Massive Changes have Small Beginnings

In the sixteenth century, the Reformation in Northern Europe, England and Scotland brought a massive change as churches and societies were brought back to the Bible. The earliest of the leaders was Martin Luther, who rediscovered the nature of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. He discovered this while he was recapturing the fact that God’s truth is found in the revelation of the Bible alone. Many churches were freed from bondage to the “humanistic” philosophies of the medieval theologians.

But Luther worked in a little corner.

Alister E. McGrath, in Reformation Thought: An Introduction (Blackwell, Oxford, UK, 3rd ed 1999, p. 115) writes:

“… there weren’t many theological students at Witttenberg, and Wittenberg was probably near the top of the league table of insignificant European universities. It is necessary to emphasize how utterly insignificant Luther’s new insights were at this point. All that we are talking about is alterations to the theological currticulum of an unimportant university…” Luther changed the teaching program, so that the Bible was the main text. His teaching, from the Bible, of justification by faith alone had a revolutionary effect in the society of that time.

Any of God’s mighty moves may start in a very small way. Faithfulness cannot limit the harvest that the fruit may produce in time.

Jesus said, “ With what can we compare the kingdom of God…? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” Mark 4: 30-32

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