Cain, Abel & Luther

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,

and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:2

"On October 31, 1517, a young Catholic monk named Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. This single bold act set off a religious reformation that shook Europe and the world. Luther was later excommunicated by the papacy; a price set on his head.

On October 31, 2016, leading up to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation, signed a joint declaration with Pope Francis with the expressed hope for the “wound in the body of Christ to be healed.”

Beyond burying religious division, the declaration states that “what unites the two traditions is greater than that which divides them” (The Guardian, October 31, 2016).

Let’s rewind six thousand years to two of the earliest believers:

 Cain and Abel. These brothers had much more to unite them than to divide them. Both worshiped the true God. Both built altars according to God’s direction. Both brought sacrifices to worship.

But Cain’s sacrifice was very different than Abel’s. Abel brought a lamb while Cain brought the fruit of his hands. Abel’s lamb represented his entire dependence on Jesus, the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. Cain’s offering of fruit represented a mixture of God’s blessings and his own labor, the works of his hands.

The similarities between the two worshipers were so close it was nearly impossible to tell the difference. That is, until Cain slew his brother.

But let’s go back to the present development between Lutherans and the papacy.
According to Pope Francis, the last 500 years of “controversies and disagreements” have brought “an immense source of suffering and misunderstanding” (The Guardian, October 31, 2016).

Controversies.

Misunderstanding.

Disagreements.

Suffering.

What was Martin Luther thinking when he nailed his 95 Theses to the door? Just like Cain was older than Abel, the church was older than this young monk. Doesn’t age and tradition indicate superior wisdom?

The breakthrough for Luther came with a combination of two things:
first, he found a Bible, and began to read it.
Next, he made a visit to Rome, where the Holy Spirit brought home the biblical truth of “sola fide”—faith alone—at the very moment that he was earning a papal indulgence:

Fast-forward 500 years.

In order for the “wound” between Catholicism and Protestantism to heal, someone had to change their position. So which group changed? The Lutherans. The two groups are now signing off on what once separated them, but it’s certainly not because papal theology has changed. Just look at recent

history.

Nothing has really changed since the conflict between Cain and Abel. The brothers built altars, brought sacrifices, and came to worship God. But Cain was eventually marked as an enemy of God because of his insistent reliance on creature merit.

It’s really not that difficult to tell the difference between truth and error. Use the biblical scale, that age-old marker in the history of Cain and Abel—persecution.

Protestants are an endangered species. But for all who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, trusting completely to His saving grace for salvation, and rejecting the delusion of creature merit, Protestantism will never be extinct." JamesRafferty