REFORMATION DAY THOUGHTS

(Citation of Source)
Spurgeon Baptist Association Of Churches Weekly Update
October 25, 2007
Volume 3, Issue 42
Richard Smith

We are approaching the yearly observance of Reformation Day. This Sunday is Reformation Sunday. There are many reasons that people remember the Reformation, and some of them are actually good. What was it that happened in the Reformation that was worth remembering? Was it the doctrines of the Reformation? Was it that the Reformation was a catalyst that sent forth political freedom as well? Was it the restoration of the Gospel? Was it freeing slaves of sin from the superstitious rites and works of Roman Catholicism? Was the Reformation nothing more than a powerful personality controlling the minds of the masses? Was Martin Luther a virtual madman? There are many ways to look at the Reformation. However, we must not miss the most important part; God.

The real issue of the Reformation was God and a returning to a God-centeredness in all things. We must not miss this point or all of our efforts at reform and revival in our day will be man-centered. While there is a “revival” of Reformed literature and to some degree of Reformed theology in our day, we have yet to see a true revival of God-centeredness. A quote from A History of the 1859 Ulster Revival (volume 5 of 7, pp. 9-11) might help us see the true nature of these things. The reason is that the Reformation was a true revival and not just a movement.

Then the Lord raised up a great army of Reformers, and the Reformers were but revivalists. They did not proclaim a new religion. They restored an old religion. They revived a decayed religion. They burst the bars that confined it. They went into the sepulcher of death, in which a corrupt system had contrived to bury it, and disinterred it. A divine voice spoke, and like another Lazarus, religion, true religion, spiritual and saving, came forth and walked abroad in beauty and power, under the protection of God, defiant of all its foes. The Reformation was but a revival. It cast down all the corrupt devices and imaginations of men, and enthroned Jesus as the Savior of men—the only Mediator between God and man. It put down all the pretensions of men, and exalted Jesus, the High Priest of our profession…it put down all trust in human merit, and declares to the sinner the truth of God, that whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. And the world felt the power of God’s revived truth when preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and now the first of its nations, England and America, are rejoicing in the truth—in the fruits of the Reformation revival of God’s truth. But a true creed is not a guarantee for true religion. Many a man believes aright in theology who does not believe aright in Christ. Many a man is ready to sign the most orthodox standards while his heart is hard, his soul is still corrupt and endangered. He has never felt that he is a sinner, although he admits himself to be a sinner. He admits his need of Jesus, but he has not felt his need. He allows that Jesus is the chief among ten thousand, just because the Bible declares it—and the Bible is true. But he has never seen, his soul and never thrilled with the perception of Jesus’ loveliness. The rapture of the true believer [rapture in the sense of being caught up with delight and joy in God] he cannot understand. He does not like excitement. He is afraid of physical manifestations. And the Christian whose heart glows with the love of Jesus, and whose tongue testifies to His glory is chilled and frozen in the company of that hard, impenitent, orthodox heart. When he leaves those whose hearts the Lord has touched to go into the society of such a one, it is like a transition out of the warm and balmy air of summer into the chill and frigidity of an ice-house.

What we see from this lengthy quote is the core of true religion and the central issue of the Reformation. It was the life and glory of God. The doctrines that came from the Reformation were not bare truths with aridity to them. No, no and a thousand times no. The doctrines of the Reformation came forth from men who were trained by God to see the depths of their sin and so they were broken from all human merit. Those men studied and meditated on the Scriptures and the Spirit gave them a sight of God and so they were strengthened to set out truth as the life of the living God. The real issue of the Reformation was God and God alone. It was a turn from man-centeredness to God-centeredness. It was a turn from rites and rituals to God in the soul. It was a turn from a creed confessed to truths burning in the hearts of men and women. The Reformation was far more than a discovery of the old Gospel; it was a coming down of the Holy Spirit to give power and life through the Gospel. During the Reformation Roman Catholicism was shown for what it was and that was a dead and lifeless form of religion. It was not just that it had bad theology and superstitious rites, but it was a dead, lifeless religion. Theoretically one could have removed Christ’s name from what was going on and it would have continued with no loss.

If anyone truly wants to see true reformation in the modern day, s/he must understand that it will not happen from pure churches and pure doctrine alone. It will only happen if our sovereign God pours out His Spirit and grants a true revival at the same time. We can recover our doctrine until it is pure, but that does not mean that the power of God is present. We can have pure churches as such, but that does not mean that the power of God is present. We can write the purest of creeds, but that does not mean that the power of God is present. What must happen for a reformation to take place in our day is for men to give up all hope in themselves, their efforts, their theology and their churches. All hope must be lost in anything but God Himself and we must look to Him alone. Theology is not the sole means of revival, but it teaches the truth of God and His glory so that we may seek Him in truth. In our day we look at the Reformation and try to see what we can copy. It is easy enough to copy the outward means of the great revival that took place that we know as the Reformation. But what cannot be copied is the broken hearts over sin and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Contrary to modern belief, even among those that profess that God is sovereign, He is sovereign in fact and beyond our control and any and all points. God is not amused or humored when a speck of dust professes that He is sovereign. He already knows that and our professions do not add one thing to the infinite God who cannot be added to.

God is not humored and pleased when we profess that justification is by faith alone even if we are orthodox about what we mean by that. He knows what the Gospel is and our profession does not mean that we are saved by what we profess. God is not pleased until our hearts are truly broken and Christ lives in those hearts. But can puny man break his own hard heart? Can puny man see into the very Godhead and perceive the glories of the Gospel of God? No, all man can do is seek the Lord. It is the sovereign God alone who can break the heart and make room for His life to flow in. It is the sovereign God alone who can open man’s eyes to see His glory in the Gospel and so draw a sinful dead human being to Himself and give that person life from the spiritual dead. It is not a mere intellectual recognition of God that is enough, but it is the living God taking over that person’s heart and making that soul alive.

It would appear that many in our land that cry out for Reformation don’t understand the real heart of what happened in the sixteenth century. It was a profound revival in which God came down and brought life to dead souls. It was from that life that the doctrines of the Reformation spread. We sing the praises of the Reformers and of the theology of the Reformation in some circles, but we don’t have the heart that God gave them. We don’t have the deep love for the glory of God that they did. We are not willing to suffer as they did and even count suffering a privilege and a blessing. No, we are content with mere academic knowledge and a few conferences where we talk about it. But do we really desire for God to come in and take over? Do we really desire the living God to be sovereign? After all, He is not safe and He may want to do things we don’t like. He may use another and not us. He may cause life to come in other churches and not ours. Down deep, are we afraid of true revival? Are we so hungry for it that we don’t care what happens as long as the glory of God is manifested? After all, our minds know that His glory manifested is what is best in all ways. But do we really love it that way? Do we really believe it?

Let us ask ourselves a few questions. Are we afraid of a person who is excited about God? Are we afraid of people who are thrilled with a sight of the glory of God? Are we afraid of people who have a deep and/or bubbly joy in God? Are we afraid of those whose hearts glow with the love of God? Are we uncomfortable around those who are simply thrilled with the glory of a sovereign God? Are we uncomfortable around those that desire for God to be free instead of human beings? If so, it may be that we have a dead orthodoxy. It may be that when a true believer comes into our presence it is like walking into a freezer for them. It may be that our preaching may be precise in its orthodoxy but in reality belongs in the cemetery more than a church of the living God. It may be that we don’t need peace in the SBC among differing theologies but that we need peace with God. It may be that we don’t need more excitement worked up in our churches but we need the living God to come down with real life. It may be that we don’t need more programs and more entertainment for the carnal people that come to church but that we need the living God to come down. It may be that we don’t need more evangelistic training but need our own hearts broken in order to see the glory of God in the Gospel. Dead people don’t need training, they need life.

What we need in our day is God. That sounds so simplistic and so ignorant to many, yet it is exactly what we need. God does not cost money, though He might require more suffering than you can imagine now. God will not come until our hearts are humbled and contrite. He will not dwell with anyone until the heart is broken and contrite (Isa 57:15). It is not only foolish to try to bring revival apart from God; it is foolish to think that we can enrich our theology or programs in order to bring it about. It is when God comes down that life is brought to our theology. Perhaps what we need to do is to do less or perhaps nothing in order to seek God who alone can bring revival. “Do nothing but seek God and pray? But nothing will get done.” It won’t get done in truth unless He comes anyway. We are simply deceiving ourselves and others if we think it will. The truth of the matter is that it makes us feel like we are helping God by doing our religious duties. We have forgotten what the Reformers knew and that truth is that God is sovereign whether we like it or not. He is sovereign whether we profess it or not. He is sovereign and is not manipulated by our professions. It seems so easy to think that we can manipulate God by professing certain beliefs or doing certain actions. That is nothing but Pelagianism in disguise of Reformed theology. God is sovereign so let us all bow and seek Him for a heart to truly seek Him. We will not see a true Reformation and revival without it. But don’t think that God will send it because we are doing it, but we will only be doing it because He may send it.

Richard Smith