Happy Reformation Day

Jollyblogger has written an excellent little piece entitled A Reformation Day Meditation, in honor of today as the 488th anniversary of Martin Luther tacking his 95 theses on the Wittenburg chapel door. Here's a snippet:

The thing I love the most about the reformed tradition is that Christ is preeminent in that the focus is always on what He has done for me.

The fact of the matter is that Romans 7 is the story of my life and while I lived with a focus on what I must do for Christ I slowly lost the joy of my salvation because such a focus can't respond effectively to the Romans 7 struggle. It can only tell you to try harder.

The reformed tradition reminded me that no amount of self-striving on my part could enable me to win the battle against indwelling sin. Salvation and sanctification are by grace, through faith, because of Christ from first to last.

David Powlison says that if we were to take a yellow highlighter and go through the Bible and highlight every command, every verse that says tells us something that we must do, we might highlight 15-20% of the Bible. He admits that he has not done a scientific study of this, he is just estimating. But his point is that he thinks that 80-85% of the Bible is simply story, the story of the great acts of God on behalf of His people.

Powlison says that God seems to have the idea that if His people can just know who He is, it will make all the difference in the world in their lives.

Do your self a favor and go read the whole thing!