Hearing is Believing

I had the opportunity to speak in chapel for my kids’ school on Reformation Day. For those chapels, I spoke from one of the Reformers’ favorite texts: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). What follows is a slightly edited version of what I shared with the high school chapel.

We often fail to recognize that before the Reformation, late medieval Europe was a highly religious place. There was a veritable explosion of religious activity and devotional materials. An incredible about of money was being funneled toward religious projects. This was when St Peter’s in Rome was built, and it was during this time that Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.

The Morrison kids with Luther at LRU in 2022.

For the average person, the center of devotional activity was the mass—the celebration of the Eucharist or what you might know as the Lord’s Supper or Communion depending on your tradition. In particular, it was the moment when the host—the bread—was lifted up that people wanted to see. Churches and cathedrals were filled with celebrations of the mass. Not merely in the main chancel, but in alcoves and side chapels, there were masses being performed. In fact, there are accounts of people in some cities running from church to church to catch sight of the bread being lifted up.

And we need to remember that for late medieval Christians it was all about seeing. The common lay person rarely partook of the Lord’s Supper—perhaps once a year, and then only in one kind (the wafer, not the wine). Not only did they not eat, but they also didn’t hear. At this time, worship was in Latin and not their common languages. What they heard, they did not understand. Worship was about watching.

Worship changed with the Reformation. Half a millennium later, we often remember the key teachings of the Reformation but forget the dramatic impact it had on the lives of every day Christians. Rightly, we want to emphasize that the Reformers taught (1) the Scriptures as the only final authority and (2) that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone.

Yet, these truths worked themselves out in life-altering ways. Historian Susan Wabuda in her book Preaching During the English Reformation, explains this significant change in worship:

Faith, according to Luther and his followers, came not through the premier visual moments of the Mass, of seeing the Host lifted at the moment of consecration, but it came through the presentation of the Gospel, as Christ had taught it, and as it had been taught in turn by his apostles and the early Fathers in the Primitive Church.

Preaching, not the Eucharist, became the focus of worship. The sermon, not the Supper, was the central element of Protestant worship. Worship became about hearing rather than seeing. The Reformers to a favorite text of theirs from the Apostle Paul: Romans 10:17— “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” For the Reformers, hearing was believing.

As we consider this passage together, I want to draw our attention to two points: (1) It’s HEARING, not doing. (2) It matters WHAT you hear.

It’s HEARING, not doing.

The Reformers rediscovered the truth that being justified before God was a matter of his grace that we receive by faith. It was about what Jesus had done not what you or I could do.

A prominent view in that late medieval church was that if you did what lies with in (facere quod in se est), then God would meet you with his grace and lead you to eternal life. Do your best and God will take care of the rest.

Luther struggled to know if he had ever done what lies within. Had he done enough? He was riddled with anxiety during his life in the monastery. After meeting his confessor, Johann von Staupitz, to confess his sins and pray for forgiveness, he would think of another sin in the hall and run back to Staupitz to enumerate the sins he had just remembered. Had he confessed enough? Had he done enough?

Luther was freed from such anxiety through the gospel. As he spent the fifteen teens teaching through the Psalms, Galatians, and Romans, he came to see the truth that our justification depends upon the work of God. It’s not about doing what lies within; it’s about what God has already done in Christ.

At the heart of the gospel is what Luther termed “the sweet exchange.” Our heavenly Father counts Jesus’s perfect righteousness as ours. His perfect life is now counted as our own. In turn, Jesus bears our sin, guilt, and shame on the cross. It’s a sweet, grace-driven exchange.

This exchange—this salvation—is a gift. It’s a gift we simply receive. And how we do receive it? Not by doing but by hearing.

The gospel is a proclamation. It’s an announcement of what God has done in Christ. All we do is receive it by faith.

Ironically, we can twist this great gospel truth and end right back where Luther was running back to Staupitz. Our temptation is to turn faith itself into a work.  We focus on the experience of faith rather than the object of faith.

We find ourselves doing this when we wonder if I believed enough. We’re anxiously wonder if my faith is strong enough. Or, conversely, we put our faith in what we’ve done: I was saved when I put my faith in Jesus. We put our confidence in an experience of faith, in our own action.

But what the Reformers taught is that our assurance, our confidence in faith, comes not from any personal experience but from Jesus Christ—the object of our faith. When we doubt, we remember the cross. When we need assurance, we remember his resurrection. He himself is the assurance of our faith.

Don’t trust in your experience, but believe in Christ Jesus our Lord who was crucified, buried, risen, and is now seated at the Father’s right hand.

Such faith comes by hearing, not doing. It is only received, never earned.

This is why Luther said that the Christian’s primary job was to hear:  “If you were to ask a Christian what his task is and by what he is worthy of the name Christian, there could be no other response than hearing the Word of God, that is faith.  Ears are the only organs of the Christian.” 

It matters WHAT you hear.

Faith comes by hearing, and so it matters what you hear: and hearing through the Word of Christ.

The late medieval church had it’s fair share of preaching. It was a particular preacher Johann Tetzel that prompted Luther to post the 95 Theses. Tetzel was recognized as one of the great orators of his day. He was an incredible effective speaker who was known for getting his audience to respond:

“What are you thinking about?  Why do you hesitate to convert yourselves?  Why don’t you have fears about your sins?  Why don’t you confess now [now your sins?]  . . . Why do you not take the example of Bartholomew, Stephen, and of other saints who gladly suffered the most gruesome deaths for the sake and salvation of their souls?  You however do not give up great treasures; indeed you do not give even a moderate alms.  They gave their bodies to be martyred, but you delight in living well . . . . Are you perhaps ashamed to visit the Cross with a candle and yet not ashamed to visit a tavern?  Are you ashamed to go to the apostolic confessors, but not ashamed to go to a dance? . . . You should know that all who confess and in penance put alms into the coffer according to the counsel of the confessor, will obtain complete remission of al their sins. . . . Don’t you hear the voices of your wailing dead parents and others who say, ‘Have mercy upon me, . . . because we are in severe punishment and pain.  From this you could redeem us with a small alms and yet you do not want to do so. . . . Why then are you so cruel and harsh that you do not want to save us, though it only takes a little?’”

It’s easy to motivate by shame, guilt, and fear. Frankly, behavior modification is easy. But it’s only the Word of Christ that has the power to transform.

Luther declared, “He who seeks God outside of Jesus finds only the devil.” Only the Word of Christ will do. Only the gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.

This is why the distinction between Law and Gospel became so important to Luther. This was not a distinction between Old and New Testaments but a distinction between the parts of Scripture that brought conviction and those that brought promises of God’s love in Christ.

For Luther, the gospel is purely a word of grace and of mercy. It’s the pure promise of Christ’s righteousness reckoned to our account – in that alone is to be found our hope. We are justified not by what we do but by what Christ has already done, and we receive this as a gift by hearing with faith.

When Luther looked back on the Reformation, he said all that was accomplished God did through his Word.

“I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing.  And then, while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip and my Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it.  I did nothing.  The Word did it all.”

By God’s grace, may we hear his Word in faith and proclaim it with faithfulness.