Theological Term of the Week

semper reformanda
Latin for “always being reformed,” short for ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (“the church reformed and always being reformed”), a slogan associated with the Protestant Reformation.

• From scripture:

… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV)

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Theological Term of the Week

simul justus et peccator
Latin for “at the same time just and sinner,” a formula Martin Luther used to communicate “the objective  reality of justification by faith alongside the Christian’s continual struggle against sin.”1

• From scripture:

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness .  .  .  . (Romans 4:5 ESV)

• From the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 11, Of Justification:

I. Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifies; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.

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Theological Term of the Week

corporate prayer
A prayer spoken aloud by one person on behalf of a whole group of gathered believers. 

• A corporate prayer from scripture:

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers were gathered together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, alongwith the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand andyour plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:23-31, ESV)

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