In 1544, one of the great founding fathers of the Reformed Faith wrote a letter to Emperor Charles V, king of the Holy Roman Empire, as he was holding a political conference with his subordinate princes from across the empire. The famous letter addressed to Charles, intended as a public statement before all the princes, is called The Necessity of Reforming the Church. The author is none other than John Calvin.
In this letter, Calvin summarizes the two most important areas in which the Catholic Church needed to be reformed according to the word of God. If you were writing such a letter, what would you say are the two most important, most crucial things that must be reformed? On what two things does the purity, faithfulness, and orthodoxy of the whole Christian religion depend? Calvin’s answer may surprise you. Here is what he says,
"If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, namely, a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshiped; and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained. When these are kept out of view, though we glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain."
Notice the language Calvin uses. He says the very existence and truth of Christianity itself depends on these two things, and within these two things everything else in Christianity is contained. In other words, if we endeavor to get these two, most necessary things right, we get the whole Christian faith right. What are those two things? What could be that important? Calvin says: proper worship and true salvation. These are the sum and substance of Christianity.
Notice also the order in which Calvin ranks these two things. He places worship ahead of salvation! Can you believe that? This means, according to Calvin, that salvation is in order to worship. God saves us, A.W. Tozer once said, for the purpose of “turning rebels into worshipers.” To Calvin’s mind, the whole Christian religion is first and foremost about the proper worship of God, the due honor of God, the glory of God. If we get God’s majesty wrong, or fail to acknowledge the absolute supremacy of his glory in all things, we will inevitably corrupt his pure worship. From the corruption of pure worship ensues the corruption of all else.
Is worship as important to you as it was to Calvin? Do you consider that the proper worship of God is the most vital element of Christianity? If God’s glory is the most important thing to God himself, then properly glorifying him in worship must be our highest aim. This is why the church needed a reformation, so that we could truly know God in his glory and majesty.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Wesley
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