Today is Reformation Day. 490 years ago, on October 31, 1517, a monk named Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church — the catalyst event which soon led to the Protestant Reformation, a movement which was an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church back to the foundation of God’s Word alone as the authoritative rule of all life and faith, and to the foundation of faith in God’s grace alone as the source of man’s salvation. As we all know, this led to the tremendous fracture of the church as it was at the time — something completely unintended by Luther, but albeit a necessary change in order to bring about the Spiritual transformation that God so desired.

Tonight, at my church here in Louisville, we went through Romans 4 and 5 briefly during the prayer meeting, so as to set the stage for what we would be praying about during the service. Interestingly, it is also today’s ESV Verse of the Day, and my small group back at my home church in Toronto is also studying Romans 4 tonight.

1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness

Romans 4:1-5

The question that has plagued humanity for centuries is simply this: how can us, a sinful people, be right with a holy? The Apostle Paul argues that it is only by faith alone that any person could be made right before God. We must trust Him who justifies us by exchanging the righteousness of His Son, Christ Jesus death and resurrection for the unrighteousness of our sins. Traditionally, this is known as the “Great Exchange”.

Paul uses the model of Abraham to prove justification by faith alone because the Jews held him up as the supreme example of a righteous man, and because it clearly showed that Judaism with its works-righteousness had deviated from the faith of the Jews’ patriarchal ancestors. In a spiritual sense, Abraham was the forerunner of the primarily Gentile church in Rome as well.

So if Abraham’s own works had been the basis of his justification, he would have had every right to boast in God’s presence. But such would make the hypothetical premise of verse 2 unthinkable. Be that as it may, faith is not a meritorious work. It is simply the channel through which it is received and it too, is a gift. Abraham did nothing to accumulate it; God simply took His own righteousness and credited it to Abraham as if it were actually his (traditionally known as “imputation” or “imputed righteousness”). This God did so because Abraham believed in Him.

Broadening his argument from Abraham to all people, the apostle thus makes it clear that the forensic act of declaring a person righteous is completely apart from any kind of human work (contrary to what the apostate Roman Catholic Church believes). If salvation were on the basis of one’s own effort, God would owe salvation as a debt — but salvation is always a sovereignly given gift of God’s grace to those who believe. And since faith is contrasted with work, faith must mean the end of any attempt to earn God’s favor through personal merit.

-MacArthur Bible Commentary

Only those who surrender all their own claims to righteousness by their own strength and acknowledge themselves to be sinners can be justified. The great news is that for those who are graciously justified by the Father, our direction in life is completely changed. Once we have trusted in His righteousness for our sins, our direction in life — not perfection — is transformed. We will never be perfect and may still slip and sin on occasion, but the enemy has been disarmed and ultimately been defeated! While God does allows our faith to be tested (cf. Job 1:6ff), by His Spirit He works through us to sanctification towards glorification, where one day we will have new bodies that are not corrupted.

And thus, while our justification is monergistic in nature, our sanctification is synergistic. Through the discipline of His grace, He calls us to press on and train ourselves for the purpose of godliness.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1

On this Reformation Day, let us remember how important for us to keep Sola Fide at the forefront of our lives — His righteousness for our sins.

SDG

Philippians 4:4-9

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Yes and amen.

This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out.

A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, “Hey you. Can you help me out?” The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, “Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?” The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on

Then a friend walks by, “Hey, Joe, it’s me! Can you help me out?” And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, “Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.” The friend says, “Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.”
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Yesterday was quite a special Sunday at my church here in Louisville (Immanuel Baptist). We had a brother get baptized (by FULL immersion) and 14 people got voted in to be church members. What added to this glorious Sunday was the ordination and laying on of hands of 3 godly men to the office of Elder (Pastor). You see, Immanuel has been growing a lot recently and thus there has been a growing need for more shepherds to care for us flock. There were previously 3 Elders/Pastors, and now with 3 more, we are now graced with double the amount of plurality in the elder board. I’m very excited to see what God would do through Immanuel for the local community around our church, which is in the “hood” (fairly low in terms of socio-economic levels). And hopefully with this addition of elders, the membership application process can be a bit quicker!

Our Discipleship Pastor, Jeff King, spoke for the Ordination service from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. It was the first time in a long time for me to hear a full exposition on this passage concerning humility. Pastor King reminded us of 3 things: that the origin of humility is God who gives it to Paul as a gift through a thorn in his flesh; the aim of the humility was to show Paul the sufficiency of God’s grace; and the impact of humility was to magnify God’s power in that weakness.

Humility –> Intimate fellowship with God –> Power in weakness

Thus, the place of most spiritual power is in humility through weakness.

During Sunday’s sermon, I tried harder to seek the Spirit to apply the message to my own life. Being a theological geek, I usually take scribbled notes in my Moleskine. And instead of concentrating on what the passage means to me personally, I have often in the past simply sought to understand what the text means in the original context in which it was written. I’ve noticed that in the past, I have concentrated less on how God is speaking to me directly, and only learning about the Scriptures for a mainly academic/theological purpose. I was recently reminded through an older seminarian about the need to apply the text wholly to myself — and listen to the voice of God speak to me, to truly hear what God wants to teach me.
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Psalm 107:23-32

23 Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits’ end. [2]
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
29 He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
31 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

It’s been almost 3 months since I first arrived here in Louisville to start a long pilgrimage towards an M.Div here at Southern Seminary. Looking back at the past three months, it really feels like time has just flown by so quickly!

There has been so much to read and study for every class I am taking, even as I am only taking 11 hours of classes. I have learned more about theology (Systematic I) and the Scriptures (NT I) than I have ever learned before, and have been convicted by Dr. Don Whitney of the importance of doing the biblical personal Spiritual disciplines daily and without ceasing. Furthermore, I cannot neglect mentioning how much of a blessing it is to be learning the biblical languages. And although Greek has been very difficult in many instances (especially “participles”), I know I can do it well if I just put my entire effort into it — which I honestly do not find myself doing so just yet.

Thus, with all that has happened academically, spiritually and personally, I find it necessary to take a moment to pause and reflect on how the semester has gone so far. To all my seminarian friends who are reading this, I exhort you to do the same. Let us take a moment — may it be just 15 or 30 minutes — to pause whatever we are doing and just reflect and examine ourselves for what we have done in these short three months. We are in the “home stretch” of the semester with three weeks of classes to go and only four weeks until final exams. That means there are only five weeks left in the semester, and the way things have gone and are going so far, I know I desperately need a moment to catch a breath, and discern what areas I have done well on, what areas I need improvement on, and what areas I need to completely repent and change from — academically, spiritually, personally.

The Holy Spirit reminds us in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 that for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. Henceforth, if we truly believe that we are living in the Kingdom of Heaven and under the sovereign reign and rulership of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, let us consider now the things we need to plant and the things we need to pluck up; what things we need to break down and what things we need to build up; which things we need to keep and those must be cast away. I could go on, but the truth of the matter is, it is basically impossible to go forward effectively without looking back to evaluate where we have been and how we have done what we have done.
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Matthew 6:5-8

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Word of God speaks during my study of this short passage.
Yes and amen.