What Does It Mean To Be Reformational?

Recovering the Word of God from the Ways of Men

Whenever the authority and light of God’s Word is obscured by the established traditions and authorities of men, reformation is needed.

Some see the Reformation as the moment where everything went wrong, when Christendom was corrupted, eroded, and broken, where the Church authorities were fatally undermined, introducing seemingly endless individual reinterpretations of the Bible, ever-splintering church denominations, and ultimately opening the door to the tsunami of modern western liberalism.

Others see the Reformation as almost sacrosanct, where it is as though Luther and Calvin had come down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of their confessions and institutes written in stone. Such people might be suspicious of anyone seeking to use the word “Reformational” today lest we appear to be competing with these venerated saints of Protestant tradition, whose particular applications of Scripture written in their own time can almost become (most ironically) like new books of Scripture!

Inheritance, Inspiration, Imitation

It is certainly true that the Reformation left a mixed legacy and a mixed inheritance. But it remains an inheritance in which we can rejoice and from which we can find great inspiration for the challenges of our own time. However, we will not imitate the best of reformational thought and action if we remain mere imitators of a particular period, style, confession, tradition, or person.

We must certainly learn from their faithfulness and not be too quick to dispense with the conclusions of those who have shone the torch of faithfulness before our time. But we will have learnt best when we have learnt not merely to regurgitate their particular traditions and confessions and fights, but to imitate the driving force that led them to such confessions and traditions: a determined rootedness in what Scripture says over against whoever happens to be saying otherwise, however powerful they happen to be, or seem to be.

In fact, if we fight precisely the same battles the Reformers fought, we may find we’re not actually fighting for what they themselves actually fought. Had the Reformers been here today it is highly unlikely that their actions and emphases would resemble their actions and emphases from half a millennium ago. As Luther himself said, we must fight “where the battle rages” in each generation.

So what is it we seek to imitate when we speak of being “reformational” today? All true reformers have seen clearly in their time the ways in which the Word of God becomes obscured by those who no longer see, hear, or say what most needs to be seen, heard, or said.

Reformational Precedents

The Reformation of the 16th century was not the only time we have seen reformation. All through church history there have always been those who have had to stand firm against the tyrannies and temptations of their age. Quite often such tyrannies and errors have been enacted by religious authorities acting on God’s behalf.

Scripture itself shows numerous examples of reformational thinking and action, from the prophets reminding Israel of the Law and calling them back to the Covenant, to Jesus challenging the Pharisees and scribes who had moved beyond the heart of God’s Word (Mark 7:9), to Peter and Paul challenging how God’s people have understood their salvation, and sometimes even challenging one another (Gal. 2:11-14).

We are ever in need of voices of reform to call us back to the lamp that provides God’s light for the path set before us (Ps. 119:105). It is very easy to go slightly awry from generation to generation whilst thinking you are following the Word. Over time, subtle manmade deviations can easily creep in and adjust your course without much fuss. Eventually, you may find yourself in a totally different place altogether.

We are not called to be enslaved to repeat only what is explicitly prescribed or commanded in Scripture in exactly the same way in every generation. Rather, through our submission to the authoritative light of Scripture we are informed and directed in all our thoughts and actions, so that we may “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2Cor. 10:5) and are thus “equipped for every good work” (2Tim. 3:16), even if such works may look different in different times.

Reformation and Culture War

This reformational spirit is not limited to intra-ecclesiastical debates, of course. It very much includes “the culture war” too. Indeed, a few years ago, Tom Holland wrote an article for Unherd imagining how Martin Luther might have fared on Twitter today (hint: very well indeed!). Holland notes:

“To describe the Reformation as a Twitter spat that got out of hand would obviously be anachronistic. Nevertheless, it is not entirely so: for it hints at a quality of Luther’s genius that we, in the age of social media, are perhaps peculiarly qualified to appreciate.”

There is something inescapably polemical, controversial, and public about the Reformation which probably could not have happened had it not happened the way it happened by those through whom it happened. Many Protestants like to inherit the fruits of the Reformation without an equal willingness to be part of the necessary fight that lies at its roots and will likely be necessary in their time too, one way or another.

It is those who see themselves as the “guardians” of the Reformation legacy (its “scribes”, we might say…) who are often most dismissive of the need to go to war in the wider marketplace of ideas, who look down upon those who sully themselves in the ever-changing ideological fray of social media as though they are wasting their time in pointless quarrels.

Whilst frivolousness is certainly a possibility with any missional endeavour, such ethereal perspectives easily become concerned more with avoiding trouble than speaking the truth most needed.

A Call for Courage

Reformational times require not only calm reflection upon doctrine and church practice, but a willing courage to do what is needed to fight for them (and with them) where necessary. They require not merely a recitation of the Reformers’ ways but a recovery of what drove them to fight the good fight where it ought to be fought.

If we are paying attention to Scripture—especially on the Lordship of Christ over “all things” (Eph. 1:22) and the extension of the kingdom of God “over all the earth” (Ps. 47:7)—we cannot turn a blind eye to the kingdom battlefield of our wider society. This is God’s world and his ambassadors are called to be salt and light within it (Matt. 5:13-15). To turn our faces away like retiring hobbits would be (to some extent) to turn our faces away from the God who calls us to fulfil His great commission “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

It is because of the enormous impact upon wider culture and society that the Reformation of the 16th century is so widely remembered (and/or “venerated”) to this day. But true reformation starts with us, as individuals, families, and churches, and from there spreads to nations and cultures as we seek to make known the glory of God which we seem all too prone to forget.

Are we truly willing to hear the Word of God today over and above the politics, traditions, and reputational concerns of those who stand before us? Do we tremble at man’s words or do we tremble at God’s word?

Thus says the Lord:
“Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
    and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made,
    and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word.

(Isaiah 66:1-2)

More on the Podcast…

Following on from “What Does It Mean To Be Evangelical?”, in our latest episode of That Good Fight podcast A Reformation for Gentlemen, Nathan Paylor and I talk through some of these themes and more. See below for the video (or find the audio on a podcatcher near you).

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