Beneath God's Word

For many people, when they think of October, they think of leaves changing, pumpkin spice lattes, football, and fall festivals. But on the last Sunday in October, many churches across the country celebrate what is known as Reformation Sunday. Why celebrate the Reformation? Because it marks a time when Christ brought His church back to the truth of His Word.

Over 500 years ago, a German monk named Martin Luther began to notice that the teaching of the church had drifted away from what the Bible says regarding salvation. Salvation was understood as a combination of faith and works. For the right price, you could even purchase forgiveness.

But over the course of time, God opened Luther’s eyes to the Scriptures to see that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone. This discovery sparked what we now call the Reformation. But the Reformation wasn’t just about correcting a few theological errors, it was a movement that reminded the church that she was built by God’s Word, governed by God’s Word, and she must always be shaped by God’s Word.

One of the mantras that emerged from the Reformation was the Latin phrase:

Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei“- The reformed church, always reforming according to the Word of God.”

This little Latin phrase captures the very heart of the Reformation. Through the Middle Ages, the church had begun to veer from God's Word. She hardly resembled the pure bride of Christ. By the sixteenth century, the worship of the Western church had become entangled in layers of tradition, relics, indulgences, and ceremony.

The congregation stood in awe of the priest’s ritual more than the glory of Christ. It was not the pulpit that stood at the center of worship, but the altar — where mass was performed with the belief that Christ’s body and blood were offered up afresh each time for the sins of the people. The entire service was conducted in Latin, not in the common tongue of the people. The Word of God was veiled from His people and worship had become man-centered.

God used Men like Luther to put the Word of God back into the hands of the church. The Bible was translated into the common language of the people. Light shone into the darkness, and Protestants  (from “protesters”)  began to reform themselves according to Scripture. That’s where the first part of the motto comes from: “The Reformed Church.”

But the second part of the phrase is equally important: “The church must always be reforming according to the Word of God.” This phrase reminds us that Reformation is never finished. The church in every age is tempted to drift away from her first love. She is tempted to replace the authority of Scripture with the opinions of man. Genuine worship is too often substituted with entertainment. 

That’s why the Reformation continues to remind us that the church must continually measure herself against the Word of God alone. When we confess semper reformanda (always reforming), we are confessing that we never sit above the Word. We never outgrow our need for Scripture to guide, correct, convict, and sanctify us. Instead we subject ourselves beneath God's Word asking God to reform us and sanctify is by His Word.

The promise of semper reformanda is that Christ is not finished with His church. He is still sanctifying us “through the washing of water with the Word” (Ephesians 5:25–27). The same Spirit who reformed the church in the sixteenth century is still at work today calling us back to the same gospel, the same Scripture, and the same Savior.