Today we remember an event from 506 years ago. We will give thanks to God for the fire He lit through Martin Luther’s questions to the system. A generation of men burned with godly passion to shine light on the Bible which gives “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
A precious few who had the Bible in the Middle Ages made good use of it, but most Christians didn’t have their own copies, and the established religion (Roman Catholicism) elevated their interpretations of Scripture to equal authority with Scripture while working to keep copies of Scripture out of people’s eyesight.
But the “word of God is not bound” (2 Timothy 2:9). God’s Word is an imperishable seed that causes new/spiritual birth (1 Peter 1:23). God’s Word is pure, spiritual milk that causes us to grow up in our salvation (1 Peter 2:2).
My friend Jonathan writes a weekly email to those who serve our church with music, and in his most recent Music Ministry Weekly he shared about his reading of the Scots Confession (1560, with John Knox as the superintendent over John Winram, John Spottiswood, John Willock, John Douglas, and John Row, written in four days). The Five Johns who drafted the Confession said this of Christ’s Gospel:
“[I]t is the one food of our soul and therefore so precious to us that we are determined to suffer the greatest world dangers rather than let our souls be defrauded of it” (Scots Confession, Preface.)
Scripture alone reveals that the bread of God has come down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:33). Jesus gave His flesh as true food, His blood as true drink (John 6:55). As we feed on Him by faith alone, we live because of Him (John 6:57).