The Reformation was not in any sense a creedal, nor a doctrinal, nor a theological, discussion or controversy.
It was the direct and devout study and preaching of the Gospel, in a spiritual, practical, experience, that converts the soul, regenerates the man, and transforms the life.
In this, Wicklif found The Ten Commandments to be the Law of God, and as such the foundation of "the whole body of Christian morality."
One of the very first publications of Wicklif in The Reformation was "a detailed exposition of the Ten Commandments: in which he contrasted the immoral life prevalent among all ranks in his time, with what these Commandments require."
Thus he brought to the minds of men the knowledge of sin and its consequences, awakened the conscience, and aroused the desire for a righteousness that should reign against all the power of sin and sinfulness.
That was his primary and direct purpose. Secondary to this, was the purpose to have the people become acquainted with God; and so to counteract the workings of the churchsystem that inculcated "greater concern for the opinions of men than for the Law of God."
From the words of Matthias in the preceding of this book, it is abundantly evident that with him the Ten Commandments occupied the same place and were used for the same purpose precisely as in the work of Wicklif.
With Huss it was still the same. As stated on page 124 he had the Ten Commandments, with other Scriptures, painted on the walls of Bethlehem chapel, which was the place of his regular preaching--till it was destroyed by the Roman church.
"Huss was accustomed wherever he lodged to leave for his hosts on departing, a copy of the Ten Commandments: or even to write them in the meal, as he had written them on the walls of Bethlehem chapel."
And among the last things that he did in the awful prison at Constance awaiting the stake, was to write "short tracts on the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer."
Among the first writings that Luther ever issued in print were "Discourses on the Ten Commandments," and tracts "On The Lord's Prayer." Yet not with any of these men was the Law of God the way of righteousness. It was used only to indicate, and to lead men to, the Way of Righteousness-- Christ only.
Not in any of the teachings of the Reformers did righteousness come by the Law, nor was it retained by the Law. It came and remained only by the faith of Christ without the Law.
Yet when it did thus come and thus remain, it was witnessed by the Law, as the very righteousness which all the time the Law had demanded of every soul,--but which the Law could not supply--the righteousness of God.
Wicklif "ever presupposes the connection of all his teaching with trust on Christ as the only Saviour," "deriving everything from the divine fellowship of life with Christ." "Before all we are bound to follow Christ," said he, and "All obedience should be paid solely to Christ."
"He ascribes the whole work of salvation to Christ alone"; declaring that "When God rewards a good work, He crowns His own gift."
The great Centre of all the preaching of Militz was the power of Christ to save men from sin and to keep them from sinning.
A section of the city of Prague so devoted to vice as to bear the name of "Little Venice," was so transformed by the Gospel in the preaching of Militz that it acquired the name of "Little Jerusalem."
So was it also with Conrad. The one transcendent note of all his preaching was "the transforming grace of Christ." The leader of the wildest youth of Prague was converted and the whole course of his life so changed that he was notable for his devotion and his mildness of Christian grace.
As to Matthias, the quotations in the preceding are sufficient to show how true it is that "he everywhere holds distinctly up to view the immediate reference of the religious consciousness to Christ." "Jesus the Crucified" is his favorite expression; and He alone must be all in all.
For example: "Jesus the Crucified is the Vine: and all the branches proceeding from Him and abiding in Him, have, and ought to have, respect to Him alone: and other foundation can no man lay."
"All holy Scripture, all Christian faith, proclaims, preaches, and confesses, that Jesus Christ the Crucified is the one Saviour, and the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth;
"that He alone is all power, all wisdom, for every Christian, He Himself the Alpha, the beginning and the end; "and that every one who is longing and striving to be a just and virtuous man, must first of all and immediately put on Christ Himself and His Spirit; because He is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
"After Him alone, first of all and with the whole heart, we should seek, begin to glorify Him and to carry Him in our souls, Who alone hath redeemed us at that great price-- His precious blood."
"Our Lord gives to Christians the beginning of a life of grace, as it is written, The just shall live by faith."
With Huss also Christ was the great Centre of his faith and of his life. The final act of the Council of Constance in his condemnation was to put on his head a cap painted all over with pictures of devils, and to say--
"Now we give over thy soul to the devil."
Huss, with his eyes raised toward heaven, calmly and joyfully said, "But I commend into Thy hands, Jesus Christ, my soul, by Thee redeemed."
And at the stake, as the flames put out his life, the last words that came from his dying lips, were, "Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy upon me."
In a word, the whole faith and teaching of all these saints of God who made The Reformation is summarily expressed in that Scripture, "Here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the Faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.
And than that nothing could be truer to the truth of the Bible. For, clearly and beyond all other words of Scripture, the Ten Commandments are the Law and Commandments of God alone.
With the coming of the Ten Commandments into the world, no human hand or mind had anything at all to do but merely to receive them and place them in the Ark of His Testament as directed by Him.
First, the Ten Commandments only were spoken from heaven with the voice of God that shook the earth. Ex. 20:1-17; Deut. 5 :22; Heb. 12 :25, 26.
Then they were written "with the finger of God" on two tables of stone.
Then He said to Moses, "Come up to Me into the mount, and be there, and I will give thee tables of stone, and a Law, and Commandments, which I have written." Ex. 4:12.
Moses did so, and there "He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. "And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." Ex. 31:18; 32:16.
When Moses came down from the mount with the two tables in his hands, because of the Egyptian idolatry of the people at the foot of the mount he cast down the tables and broke them.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest." Ex. 32:19;
Moses did so, and went up again into the mount with the tables in his hand. And there the second time "He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments." Deut. 10 :4.
Thus the Ten Commandments are the Law and Commandments of God in a sense and in a way that is distinct from and above every other word even of God that ever came into the world.
They originated in God, they were brought into the world only by the Voice, the writing, and the hand, of God Himself. They are not the law or the commandments of Moses, nor of the prophets, nor of Peter, nor of the apostles, nor of "the church." They are distinctly and distinctively "the Commandments of God."
Yet for all that, they were never put into the world, they never were intended, to be to men the way to righteousness. But, under the Holy Spirit, to give the knowledge of sin and awaken and point men to Christ who alone is the Way to righteousness and the Way of righteousness.
Accordingly it is written: "The Law entered that the offense might abound": "that sin, by the Commandment, might become exceeding sinful."
"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 5:20, 21;7:13.
Again: "Whatsoever things the law saith it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth should be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
"Therefore, by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in His sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sin."
"But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested; . . . even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:19-23.
Again: The prophet Zechariah saw a flying roll representing the curse of sin. Then the angel said to him, "This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.
"For every one that stealeth [the second table of the Law] shall be cut off on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth [the first table] shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
"I will bring it forth saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name; and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof." Zech. 5:1-4.
That is to say, That holy Law is in the "house" of every soul. There also is the heavenly recorder noting the transgressions of the Law, that cause the curse. And that curse, because of transgressions, unless it shall be removed, will remain in that house until it shall consume the house with the timber and the very stones of the house.
But, Oh! abounding grace. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."
And this is in order "that the blessing of Abraham," which is the righteousness of God by faith, "might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." And this is in order "that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Gal. 3:13, 14.
Therefore, the Law is, and always was, the means "to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith." Gal. 3:24.
The sole purpose of the Gospel is to establish in every soul the righteousness of God: to fix there the character of God. Rom. 1:16, 17.
To do this, it must first save men from sin. And to do this there must first be given to men the knowledge of what sin is.
"BY the Law is the knowledge of sin"; for "Sin is the transgression of the Law." Therefore the Law was given to give to men the knowledge of sin. And thus the sole object of the Law is the Gospel.
The sole object of the Gospel is to secure to men the righteousness of God. And so the sole object of the Law is the righteousness of God through the Gospel.
The Law comes short of its object, without the Gospel. The Gospel cannot work effectually without the Law.
The Commandments of God, that compose the Law of God that brings men to Christ that they may be justified by the faith of Christ, originated in God and came to the world by the voice and hand of God alone.
So "the Faith of Jesus" which is the object of that law, is that faith which originated in Jesus, which was brought to the world by Jesus, which was manifested in Jesus in the world, and which was exercised by Jesus Himself in His own Person.
It is not the faith of Peter, nor of Paul, nor of John, nor of the apostles, nor of "the church." It is distinctly and distinctively "the Faith of Jesus."
And note that it is "the Faith of Jesus": not our faith in Jesus. Our faith in Jesus, is one phase of faith. The Faith of Jesus, is another and higher phase of the principle of faith.
Faith in every phase is the gift of God, with Jesus "the Author and Finisher" of it in its workings. So our faith in Jesus is the gift of God: yet it is small, weak, wavering, and often failing. But "the Faith of Jesus" is Faith perfected. It is Faith that has fought the battle of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and has triumphed at every point. Heb. 4:15. It is separate and distinct from and above all other faith ever known by man.
And this perfected Faith, this triumphant Faith of Jesus, is the free gift of God to every soul; and is imparted by the Holy Spirit to every believer in Jesus, by him to be kept. 1 Cor. 12:9; Gal. 5:22.
And to the believer in Jesus, this perfected Faith of Jesus makes fully sure in all its fulness and certainty all the things of God to us exactly according to the mind and will of God.
The Faith of Jesus makes every promise of God ours in fullest assurance. "For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him, Amen, to the glory of God by us." Gal. 3:22; 1 Cor. 1:20.
The Faith of Jesus overwhelmingly and eternally justifies the believer in Him. For "we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ." Gal. 2:16.
The Faith of Jesus makes to be ours in absolute certainty, the righteousness of God: "even the righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all that believe."
The Faith of Jesus makes certain to the believer in Jesus, the life of Jesus in the mortal, flesh. Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 4 :10, 11.
The Faith of Jesus gives to the believer in Jesus" "boldness and access with confidence" "into the holiest"-- the holiest of all experiences, the holiest of all places, "the holiest of all." Eph. 3:12; Heb. 10:19, 20, 22.
The keeping of the Commandments of God is the gift of God; and it is ministered to the believer by the Lord Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. Gal. 2:17;5:22, 23.
Thus the keeping of the Law of God does not come by that law, but only by the Faith of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Neither the becoming a Christian, nor the remaining a Christian, is by the Law; but solely by the grace of God through the faith of Christ.
"The law was not made for a righteous man; but for the lawless and disobedient, . . . and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." 1 Tim. 1:9, 10.
The righteousness of the Law, the keeping of the Law, is wholly of grace through faith--the Faith of Jesus.
Therefore "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Rom. 10:4.
Yet in all this, respect is had to the Law. It is the Law of God, spiritual, holy, just, and good. It is not set aside by faith, it is satisfied. It is not made void through faith, it is established. Rom. 3:26, 31;7:12.
Eternally "the Law is good." Whether it shall be good for particular persons turns altogether on their using it lawfully. 1 Tim. 1:8.
Many will have righteousness to be by the Law. That is an unlawful use of the law.
Many others will have righteousness to be by the Law and "faith." That is an unlawful use of the Law and an unfaithful use of faith.
Many others will have righteousness to be by faith and the Law. That is an unfaithful use of faith and an unlawful use of the Law.
To have the Law give the knowledge of sin, and, make it appear so exceeding sinful that nothing but the sacrifice of Christ can ever satisfy, that is lawful use of the law.
Then to depend solely upon Christ to satisfy--to "make His soul an offering" and the only offering "for sin," that is lawful use of the Law. To find righteousness without the law, without the deeds of the Law, without works, that is lawful use of the Law.
To find without the Law a righteousness that is of such quality that the Law will witness that it is righteousness indeed, that is lawful use of the Law.
To receive the righteousness of God as a free gift by the faith of Christ, that is lawful use of the Law; for to that the Law always freely and fully witnesses.
The Christian--the Reformation Christian--will have righteousness only by faith, without the Law, but "witnessed by the Law."
He thus finds the very righteousness of God, and establishes the Law in the keeping of the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.
With that The Reformation began, and only with that will The Reformation end. Rev. 12:17; 14:12-14.