Today is Reformation Day!
October 31, 1517 is over 500 years in our rear view mirror, but in similar fashion, may appear closer than it is. There is never a point where we can kick up our heels and stop reforming ourselves in light of God's counsel. We are not reforming His Word, we are being reformed according to His standard. His Word never changes, but we must. We default to drift and if we do not continually swim upstream, we will be further downstream. Dead fish can swim downstream. But we, who have been born again and made alive in Christ, must swim upstream with all our might. We do not outgrow our need for careful examination of the Scripture and our lives in light of it.
semper reformanda
We do not seek revolution, but reformation. We don't want to overhaul the system, but change it back to what it ought to be.
By His Word,
we were formed
In our sin,
we were deformed
By His grace,
we are reformed
In His image,
we are conformed
Genesis 2:7
The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
God formed man.
Man was deformed by wanting to be God.
God informed Adam He would one day remedy this deformation.
God, in His mercy, sent His Son in the form of man.
Philippians 2:5-8
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
He was deformed for our sake.
Isaiah 52:14
As many were astonished at you— His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind
By His grace, we are reformed and conformed to image of Christ.
Romans 8:28-29
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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