What the Christian Church Should Be and Reforming the Christian Churches, Especially the Reformed.

by Pastor Baltazar A. Niangar, Pastor Emeritus, Th.B., A.B., D.D.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” — Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 21

Luther’s great principle — ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est, the Reformed church must always be reforming — is one of the most misunderstood phrases in Christian history. It doesn’t mean the church should keep revising her doctrine to fit each passing age. It means she must keep returning to the Word of God, submitting herself afresh to Scripture’s authority, and correcting whatever in her life and doctrine has drifted from the apostolic standard.

Luther pictured it as a bicycle. A bicycle in motion is stable. A bicycle at rest topples over. The church that keeps returning to Scripture stays upright. The church that treats her inherited tradition as a fixed monument — requiring no fresh engagement with the living Word — becomes unstable, and eventually falls.

This study lays out what that always-reforming church stands on: five primary doctrines, and the five corollary doctrines that flow from them.

The Primary Doctrines: What We Cannot Let Go Of

The reforming church doesn’t choose her primary doctrines — she receives them. They are the deposit of the apostolic faith, not the product of theological fashion.

It begins with the Fatherhood of God — not a sentimental idea, but the eternal ground of salvation itself; Christ is the only way to Him (John 14:6). It rests on God’s sovereignty — the guarantee that what the Father purposed in eternity, He will finish in time (Jude 24). It’s shaped by the dual role of Christ, who is both the Last Adam representing all humanity and the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His own sheep (John 1:29; 10:15). It depends on the Holy Spirit, who applies to God’s people everything the Father planned and the Son accomplished (Phil. 1:6). And it looks ahead to God’s own books — the record of every name and every deed, kept with a precision no human ledger could match (Rev. 20:12–15).

The Corollary Doctrines: What Follows From It

Hold the foundation without building the house, and you haven’t really built anything. So this study also traces what necessarily follows from those primary truths.

If salvation is by grace alone, is God unjust? Paul’s answer is emphatic — “By no means!” (Rom. 9:14) — and God’s righteousness vindicates both His election and His judgment. The moral law, meanwhile, was never meant to save; it’s a mirror, not a ladder, showing us our need rather than giving us life (Rom. 7:23–25). Scripture holds together, without fully resolving, the will of God and the will of the creature — He draws, not drags, and works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). God’s decree stands behind it all, turning even Joseph’s brothers’ evil intentions into the saving of many lives (Gen. 50:20). And every one of these truths gathers into a single aim: God alone gets the glory — Soli Deo Gloria, so that no one can boast in His presence (1 Cor. 1:29).

Always a Student Before a Teacher

The reforming church commits herself, once and for all, to God alone — not tradition alone, not reason alone, not experience alone, but the Triune God revealed in Holy Scripture as the beginning, middle, and end of all things. She keeps pedaling. She keeps listening for what the Spirit says. And she keeps discovering that the ancient faith is always new — always sufficient for the questions of this generation, and every generation after it.

Soli Deo gloria.

About the Author

Pastor Baltazar A. Niangar

Our All in Christ is the teaching ministry of Pastor Baltazar A. Niangar, sharing biblical resources to help believers grow in God’s Word and the grace of Christ. View All Manuscripts