{"id":30365,"date":"2017-11-29T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/\/uk\/?p=30365"},"modified":"2017-12-11T15:49:59","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T15:49:59","slug":"sort-reformed-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.banneroftruth.org\/uk\/resources\/articles\/2017\/sort-reformed-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sort of’ Reformed: Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of us can recall the intense light and surprising warmth\u00a0conveyed to our hearts when we first read the exemplary history of the Reformers and the Reformation Martyrs, along with\u00a0their expositions of Scripture. Their brave and strong standing fast in\u00a0the faith (1 Cor. 16:13) reached across the centuries and led us to\u00a0new heights in serving the Lord. We were nourished by them in\u00a0words of faith and of good doctrine (1 Tim. 4:6). It was their biblical\u00a0system of doctrine which most gripped us.<\/p>\n

It is exciting to see sound Reformed doctrine penetrating\u00a0evangelical movements that were not historically friendly to the\u00a0doctrines of grace. This activity has gone far beyond Europe and the\u00a0Americas. It is powerfully reaching into Africa, Korea and China. But\u00a0it is not without reason that Scripture calls us to watch and to resist\u00a0forcefully those falsehoods which undermine the truth. It is not\u00a0enough to teach the church the truth. Error must also be resisted by\u00a0identification and by rebuke.<\/p>\n

Now that \u2018Reformed\u2019 is a fashionable label, it is worn by some\u00a0who are undermining historic Reformed teachings, the very truths of which the church is to be the pillar and the ground (1 Tim. 3:15). We\u00a0would not speak in this way about those who are just awakening to\u00a0the system of biblical doctrine but who have had little time to work\u00a0through a whole theology. Voicing objections as one grapples to lay\u00a0hold of the truth for the first time is one thing. There is a place for\u00a0this in young students of the Word.<\/p>\n

Teaching on God’s Law<\/h3>\n

On the other hand, we are now faced with men who are ministers of\u00a0the gospel and seminary professors who fall into the category\u00a0mentioned above. They want to be known as followers of the great\u00a0Reformers or \u2018heirs of old Princeton Seminary\u2019. Yet in their\u00a0teachings, public statements and writings they undermine central\u00a0tenets of biblical and reformed doctrine. Perhaps this is nowhere\u00a0more common than in opposition to the Law of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

William Tyndale, the first translator into English of the Greek\u00a0New Testament and the Hebrew Pentateuch and a martyr for the\u00a0faith (October 1536), wrote the following:<\/p>\n

Expound the law truly, and open the veil of Moses, to condemn\u00a0all flesh, and prove all men sinners, and all deeds under the law,\u00a0before mercy have taken away the condemnation thereof, to be\u00a0sin, and damnable; and then as a faithful minister, set abroach\u00a0the mercy of our Lord Jesus, and let the wounded consciences\u00a0drink of the water of him. And then shall your preaching be\u00a0with power, and not as the hypocrites. And the Spirit of God\u00a0shall work with you; and all consciences shall bear record unto\u00a0you, and feel it is so. And all doctrine that casteth a mist on\u00a0these two, to shadow and hide them, I mean the law of God,\u00a0and mercy of Christ, that resist you with all your power.<\/p>\n

Letter to John Frith<\/em>, quoted in Foxe\u2019s Acts and Monuments<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This quote from a great leader of the English Reformation takes\u00a0note of the purpose of the law of God: to convince us of our\u00a0sinfulness and our need of a Saviour. As an avid reader of the\u00a0publications of Martin Luther, no doubt Tyndale sharpened his\u00a0understanding of the relationship of the law and the gospel on this\u00a0other Reformer\u2019s books. You may see from both Scripture and the\u00a0Reformers that the law is an essential tool of evangelism. By the law\u00a0consciences are awakened to their guilt and therefore to their need of\u00a0a Saviour.<\/p>\n

Biblical Support for the Reformation View<\/h3>\n

The New Testament is even sharper in support of this assertion. Sin\u00a0is defined by the Apostle John as \u2018transgression of the law\u2019, or\u00a0violation of the law (1 John 3:4). Since this is true it is indispensable\u00a0that preachers know what law God has placed men under, or to\u00a0which law the Most High will hold men to account on the Day of\u00a0Judgment. To underscore the urgency of this matter Paul asserts that\u00a0it is the law which brings wrath upon men: \u2018 . . . the law brings about\u00a0wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression\u2019 (Rom.\u00a04:15). Once more, in Romans 5:13, Paul\u00a0 insists that \u2018sin is not\u00a0imputed when there is no law\u2019. Men are not sinners, and are not\u00a0liable to wrath, nor are they assigned guilt, apart from a law! This\u00a0law of God must be identified in order to treat men honestly in\u00a0suggesting that they are sinners, and if men are not truly sinners they\u00a0are not in need of a Saviour.<\/p>\n

For Tyndale there was no doubt about what law it is under which\u00a0all men live, Jew and Gentile alike. \u2018All flesh\u2019 is condemned, and \u2018all\u00a0men\u2019 are proven sinners by the law behind Moses\u2019 veil. It is for this\u00a0same reason, that of showing all men to be sinners, that Martin\u00a0Luther began The Small Catechism with the Ten Commandments. It\u00a0was his and Paul\u2019s view that this law was originally written in man\u2019s\u00a0heart at creation (Rom. 2:14\u201323). This is the God-given moral law\u00a0expressly confirmed by our Lord Jesus Christ as valid for all time and\u00a0binding upon all men (Matt. 5\u20137, The Sermon on the Mount). Other\u00a0Reformed catechisms place the Ten Commandments later in their\u00a0instruction to show that they are also the law for believers\u2019 lives\u00a0(Rom. 13:8\u201310, Eph. 6:1).<\/p>\n

This view of preaching the Law and the Gospel deeply influenced\u00a0the Great Awakening as well as the Reformation! In his Journal\u00a0under May 24, 1738, John Wesley gave an account of the experience\u00a0which launched his effective Revival preaching:<\/p>\n

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate\u00a0Street, where one was reading Luther\u2019s Preface to the Epistle to\u00a0the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was\u00a0describing the change which God works in the heart through\u00a0faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust\u00a0in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation, and an assurance was\u00a0given me that he had taken my sins away, even mine, and saved\u00a0me from the law of sin and death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Luther\u2019s preface to Romans is a devotional clarification of Paul\u2019s\u00a0and of the Spirit\u2019s view of the law and the gospel and their operations\u00a0in converting sinners.<\/p>\n

Opposition to Reformation Doctrine<\/h3>\n

There are quite a few men today who trumpet their belief in election\u00a0and limited atonement, yet who are \u2018casting a mist on\u2019 the law of\u00a0God \u2018to shadow and hide\u2019 it. They are clear about God\u2019s sovereignty,\u00a0but they befuddle their hearers as to the definition of sin and\u00a0therefore the need of a Saviour.<\/p>\n

One direction taken in doing this is \u2018Neonomianism\u2019, the teaching\u00a0that there is now a new law to replace the Ten Commandments.\u00a0Moses\u2019 ten rules were given at Sinai only as a temporary standard for\u00a0the Jews, it is taught. This position is not a recent one. It was\u00a0propagated during the Reformation by the Socinians to the ruination\u00a0of the Reformation in certain parts of Europe. It was also taught by\u00a0large numbers of liberal Protestants from the years 1875\u20131925 and\u00a0onward. These men ruined many of the large Protestant denominations\u00a0which had emerged from the Reformation. In both cases\u00a0mentioned it was taught that there is a new law issued by Jesus that\u00a0replaces the Ten Commandments. These conclusions were reached by\u00a0means of a deep confidence in the ability of human reason to select\u00a0which parts of God\u2019s Word we should believe to be true.<\/p>\n

Oddly, Neonomians are usually more energetic in assaulting and\u00a0denying the validity of the Ten Commandments than they are in\u00a0giving a definition or codification of the new law. If the new law is\u00a0the one which men live under now, any interest in defining sin or its\u00a0forgiveness in Christ would require a prominent attention to\u00a0publication of the prevailing law. Yet this all-important new law\u00a0remains hidden in the shadows.<\/p>\n

The so-called \u2018New Covenant\u2019 view casts an even thicker fog on\u00a0the matter of God\u2019s law. It says that God gave one law to the Jews\u00a0who lived under the Old Covenant, but has given another law to\u00a0Christians who live under the New Covenant. Still, we must ask,\u00a0\u2018Under what law do the millions of modern heathen Europeans and\u00a0Americans stand?\u2019 They are not Jews and thus are not under the Old\u00a0Covenant law; neither are they Christians and subjects of the New\u00a0Covenant law. So what law defines their sin? What is it that shows\u00a0their need of a Saviour, or specifies the wrath which must fall either\u00a0on them or on their substitute Lamb? We are speaking of the issues\u00a0most foundational to living a life pleasing to God, issues identifying\u00a0sin, warning of judgment, and alerting men to their need of salvation.\u00a0Without a clearly-delineated, God-given law all the afore-mentioned\u00a0words simply disappear from our religious vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Preaching the Law and Its Benefit to All of Society<\/h3>\n

There is another matter which should be of great concern to\u00a0Christians of the West in our day. To turn aside for a moment from\u00a0the matter of convincing men of sin and of their need of a Saviour,\u00a0there is a further vital function for the moral law. God\u2019s law and its\u00a0terrors restrain the exercise of sin, even in men who are never\u00a0converted. This is well expressed in the catechetical song of Matthias\u00a0Loy (1828\u20131915):<\/p>\n

When men the offered help [in Christ] disdain
\nAnd wilfully in sin remain,
\nIts [the law\u2019s] terror in their ear resounds
\nAnd keeps their wickedness in bounds.<\/p>\n

Western Europe and the Americas have made a frightening and\u00a0deplorable descent into moral degradation. Contempt for each of the\u00a0Ten Commandments is at alarming levels with disgraceful and\u00a0calamitous social consequences. No small explanation of these evils\u00a0is the failure of churches to activate God\u2019s law in the consciences of\u00a0its people by teaching and preaching the Ten Commandments. The\u00a0mere mention of sovereignty in mercy is no cure for these moral ills.\u00a0If the churches will not instil knowledge of God\u2019s law in this\u00a0generation the full moral collapse of our nations cannot be far\u00a0behind. The church with neonomian or antinomian (the view of\u00a0those who are against any further mention of the law) theology has\u00a0failed our culture.<\/p>\n

One genius of God\u2019s moral law is the brevity with which it gives a\u00a0complete and profound description of all moral duty (to God and to\u00a0men) in ten concise rules. Our countries have imposed so many laws\u00a0that no citizen (and few lawyers) could know them all or understand\u00a0their implications without much research. Ten commandments are,\u00a0by comparison, quickly grasped. If men can get through the mists\u00a0cast up by theologians and actually read the laws kept behind a veil\u00a0in the Ark of the Covenant as God\u2019s witness, great light would shine\u00a0on our national way, even as these same moral precepts are preparing\u00a0people\u2019s hearts to seek mercy in Christ.<\/p>\n

Tyndale and the other Reformers were correct. It is not sufficient\u00a0merely to give a positive presentation of the truth. Doctrine that casts\u00a0a mist over the Law of God is to be resisted with all our power!\u00a0When men teach errors which confuse sinners and saints alike about\u00a0their moral obligations to God and men, they are placing obstacles in\u00a0the way of sinners\u2019 coming to Christ and in the way of decency in\u00a0society. In similar fashion the Reformers identified Roman clergy and\u00a0criticized their ministries because they were inhibiting men from\u00a0finding the Grace of God in Christ.<\/p>\n

We are too timid, wanting fraternal relations with those who cast\u00a0a mist over the Law of God because we agree on some other matters.\u00a0A passion for truth and for the souls which truth can set free will demand engagement against Neonomianism and Antinomianism for\u00a0the glory of God and for the benefit of a clear light shining upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.<\/p>\n

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This article first appeared in the December 2006 edition of the\u00a0Banner of Truth<\/em> magazine<\/p>\n

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Of Further Interest<\/h3>\n