‘The Legacy of the Protestant Reformation‘ is the title of a lecture given by Daffyd Morriss last evening at Bulkington Congregational Church. The church, situated in the village of Bulkington, is a smallish fellowship so it was a great encouragement for them to see so many there, even some in the balcony. The Pastor (Peter MacKenzie), thought it the best attended lecture since they took it over from Rugby Evangelical Free Church.
The lecture had three main points.
1) The legacy of a Bible in our own language, freely available for all to read. We should not take this for granted but be thankful to God for it and should therefore read it, study it and preach from it. He did make one very telling observation that there seems to be a move away from a Christ Centred understanding of the Bible and illustrated this with several quotations, especially from Martin Luther. There was a question about this during the Q&A at the end of the lecture.
2) The simplicity of a Relationship between God & Man. He described the complexity of Medieval Christianity with it’s multiplicity of holy days, fast days and the many stranded structure of priest, arch-deacon, bishop, etc etc. The Reformation brought a simplicity to our relationship with God and Daffyd illustrated this from among other things the Song of Solomon.
3) The Re-discovery of Justification by Christ alone. He gave a brief snapshot of Luther and the bondage he was in until God revealed that the Righteousness of God was not against him, but for him. Our Justification is purely and only on the basis of what Christ has accomplished for sinners on the cross. But there’s more. When a person casts their all upon Christ, it’s not just a clean slate that is received, but credited to the sinner is the life and obedience of Christ. This is salvation indeed! He also illustrated how this works out in sanctification through the life of William Gadsby the hymn-writer. We cannot fail to sin, we are going to continue sinning but Christ paid the price for it all – all of it, past, present and future.
The lecture will be posted soon on the Bulkington Church website and on My website. I commend it to you.