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Reformation
One scene from the original black and white Martin Luther film remains vivid in my childhood memory. In it, Luther discovers one of his parishioners lying drunk in a gutter on a dark street. He begins a conversation with the man, telling him that he will see him in the confessional.
"I don't need no con--fession…" the grinning man replies in a slurred voice, pulling a piece of paper out of his shirt. Luther takes and reads what's on the page.
"Where did you get this?"
The man waves his arm, "I got it across the river." (My little brothers took great delight acting out this scene repeatedly in the weeks and months following the viewing of this movie.)
And so, Luther confronted the sale of "Indulgences" from Johann Tetzel, the friar and Grand Commissioner for indulgences in Germany, thus igniting the Protestant Reformation.
While Luther challenged the practice of the church of his day in granting remission of punishment for sin in exchange for money, some such ideas have a long life. I'm sure if we were interviewing people on the street we could easily find those who trust in their own goodness to save them. Rather like the rich young ruler who claimed "all these have I kept from my youth," we've been tempted to trust in our own self-righteousness. But, also like the same young man, we are uncomfortable, still asking with him, "What must I do to be saved?"
Whether we like it or not, whether or not we deny we're sinners, or we recognize and accept the weight of evidence of what in fact we are, guilt shadows our footsteps. Ashamed, not wanting to be exposed, we can try to hide or, on the other hand, we can confess our situation, make excuses and continue as before.
From denial to recognition and acknowledgment and on to confession moves us in the right direction. But, it doesn't stop there. Perhaps "getting that off my chest" brings relief, like entering Luther's confessional and waiting for the assigned duties to try and overcome the besetting sins. But, confession, alone, in many religions, is simply the acknowledgment of one's sinfulness or wrong doing. It can leave the individual with a sense of "cheap grace," in the words of Bonhoeffer: "cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance… Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
I recall the words of a campus pastor that have stayed with me for decades: "Jesus didn't die to leave us in sin; He died to deliver us from sin!" When the Word that prompts confession leads us to repentance, forsaking the sin that so easily besets us, in effect turning us around from our own way to Jesus' way, we experience His regeneration work in us. By the power of His Holy Spirit we encounter our own personal Reformation, "baptized with fire."
In contrast to cheap grace:
costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." --The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
…[D]o you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? –Romans 2:4
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire…." –Matthew 3:11
--Edy T Johnson--
Copyright 2015 Edy T Johnson
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