I love a good Halloween, but I couldn't pass up celebrating the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation. I've learned a great deal about the figures involved through this article series, Here We Stand, and at church. From these I got an idea, and this will be the third in a series of paintings for my local church.

Not many know it, but Martin Luther had a fursona. :D He's commonly depicted with (or symbolized as) a swan, and this is mainly due to a man named Jan Hus, a forerunner of the Reformation. Hus (literally "Hus" = "goose") prophesied, while being burned at the stake by the church, that "You may roast the goose, but a hundred years from now a swan will arise whose singing you will not be able to silence.” 102 years later, Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door. He believed that he was the swan that Hus spoke of.

The Theses were not a declaration of war, but an invitation to debate. Luther did not intend to rebel against the church or splinter off of it, but to reform it, because he had discovered the liberating effect of the Gospel found in the Word: justification by faith alone, not by works. He would have never gotten this from the church at the time, since all the sermons were in Latin, the common people didn't have the Bible in their language, and the "works" prescribed by the church of his time, and the sale of indulgences, were diametrically opposed to this Gospel. So Luther read, preached, built his life on, and spread the word of God to as many people as possible, translating it into his vernacular German. The swan is being formed out of the rock to illustrate Luther's respect for church tradition insofar as it respects the Word, and out of the mud to illustrate the importance of an individual's belief in the Word, and ultimately, the swan will stand on the Word alone.

Now... I have just given you the interpretation of this artwork. Does that spoil it? :P Since a very young age, anytime I was taught about visual arts, the message was that the viewer's interpretation is all that matters. To some degree, I think that makes sense. People perceive things differently and this helps us understand each other, etc. But from the artist's point of view, that can be poison. An artist (I hope) wants to communicate something, and do so effectively, so that as many people get the message as possible. I would feel disrespected if people extracted a completely different message from this, especially when I have spelled it out in words here.

So it is with the Word. God spoke to his creation, and did so through human authors across time and across the world, forming one cohesive whole, the core message of which is the Gospel. A God who made the world is certainly capable of speaking effectively to us. But what will we do with his Word? Ignore it completely? Take the parts we like and discard the rest? Make origami out of it to suit our own political views or personal preferences? Or will we read it thoroughly, study it diligently, and follow it wholeheartedly, as the very words of God deserve? Certainly, there are parts that are hard to understand. But just as in any subject, we should try anyway and not give up. Some of us will come to different conclusions on minor things. But the central message, the Gospel, we compromise at our peril. (Incidentally, just today as I was writing this, I had to re-examine a small component of the Gospel and I found that I could not find much of a biblical basis for what I believed. I had to reorient myself to what the Word said.)

I would go into greater detail about what the Gospel is (as well as my reasons for believing that the Bible is God's Word), but I fear this description is already going too long. What I write here won't be satisfactory. I may write a full piece on it sometime in the near future. But the heart of the Gospel was rediscovered in the Reformation, and is best summarized in Ephesians 2:8-10, in which Paul is speaking to a church of believers: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Though we were created to do good works, a glimpse at God's requirements, such as the Ten Commandments, reveals we have failed miserably, and so can't even come close to meeting his standard. We are all, every last one of us, myself included, hopeless sinners, and God has every right to condemn us to death and hell because of it. Mark 9:47-48 Our last hope is to throw ourselves on God's mercy, God's grace. 2 Peter 3:9 And miraculously, this is available to us in what Luther called the Joyful Exchange: We as sinners deserved to die, while the perfect Jesus did not. But Jesus died in our place, taking our sins on himself and giving us his righteousness, 2 Cor 5:21 so that we could have eternal life. John 3:16 We can receive this grace freely, but only by having faith Hebrews 11:6 in Jesus, and only Jesus. Acts 4:12 Not to diminish good works; that's what we were created to do, according to the above verse. But the works themselves don't save us. They didn't before salvation, and they won't after. Galatians 3:3 Rather, good works spring out of a life that has been saved by grace. James 2:18 It only makes sense -- what would bring the God of the universe more glory: for us to do disdainful, obligatory work with the constant looming threat of punishment if we don't get it perfect? Or the joyful deeds of people who have become more than just saved and redeemed, but in fact, sons and daughters of the King? Romans 8:15

Again, that's an extremely short version, but explains what fueled the Reformation for 500 years and counting. This is the best, most liberating news in the world. It reformed Luther's life, my life, and millions of others. It can reform yours.

This coming month is busy for me and I may not have time to respond to everyone thoroughly, but I'll try to at some point. Thanks for reading. Soli Deo Gloria!