On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther struck a metaphorical match that ignited a revolution, a movement really, known as the Reformation. He did this by writing 95 challenges to the Church. These are known as the 95 Thesis. They were printed on a placard, in Latin, nailed to a church door (that served as a notice board) and now live in a museum in Berlin and look like this…
I would suggest that this verse serves well as a key verse for the Reformation:
“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”” Romans 1:17 ESV http://bible.com/59/rom.1.17.esv
The rallying cries of the Reformation are sola fide (faith alone) and sola scriptura (Scripture alone). Simply put, the Bible, not tradition, is our sole authority and it is faith, not works, that saves. These important doctrines are the core of reformational teaching.
We do not rely on the teachings of church leaders (past, present or future), we rely on the Bible itself. We cannot earn our salvation, we rely on the finished work of Christ and put our faith in Him. I’ll post a further thought about each of these in the next two days.
kingdom travelin' 