Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Oct/79

Contributor - Henry Van Essen

Title - Reformation: Listening and Doing

Topic - Meditation

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" Rev. 2:7 "So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me; if any man's will is to do His will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God, or whether I am speaking on my own authority." John 7:16, 17

The aim of those who struggled for almost two centuries with the church power of Rome was to see a church re-formed according to the Word of God. There were quite a number of teachings and ;practices in the Roman church to which these reformers objected. But all these teachings and practices could not really be :touched, discussed in the light of Scripture, until the one main teaching of the Roman church would be changed: that the Church is infallible, cannot be wrong, in what she teaches. In the Roman Catholic church one only needs to believe one doctrine: that all that the church officially teaches is the truth, and that therefore all that is opposed to her teaching is error or worse. Once one accepts this doctrine one has accepted all that the Church teaches. With that doctrine the whole body of the R.C. church stands or falls. This doctrine has never been changed.

It is understandable, therefore, that those who longed to see the teachings and practices of the church reformed according to the Word of God, could not be allowed to live -under the same roof as those who believed that the church is the official and absolutely trustworthy interpreter of the Word and the will of God. Hence the schism or split in the sixteenth century.

Since then, however, the question of the true teaching has continued to be a most troublesome one. At various times people have sought to replace Church and Pope with the Scriptures. All one had to do was to believe the Scriptures, literally, word for word, given directly by God, and one would have the absolute truth. Then one could by discussion and reason come to the teachings and practices as they should be in a church reformed according to the Word of God. However, our faith is not to be first and foremost in the Scriptures, but in the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving work, of whom all the Scriptures testify. We are saved by faith in Him, through grace. We are to obey our Lord, Head of the Church. He seeks to direct us. His voice we must hear and follow.

As the early reformers struggled with the question of the authority for teaching they realized that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary if churches are to hear what the Lord Jesus is saying to them. True and unchangeable as God's Word is, it is not a package of knowledge which we can study, order, systematize, computerize, to have answers and directions for all situations at our fingertips. The Word is to be the sword of the Spirit; that is, only the Holy Spirit can pierce "to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions qf the heart." Hebrews 4:12 Therefore the church which desires to be reformed according to the Word of God must be still before the Word and hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. To be still is to continuously be willing to put our own ideas and practices aside so that the Spirit's message through the Word is not blocked out. This is true for me as an individual and in my personal life, and for the church and her life.

There still remains the question of truth: how may I know that these things are really so? The Lord Jesus says, Do the will of God and you will know whether this teaching is from God. Or, as we love to sing, Trust and obey. It is in the doing, in the action, that the truth of what we heard with our ears becomes reality, confirmed in our daily walk. There is no other way to test the truth heard, not by intellectual efforts nor by emotional experiences. "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." John 13:17. Those who do them will discover that they have built on rock, when the testing comes. Matthew 7:24-27.

In conclusion: nothing really changes in a person or in a church when they know the Scriptures. "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." John 5:39,40.

Reformation takes place only when we become still and hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches and then go and do it. Since the Lord leads his Church through this age as a pilgrim people, the reformation never ends.

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