Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

• Galatians 5:6

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

• John 13:34-35

“ ‘Provided I asked [Christ] to make me a sharer in the satisfaction which he, without sin of his own, has rendered for us, he is immediately ready to accept me and to move his Father to remit completely the debt I have incurred, and which I could never satisfy through my own efforts. (in a letter to friends)
“ ‘Living faith is that which both appropriates mercy in Christ, believing that the righteousness which is in Christ is freely imputed to it, and at the same time receives the promise of the Holy Spirit and love. Therefore the faith that truly justifies is that faith which is effectual through love [Galatians 5.6]. Nevertheless it remains true that it is by this faith that we are justified (i.e. accepted and reconciled to God) inasmuch as it appropriates the mercy and righteousness which is imputed to us on account of Christ and his merit, not on account of the worthiness or perfection of the righteousness imparted to us in Christ.’ (Article 5).”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

The book, that I am working through, takes the Reformation period (1500-1800) from different angles:  The Lutheran Tradition, the Anabaptists, the British Reformation, and now the Roman Catholic response to the reformation.  Thus, we were in the 1700s and now back to the early 1500s.

Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542) was an Italian diplomat from Venice.  He was a cardinal and Bishop of Belluno.  He advocated a dialogue with the protestants.  While he attended the Diet of Worms, he was unable to meet Martin Luther and thus unable to start a dialogue.

From the quotes above, you can see how his thoughts regarding “living faith” mirror the concept of Martin Luther and many in the early Protestant movement that salvation is by faith alone.  Thus, instead of stating a life-giving belief and trust in Jesus, Contarini simply says a “Living Faith.”  Indeed, it is living in that God indwells us and our soul will go to be with Jesus in Paradise, living forever.

When we see the Reformation from the Lutheran side, we see the death threats to Martin Luther.  We see the constant battling between the Pope and monks who “should be silenced.”  Indeed, we see the papacy pictured as something far from the Christian ideal, but we cannot take that same stroke of a pen against the Church.

Note: I capitalized Church to mean the body of believers and there were many within the Roman Catholic church at the time, some possibly among the bishops and cardinals.

While the papacy defended their indulgences, due to the increase of money entering the church and their pockets, there were those that would rather make peace with the Protestants.  Luther did not wish to create a Protestant Reformation.  He wished to reform the policies and confessions of the Catholic church.  Likewise, last week, John Wesley did not intend on creating a new denomination, Methodism.  He wished to establish reform within the Church of England.

Yet, absolute power preys on the concept that if anything must be changed, it means that those in power did something wrong.  But to admit that they were wrong diminishes their absolute power.  Thus, the power must prevail while Truth and Love and Unity must suffer, at least be ignored, or the upstarts causing the trouble must be killed or in some other way silenced.

But here we see a cardinal speaking out.  Cardinal Contarini remained a political power in Bologna, while many of his friends and associates in this minority opinion to play nice with the reformers were sent to prison and subjected to the Inquisition.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.