As big a concept as “The Reformation” may sound, it really boils down to just a simple thing, which is those back in history who had personally experienced God’s grace and wanted to share it with others!
Those reformers back in the Medieval Period who experienced this amazing grace saw that it was the central theme of the New Testament. They thus wanted others to know the truth but instead were met with resistance, a stubborn refusal to listen, and persecution.
Grace is inherently free: its meaning in the Bible is “unmerited favor”. This grace is given freely to us simply through faith in Christ and not by any works or any performance of our own:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)
“My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:40) (There is a long list of Scriptures like this, which speak of God’s grace and mercy which we have compiled. You can have a free booklet of them sent to you by emailing us at info@graceworldmission.org).
Instead of receiving that grace themselves, stubborn adherence to dead traditions and rituals that garnered lucrative donations kept the institutional Church from listening and caused them to reject the truth.
Jesus and the Pharisees
This is a story that goes all the way back to Jesus and the Pharisees: Christ appears on the scene fulfilling prophecy after prophecy to demonstrate who He is. He first speaks the truth in love, many receive His message and mercy, but the Pharisees—who are the religious leaders of that time—are so entrenched in their traditions and rituals that they attack Him instead of listening, so Jesus must confront their wayward behavior:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are…” (Matthew 23:15)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness…You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” (Matthew 23:23-24)
Jesus admonished his followers not to act like them:
“All their works they do to be seen by men... They love to sit uppermost at feasts, and to have the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called Rabbi by men. But you shall not suffer yourselves to be called Rabbi. For one is your Master, that is, Christ, and you are all brethren. And call no man upon the earth your father, for there is but one your Father, and he is in heaven. Do not be called teachers, for there is but one your Teacher, and he is Christ. He who is greatest among you will be your servant. But whosoever exalts himself, shall be brought low. And he who humbles himself, shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:5-12)
Jesus offered grace and mercy to all and many received Him, but the Pharisees instead stubbornly held to their traditions and rituals and wouldn’t, so He confronted their errors.
This Pattern Continued Through The Bible
Even in the Early Church there were already tendencies to pollute the Gospel with legalism and works of the law. There were those amongst the Pharisees who had become Christians; however, they tried to then force legalistic burdens on other Christians.
The Apostle Peter wouldn’t stand for it for a moment and got up at the Council of Jerusalem and laid out the truth in dramatic fashion:
“Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.’” (Acts 15:5)
Peter would have none of it and said:
“Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” Acts 15:10-11 [Emphasis mine]
That statement: “No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved.” Is what the Reformation is all about. While speaking the truth about God’s grace, the error which has been embraced and pedaled by the religious establishment must also be confronted.
It is important to notice that the truth about the Gospel was more important than any seeming disruption to so-called unity, the very need for a council shows there was not perfect unity in the first place.
This is a microcosm of the Reformation. Just as Peter experienced God’s grace and knew it to be the truth and stood up for it, others in history stood up for it as well and became reformers.
Enter Paul the Apostle
Paul had actually been a Pharisee himself but got saved in dramatic fashion on the road to Damascus while on the way to persecute more Christians.
Having experienced such amazing grace, he became the emissary of God’s grace. Having been a Pharisee, he disdained any attempt of the Early Church in any way to return to the legalism of the Pharisees.
The Letter to the Galatians is itself an epistle of grace that also confronts the pharisaical slide into legalism that was happening in the new church in the region of Galatia. Paul even had to straighten out his contemporary leader Peter in the letter because of Peter’s compromising on this subject.
Paul wrote strongly that the Galatian Christians had been saved by grace and that the way in is indeed the way on. They began in grace and must continue on in it, as it is the path to life, liberty, and revival.
Paul concludes that we are to live by the Holy Spirit: live a personally revived life in Christ led by His Holy Spirit.
Paul’s Words Revived the Body of Christ
Luther and other reformers had experienced this grace and mercy of Christ and simply wanted others in the Body of Christ to know and experience it as well. The Catholic Church, however, like the Pharisees, refused the grace of God and held to its traditions instead, and so like the Pharisees was confronted with its error in the process.
Martin Luther had struggled under a burden of rituals and rules for a long, long, dark period as a monk and a Catholic priest himself.
He was weighed down under this impossible burden of trying to make payment himself for his sin through rituals of the Church and found no peace at all in the Catholic rituals prescribed to him.
But then the light broke forth on him. He was sent away to study the Bible as a way to rid the monastery of his onerous presence since he was a constant bother by always coming to the confessional. (Study of the Bible not being a normal part of the program for the priesthood.)
As he was wrestling with Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Luther began to understand that Jesus had taken on our sin on the cross and all he needed to do was believe upon Christ.
He says “… I then understood that through grace and sheer mercy [Christ] justifies us through faith in Him. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn…”
What a heavy burden was lifted off of Luther’s back as he understood that Jesus has paid the price on the cross and one doesn’t need to be under this horrible burden of trying to pay for sin themselves!
There in a nutshell is what the Reformation is all about: The grace and love of God is experienced and sought to be shared, but instead the establishment, just like the Pharisees reacting to Jesus, refuse to listen!
The Reformation Spread and Formed Revival Movements
In spite of opposition from the establishment, the Reformation spread and later formed revival movements.
The early Puritans in the United Kingdom were a revival movement, according to historian Sydney Ahlstrom, and are directly tied to the Reformation. Grace to them was something that should be known and experienced in the heart and not mere head knowledge; they thus can be seen as early Protestant mystics.
Persecution and a lack of freedom caused them to seek refuge in a new land across the sea where they could worship as they felt led; this new land came to be called America.
The first sustaining colony in America—others had been attempted earlier like Jamestown and folded—was brought forth by those Puritans, Separatists, and Independents* who came across on the Mayflower. (*Separatists wanted to separate from the Church of England, while others originally wanted to purify it from within, hence the more classical name Puritan, though all three of the above mentioned were of Puritan stock.)
They took up the colony “for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith” which they wrote in their charter upon landing at Plymouth Rock.
The Great Commission indeed had been a strong theme amongst Puritan preachers of all branches of Puritan faith in England and motivated this journey of leaving all behind and going like Abraham to a land that they knew not, to be lights for the Gospel in the new world.
America’s first sustaining colony was thus founded by a group of outcasts who had been touched by the Reformation and revival and who came with the goal of advancing the Christian Faith. It has been a land where revivals have taken place ever since.
Travel Insights
While traveling through Europe on different mission trips, we have been able to visit some different sights connected with the Reformation and different reformers.
We have been to some of the places connected with the Reformers William Tyndale, John Knox, and Martin Luther.
Each of these reformers experienced God’s grace and sought to return to the Word of God as the foundation for the Body of Christ. Having experienced the grace of God personally and intimately, they desired that others should also experience this glorious grace of Christ given freely and which comes simply through faith in Christ Jesus.
Reflecting on that grace and these reformers, I wrote a little song called Grace Alone about their suffering, which came to me on one of those trips and made a video about it, which you can check out by clicking here. (Direct link:
We also have a video about the Christian Faith of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock which was shot right on location in Plymouth, Massachusetts. You can check it out by clicking here! (Direct link:
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