Revival

TROWEL & SWORD

Resources - Leadership

February 2000

SWORD - DEFENDING

Revival

David Groenenboom

“Revival” has often sat somewhat uncomfortably in the reformed bosom. For some it sounds just a little too American. “We’re havin’ a revival meetin’ this Saturday night. Yawl welcome!” For others it’s too Pentecostal and Charismatic to be taken seriously.

But what DO people in the RCA think about revival? Do they think about it at all?

Christians who live in the heritage of the reformation should always be thinking about it. Since we believe the Reformation was the greatest recovery of biblical faith since the first century, we must also believe that the reformation was the greatest revival since NT times. That’s it, pure and simple!

People may speak of revival and mean many different things, but at its essence revival may be defined as “recovery from languor, neglect, depression; renewed interest or attention; a time of extraordinary religious awakening.” Revival is the work of Christ in His people through His Word and Spirit. Revival is what the Australian church of the third millennium needs – and badly.

Revival of this description is Gospel work: the Lord calls people back to the central realities of the Cross, the Resurrection and the atonement, and has them owned by those people in a more powerful way. Putting it that way, it can only be gross dereliction of the Kingdom’s call to suggest that revival is something we need not get too fussed about. And while we’re at it, the membership figures of the RCA (I know, it’s disturbing to keep bringing this up, but there’s little point in denying reality) coupled with the apathy present in some places, paints a different picture. We NEED revival! We NEED to be driven back to the Cross. We NEED to live in the power and wonder of Christ’s resurrection. We NEED to be renewed to these truths which powerfully challenged and motivated the lives of Luther, Calvin, the Wesleys, Whitefield and Edwards.

The nature of the human being is another reason we should be seeking revival. Our growth into the likeness of Christ is never complete in this life. Sinful nature’s leftovers continue to lead us toward self-reliance. So Scripture calls us to throw away the sin that entangles, run the race with endurance, and have our eyes fixed firmly on Christ the Victor (see Heb 12:1-2). Furthermore, Scripture’s call to ongoing repentance and conversion assumes that personal renewal and revival are part of normal Christian life (Eph 4:17 – 5:2; Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 88 – 91). While growth should be consistent and ever upward, the Christian’s life often displays something different (well, mine does, anyway). The call to revival and renewal also comes at a personal level.

We will always be able to find someone who takes the personal revival thing too far. One minister told of a man in his congregation who had been “saved” seventeen times. During a revival meeting the evangelist made an altar call for all who wanted to be filled with the Spirit. The man who had been converted so often made his way toward the altar again. A woman from the congregation shouted, “Don’t fill him, Lord. He leaks!” (Sproul: Following Christ).

The call to revival is simply a call to live for the Lord’s holiness in a fresh and more determined way. Who doesn’t need that? Which church can do without it? Once again, R C Sproul says, “The top priority for the Christian is to see that God’s name be kept holy, for it is holy. If that were the only prayer request the Christian community ever made and they made it earnestly and regularly, I suspect the revival we pray for and the reformation we so earnestly desire would be accomplished in no time. Everything — our work, our ministry, and all aspects of our daily lives — would be affected.”

Sometimes our fear of being moved from our comfortable Christianity pressures us to silence everything that challenges it. So when people start talking about “revival” with think of the bloke who was saved 17 times, or ‘deep south’ revival meetings, or the people so busy ranting about revival that they never get on with doing it. Folks, straw men abound, but they never make a sound argument.

The reality is that our reformed heritage is built on the premise of continual revival and renewal of the Christian’s life by The Lord through His Word and Spirit. So let us seek it more and more that Christ, His Cross and Resurrection be more powerfully evident in His church.

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