God is being thanked for a change that had occurred in the lives of the members of the church in Rome. In the past they had been slaves to sin. Sin had been their master. They had not been able to stop breaking God’s commandments. Then something happened. They were set free from sin’s dominion through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This brought about a great change in their lives. Instead of being under the dominion of that old slave-master, they had become obedient from the heart (their innermost source of motivation and desire) to another master. Their new master was a “form” or pattern or system of teaching (doctrine) into which they had been committed or poured into. 

A “form” is something which gives shape to a thing or a person. It is a “mold.” The substance that is poured into a mold acquires the pattern given by its “form.” Concrete, when poured out of the mixing truck, or jello, fresh from the pan on the stovetop, are poured in an “unformed,” liquid state into the “form” which will give them a different shape. 

In similar manner the members of this Christian church had been delivered over to a new “form.” It was a pattern of teaching that set the shape of their new lives. We could rightly say that these newly set free people had become “re-formed” according to a new pattern, the pattern of Apostolic teaching, the shape of God’s will as He revealed it in the Bible. 

The term “Reformed” as understood from the history of the church refers to that time of history called the “Reformation.” It was that bright season of human history when in Western civilization the so-called “Dark Ages,” characterized by ignorance and superstition, gave way to the light of the Word of God in the minds of people. 

The time of the Reformation was a time of Information. Through the writings and sermons of Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, the gospel of Jesus Christ again became clear to people in the church. Those who listened and believed heard the good news that informed them that they did not need to purchase the forgiveness of their sins with money. They did not need to work for their acceptance with God by tireless acts of piety and sacrifice. Their justification before God did not depend upon their record of righteousness but upon the record of what Christ alone had done for them. They learned that faith in Christ’s work, trust in His record, is the thing that would please God. The attention turned from the merit of the saints, to the merit of Christ alone to bring sinners into a condition of acceptance with God. This recovered message from the Bible brought joy and freedom to a church that had been denied the truth of the gospel. 

The Reformation reminds us that in order to be re-formed we first have to be in-formed, and the result of this process can be a life that is trans-formed for the glory of God.