A Time for Reformation

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as is written, "The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:16–17)

In a time of political chaos and moral confusion, the answer is not activism but an unashamed return to the gospel.

Standing Where the Reformation Began

We had been driving for many hours on a late summer Sunday afternoon, the sun shining over rich farmland as far as you could see. We were in a VW van, and every sight and smell was completely new to me. On either side of the road stood huge trellises with vines twenty feet tall of almost-ready hops. We had just passed a sign with names like Dachau, Nuremberg, and Munich, and as we drove east toward Austria, I thought, this is where it all happened.

I'm not talking about the world wars of the 20th century. I'm talking about another shaking event that happened in that region in the 16th century—what we now call the Protestant Reformation. This was the epicenter from which men like Wycliffe, Hus, Beza, Tyndale, Zwingli, Melanchthon, Knox, Calvin, and Luther sprang forth and shook the world of their day.

It wasn't until I moved to Germany in 2003 that I realized October 31st is more than Halloween. In Germany they certainly celebrate it as Reformation Day. I knew the names—Calvin, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther—but I didn't grasp what had happened until I stood before the Schlosskirche, the castle church in Wittenberg, and heard exactly what took place there 499 years ago.

The Hammer Heard Round the World

On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther—an Augustinian monk from Eisleben, a Catholic theologian and professor of biblical studies at the University of Wittenberg—began circulating a document of complaint against the Catholic Church. He sent it first to the Archbishop of Mainz, then nailed it to the door of the castle church: the 95 Theses, a list of 95 complaints against the doctrines and practices of the church.

Why nail it to the church door? During that period, the church door functioned like a community bulletin board, where the news of the day was posted. So Luther brought his complaint there for public circulation, and it shook much. But that date in 1517, though celebrated as Reformation Day, was not the launch of the Reformation. It was a tipping point. The Reformation actually began in the 14th century, not the 16th.

I'm not here to give a history lesson. I bring this up because, as I look at what is going on in our world 500 years later, I genuinely feel we are in a time of need for another serious reformation.

A Political Divide That Exposed a Theological Problem

In 14th-century Europe there was no separation of church and state. There were princes, kings, and lords, but above them all was the church. These rulers could dictate temporal matters, but the church dealt with the eternal. If you were excommunicated, you could do little in society. The church held extreme power.

Then in 1377 came the Great Schism. The church split in two—not over theology, but over politics. There was a pope in Rome and a pope in France, and for the next thirty years there was conflict. Yet that political divide shook society into examining the church. At the same time, the Scriptures were being translated. John Wycliffe produced the first English Bible, and now people could read the Scriptures themselves.

People in England, through Wycliffe's ministry, looked at the Bible and at a church that was politically divided and corrupt and said, "Things don't add up." After Wycliffe, in Prague, Jan Hus was translating Scripture and reaching the same conclusion. The seeds of reformation were planted, and 200 years later, when Luther came along, the fruit appeared. A political divide gave rise to a massive theological renewal that challenged the false teachings and the corrupt structures of the church.

A Pulpit, Not a Pub Table for Politics

Why do I bring this up? Because I think we all sense we are in need of a new reformation. Anybody get one of these voter guides? I'll be honest—I don't like to talk politics from the pulpit. As long as I'm here, this pulpit will be biblical, not political.

I've been getting many emails while I was away, and they all share a common theme: politics. One email says Donald Trump is evil and wicked. Another says we must elect him because Hillary Clinton is wicked. Another says we can't do that because Trump is so bad. Another says we shouldn't vote for president at all because neither is good. So we're politically divided just a little. And the common refrain is, "Pastor, when are you going to tell us how to vote?" Never. I'm not going to tell you how to vote, and I'm not interested in talking about the top of the ticket.

But I do know Psalm 2:4 says God beholds the nations and laughs in heaven. This year we've given Him a lot to laugh about. And as I went through this ballot, some things did interest me.

Isaiah's Warning to a Corrupt Nation

A passage came to mind this week—Isaiah 5. About 2,800 years ago, Isaiah spoke into a nation in chaos. Its king, Uzziah, started out wonderfully and reigned more than fifty years. But at the end he decided that as king he should not be held back from anything. He determined to enter the temple, where only priests could minister. Seventy priests came out to stop him, but he pushed his way in. As he did, leprosy broke out on his forehead, and God struck him so that he lived the rest of his days in isolation because of his sin. It was a scandal in Jerusalem.

Looking at all this, Isaiah wrote:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness... Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes... Woe to those who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man. (Isaiah 5:20–23)

Isaiah looked at a corrupt system, a political nightmare, and said it could not continue long.

Reading the Ballot

Then I sat in my office on Tuesday, opened the ballot, and started flipping through the state propositions. If you're not planning to look at this until you step into the booth on November 8th, you might be shocked.

Prop 57 reduces criminal sentences for juvenile felons. We can argue the pros and cons all day, but at the very least it tells us we have a problem with justice in our nation. Isaiah said they "justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from a righteous man." Righteous people are convicted when they shouldn't be; unrighteous people are released when they shouldn't be. One root cause is that we've rejected the concept that there is actual moral truth. Morality has become relative. We can't even call evil evil anymore.

I went on to Prop 60, about regulating adult film performers. Really—this is on the ballot? A 2003 article in The Guardian noted that the U.S. leads the world in pornography, with about 211 new films produced every week, centered in the Los Angeles area, and many in the trade are "otherwise respectable citizens." Since they're respectable, apparently we need regulation.

Then Prop 62 would repeal the death penalty. I respect that there are differences of opinion in this room. But Genesis 9:6 says, "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed." Why? "For in the image of God He made man." God created humanity uniquely in His image, placing His own value and dignity on us. The conflict over the death penalty again traces back to the question of a moral law and a moral lawgiver, and to the recognition that even a fairly good justice system doesn't always bring justice.

Then Prop 63 limits the ability to buy ammunition without a license. Prop 64 legalizes recreational marijuana. It's already passed in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, and is on the ballot in California and eight other states. If it passes in all nine, more than 30% of Americans will live in states with recreational marijuana access, likely forcing the Supreme Court to address it at the federal level. And Props 65 and 67 are both about plastic bags being bad.

So here's the picture: Felons, good. Adult film stars, good. Death penalty, bad. Ammo, bad. Pot, great. Plastic bags, bad. I'm sorry to be crass, but it felt like I was reading fiction. Listen again to Isaiah:

Doom to you who use lives to sell evil, who haul sin to market by the truckload... Doom to you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness in place of light and light in place of darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. (Isaiah 5:18–20, paraphrase)

A Thermometer, Not a Thermostat

The typical Christian response is, "We can't let these things pass, or it will be the end of the Republic." But I'm here to tell you the very fact that these are on the ballot is an indication that something is wrong with us as a people. It takes more than 400,000 signatures to get an initiative on the ballot, and more than 600,000 for a constitutional amendment. Every one of these came about because people signed petitions outside the grocery store.

So these propositions are the thermometer, not the thermostat. They tell us the temperature; they don't change anything. They're the symptom, not the cause. Every four years a presidential election lets us peek at the pulse of our society. Like a cholesterol test or an EKG, they reveal what's already going on inside. So goes California, so goes the nation. Whatever passes on November 8th and whoever is elected on November 9th is an indication of where we already are as a people.

Four Points for a New Reformation

First, there is a theological reason for our political divide. In 1377 the divide showed up within the church, but it exposed a theology problem: the people didn't know who God was or what He had said, so they did what was right in their own hearts—just as in the days of the judges, when there was no king and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Second, our political divide must drive a theological renewal. We need today another Wycliffe, another Hus, another Luther. Since the moral majority and Christian coalition days of the 1980s, the church's instinct has been political activism—and most Christians now realize it hasn't done much. We need theological engagement instead.

Third, only a theological renewal will bring about the reformation we need. Remember that Paul wrote Romans into a time of massive political corruption. Nero was rising to power—more corrupt than any politician of our day. Paul, along with Peter, James, John, and the rest, lived in this corrupt world, and in Romans 13 he says, "Submit yourself to the government."

An Unashamed Gospel Focus

What did Paul do? He says in Romans 1:14, "I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also." He didn't gear up for political activism. He geared up for biblical proclamation.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes... For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:16–17)

Those words—"the just shall live by faith"—are the very words that transformed that Augustinian monk, Martin Luther. Paul continues, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."

So my fourth point: we must maintain an unashamed gospel focus. That's what Paul did, and over the next 200 to 300 years the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ completely revolutionized his world—even crumbling the structure of Rome itself.

Lift Your Eyes to the Throne

Return with me to Isaiah. After Uzziah was struck down and spent his final years in isolation, the nation was grieved. Then Isaiah 6 opens: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up." There was a political vacancy, the corrupt power was gone, the nation was deflated—and Isaiah saw the Lord on the throne.

We need to remember that Jesus is on the throne. Our focus must be there, not on the offices of Washington. We are accountable to a much higher authority in heaven. This nation does not need another political savior. Politicians cannot save. This nation needs Jesus.

Sin is real. Hell is an actual place of judgment that every one of us deserves, because inwardly we are just as corrupt as every politician we see on TV. The difference is that when you promote yourself, your corruption comes out, and then we point our fingers—but it's only us on display. What our world needs is Jesus. We all deserve the judgment of hell, but Jesus came, lived a perfect life, died a brutal death, and rose again that He might forgive and save us. Sacramento, Washington, the candidates, the legislators—all of them need the gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God.

We live in a time when society increasingly says we're a bunch of nuts for believing in the resurrection. I get to be the leader of the nuts—it's awesome. But we must not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. One day God's judgment will be revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness. I don't want anyone I know to be under the wrath of God. I want them to know His forgiving grace.

Closing Prayer

Father God, we need You. Sometimes it feels like we need You more than ever, but we always need You more than ever. Jesus, remind us of Your supremacy, that You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords, seated upon a throne in heaven. May that truth set our hearts and minds at peace. Though we find ourselves in a nation and a world that is lost, unmoored, and drifting toward the rocks, help us to be lights shining in the darkness, mouths speaking forth the grace and truth You've given us. Many of us in this room have experienced Your saving grace by the gospel. Help us not to be ashamed, but to speak with boldness and clarity to everyone we can. Strengthen our hearts and minds in You. And as we look at the political conditions and divide in our nation, drive a new theological renewal in us—first a passion to know You and Your word.

If you have never put your faith in Christ, never asked Him for His grace and forgiveness, I want to give you that opportunity today. Jesus died in your place to take the punishment for your sin upon Himself, and He rose from the dead, declaring the price fully paid. If you want to receive His grace and forgiveness, lift up your hand wherever you are. Father, we thank You for Your grace. Help us go from this place with that grace and share it with all we come in contact with. We praise You, Jesus. Amen.