Today is Reformation Day in 2013. What was the big deal about this and why should it even be remembered? Do people remember these days just to keep themselves from Halloween activities? One could only hope that is not the case. The Reformation was a huge movement of God and it is good to remember that. It was a time that God has started working in men earlier than Luther, but during the life of Luther the Reformation came to a head. The glorious doctrines of God were set out and stated in ways that provide a foundational way of thinking for all time.
The most magnificent theme of the Reformation was Soli Deo Gloria (To God alone be the Glory). While one may disagree with that and assert that justification by faith alone was the main issue, I would argue that one cannot understand justification by faith alone in its biblical context apart from the glory of God. Roman Catholicism had worked and worked and ended up having its teaching essentially being man-centered and putting the works and acts of men over those of God, or at least where man was still in control. During the time of the Reformation the Roman Catholic teaching was jettisoned and refuted for the biblical teaching of a thorough God-centeredness.
One can look at justification by faith alone and have a man-centered way of looking at it, but when one does that the biblical Gospel is distorted and turned into a false Gospel. When man is at the center, man must come up with his own faith and that is what God responds to. But in the biblical Gospel it is God who gives faith and therefore man responds to God with a faith given to him by God. In the man-centered gospel, man’s faith is the issue and so in the modern day the focus is on man praying a prayer, stating an agreement to some propositional truths, or perhaps just making an act of the will. But when God is at the center of the Gospel as He really is, man must pray for God to give him a new heart by which he can have faith. When God is at the center of the Gospel, the glory of God is seen and propositional truths (thought important and even vital) go along with the spiritual sight of the soul beholding the glory of God. When God is at the center of the Gospel, the important act of the will (just as in John 1:12-13) is that of God. The vital act of will is that God must will so that man can believe from a new heart.
In the God-centered Gospel justification is not primarily for the sake of man, but for the glory of the grace of God. The biblical emphasis of faith is really on Christ and grace, but when man turns that emphasis on self, man has rejected the true nature of faith and of grace. God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-7) and not because man came up with faith and not because man is so worth it. The glory of God is worth God saving man or man would not be saved at all.
The cross of Jesus Christ declares that God will glorify Himself in the salvation of man rather than God declaring the worth of man and how He couldn’t live without man. At the cross we see the glory of God put on display in ways that should put man on his knees in utter amazement rather than think of himself as worthy in some way. The cross declares the glory of God in saving sinners because of Himself and His own commitment to His own glory rather than anything good about man. The cross declares the perfect justice of God because He saves sinners in a perfectly just way. The cross declares the perfect holiness of God because He does all for His own glory. The cross declares the perfect love of God because the Father loved Himself so much that He sent the Son to die for sinners to the glory of His own name. The cross declares the perfect love of God because the Son loved the Father so much that He went to save sinners that the Father had chosen. The cross declares the perfect love of God because the Holy Spirit was purchased at the cross by Christ who then applies the love of God to sinners He has chosen to love. The cross declares the power of God because in it we see His power over death and His power to win sinners and grant to sinners a new heart and a new life by the resurrected Savior.
Essentially, then, the Reformation is a declaration of the glory of God and His commitment to His own glory in and over all things. This primary thought must be taken to heart by the professing Church today and bow before the living God. If the professing Church stays focused on scholarship (not bad in and of itself) and teaching doctrine in a man-centered and as a philosophy rather than on the glory of God, we will find ourselves in great need of a new Reformation. Perhaps, however, we already are. What we see are professing churches seeking everything instead of the God of glory to come in and among them in great power in order to manifest His glory in and through them. This shows that we have become man-centered (among the Reformed in name too) and are in great need of our great God to turn us back to Himself. Nothing will turn us except God Himself. How badly we need that lesson today.
God Loves... Himself 
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