“It is not because the culture is always changing and we need to be up with the times, but because we are always in need of being re-orientated to the Word that stands over us, individually and corporately, that the church can never stand still. It must always be a listening church. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Personally and corporately, the church comes into being and is kept alive by hearing the gospel. The church is always on the receiving end of God’s good gifts as well as His correction. The Spirit does not lead us apart from the Word, but directs us back to Christ as He is revealed in Scripture, both the law and the gospel. We always need to return to the voice of our Shepherd. The same gospel that creates the church sustains and renews it. Our personal conformity to the Word that Paul commands in Romans 12 is never completed in this life. And the same is true of the church in this present age.”
“When we invoke the whole phrase – “the church Reformed and always in need of being reformed according to the Word of God” – we confess that we belong to a church and not simply to ourselves and that this church is always created and renewed by the Word of God rather than by the Spirit of the age. It is simply another way of saying that we are not our own (individually or collectively) but belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” ~ Michael Horton
