Formed Again
I enjoy history. If I take a moment to ponder The Reformation, that monumental historical event of ages past, visions of a tonsured Doctor Martin Luther might come to my mind’s eye, his 95 topics for debate being nailed to the church door. Thundering echoes of A Mighty Fortress can be mentally replayed, as well as his anguished but resolute response when faced with almost certain death at the hands of those who deemed him the worst of heretics: “My conscience is bound by the Word of God. Here I stand. I can do no other.”
But far from being just an anniversary to celebrate, reformation continues to be a deep need for Christ’s church. Not a reforming toward so-called “openness” and “progress,” a sickly church readily bending toward affirming ideologies and cultural norms that destroy bodies and souls, a church failing to raise its voice to warn those who are on the path to eternal destruction.
But before we make things simple–making our sole focus the undeniable need for reformation in “those people” and in “that church”–let’s stop for a moment. You and I don’t get the luxury of wagging our heads and pointing to sick and dying portions of Christ’s church, while escaping our Savior’s call to be constantly and personally re-formed. Rather, like you, I have a deep need to clearly hear the unfiltered truth of God’s Word confronting me with my wickedness and rebellion and drawing me in repentance to find comfort in the Good News that Christ has made full atonement for all my sin!
I so readily lean on my own standards of spiritual success and goodness. I know I’m not alone. Just like the Christians in ancient Galatia. Probably, just like you. Generation after generation, we have the strong tendency to say, though never voicing it: “Jesus is central to my right standing before a holy God. No doubt about that!” Quickly adding, “What about me? Now? Today? Have I done enough to please God? Am I sincere or clean enough to make it into the safety of eternity? Or will I suffer a different outcome?” Questions from the age of The Reformation. Current personal questions.
We, misshapen self-reliant sinners, need to be re-formed. Constantly. The Apostle Paul gets in our face, reminding us: “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified” (Gal. 3:1 ESV). He effectively says, “You know so well that Christ has done all for you!” Then pulling no punches, he gets to the point… “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3 ESV).
If honest, I’d have to reply to brother Paul again and again, “Yes, I admit, I’m trying.”
My problem is evident. I need to be re-formed. Re-oriented, yet again.
It is to those of us who so readily succumb to believing that “Jesus is not enough” that Paul addresses his gut-wrenching reformation appeal: “my little children, …I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal. 4:19 ESV).
That’s always been the heart of reformation–Jesus Christ formed in me, in us, in his church. Christ Alone, my righteousness, my peace, my everlasting life.
Yes, Jesus is enough. God’s Word makes it clear. Jesus is enough for Paul, for Luther, and enough for me and you, dear sister and brother in Christ. With our eyes fixed on Jesus, alone, we confess, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal. 2:20-21 ESV).