In October, while many families prepare for Halloween, Christians also remember to celebrate the Reformation. Back in 1517, a monk named Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses (propositions) to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, challenging some of the doctrine and practices of the medieval church. Wittenberg was a university town and Luther a professor, but the debate he began wasn’t just an intellectual dispute among theologians. What was at stake was the very heart of Gospel; that is, how God reconciles sinners on account of Jesus Christ. The fight Luther and the other Reformers began pertained not just to professor or prince, but to peasant as well. If the Gospel is corrupted, then all is lost.
Thankfully, God allowed the light of the Gospel to shine clearly once again. By rightly teaching that justification comes by grace through faith on account of Christ alone, Luther and the Reformers weren’t introducing a new doctrine to the church. Instead, they were returning the church to the original teachings of Jesus and the New Testament writers. It was the medieval church that had drifted off course through false teaching. Through the Reformers, God righted the ship.
To be a Protestant, and certainly a Lutheran, is to be a Reformation Christian. We stand on the teachings of the Reformers who returned the church to the Word of God as the only source and norm for doctrine and practice. We are “reformed” in the best sense of the word.[1] Yet it begs the question, is the church still in need of reformation today?
In all that is being written on the Reformation this year, you probably have heard the following phrase used repeatedly: “always reforming.” It’s a nice-sounding tagline that suggests the church is in need of reformation in every generation. Yet, is such a sentiment actually true? The quote comes from the 19th Century theologian Karl Barth, who said, “The church is reformed and is always being reformed according to the Word of God.”[2]Unlike the tagline “always reforming,” this is a more comprehensive statement that makes three important claims.
First, “the church is reformed.” As stated above, the Reformers returned the church to the biblical teaching of the Gospel as delivered by Jesus and His apostles. Confident in the clear teaching and promises of God, the church needs no reformation. We are reformed (and more importantly, transformed through baptism and faith!). We have the truth and know the Truth.
“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.” (1 Corinthians 1:21-23)
Second, the church “is always being reformed.” If we have learned anything from the pharisees and priests of Jesus’ day or the popes and princes of Luther’s day, it is that the church can too easily fall into error. While we have the truth, we don’t always live by the truth. In the past 500 years, the church has been guilty of ignoring or reinterpreting the Word of God to support its own agendas or to please civil authority. Sometimes this was done out of ignorance, other times out of arrogance. We dare not think that we ourselves are immune from such errors.
Third, being reformed and needing reformation are both based “according to the Word of God.” This is absolutely crucial in our identity as Reformation Christians. Some have used the tagline “always reforming” to suggest that the church has to cast off its strict allegiance to the Word of God in order to provide a more modern proclamation for today’s world. The 16th Century Reformers would be absolutely aghast at the claims of some Protestants that Jesus wasn’t fully divine or didn’t rise from the dead. To make the Gospel more palatable, they wave the banner that “love wins” and that there is no judgment or hell (except perhaps for the very worst among us). In the end it doesn’t matter what you believe about God. God is love and will graciously receive everyone into His kingdom.
Just as prevalent within Protestant churches is the opposite error of legalism. Sadly, you can worship in too many congregations and never hear the Gospel at all. There are the “self-help Protestants”, where sermons are more like moral advice, encouraging hearers to become better people. Similar are the “politically-active Protestants”. While “fighting for the soul of America,” they have forsaken serving the Kingdom of God.
A.Z. Tozer warns us: “Partial truth is more dangerous than trickery… When it comes to the worship of God, we must be quite careful that we are not basing it on partial truth, but on the entire revealed truth such as can be found in the Bible.”[3] One of the Reformation battle cries is “Scripture alone.” It is on the basis of Scripture that we base our teaching and practice. Therefore, St. Paul’s encouragement to Timothy are wise words to us all: “You have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
This need of “always being reformed according to the Word of God” is more critical today than ever. The Gospel Coalition started in 2005 and is a fellowship of evangelical churches in the Reformed tradition that are fighting against such errors as the idolatry of personal consumerism, politicization of the faith, and theological relativism.[4]
In my own Lutheran branch of Protestantism, there are struggles not only between the various denominations, but within each of the church bodies as well. The largest of these, the ELCA, saw 1000 congregations (500,000 members) leave the denomination within a four-year period because of its promotion of various false teachings.[5] Many have joined smaller Lutheran denominations that focus on biblically based, Gospel-centered ministry.
In my own denomination, The LC-MS, there are struggles underway over authority in the church. Although Luther stood up to the power of the papacy, the current LC-MS leadership is consolidating power to the synodical president and his board of directors.[6] While the full impact of such changes are yet to be seen, Luther’s words on the decrees of popes and councils offer us a stern warning: “When anything contrary to Scripture is decreed in a council, we ought to believe Scripture rather than the council. Scripture is our court of appeal and bulwark; with it we can resist even an angel from heaven (as St. Paul commands in Galatians 1:8) - let alone a pope and a council."[7]
Celebrating the Reformation is much more than just a historical moment to remember fondly. Many of the same issues that were at stake then are still worth fighting for today. By the grace of God, we are reformed! We have the truth and know the Truth, the Word of Life, Jesus Christ. From this foundation we need not move. Here we stand, and we cannot do otherwise.
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[1] Note the differentiation between “reformed” (all protestant churches that hold to the Reformation teachings) and “Reformed” (a Christian denomination or branch of Protestantism).
[2] Clark, R. Scott. “Always Abusing Semper Reformanda.” It seems that Augustine first used similar language, and later the 17th Century Dutch theologian Lodenstein. It is Barth, however, that coined the phrase widely used today.
[3] Tozer, A.W. The Purpose of Man: Designed to Worship. pp.71-72.
[4] www.thegospelcoalition.org/about/foundation-documents
[5] Vogts, Kevin. “ELCA has Biggest Split in American Church History.”
[6] For more information on the centralization of ecclesiastical supervision in the LC-MS, see www.congregationsmatter.org
[7] Luther Works. vol.32, p.81.