Happy Reformation Day!

Maybe that’s not the holiday you were thinking of, or even one you’ve heard of, so let me explain a little bit.

Reformation Day involves a German monk named Martin Luther, a church door in Germany, some paper, a hammer and a nail.

If you still have no idea what I’m talking about, that’s okay. I’ll be honest, as someone who grew up in the Church and was even a pastor’s kid, I didn’t know anything about Reformation Day for quite some time. In fact, the first time I heard someone mention “Martin Luther,” I honestly thought he forgot the rest of his name and left off the “King Jr.” part, thinking he was referring to Martin Luther King Jr.

If you’re not familiar with all that took place on the first Reformation Day, I highly recommend you look into it. 

Much has been written about that day, but just so we’re on the same page, here’s a crash course on what happened and why.

Martin Luther was a monk in the Catholic Church in the early 16th century. On October 31, 1517, he nailed a document known as the Ninety-Five Theses to the church door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Though today nailing something to a church door would be considered vandalism (especially since many church doors are made of glass), this was not uncommon in Luther’s day. All Saints’ Church was located at the University of Wittenberg, and university staff would often nail announcements and messages to the church door. While this act in and of itself wasn’t unusual, what Martin Luther nailed to the church door was. His Ninety-Five Theses were essentially a list of areas where he saw the Church needing reform. It’s from this idea that we get the term “Reformation.”

One of Luther’s chief issues was the sale of what were known as indulgences. Essentially, an indulgence was something someone could buy to have their sins forgiven, or at least lessen the punishment for those sins.

For Luther, it came down to a simple question: how are we saved from our sins? Luther saw that Scripture taught that salvation was a gift from God—it cannot be earned, bought or paid for. While studying the book of Romans, Luther was struck by a simple truth: we are not saved by what we do, but by faith in Jesus Christ alone. As Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In Luther’s own words, “We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds, but having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds.”

Luther saw that because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, believers in Jesus are free from the penalty of sin. To again quote from Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Again quoting Luther, this time from Thesis 36 of his Ninety-Five Theses: “Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters.”

Salvation isn’t something we can purchase—it is something that Jesus purchased for us with His life.

As I said, if this is a new topic for you, take some time to learn more about the Reformation and all that surrounded that fateful October 31 in 1517. This is not meant to be an exhaustive retelling of its origins.

Here’s what I do want to point out: it’s easy for us to look at people like Martin Luther and create two categories—superheroes of the faith and then normies like the rest of us. We can do the same with biblical figures like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Mary and the disciples of Jesus, thinking they were on a different level than we could ever be. That’s not true. They were all human, just like we are, and they all had a role in the kingdom of Jesus, just like we do.

God often uses spokespeople, but there are also always additional faithful individuals who contribute to whatever He’s doing.

In the case of Martin Luther and Reformation Day, we look at this day as the start of the Protestant Reformation, but truthfully, there was a lot that led up to this moment.

Individuals like John Wycliffe were calling for Church reform over 100 years before Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses.

In 1415, 102 years before Luther and the Wittenberg door, Jan Hus was burned at the stake for heresy. One of the main things he spoke out against? Indulgences.

In 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press. One of the main reasons Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses spread so widely was because they could be quickly reproduced with this invention. Before the printing press, it would have been impossible to mass-produce such a document so quickly.

My point is this: 

Reformation Day is indeed a day to be celebrated, but not just for one man’s faith and heroism. It’s a day to celebrate a work of God over a long period of time—and to recognize that God is not done working in and through humanity.

If you are in Christ, you have a role to play in the kingdom of God.

How do I know? Because the Bible is clear. We are not saved by the things we do—but if we are saved, we have things to do. Ephesians 2:8–10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

On this Reformation Day we can and should celebrate:

• Celebrate that we are saved by grace.
• Celebrate that grace is a gift.
• Celebrate that we don’t have to earn salvation.
• Celebrate that we are made new in Christ Jesus.
• Celebrate that God prepares good works for us to do.
• Celebrate those who have gone before us in the faith, and those who will come after us.

Whether the concept of Reformation Day is new to you or something familiar, I encourage you to stop for a moment today and recognize all that we have to celebrate.

At the next door you walk through, pause to remember those like Martin Luther who boldly called for reform. Take some time today to remember the core truths of the Gospel—that you are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone.

That is something worth celebrating!