Introduction to the Reformation

God is moving by His Spirit once again in the world. There is no question that the Lord is initiating a move of His Spirit within the global church. When God moves, our responsibility is to respond to His moving. The Church is the Body of Christ, the vehicle by which the Holy Spirit can act and move in the earth. The Church is not social club, a democratic society, or a religious organization. We exist to be the dwelling place of God by the Holy Spirit.

The Church is the Body of Christ, and exists for one reason and purpose—to facilitate the will and purpose of Christ through His Spirit! [1]

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church—we are the Body! [2] This is more than a nice metaphor, it speaks of a reality of the Spirit which the natural man cannot understand. It defines our relationship, as the Church, to the Lord Jesus. We are His Body…He is the Head. The word translated ‘head’ is the Greek word kephale, and describes the source, or origin out of which a thing comes and in which it continues to exist.

The head of a body provides all that the body needs, and gives the body its ability to think and reason with purposeful direction. In the same manner, the Head of the Body of Christ is the Lord Jesus, and as such is the source and origin for our existence, purpose, and destiny as the Body of Christ. He has a specific will and purpose for His Body, and we, as the Body of Christ must exist in accordance with that will and purpose.

Whenever the Church begins to be something that the Lord has not designed to be, God begins to initiate a move to restore the Church to accuracy! When God moves, we must respond. This movement to return us, His people, the Body to a correct alignment and relationship with the Head, is called a ‘reformation’. The movement of God to restore the Church to its accuracy of alignment and relationship to its Head is called by the Scriptures ‘a time a reformation’ The first such great ‘reformation’ occurred with the first coming of the Lord Jesus!

Hebrews 9.8-11 reads, ‘The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshipper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. But when Christ appeared…”

The implication of these verses are that the old Mosaic system of worship was not the ultimate, nor complete goal and purpose of God for His people. It was unable to make the worshipper perfect in conscience. In other words, it could only deal with the external ‘cleansing’ of the people of God. Therefore, its offerings and laws and sacrifices existed as regulations for the body…UNTIL a time of reformation. That ‘time of reformation’ occurred when Christ came!

There are four points from this passage concerning the first ‘time of reformation’ inaugurated by the first coming of the Lord Jesus into the Jewish system of temple worship that we will look at.

Number 1:  There is a specific ‘way’ to access God. The writer of Hebrews declares that the ‘way into the holy place’ had not yet been disclosed as long as the ‘outer tabernacle’, or the temple, was still standing. The Letter to the Hebrews, written just prior to the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in A.D. 70, assumes the presence of the Temple in Jerusalem around which Judaism centered. It was the Temple system of worship, with its sacrifices, its laws, and its Priesthood, together with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Elders that Jesus came into conflict with over and over, as He brought ‘a time of reformation’. The Old Mosaic system could only foreshadow the ‘way’ into the Holy Place.

The people of God have a right to fully access the presence of God in the Holy Place. Jesus Christ came to show us the ‘way’ into that place to which we may ‘draw near with confidence’ [3] and ‘full assurance of faith’. [4] Every reformation move of God defines and brings the People of God into the Holy Place by revealing the ‘way’ to that place! There is a ‘specific way into the ‘holy place’, the place of God’s presence and purpose for this generation. We want clarity into that place!

Whenever God moves to take us into the ‘holy place’, the present system is no longer able to take God’s people into that place. It must be ‘reformed’, it must once again be aligned to the Spirit of God. Religiosity and traditions must come up against the uprightness and straightness of God’s Word. Whatever is not accurate must be made accurate. Whatever exists in what is called ‘church’ must be made straight. Our ‘way’ of doing Church and relating to Christ must come into alignment with ‘His way’. This process of becoming straight is what the writer of Hebrews called ‘a time of reformation’.

Number 2:  The Goal of Reformation is Perfection. Whenever God moves and we respond with faith and obedience to His movement, we move closer to perfection. Note that the Hebrews 9.9 tells us that the old system was unable to ‘make the worshiper perfect in conscience’. The goal is perfection. The word translated ‘perfection’ is the Greek word telios, which speaks of fulfillment of a goal, completion, or maturity. The Lord is wanting a Church that is mature, complete, and arriving at the fulfillment of the goal for which they have come into existence.

Although perfection has implications for sin, it points to issues much more important than that. It speaks the Church growing up into the Head in a manner that allows the Head to pour its purpose and power into the Body without any hesitation or reserve. The Lord is looking for a body that will be able to do and be all that the Head desires and wills.

Note that the implication of perfection focuses the reader on the internal realities of the Christ-centered life. ‘Perfect in conscience’ points to the internal components of our walk with Christ. Not the external, but the internal. That which is imperfect focuses attention on the external. This was the primary issue with which the Lord dealt with the Pharisees during His ministry. ‘Clean the outside of the cup and the inside will also be clean’ [5] , said the Lord many times.

As we move into this present reformation, towards perfection and maturity, accessing the ‘way into the holy place’, we will be continually confronted by the Holy Spirit with the internal issues of our faith. The Holy Spirit is interested in the condition of our heart. The Word of the Lord deals with the intents and motives of the heart. The worshiper of the Lord hungers for a perfection within the conscience. The present Church system cannot provide the worshiper with this reality…it can only offer the cleansing of the external with regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation!

Brothers and sisters, that time of reformation is upon us. God is once again looking inside the Church and those who call themselves Christians to see the condition of the heart. What a wonderful time to be in Christ. A time of reformation, a time of making straight that which is crooked that we might move towards the finish, towards perfection, towards maturity!