To God Be The Glory In The Church Pt. 4
In the last installment of our current blog series our brother Michael Leach exhorts us to press toward faithfulness in the biblical distinctives of the church so that we can avoid the pitfalls of recasting the church according to the shifting winds of our current culture. Faithfulness to the Reformed distinctives requires us not only to be diligent students of these doctrines but also to continuously strive to implement and incorporate them in every area of ministry in such a way and to such an extent that our local churches are more and more familiar with and grounded in them. Reformed pastors are in truth and indeed Reformed only as they are seeking to bring the body of Christ into conformity with all that Reformed teaching embraces. Our times are changing fast: churches are increasingly resembling and imitating secular institutions. Indeed, the term church is indiscriminately applied to all religious bodies regardless of their beliefs and in despite of their villainous deviations from biblical truth. The result is that the term church, in accordance with the polluted pattern of our reductionistic and relativistic age, has been shorn of its transcendent character, stripped of its Christological essence, divested of its soteriological dimension, and has become ingloriously bogged down in the shifting quicksand of rank immanentism, that is, the deplorable fixation with satisfying and serving the demands of the hic et nunc, of the here and now. At best, current evangelicalism portrays, as one writer has said, “a jellyfish kind of Christianity– one without any distinctive bone, muscle, sinew,� one that is a very distant relative to that witnessed in Scripture. Against this dark and desperate backdrop, those of us committed to the Reformed agenda stand out as the primary beacons of hope, as those upon whose shoulders the responsibility of returning “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ..� 2 Cor 4:4, and (consequently) His authority, to the church, lies.
More can be said of the current American biblical theological landscape but at this time it is sufficient for us to remember that the “Black Church� is very much a part of and has always been affected by the larger national trends. It has never been insulated from or unaffected by national theological patterns. Our tasks therefore are to seize the time and to apply ourselves to the diligent study of the Word of God so that our Spirit-empowered works become proverbial. We can ill-afford to move from day to day as run of the mill participants in the chronological flow of events. Rather, we are to see ourselves as being providentially placed at this kairotic moment, perched on the precipice of restoring the glory of God to His church by recovering the glorious truths of Reformational theology.
Our rallying cry is once more, Ad Fontes! –to the source- back to the Scripture and to its faithful teaching and application to God’s people, of whom He has made us under-shepherds. If we love Him, we will feed His flock. I believe that the most important place for us to begin is the doctrine of the Church- to ensure that our churches reflect the attributes and marks that have been bequeathed to us by our wise, holy forebears acting in their communal wisdom. This need is as profound as it is lofty.
We are painfully aware that some of us have inherited ministries whose members, for the most part, even balk at the need for the institution of the biblical office of elders. This is a sticky wicket that has to be dealt with wisely, patiently, lovingly and according to the individual makeup of each local body, including the personality and giftedness of the pastor. Nevertheless, it is a situation that must be corrected. While we do not possess apostolic plenipotentiary powers whereby we can issue a binding edict declaring it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us…, we nevertheless have at least a moral responsibility to keep the great principles and eternal standards before our members so that they will see and know and consider and understand “.. that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand…� Rom 13:11-12. Our work must similarly be undergirded with a pervasive sense of urgency to return the light of the Reformation to the church of Christ. Who knows! (What a marvelous biblical expression of trust in the unfathomable mysteries of a good and sovereign God!) It may be that the Lord will have mercy upon us and turn and leave behind a blessing, Joel 2:13, and even grant us the undeserving satisfaction of witnessing some of the changes we seek in our lifetime.
My brothers, our hand is already on the plow. Let us therefore now encourage one another, “as we see the Day drawing near,� to keep holding on with a kind of holy, Reformed superglue, with a tireless faithfulness and with a bold and defiant diligence, to restore the glory of God in His congregations which are His witnesses to His kingdom on earth. Let us challenge one another to be instruments of change and servants of the Reformation so that by our very word and deed, God’s honor will be restored and His people given a true hope, one that is anchored in the resurrected, reigning and returning Christ and that is affirmed by His Holy Spirit. Let the winds of the Reformation blow freely once more and fill the sails of our ships and so guide us into that safe harbor which is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. To Him we give eternal, immortal praise. Amen.