How can we bring the great truths of the Bible, including the glorious doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone, to the people?
Part of the answer for the English Reformers of the 1500’s was to publish an official book of sermons or homilies to be read – in the correct order – in churches each Sunday.
The first sermon was about how the Bible is our ultimate authority and guide.
The second sermon, entitled, “Of the Misery of All Mankind”, was about us and our own wretched, miserable, spiritual condition.
Here are a few sobering extracts:
“Since true knowledge of ourselves is very necessary to come to the right knowledge of God… We are of ourselves of such earth as can bring forth only weeds, nettles, brambles, briers, corncockle, and darnel.”
“Thus we have heard how evil we are of ourselves—how of ourselves, and by ourselves, we have no goodness, help, nor salvation. On the contrary, we have sin, damnation, and death everlasting…”
“For in and of ourselves, we find nothing by which we may be delivered from this miserable captivity (2 Corinthians 3:5), into which we were cast through the envy of the devil, by transgressing God’s commandment in our first parent Adam. We have all become unclean (Psalm 51:1-10), but none of us are able to cleanse ourselves, nor to make each other clean. We are by nature the children of God’s wrath, but we are not able to make ourselves the children and inheritors of God’s glory (Ephesians 2:3).”
However, what each of us desperately needs God has lovingly provided:
“Of his (God’s) own voluntary goodness, when we were dead, he saved us, and provided an everlasting kingdom for us.”
The sermon ends on a positive note:
“If we thus humbly submit ourselves in the sight of God, we may be sure that on the day of judgment he will lift us up to the kingdom of his dearly beloved Son, Christ Jesus our Lord—to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen.”
The magnificent doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone is the subject of the next sermon. But before one rises to the heights of that glorious truth, one must first be convinced of the depths of our despair, misery and damnation.
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All extracts are taken from: Gatiss, Lee. The First Book of Homilies: The Church of England’s Official Sermons in Modern English. Lost Coin Press for Church Society. Kindle Edition.
Any comments or queries can be sent to andre@christchurchtygerberg.org.za