When we speak of the Reformation, we generally think of the mighty work that God carried out in sixteenth-century Europe. During that period, He raised up godly men whom He used to bring a large sector of the professing church back to its roots, doctrines, and biblical practices. The pure Gospel was once again proclaimed.
However, we must never forget that the need for reformation is not limited to a specific historical period. God’s people must continually participate in biblical reformation until Christ returns for His church.
Reformata, reformanda (literally, reformed, reforming) is the shorter form of the Latin phrase often used to express this biblical truth. A longer version is ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (literally, the reformed church, always reforming).
What does this mean? If to reform means to remodel something, then to reform beliefs and conduct is to remodel them, to change them in some way.
What does this mean? If to reform means to remodel something, then to reform beliefs and conduct is to remodel them, to change them in some way.
Whether in its shorter or longer version, the only way this Latin phrase can be understood and used biblically is by also adding these words in Latin: *secundum Verbum Dei* (literally, according to the Word of God).
The church is made up of the people of God, who tend to stray from His Word. As the beliefs, commandments, values, and practices of the church lose their biblical “shape,” they must return to the shape established in the Word of God. They need a biblical reformation.
Psalm 119:59-60 gives us a classic illustration of biblical reformation
Consideré mis caminos,
Y volví mis pies a tus testimonios.
Me apresuré y no me retardé
En guardar tus mandamientos.
When the psalmist considered that certain areas of his life were not in line with the Word of God (His Law, His testimonies, His commandments), he turned his steps away from his own ways, his own desires, his own thoughts, and turned to the path marked out by the Word of God. He ceased doing what the Word of God forbids, in order to do what that same Word commands. He reformed or restructured his conduct, changing the pattern of his life to conform to the life pattern revealed in God’s unchanging Word.
Later in that same psalm (verse 89), the psalmist says:
Forever, O Lord,
Your word endures in the heavens
The reformers of the sixteenth century were not trying to adapt the church to the culture of their generation. They sought to change the beliefs and practices of the churches of their generation so that they conformed to the immutable Word of God, as far as they were able to study and understand it.
In every generation, the church must continue examining its beliefs, teachings, and practices to ensure they conform to what the Bible teaches. Otherwise, the beliefs and practices of the church must be changed, when necessary, to align with biblical teachings and commandments.
In the same way, Christians, individually, must continually review their own beliefs and conduct and, when necessary, change them to conform to the biblical pattern. This is what biblical reform is about.
Biblical reform begins in the heart.
Biblical reform does not aim at merely formal and outward practice of the commandments or biblical ceremonies. The prophet Isaiah of the Old Testament condemned such formalism (Isaiah 29:13), and Christ reinforced Isaiah’s condemnation, as we read in Matthew 15:8-9:
This people honors me with their lips;
But their heart is far from me.
In vain do they honor me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men
In 2 Timothy 3:5, the apostle Paul issues a similar condemnation:
… having a form of godliness, but denying its power; from these turn away
Reformation is not the same as regeneration; but regeneration is necessary for true biblical reformation. Human beings, who are spiritually dead in regard to their relationship with God, dead in their sins, must receive spiritual life in order to obey the Word of God from the heart.
En Ezequiel 36:26-27, Dios declara a Su pueblo:
I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will remove from your flesh the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and keep my precepts, and do them.
True biblical reform is motivated by the desire to glorify God (Romans 11:36), united with love for Him who gave Himself up to save His people from their sins (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
For from Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
…For the love of Christ compels us, thinking this: that if one died for all, then all died; and He died for all, so that those who live, no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for them.
Such reform can only arise as the fruit of true evangelical repentance, which involves trusting solely in Christ for the salvation from sin.
As important as the biblical doctrines known as the pillars of the Reformation may be, a vigorous and convincing defense of those doctrines does not constitute biblical reform.
True biblical reform, the fruit of regeneration, begins in the heart, with a pure and sincere desire to worship and serve God. It transforms our thoughts and attitudes, and from there, our behavior.
It calls us to mortify everything that weakens devotion to Christ and zeal for His Kingdom. It calls us to live a life full of the Holy Spirit, manifesting the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22).
It calls us to cultivate the love described in 1 Corinthians 13, which rejects selfishness, bitterness, resentment, anger, envy, arrogance, and thinking or speaking ill of one another.
True biblical reformation leads each of us to strengthen our spiritual life through the diligent use of the means of grace, such as:
- The careful study and devotional assimilation of the Word of God (Psalm 1).
- Private prayer (Matthew 6:5-15)
- The periodic self-examination of our lives in the light of the Word of God (Psalm 119:59-60).
- The effort to maintain a good conscience (Acts 24:16).
- The establishment (or restoration) of family worship (Genesis 35:1-7).
- Faithful attendance at the church’s worship services (Hebrews 10:23-25).
