One of the key complaints made by the Reformers was against grace being cheapened. And this message is just as relevant today as it was 500 years ago.

As this day commemorates Luther’s 95 Theses in particular, let’s look at some of them to see this message clearly:

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” intended that the whole life of his believers on earth should be a constant penance.

32. On the way to eternal damnation are they and their teachers, who believe that they are sure of their salvation through indulgences.

40. True repentance and contrition seek and love punishment; while indulgences absolve punishment, and cause men to hate it.

41. The Pope’s indulgence ought to be proclaimed with all precaution, lest the people should mistakenly believe it of more value than all other works of charity.

52. It is a vain and false thing to hope to be saved through indulgences.

94. Christians should be exhorted to endeavour to follow Christ their Head through Cross, Death, and Hell,

95. and thus hope with confidence to enter Heaven through many miseries, rather than in false security.

Luther’s complaint was that indulgences offered people a false sense of security that cheapened grace and undermined the need for charity and penitence.

This complaint was shared by the Anglican Formularies and directed also at the sacrifice of the Mass. As argued in my commentary on the Eucharistic liturgy, Cranmer felt that the concept of a Priest offering to God a sacrifice on behalf of the people undermined the idea that holy living and acts of charity should be our primary sacrifice to God (not that these things save us, mind you, they merely prove that our faith is living). This is the purpose of the Offetory Sentences in the 1662 Liturgy, that replaced the Priest saying that the bread and wine on the altar was a sacrifice that appeased God for the remission of sins. Instead, the Priest says “to do good and to distribute, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

Moreover, the Anglican Book of Homilies deals primarily not with with doctrinal matters but with morality. Most of them are exhortations to live a righteous and godly life, intended to eradicate degeneracy from English society. The pop-criticism that the Protestant belief in salvation by faith alone leads to immorality also ignores the fact that during the Reformation, Protestant controlled cities like Geneva were famously the most morally strict in all of Europe, and were the first to shut down the licensed brothels that were once so commonplace.

So why is this relevant for today?

Because sadly, many parts of the Church, the Anglican Communion especially, have forgotten all about this. If Cranmer and Luther hated false security and cheap grace, we can be sure that they are not happy about the state of things right now. Church leaders in the Episcopal Church of the USA, and the Anglican Church of New Zealand, offer sinners false security and cheap grace when they insist that the sins the Bible emphatically says lead to damnation (1 Cor 6:9) are actually “blessed” by God and thus do not need to be repented of. Whenever God’s love is highlighted to the expense of His justice, you have cheap grace.

While the cross tells us that Jesus died for us sinners so that we can be reconciled to God, it also comes with a challenge. Because Jesus also said that we must deny ourselves, lose our own lives, repent of our wickedness, and finally, take up our own crosses and follow Him. However, the false-teachers of the Church ignore all of this and tell others to do the same. Luther’s 95 Theses summed it up better than anyone can:

92. Away then with all those prophets who say to the community of Christ, “Peace, peace”, and there is no peace.

93. But blessed be all those prophets who say to the community of Christ, “The cross, the cross.”