I’ve never been charged with a crime and so I can’t really understand what it’s like to wait for a jury to deliver its damning (or liberating) verdict. I suppose the closest I’ve come to that sort of experience is waiting for my exam results or wondering if I am going to be picked for the team to play next Saturday. Having said that though, my worst such experience was when I had to wait for the doctor to reveal the results of an xray examination. Now that’s an experience I’m sure we’d all happily live without. And it got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be lovely to know the results in advance for If that were the case we would avoid so many sleepless nights and anxious days?

Now I say all this because next Tuesday marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. For October 31, 1517, was the day when a deeply troubled (and troublesome) monk named Martin Luther nailed his famous ‘95 Theses’ to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church and in so doing unleashed a torrent of theological and political debate that eventually ripped the church and Western Europe apart.

Much has said about his momentous decision to ‘nail his colours to the mast’ and I am sure a lot more will be said in the days to come, both praising and criticising an action that has proved to be a seismic moment in world history. As one of my Baptist colleagues said recently: “We should thank God for the Reformation and praise God for the Reformers - but we should acknowledge where they went wrong too.”

I will certainly be taking to the opportunity to highlight the Reformation in the coming weeks (I will be preaching about it on Sunday). And I will be doing so for one very important reason, one that is linked to the images with which I began this short essay. For the real bone of contention that arose at the time is as valid and as disturbing today as is ever been. For it demands an answer to the very simple question: how do you recognise the true people of God?

When they were thinking about this issue (and they thought about it a lot) the Jews of Jesus found it helpful to think of their law courts. They imagined God as the judge and were convinced that He would identify His true people at the end of time when the curtain finally falls on human history. And most of them were convinced that God would find in their favour because they were doing all they could to keep the Jewish law with all its rules and regulations. In other words, their commitment to His law made it very clear that they were His faithful people.

The first Christians came up with a different answer though. They declared that God will only find favour of those who acknowledged Jesus as the risen Lord. In other words they said it had it nothing to do with gender or ethnicity, quality of lifestyle or religious devotion. It’s all about God’s faith.

The Jewish Pharisee we know as Saul of Tarsus finally came to see this and ended up as the apostle Paul. In the same way, German monk Martin Luther eventually understood it and became the catalyst of the Protestant Reformation. And this former atheist ultimately became convinced of it too and decided to become a preacher! Some things (like Pembrokeshire rain) never change. The question is as pertinent today as it was five hundred years ago. If there is a God, we need to know what we have to do to be on His side, or rather to be certain that He’s on ours!

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]