10/26/2026
Why do we celebrate Reformation Day?
This week marks 509 years since Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses.
The issue then is still the issue now, how is a sinner made right with God?
The dividing line is clear.
Rome says faith is the "beginning" of salvation, the foundation and root of justification. Necessary, but not sufficient.
The Reformation says we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone.
Same word, two different faiths. For Rome, faith starts the process. For the Reformed, faith receives Christ and Christ alone is sufficient.
Think this is only a Rome problem? Think again.
Rome says God can only call you "justified" if you're already inherently righteous, by grace plus your cooperation with grace. So "works" gets shrunk down to just the ceremonial law.
Plenty of evangelicals teach the same error in softer words: that your obedience somehow adds to the ground of your acceptance before God.
It doesn't.
Scripture excludes all our works, all our doing, all our obedience, from the ground and the instrument of justification.
Grace alone. Faith alone. Christ alone. Add anything to that, and you've lost it. "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works." Romans 11:6
There are not two stages of justification, initial and final.
We distinguish justification from vindication. At the judgment, it will simply be declared to all what is already true; those to whom Christ freely imputed his righteousness, received by true faith, really were justified and saved.
For the Reformed, justification is a once-for-all, definitive act. Sanctification is progressive, and it flows from justification. It doesn't complete it.
Rome makes no such distinction. Justification and sanctification are the same thing. So you are only as justified now as you are sanctified, and only as sanctified as grace plus your cooperation with grace allows.
The Application and Charge
So stop measuring your standing before God by your progress. If you are trusting in Christ, you are not partially justified, provisionally justified, or justified-so-far. You are justified, fully, finally, and forever because Christ's righteousness is yours.
That doesn't make holiness optional, but freely out of gratitude because our spot is already bought and paid for. Positionally, Christ makes it done; practically, His Spirit makes it inevitable. Sanctification is the fruit of being accepted, not the price of acceptance.
You don't obey to become God's child; you obey because you already are.
This Reformation week, then: rest in Christ alone. Bring him your sins, not your résumé. And if you have been adding anything, your obedience, your experience, your church attendance to the ground of your acceptance before God, lay it down.
Christ alone is sufficient. Believe it, live from it, and tell someone this week who still thinks they must earn God's favor.
Enjoy your liberty and freedom in Christ!
