instead teaching that Christ was spiritually present in the Supper and that the believing communicant fed on Christ in his heart.
The Reformers also rejected Rome’s belief that baptism regenerated the individual (usually an infant) to whom it was given. Though the Anabaptists in the Radical Reformation adopted believers’ baptism immediately, they were marginalized and persecuted throughout most of Protestant Europe. The Magisterial Reformers retained belief in infant baptism and articulated a new doctrine of covenant theology that understood baptism to be the sign of covenant membership and parallel to circumcision in the Old Testament. In the seventeenth century some Reformed Protestants began to embrace believers’ baptism, and Baptists eventually became one of the three major Reformed factions in England, with the Presbyterians and episcopalian Anglicans.
These three areas—the church, the role of pastors, and the sacraments—were perhaps the most notable of the doctrinal changes of the Reformation. They were tremendously important for the way the new Protestant churches developed and how they came to understand the Christian faith. They are perfect examples of the significance of the Reformers’ recovery of the gospel of justification by faith alone, and they are a wonderful picture of how Christ works to reform and perfect His Church.
posted by Jeff at 11:22 AM
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