2003 Reformation Insert

2003 Reformation Insert

The Continuing Legacy of the Reformation

The Protestant Reformation has played a major role in the development of the Christian religion. Often called a “protest” movement, in actuality it was more of a corrective.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (1 Tim. 3:16,17).

That historic movement of God has been referred to in many ways over the years. The first phase of the movement, as some call it, was led by Martin Luther in Germany and highlighted the idea that the Protestant Reformation was about the doctrine of salvation, particularly justification. Salvation was by grace through faith. Works were not the initiator of salvation but were only the by-product of one’s relation to God established by his grace alone.

The second wave of the Protestant Reformation, coming from France and Switzerland, was definitely in agreement with the emphasis on justification by faith alone; yet saw the Reformation in a bigger perspective. John Calvin’s focus was on the sovereignty of God, which resulted in a Christian world and life view.

Both phases of the Reformation were correctives, setting right a wrong view of salvation and God. We believe there were three phases of the Reformation. The first predated both Luther’s and Calvin’s themes. It would be identified with men like John Wycliffe and John Hus who were not only concerned with what the Scriptures taught, but that people understood and had the ability to read the Word in their language. Without that focus on the Bible as the authoritative word of God, the correctives introduced by Luther and Calvin and those courageous people who stood with them would not have made any sense.

Basically the Protestant Reformation was a return to the Scriptures as the source of all knowledge and truth, realizing with the Psalmist, “… in his light, we see light.” While God’s truth is broader than the specific truths written in his word, the Bible, if properly understood and applied, becomes the bedrock for all truth. Hence it can and has served the church as the means of correction down through the centuries.

The historic Westminster Confession of Faith, that precise text on biblically reformed theology, starts with “Of the Holy Scripture.” It opens, “…for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the Holy Scripture to be most necessary…” It continues, “The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.”

So we can legitimately think of the Protestant Reformation in three phases; namely, the beginning of the return to Holy Scriptures, their corrective view of salvation, and seeing how Scripture permeates all of life. With those insights in mind, it is clearer how history demonstrates the corrective influence of the Scriptures. When we have a faulty view of who God is and how he works, then every other part of reality is distorted. And when we begin to lose sight of who God is, we do not understand who we are and what our life is all about. Our very purpose and identity are determined by God himself and maybe that is why both the Psalmist and the Apostle Paul talked about “thinking God’s thoughts after him,” vs. thinking our thoughts about God.

In one sense that is what the Protestant Reformation was all about. Isn’t it obvious that we need those correctives today? Generally, it is not difficult to find a faulty view of God both in and beyond the church. There are professing evangelicals who question the Sovereignty of God. The postmodernists believe that if there is a valid concept of God, he is whatever we want him (or her) to be. We also see that the Gospel of grace is being crowded out of our lives and our worship, which is the most sacred thing we do. Things have become so oriented to the patterns of this world that we are in need of correctives and we need them quickly.

Statistically, we are losing the rising generations as they move away from the God of Scripture. They are not impressed with the kind of God they hear about and see in the lives of many Christians. The church has lost its appeal because what it offers and represents is not much different from what they see in other institutions. We are facing some of the most difficult challenges, such as how to live Christianly in a secular, humanistic, and pluralistic society.

The correctives needed can only be effective as we know God in the personal and specific ways he has chosen to be known, as he tells us in his Word. Plus, he has given himself in the person of the Holy Spirit to help us understand that revelation. Our challenge is to be biblically reformed by the Word and Spirit. That is the both the history and spirit of the Reformation that we urgently need in today’s church and beyond.

--Charles Dunahoo