The Reform is not only a Protestant movement initiated by Luther in the XVI century, followed by other prominent theologians like Calvin. The reform is a concept alive for everyone of us within Christianity. But the concept "reform" further from the religious field, must cover every field of the human being in life. It is about a permanent attitude, a will that prevails in the Way of the Truth. What is not so evident for the majority, including Christians, is that, that Way of the Truth is the only Way of purpose, success and blessing in our Life, which in all fields must be guided by The Holy Spirit. Jesus says "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life..." John 14:6.

Without the guide of The Holy Spirit we cannot achieve success in the Way of life, in each one of its fields. But, for that, our lives must remain in permanent reformation, starting with the spiritual way of our personal relationship with God; the religious way as part of a church that follows the Biblical model; the way of a familiar and professional life that has God's hand over it in love and integrity; the way of relationships and of help to wards others; the way to take care of our health and of the planet, those given by God. All this can only remain unaltered –or to put it this way– in the course that we must follow, if we have the permanent reformed attitude, reason why I have named this writing The Reform Unconcluded, for it cannot, and it must not conclude until Jesus Christ returns in His Kingdom.

A pilot of an airplane, before takeoff, receives a flight plan. This flight plan, not only has the departure and arrival points, but it must follow a route. But that route may suffer variations that appear by circumstances out of the will of the pilot, like there may be: aerial traffic, delays in takeoff or landing for flight overbooking, problems in communications or control tower, a thunderstorm, etc. When this occurs, the pilot changes the route temporarily, but he does not loose the flight plan, with its coordinates of route. Once conditions are re-established, after a thunderstorm, after waiting for landing, etc., the pilot always goes back to the flight plan to take the plain to its destination.

The reform is a permanent attitude that we must take to practice, which has as flight plan The Bible. Our lives may go from departure point, to arrival point successfully if we follow the flight plan of God. If we count on a better pilot that us, and we sit in the co-pilot seat giving control of the plain of our lives to the commander Jesus Christ, He will guide us in every moment, He will make the necessary corrections, will know how to manage any situation unexpected by us, because He will always be faithful to the flight plan of the Holy Spirit, who points to our destination in this life and in the coming. Sometimes the commander cedes the control to the co-pilot and is he who flies the plain temporarily. God also lets us fly our lives, but if we are His friends, He will always keep the control of our plain, He will never leave us on our own, without a flight plan, without direction course, without destination, without purpose, but the flight of our live will arrive to its destination.

 

THE PROTESTANT REFORM AND THE CHRISTIAN

The 31st of October 1517 is considered the date in which the Protestant Reform was formally initiated. That day was previous to All Saints Day, when Martin Luther –Augustinian monk, Catholic priest, doctor in Theology, translator of Hebrew and Greek and professor of the University of Wittenberg– nailed his famous 95 Thesis at the door of the Chapel of the castle of Wittenberg –of which we celebrate its 500 Anniversary in 2017– and he nailed them with a purpose: to denounce the corruption of the papacy, the sale of indulgences (to buy God's forgiveness for money, both of the living as of the dead, that the Catholic Church was selling for the construction of Saint Peter's cathedral in the Vatican, which placed the papacy over the authority of the Bible and initiated the religious battle that the papacy converted in the bloody and diabolic Inquisition).

After the translation of The Bible to German by Luther from the original Texts, the victory was achieve for religious liberty by the German princes against Charles the V of Germany and I of Spain, who wanted to impose his own concept of Christianity in the empire, although he initially followed the Erasmic current of the time, but after ,was influenced by the power of the papacy and its offer of support and blessing for his imperial kingdom, in the same way as it was offered to his grand parents the Catholic Kings.

If we have such an example in Luther and Calvin, as well as in other relevant reformers, all of them forgers of the flight plan of Christianity, like John Wycliffe, John Huss or Ulrich Zwingli –and we can add Erasmus, for his proximity to the reformed doctrines– we have no excuse, moral and spiritual obligation than to follow their steps, because the spirit of The Reform is still alive, and it will prevail until the end of time in our hearts.

To celebrate the 500 Anniversary of The Reform, the Bible Societies have started a plan to distribute millions of Bibles.

 

THE UNCONCLUDED REFORM ...BECAUSE IT IS PERMANENT

The Holy Spirit is the reformer and permanent care taker of The Church. His work has been determinant from Adam, and it will be until the return of Jesus Christ for the establishment of the Kingdom of God. In times of the New Testament we can already see His work as He was giving form to the lives of the Apostles, the doctrines, how to treat Jews and Gentiles, the traditions, the liturgy, Pentecost, etc. We see the legacy of the four Evangelists, of Peter and of Paul. They lived the first reforms needed for the Church not to loose the initiated course and that God had fixed for humanity to receive the message of Salvation.

Further we see His hand in the lives and works of the reformers, and the conclusions that they provided to The Church. The denounce of the deviation of the papacy and of the leaders of the traditional church. The deviation of the doctrine, and having taken the Bible away from daily life, both from the pastors as from the faithful. The return to Scripture, to the fundamental doctrines, to the faith, to the authority of The Word of God over man. The Reform established a guide that can be read in the work of Calvin "Summa Theologiae".

The reform, today, is alive and up to date. Up to date with respect to the concepts and doctrines, the ideas and the faith initiated since the teachings of Jesus Christ, that see the light of their interpretation in the New Testament. And alive because it is permanent, in other words, that the Church today must be alert, before the deviations happening in almost the totality of denominations, fruit of the influence of living in our times, which most think are those of the end. The relativism of our days is different to the dark age of the XVI century and it is fought in a different way, but with the same principals, from the faith. The reformers started when the people had no Bibles. Today everyone can have a Bible in their language, but if they do not know it nor understand it due to the influence of the current philosophies and to the currents of a materialistic, humanistic, economical and technological world, they cannot follow the flight plan that God gives us every day in His word.

 

THE PERSONAL REFORM

But really there is no reform in place if before there has not been personal reform. We, the people, need to receive the light to see our own deviation from the course, especially when we believe we are in the Truth. How many Christians in erred churches believe they are in the Truth? How many believers of many religions, philosophies or own reason believe they are in the Truth?

There is a subject in Seminar called "Spiritual Disciplines". That Spirit, of God, that is being searched by those that want to follow the course of the flight plan of God in the most loyal way possible, is the one that has the keys to arrive to the fixed destination in life. A life that, in personal continuous reform can provide great fruits, but it needs for it to apply some disciplines that not all are ready to take forward, because they neither seek for an intimate and deep relationship with their Creator. This relationship is found in Christ. He is the Master that has given us His life on Earth told by the Evangelists as a faithful reflexion of the spiritual disciplines.

The disciplines are as simple as to spend time with God, pray, study the Bible, fast, exercise for mercy and love of God, praise, testimony and worship. 9 disciplines that pour oil like the Menorah of 9 arms to keep the fire of the Spirit in our hearts. Only by doing these disciplines we will see clearly where we stand in life, where we are going, what is our destination, and if we travel in the correct course or if we shall rectify it. This is the essence of the personal permanent and unconcluded reform, the daily training of the soul. ˇDon't stop practicing them every day of your life!

 

IT IS BY FAITH

Prophet Habakkuk, in the book of The Bible of his name, left written that ...the just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2:4. Later the apostle Paul would refer to this same Text in several of his letters, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38, a concept already fixed in the mind and the spirit of the Gospel, like Luther would do later, fifteen centuries after in his search for the grace and the forgiveness of God.

We also find John in chapter 3:16 of his Gospel –maybe the most famous verse of the entire Bible– talking of the great key of the reform, faith: ...For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

If the just will live by faith, we must fist establish who is just. If faith is a gift of God, and nobody can justify himself before God for his deeds, how can we achieve God's blessing? It is through the grace of God who loves us before we receive the faith, while in our sins. If our heart is ready for repentance, God provides the faith, the one that make us believe in the work of His Son Jesus Christ on the Cross, and that through His bold our sins are expiated, receiving God's justice. The just, is, then, he who has been justified by the blood of Christ; he who believes this, is just. But he will not be able to live by his own strengths in justice, faith is needed.

From this correlation between faith and grace come the five pillars of The Reformation, or five "Solas (Alone)": Scripture Alone, Faith Alone, Grace Alone, Christ Alone, For the Glory of God Alone.

The Bible is the inspired Word of God, for which it must have the highest authority, over popes and traditions, therefore Scripture alone. Faith without works is a gift of God, because Salvation cannot be earned by our works, nor by the fulfilment of the Law, because we are incapable of fulfilling it, therefore the work that does save us is that of Christ giving His life for us, and this we believe or not, Faith alone. The Grace of God pours from His heart, from His mercy, not from our merits, but God loves us from our state of sinners and sanctifies us through Faith. Christ is the only one that can save us, and is the only mediator between God and man; God doest not accept other mediators except His Son; nor saints, nor virgins, nor patrons, nor false gods, nor images of worship... To God belongs the grace therefore, because there is no one else to whom we should give it to. The Christian must remain in permanent reform, in permanent revision of these essential pillars of doctrine.

Finally we will understand that our permanent and unconcluded reform, under the spiritual disciplines, that way to perfection in Christ, is the only one that will keep us alive through faith, like prophet Habakkuk and the apostle Paul said.

 

CONCLUSION

The Reform and the reform are unconcluded doe to the fact that we must always remain alert and looking to the mirror of The Bible and the Five "Solas".

We see that the majority of churches, from the Catholic, the Orthodox and a large part of the Protestant-Evangelicals have deviated from the flight plan of the Holy Spirit because they have not allowed Jesus Christ to be the pilot, therefore they fly their ministry plains to different destinations than the one God had fixed for the blessing of the passengers, the flock of some pastors who have lost the north. When Scripture is abandoned and man made commandments are imposed, Marc 7:7, that is the result. We see that each of them –and their members– defend, in many cases their churches in idolatry, as if they were in possession of the truth, sometimes putting their antiquity first, others their traditions, others their specific weight in a culture, etc. But non of this matters to God. The Reform, alive and unconcluded leads them to the "Scripture Alone".

Therefore is by the faith in The Bible that the Christian will be able to live in the Spirit. Therefore, the Christian will be able to judge, Bible in hand, if his church and his brethren follow the Commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, or if on the contrary they have made a human Babel of commandments and traditions of man contrary to the Word of God. Each to their own! because before God we will all be accountable of what we did. King Josiah found the book of The Law (2Kings, chaps. 22 and 23) and had it read to all the people, and applied the Word of God; he was therefore a reformer. Also Cyrus, king of Persia received the faith to obey God (Ezra 1) and did it in all his empire. The first Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) established the Word of God through the teachings of Jesus Christ, Yahshua. Luther provided a return to Scripture in vernacular tong and denounced the corruption of the papacy, putting those who had ears to hear, back on the route of flight of The Bible, so that we could live by faith the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ. The Reform alive and unconcluded takes us "By Faith Alone".

We also see that politics needs permanent reformation to serve the people. Since Greek democracy, where only men could vote, to the Roman republic, the absolute monarchies, or communism, we see that the more relevant reforms came from those in defence of the people. We see it in John Locke and his defence of the right to live, to property and to freedom. We see it in Voltaire and his defence of religious freedom and freedom of speech. Or in the Baron of Montesquieu and his proposal to divide government in three powers, knower that power corrupts, and he proposed it half a century earlier than the French Revolution. Or the fight held by William Wilberforce to eradicate slavery in the British parliament. Today, more than ever, politics must be reformed and the citizens must ask their governors to be loyal and serve the people with piety and mercy. The Bible has influenced the ideas of the Illustration, that had especial influence in some of the best constitutions of countries such as the United States of America, or the Spanish Constitution of Cadiz of 1812. By the way, the famous hymn Amazing Grace was composed by John Newton, the best friend and counsellor of William Wilberforce, showing to the people that we are not deservers of the blessing of God, but that by accepting His grace we can become better citizens, care takers of our neighbours. The Reform alive and unconcluded takes the nations towards "Grace Alone".

In the same way we could talk about the relationship with God and our neighbours, or about something as important as education, humanitarian aid to countries in the third world for eradication of hunger and need, as well as the protection of the environment. You can add as many subjects as you find relevant, which to permanently reform to keep the route of the flight of life, but all will have a departure point that comes from some words of Jesus Christ: "Love one another; like I have loved you... John 13:34, only He has given His life for us, being God. The living and unconcluded Reform takes us to "Christ Alone".

What will you do, as you know The Bible and that reading what I write here I inst you to live in permanent reform before God? Will you review all the areas of your life; your marriage, your children, your work, your church, your relationships, your health, etc., will you review your flight plan? You have your plain of life, a plain that flies, but you must do your fist flight of faith, like the Wright brothers did in North Carolina, who worked in the conviction of their project until they made the first flight. Are you sure that you have given the controls to the commander Jesus Christ? If yes ˇcongratulations! because if you review your life regularly, you will keep the reform alive and unconcluded and will arrive to your destination with God's blessing, to whom you will then give the glory in all you do. The Reform alive and unconcluded takes you to give "Glory to God Alone".

Study The Bible while you live, go to seminar, look for other brothers who know it and honour it, and make sure not to ever give the controls to another pilot than to Your commander, while you go as the co-pilot. ˇGood flight!

...But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you let him be accursed... Galatians 1:8. Amen.