Born to Reform
Editor’s Note: Below is a guest post from Steve Swan. Steve is the associate pastor at The King’s Fellowship, a church in the heart of Winnipeg, Canada. Steve is married to his best friend, Sarah and they have two daughters, Nora(3) and Lulu(1). You can find his blog at Words of Truth & Reason.
What is the power of God’s Word? What happens when a preacher proclaims it? What happens when we speak it?
Martin Luther was kind of a big deal 500 years ago, right? He started the Reformation, rattled the corrupt Catholic hierarchy, and made a lasting mark on Western civilization. Well, turns out he doesn’t take any credit for it. It was all the Word, that is, the message of the Bible proclaimed.
I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip [Melanchthon] and my Amsdorf [Nicholaus von], the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing. The Word did it all.*
That’s my all-time favourite quote from a man who never lacked for fiery words. He didn’t do anything. As a pastor he took naps, he drank beer with his buddies – this is what I spend most of my time doing *just kidding!* God’s Word, freshly available and preached openly, did it all.
* I pulled this from Timothy George’s Theology of the Reformers, page 53.
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