A Time for Change

I was driving up the street today and as I topped the hill I saw this tree. It was a sunset of leaves. You know, the kind of tree that's just blanketed in orange. I know the presidential candidates are both competing for the power to try and fulfill their promises to bring change to the economy, the middle class, education, health care, foreign policy etc. etc etc. And not to make light of the rise and fall of our nation, but the tree was just more believable. I mean it had more sincerity and clarity. No, I'm not about to launch into a political add or an environmental plea. And the tree was not an Ent from Lord of the Rings. What I am saying is that things change- usually for the worse. But the good news of Jesus is that for every death with Him, there will be a resurrection too. And this is the best kind of change- restoration.

The 95 these that Martin Luther bludgeoned to the door in Wittenburg were many things. They were certainly a declaration. A declaration and a confession. Martin Luther was not simply protesting indulgences, a corrupt view of justification, or the papacy. "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance." Poenitentiam agite means "Repent ye" and Luther quoting Jesus here says that repentance is the whole life of a believer.

When a person turns to Jesus to follow Him it is a radical change of direction, a complete 180 degree turn. And a person does not simply turn to Jesus away from an alternate identity one time, but over and over again for an entire lifetime. It’s a direction with ongoing motion. Luther got this. He came to see that he had been building an identity and looking for a soul satisfaction in a lot of other things that were not Jesus. The passionate monk came to find Jesus to be enough in every way and started to see that there were a lot of things about the form of Christianity in his day that were obstacles instead of pathways to Jesus.

Maybe this is a gross simplification of the event. Nevertheless the 1517 invitation on that October day in Germany was a huge step in the right direction. It was a turning to Christ from mere religion. Read the 95 theses or Jonathan Edwards’ resolves, or Psalm 51 and you see that turning is in fact a way of life. There is still sin in my heart and life. And there is still blood enough to cover it. As the apostle John said, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son, cleanses(ongoing) us from all sin.” Both the walking and the cleansing have a definitive start with continuing action.

In Luther’s introduction he says he loves the truth and desires it to come to light. The point of all this meditation is this: Do I find in myself this same resolve? Do you?

I hope that today amid the goblins, super heroes, and princesses, candy, pumpkins, and pranks, you find a moment (maybe now) to stop- and move in the direction away from specific sins to confess them to Jesus and to another Christian. Bring it to light. Reassure your confidence in the once for all forgiving death of Jesus. Follow suit with Luther in declaring with hammer and nail on your heart, that Jesus Christ is your only goodness, all your truth, all your hope, and the exalted proof that for the deaths we die to sin, there is a better and more glorious resurrection with Him.