The Reformation is not over and cannot be over. The first reason it’s not over is because the Roman Catholic Church has not been reformed. Rome, by her own catechism and statements, still repudiates justification by faith alone, and therefore the matter of the Reformation has not been resolved.
Furthermore, those churches that would not call themselves Roman Catholic needed to be ongoingly reformed because reformation is not something that can be settled. Reformation is about the church purifying herself by the Word of God continually. There is never some acceptably pure level.
So, reformation is an ongoing thing. And that means that reformation cannot be over until Christ returns, because reformation is about chasing that purity that Christ wants for His church. And we have not reached that and we will not reach that until He returns.
What is the goal of reformation? From the Ligonier 2017 National Conference, Sinclair Ferguson, W. Robert Godfrey, Steven Lawson, Stephen Nichols, Burk Parsons, and Derek Thomas explain that reform focuses on one goal: to glorify God.
Transcript:
FERGUSON: Both in Calvin and in the Westminster Confession and its subordinate standards the answer to the first question, “What is our chief end?,” must be the same as to the question, “What is the goal of Reformation?”: “To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”
To be able to do both of these things simultaneously is what I think at the end of the day is going to make an impact on our contemporary world that is so interested in enjoyment. It’s very rare to hear non-Christians say, “See how these Christians enjoy the glory of God.” But once that begins to happen in a church fellowship, then I think it inevitably makes an impact on the society around it in all kinds of different ways.
LAWSON: The quick answer would be Romans 11:36: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
The goal is that this theology would produce this doxology—that the theology of Romans 1-11 and all that’s contained in that would produce God-centered worship and giving glory to God.
So the intrinsic glory of God, the first part of that verse, should produce ascribed glory to God, the second half of that verse. Obviously twenty other things can be said under that.
PARSONS: Absolutely it’s the glory of God, and I think if Dr. Sproul were here he would start with that and finish with that.
I think it’s significant to point out, as the Reformers did in the solas of the Reformation, not to forget that qualifier. In speaking not only of the glory of God but of the Reformation, Christian worship, our lives, we remember that everything we do is for the glory of God and for the glory of God alone. And so in Psalm 115:1, at the outset, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.”
I think that’s what is so significant. We speak so often of the glory of God, but we don’t speak of it as often as we should, in contradiction to our own glory, our own kingdoms, our own fame—that we are here, that this conference exists, we worship, we serve, we live, we preach, we train up, we make disciples, we evangelize not to get the applause of men, not to get notches on our belt, not to wear a certain badge. We do it for the glory of God and for God’s glory alone.
NICHOLS: I’d agree with all of these. The ultimate and eternal goal of the Reformation is the glory of God. If you were to ask “What is the intermediate goal?” or “What is the immediate goal of the Reformation?” it was to reform the church and to reform the church from top to bottom. It was about preaching, it was about music, it was about education, it was about the centrality of Scripture. It was about missions: Geneva was very interested in missions and sending missionaries to the shores of Brazil in the 1550s.
So the immediate task-at-hand goal of the Reformers was to have all pistons firing on a church that is obedient to her calling and to how she is ordained to function according to the Word of God.
THOMAS: Of course I agree with everything. But when I heard the question my mind went in two directions. First of all it went to my first encounter with R.C. forty years ago in a book, Chosen by God, and a vision of the sovereignty of God. And that surely is at the heart of the Reformation: a sovereign, omnipotent, all-powerful God in whom we may trust. And as Sinclair began his prayer, that all of providence, even this event this afternoon in which we grieve that R.C. is not preaching to us, is in the hands of a sovereign, loving, gracious God.
The other direction that my mind went was to the debate about what’s at the heart of the Reformation: is it justification or is it the doctrine of scripture? And I think that the call is once again upon us, as R.C. has signaled in the last number of years, to believe and preach and proclaim the inerrancy of Scripture, and our confidence in Scripture alone. That the answers to all of our questions lie in the written Word of God.
So five hundred years later we still need that Reformation now as much as then.
GODFREY: These answers, I think, point to something of the breadth and depth and glory of the Reformation. So much can be said.
Since this go-round began with a quotation from a catechism, I’d like to quote from the catechism.
Part of what stands at the heart of the Reformation is vital religion: “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” And my only comfort in life and in death is, “that I am not my own, but belong body and soul … to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q.1). And I think it’s so important to keep that gospel of Jesus at the center of things.
By Tim Chester (PhD), a faculty member of Crosslands Training and the pastor of Grace Church Boroughbridge in England. He is the author of Reforming Joy: A Conversation between Paul, the Reformers, and the Church Today (Crossway). (original source here)
I’m writing a book on joy and the Reformation.” His raised eyebrows were enough to tell me he was skeptical. “What’s joy got to do with the Reformation?” It was one of those questions that is really a statement.
Joy is not something many people readily associate with the Protestant Reformation. Courage, yes. Controversy, yes. Truth, maybe. But not joy. Joy is a long way down the list when it comes to most people’s perception of John Calvin.
A Belly Laugh
Yet consider this from William Tyndale, one of the key figures in the English Reformation. In 1526 Tyndale published the New Testament in English. It was his second attempt to do so. The first time around, he had to flee when the authorities raided the press on which it was being printed. He was living in exile and would eventually be martyred for his passion to make an English Bible available to every ploughboy in the land. He included a preface (much of it ripped from Martin Luther) to that first edition which he later expanded into A Pathway into the Holy Scripture. Here’s what he said about the gospel and the Bible.
What we call “the gospel” is a Greek word that signifies good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that make a man’s heart glad, and make him sing, dance, and leap for joy … Now the wretched man (who is wrapped in sin, and is in danger to death and hell) can hear nothing more joyous then such glad and comforting tidings of Christ. As a result, he cannot but be glad and laugh from the low bottom of his heart, if he believes that these tidings are true.
For Tyndale, the Reformation brought news that makes people sing and dance and leap for joy. It is a message that makes a man laugh from “the low bottom of his heart.” I guess today we might say “a belly laugh.” What is this good news? Tyndale says it is “[Christ’s] life, through which he swallowed and devoured up death; his righteousness, through which he banished sin; his salvation, through which he overcame eternal damnation.”[1]
The Reformation as a Rediscovery of Gospel Joy
There’s a sense in which the young Luther was the one person who took Medieval Catholic theology seriously. He really believed it and it crushed him. He would spend hours confessing to his superior in the Augustinian order, and then come rushing back with some new misdemeanor he had remembered. At one point his superior said: “Look here, Brother Martin. If you’re going to confess so much, why don’t you go do something worth confessing? Kill your mother or father! Commit adultery! Stop coming in here with such flummery and fake sins!”[2]
But Luther could find no rest for his soul in the theology he had been taught by the church. It spoke of faith and grace. But faith was understood more like our word “fidelity.” Faith was our loyalty to God that might perhaps earn his favor. And grace was like a shot of adrenalin, a kind of spiritual boost to help us live the Christian life, that you received through the sacraments. But still, it was down to you to earn enough merit before God. No one could have hope or peace before God. The very idea was errant presumption. Continue reading →
