God’s Work of Reformation (2)

Introduction

I stated in the last article that God’s work of the reformation of his church in 2021 was necessary and demonstrated the necessity of it.¹ The reformation of 2021 was God’s work alone in the salvation of his church. A generation had arisen that knew not the mighty works of Jehovah and that forgot the gospel of grace. Instead of worshiping the one true God as the God of their salvation, the people of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) corrupted themselves in the vanity of the idol. God came and broke the snare so that we might escape the bondage of salvation by the working and willing of man. The intent of this second article is to expound on the idea of reformation and the truth that was restored to the church.

Its Idea

God worked a reformation and formed his church anew. Reformation is God’s work of returning his church to the truth of the word of God. A generation arises that knows not the works of the Lord. The truth gets watered down. The message gets softened. Perhaps the pulpit plays a major part in that, or the pew clamors for nicer preaching and pressures the pulpit to back off. Men want to hear less about God and Jesus Christ and more about what man has to do. So Christ is moved from his prominent place in the church, and man is given a small part alongside Christ. 

In reformation there is first a return to the truth of the scriptures. The anthem of the Reformation church of Luther’s day was the phrase sola scriptura, or scripture alone. Not the will of man, the writings of men, the wisdom of man, or the traditions of the church but the scriptures alone.

At the famous Diet of Worms in 1521, before the imperial court, Martin Luther said, “My conscience is captive to the word of God.” Though men demanded that he recant, he said he could not because no one had ever proved from scripture that he was wrong. The scriptures are the objective standard of truth. Everything is subject to the word of God. All things must be tested according to that word. And the believer is bound to that objective standard of the truth. The believer can take the scriptures and judge all things. That belongs to your office of believer. That is the honoring of the office of believer in the church. Every church says, “Here is Christ.” The believer takes the word and holds it up to the lens of scripture and judges churches: “No, Christ is not there or there. Christ is here.” Luther broke with a thousand years of Roman Catholic tradition that said the church councils were inerrant. In 2021 we broke with the PRC, who also had set up her councils above God’s word. God’s word must reign in the church. God’s word is the sole standard of what is right and wrong, of truth and lie, of light and darkness.

In 2021 the return was to the truth of the unconditional covenant. The covenant is God’s relationship of fellowship and friendship with his elect in Jesus Christ. God established, maintains, and perfects that covenant in Jesus Christ. The covenant is not God and man working together. The covenant is not two rails running side by side. But the covenant is governed by election. God takes his people to himself as his friends and servants. He draws his people into his covenant and gives them life. Upon the elect, God in Jesus Christ through the Spirit bestows all the blessings of the covenant as an unending fountain. There was a return to that truth.

In reformation there is also an advance in the truth. This means that the truth is brought to a deeper understanding than in years past. In 1924 the covenant was developed and explained as fellowship and friendship with God in Christ and not as a pact or bargain, as had been the Reformed consensus. Our forefathers in 1924 taught that God established, maintains, and will perfect his covenant and that the covenant is unconditional and unilateral. But gradually over time, it was being taught that the way to experience that fellowship is “in the way of” obedience, repentance, or prayer. Since 2021 the advance has been that the covenant in its experience is also unilateral and unconditional. An elect child of God experiences and enjoys the friendship and fellowship of God by faith alone in Jesus Christ crucified, which is to say, by doing nothing. There are no works of man necessary to experience the covenant.

Out of the recovery of the doctrine of the covenant has been the recovery and advance regarding the demand of the covenant in the Christian day school and the doctrine of the antithesis. The school is the banding together of members of the covenant to educate their children in the fear of the Lord. The antithesis is the enmity that exists between God and the world. The reality of the child of God in his heart, life, and experience is that he stands at enmity with the unfruitful works of darkness. The school has its foundation in the separation between God and his people and the false church and the world. The covenant, the antithesis, and the Christian school stand and fall together. If one rejects the antithesis, the school and the covenant will fall too. If one rejects the school, the antithesis and the covenant also will fall with it.

Another return in God’s work of reformation was to the truth of justification by faith alone. The controversy with the PRC touched on the heart of the gospel. The Reformed Protestant doctrine of justification, which is the doctrine of the scriptures and the Reformed confessions, is the reason for the existence of the Reformed Protestant Churches (RPC). Justification is the legal act of God, declaring the ungodly sinner righteous for Christ’s sake. God forgives the sinner’s sins and imputes to him the righteousness of Jesus Christ by the instrument of faith alone. Justification and the forgiveness of sins are the same thing (Belgic Confession 23). The PRC makes a distinction between them, but scripture and the creeds consider forgiveness and justification to be one and the same. The RPC returned to the gospel-truth of justification by faith alone without the activities of man. The RPC returned to the full-throated declaration that God forgives the sinner of his sins for Christ’s sake by faith alone without any “but” coming after that declaration. There is no “but…man must just do this one thing.” The child of God is justified by doing nothing at all, not by a single work or even a breath. He is justified by doing nothing. He is justified in eternity. He is justified at the cross. He is justified in time when God sends the gospel and tells him what is real in eternity.

Because the RPC’s controversy with the PRC is in the realm of man’s subjective experience, the assurance of the believer is the object of relentless attack. Assurance is man’s subjective experience of justification in his heart and life. Assurance is justification. According to Professor Cammenga, assurance does not just fall out of the sky; you have to obey to have assurance. Well, actually assurance does drop “out of the sky.” John 3:8: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” The Spirit, whose work is mysterious and wonderful, is compared with the wind. You never see the wind, but you see its effects. The wind comes out of the sky and blows over the creation. Belonging to the work of the Spirit is faith and the assurance of faith. He is the author of faith in its entirety (Lord’s Day 27). The believer has assurance because the Spirit blew in the preaching of the holy gospel and worked in him the assurance of forgiveness and justification.

The child of God is justified by doing nothing at all, not by a single work or even a breath. He is justified by doing nothing. He is justified in eternity. He is justified at the cross. He is justified in time when God sends the gospel and tells him what is real in eternity.

He is justified by doing nothing. He is justified in eternity. He is justified at the cross. He is justified in time when God sends the gospel and tells him what is real in eternity.

Further, if you ask someone in the PRC today, “Whom does God justify?” the overwhelming answer will be that God justifies the repentant, penitent believer. God justifies good people in the church. He justifies people who love God and love their neighbors. He justifies people who are obedient and faithful. The PRC covers that teaching by using the phrase “in the way of,” which has become equivalent to “by means of.” That is the message that pours forth from Protestant Reformed pulpits.

The message of the Reformed Protestant Churches and the right of her existence as church is that God justifies ungodly sinners. The Reformed Protestant Churches are the only churches I know of that preach this doctrine. Where do you hear this doctrine in the world today? Where do you hear that sound Sunday after Sunday as the heart and soul of the message of the church? The preaching of this doctrine is as rare as a precious gem. In nominally Reformed churches across the board, you hear this: God justifies you if and when you believe, make a decision for Christ, accept Christ, or by your active faith. The RPC teaches this: God justified the ungodly sinner in eternity, at the cross, and he brings the reality of justification into that ungodly sinner’s heart and life in the preaching of the gospel.

The advance that has come from the return to the doctrine of justification by faith alone is the relationship between justification and repentance. The advance is not in the necessity of repentance. Man must repent. He must turn from his sin in hatred and toward God in love. He will repent too. God redeems and renews sinners (Lord’s Day 32). God converts sinners. But repentance does not belong in justification. Repentance is not a legal act of God upon the sinner but a renewing act of God. In conversion or repentance, God goes to work on a sinner. The relationship between justification and repentance is that God bestows repentance because he justifies ungodly sinners. Forgiveness (justification) is not in the way of man’s repenting. Justification is by faith alone in the perfect work of Christ. As the twin benefit of justification, God also converts sinners.

Another advance regarding the doctrine of justification is the free forgiveness of the neighbor. This truth flows directly out of the truth of God’s free forgiveness of his people. The believer forgives his neighbor who will sin against him and has sinned against him, and because he forgives and loves his neighbor, the believer actually will seek out his neighbor’s salvation by rebuking him in his sin and calling him to repentance.

Lastly, something that is often overlooked is the reformation in the preaching. In the PRC the preaching is shackled. The minister has to be careful not to offend his congregation. He has to tiptoe around issues. He cannot name the lie. He has to administer a healthy dose of man’s responsibility. The preacher has to worry about people and how they receive the preaching. He has to make everyone happy. The pulpits are shackled. But in the RPC the pulpits are free to preach God’s word, not fearing the faces of men. The Holy Spirit has free course in his church. He blows like a fire in the pulpits. Is that how the pulpit is characterized in the PRC? Not at all, but Protestant Reformed pulpits are filled with pandering hirelings who seek the praise of men. Protestant Reformed ministers curate their messages as not to offend the sensibilities of their congregants. Instead of preaching the law strictly and properly, condemning man in his sin, Protestant Reformed ministers use the law to tell the people what a great job they are doing in their lives of sanctification.

Further, when I was Protestant Reformed, I knew that in the pulpit Christ was the one speaking. I knew that when I came to church, I came to hear God speak. I do not know if anyone in the PRC believes that truth about the preaching. The people in the PRC dismiss the preaching as a light thing. They say that it is just a man speaking. The preaching is a take-it-or-leave-it Chinese buffet line. I imagine they reduce the preaching to just a man speaking because then they can remain in a church that gives a dose of false doctrine in every sermon. If the sermon is only man’s ideas and words, then the members can console themselves while remaining in a church that corrupts the truth that they do not have to listen to certain parts of the preaching.

Its Purpose

God’s purpose with the reformation of 2021 is twofold. First, God had in mind his elect whom he loved in Christ from all eternity. He had in mind the salvation of the elect body of Christ. Willing to save the elect and draw them into his fellowship that they might know and taste him as the only good and glorious God, he sent Christ, the savior of Israel and of his church, to deliver them. He sent Christ to die for all your sins and to earn righteousness. He sent Christ in your flesh that through his flesh the new and living way unto the Father might be opened. He sent Christ to be your perfect and complete salvation, so that there is nothing more that is needed besides him. And having died, risen, and ascended into heaven, Christ received the Spirit and poured out that Spirit so that the Spirit might communicate to you in your experience all the blessings of salvation that are in Christ. Receiving the Spirit, you have received the promise of God.

God willed that you would not perish in the false church and remain in the snare of idols. He came with his Word in the preaching. God accomplishes mighty things in the preaching. He tears down the kingdom of man and realizes his own kingdom. He works wonders in the preaching. By his voice he delivered his people. His people heard Christ; and hearing Christ, they believed in him for all their salvation and condemned themselves in all their works. God had a people in the PRC whom he loved, and he drew them out by his Spirit and Word. Our hope as a church, and thus the reason for this lecture, is that if there are children of God yet in the PRC, that he will fill them with the Spirit and draw them out of the false church into the true church and the glorious liberty that we have as the sons and daughters of God. Our prayer is that he convicts you in the fear of faith to forsake that apostate institution and follow Christ to the place where he is present by his Spirit and Word.

Second, the purpose of reformation, like the preaching of the gospel, is the damnation of the reprobate. We ought to say a few things about apostasy here. Apostasy is departure from the truth of God. Apostasy is not that someone makes a mistake or blunders. When Christ is kicked out of a church, the reason is that the reprobate element has the majority. There is always the seed of apostasy in the true church. Already from the beginning of a reformation, there is a reprobate element in the church. No one knows where the line is drawn, but we know it is always there. That reprobate element lies in wait until it sees the opportunity to seize the truth in order to kill it. That the PRC kicked out Christ in 2021 is because the majority of the Protestant Reformed denomination is filled with reprobate men and women who had Rev. Hubert De Wolf’s theology in their hearts for almost seventy years. They came to power in the church over a lengthy period of time. A whole generation arose that knew not the gospel. God exposed those people. He came to them with this simple question, “What will you do with the truth? What will you do with my Christ?” 

They loudly and with one voice said, “Crucify him, crucify him!” God hates them and wills their destruction.

In reformation then, God’s purpose is the glory of his name in the salvation of his elect people and the destruction of the reprobate.

And we too killed Christ, each in our own way. Maybe we sat mute while all that was going on. Perhaps we even defended the lie. We stood guilty of the same sins as those in the PRC. It was not until the Spirit came and pricked our hearts that Jesus Christ became to us as the most beautiful person in all the heaven and earth. When the PRC killed Christ, she killed us too then. “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb. 13:13). And so we followed Christ out of the camp to the place where we could hear him, and in doing so, the sufferings of the cross left behind for us abound in us. That reproach of the apostate church and the world against the true church fills up God’s cup of wrath and prepares the world for the destruction that is coming. In reformation then, God’s purpose is the glory of his name in the salvation of his elect people and the destruction of the reprobate.

Its Continuation

God continues his work of reformation in his church. There is a definite time that we can point to, and we can say, “God determined to form his church anew on January 21, 2021.” Yet we must say that God also continues his work of reformation. A church is either reforming, or a church is apostatizing. She is either growing in the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ her Lord, or she is falling away. Through that all God is refining the work of his hands.

Knowing that, remember that the true church will not always be First Reformed Protestant Church or the Reformed Protestant Churches. The truth will not always be found there. You always must have that in your mind. You never are settled here. I say that especially for my children and for your children. The Israelites loved the truth as long as Joshua and the elders lived, but after they died, a generation arose that knew not the works of the Lord. The believer always is watching, listening, and testing everything against the word of God. The believer is a pilgrim and a stranger, and he is ready to depart outside the camp to go where Christ is if the lie corrupts the beautiful doctrine of salvation by grace alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone, to the glory of God alone. Do you hear that warning in the PRC? Could you imagine if a Protestant Reformed minister said that? I will say to you, if the RPC ever corrupts the truths that God justifies ungodly sinners and that the covenant is completely unconditional in every respect, God must form his church anew and you must leave here. Do not hesitate for one moment. You will know then that a generation has risen up that knows not the Lord nor his mighty works. That will happen again and again until Christ returns. That is the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the book of Judges.

To end on a positive note, if I consider the place in time and history that God has given to First Reformed Protestant Church and to the Reformed Protestant denomination, all I can do is praise and thank our God for this tremendous privilege. Those outside this church look at us and think with all the trouble and distress that seems to befall us that we must be the most miserable people in the world. I can tell you that we are not. We are beset on every side, that is true. But we have this: Peace with God. Peace in my heart and life that I am right with God. He is not at war with me. He does not strive against me. But in all my life he is for me. He is blessing me and blessing this congregation. The proof of that is that he has given to us the gospel. This is our joy and happiness as believers and as a church: We are righteous before God in Christ without our works. That is our confession. That is our joy and peace.

The church suffers in the world. That is her lot in this miserable, cursed, sin-filled world. The church is hated and despised. Besides, her members still have all the motions of sin in them. But faith is bright, all that considered. God’s people love and confess the truth. They know the works of the Lord. They are filled with joy, hope, and peace. There is nowhere you or I would rather be than this privileged place in the year of our Lord 2026.

Questions and Answers

Q. Did election become just a “who” and not “unto something” in the Protestant Reformed Churches?

A. In Canons 1.7 the confession explains the “who” of election in the first part of the article. In the last half of the article, the confession explains the “what” of election. The confession first defines election and then explains what benefits of salvation come to us from election. The confession then goes on to quote Ephesians 1:4 at the end of the article. Every saving benefit, and I note that nothing is missing in the article, comes to us from the root, fountain, and source of salvation. That you believe the gospel? The source is election. That you repent of your sins? The source is election.

As far as your question is concerned, in the Protestant Reformed Churches the ministers gut election. It is simply window dressing so that they can say, “See, we preach election.” They might use the word election, but their theology is not election theology. They come to a text and do not find the sovereign, gracious God of election but find man and his responsibility.

Protestant Reformed ministers do not preach election. If they preached election, every gift—the reception of the Spirit, membership in the covenant, experience and fellowship with the living God, repentance and good works—would all flow out of the truth of election, and there would be none of these silly word games that they play around with in their preaching.

Q. In connection with justification by faith alone, could you expound on the importance of the recovery of faith as a bond with Christ—it is no activity of man, but all of God, so that we are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh?

A. Faith is actively being rejected as union with Christ. Union with Christ is the essence of faith, and union with Christ is really the essence of salvation too. Salvation is wrapped up in our union with Christ as our head. God said about Christ “righteous” when he was raised up; and because God says that about your head, he says that about you who are in him.

The work that is being done in the PRC, especially by Reverend McGeown, is the denial of the truth that faith is a bond and thereby also a denial of the truth of Lord’s Day 7. McGeown makes the activity of faith the important thing with faith. He makes our activity of believing, resting, and trusting the deciding thing. Our union with Christ is our bond with Jesus Christ. John 15 is explicit that Christ is the true vine and that we are in him. The only way you can understand John 15 and the inness of Christ with the child of God is faith as a bond. Anytime that you are reading the scriptures and you come to “in Christ,” there you have the scriptures’ teaching of faith as a bond or union with Jesus Christ. That is no small matter in scripture. That is the essence of faith. It is only because we are united with Jesus Christ that we receive all the blessings of salvation and all the righteousness that is ours in Christ. That by faith alone, by doing nothing, we are justified before the sight of God.