What Reformed Theology is Not

     There is a lot of confusion in the evangelical world concerning Reformed Theology.  In this brief article by Westminster Seminary professor Dr. Michael Horton, he helps clear up some of the fog by giving us clarification on what Reformed Theology/Calvinism is not.  

The Gospel is the Power of God Everyday!

     Here is another wonderful post by pastor Tullian Tchividjian on the power of the gospel for daily living in Christ.  This brother has a way of saying what I am believing and experiencing (at least on some level) in a way far better than I.  His blog, On Earth As It Is In Heaven, is required reading.

     The wonder of the gospel is so multidimensional, but what I have been meditating upon lately is God's ability in the gospel to afflict us in our pride/self-sufficiency and at the same time encourage us in our many sins of disobedience.  The sin of pride is taken care of at the cross of Christ for no matter how obedient, righteous, or well we may think we are doing, the cross bears witness that God laid our sin on His Son.  No acts of worship or obedience from us are good enough, but only the righteousness of Christ.  As the hymn proclaims,

I dare not trust my sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name

    Pastor Tullian further explains that a preoccupation with our own righteousness often undermines the work of God in sanctification,

The hard work of Christian growth, therefore, is to think less of me and my performance and more of Jesus and his performance for me. Ironically, when we focus mostly on our need to get better we actually get worse. We become neurotic and self-absorbed. Preoccupation with my effort over God’s effort for me makes me increasingly self-centered and morbidly introspective.

     Sins of disobedience to God's law (with an accompanying guilty conscience) are also dealt a death blow at Calvary "by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This He set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Col. 2:14).  Christ became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13) as He bore our sin and ransomed us with His precious blood and there is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ (Rom. 8:1).  In the New Covenant, God will remember our sins no more because Christ has fulfilled every duty and penalty of the law on our behalf!  There is comfort when we sin that "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).  In order to grow spiritually, we need to remember that our every sin and debt has already been canceled through the work of our Lord Jesus.  Elyse Fitzpatrick explains,

One reason we don’t grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we’ve got amnesia; we’ve forgotten that we are cleansed from our sins. In other words, ongoing failure in sanctification (the slow process of change into Christlikeness) is the direct result of failing to remember God’s love for us in the gospel. If we lack the comfort and assurance that his love and cleansing are meant to supply, our failures will handcuff us to yesterday’s sins, and we won’t have faith or courage to fight against them, or the love for God that’s meant to empower this war. If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and reconciliation, we’ll struggle in our sanctification.

     These truths of the gospel apply to our Christian sanctification every day.  They free us from attempting to find our standing with God through our own puny, insufficient efforts, and also allow us to be assured that when we sin, we have forgiveness through our Mediator!  If God finds us to be particularly self-sufficient, let us go in faith to the cross where the Prince of Glory died and let our own supposed goodness fade to nothing.  If we are overwhelmed with the guilt of our sin, let us remember the cross of Christ and be washed anew in the cleansing blood of our Savior.  The power of Christ through the gospel is what saves us, sanctifies us, and will ultimately see us safely into the glory of the Father's kingdom!

What is the Gospel? Fridays

     Here is a good presentation of the biblical gospel from Dr. Alan Cairns.

Church Leaders Rebuke Joel Osteen

"He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it." (Titus 1:9)

     Few evangelical Christians are unfamiliar with Houston pastor Joel Osteen.  Sadly, even with Osteen's popularity, he still seems to be flying under the radar in the sense that many still consider him orthodox (e.g. his books are still selling big in 'Christian' retail outlets and Lakeside Church in Houston is one of the biggest in the country).  Interestingly, when we lived in Orange County, California our next door neighbor (from Lebanon and a committed Muslim) loved to listen to Osteen's weekly television broadcast.  Though we tried to share the gospel with her, this Muslim's view of Christianity was found in the message of Joel Osteen.  Similarly, one of my co-workers was a big fan of Osteen, but not a fan of biblical Christianity.  Didn't Jesus say something about the world loving it's own?! 
     As John MacArthur points out so well in this short video, Osteen's message is one that appeals to everything the carnal heart desires and is, therefore, nothing short of Satanic.  In the next short video, pastor Steven Lawson rebukes Osteen for his cowardly denial of the gospel on Larry King live.  Lastly, Way of the Master Radio, has produced a short video contrasting the preaching of Paul Washer with Osteen.  The contrast between Washer and Osteen is stark to say the least (especially as it relates to the nature and needs of man).
     As long as Osteen remains a hot commodity in the evangelical world, his public false teaching needs to be publicly rebuked as pastor's MacArthur, Lawson, Washer, and others have done.  Osteen attracts many with his positivity, charm, and unassuming style . . . but this is also what makes him especially dangerous since his message cannot be found in the pages of Scripture (unless he strips verses out of context of course, which he often does).  With Osteen's vast influence we need to pray he will repent of his false teaching, begin to preach the Word of God accurately, and preach the cross of our Lord Jesus.  His errors as a supposed pastor are egregious, which makes his popularity all the more disturbing.

Good Works Flow from God's Grace

"For by grace you have been saved though faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that not one may boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Tim Keller pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church explains the difference between all world religions and Christianity, 

At the end of The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis demonstrates how the major religions agree on certain moral absolutes.  Christians find that in today's culture wars, they often are on the same side with believing Jews, Muslims, and Hindus.  The Christian preacher seems to be saying, "Be moral," along with exponents of other philosophies.

But  when we ask, "Why be moral?" the other systems say, "In order to find God," while Christianity says, "Because God has found you."  The Christian gospel is that we are not saved by moral living, we are saved for it.  We are saved by grace alone, but that grace will inevitably issue a moral life.

What is the Gospel? Fridays

     In J. I. Packer's classic book, Knowing God, he gives the most succinct description of the gospel that I have ever heard.  Packer said on p. 214,

Were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be adoption through propitiation.  (Emphasis mine)

     Can anyone do any better than this?  I suppose John Piper may do 2 words better with the title of his book, God is the Gospel!  "Jesus" or "Christ" as the gospel also trumps Packer in brevity, but Packer hits the heart of the gospel with the 2 words adoption and propitiation.  The 1689 London Baptist Confession (LBC) (12:1) says the following about adoption,

All those that are justified, God vouchsafed, in and for the sake of His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have His name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a Father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.  (Ephesians 1:5; Galatians 4:4-5; John 1:12; Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 3:12; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 2:18; Psalms 103:13; Proverbs 14:26; 1 Peter 5:7; Hebrews 12:6; Isaiah 54:8-9; Lamentations 3:31; Ephesians 4:30; Hebrews 1:14; Hebrews 6:12).

     The immeasurable promises given to us in adoption are made possible only through the propitiation of God's holy and righteous wrath by our Lord Jesus Christ.  Packer explains on p. 185 through a John Murray (The Atonement p. 15), quote,

The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely this: that God loved the objects of His wrath so much that He gave His own Son to the end that He by His blood should make provision for the removal of His wrath.  It was Christ's so to deal with the wrath that the loved would no longer be the objects of wrath, and love would achieve its aim of making the children of wrath the children of God's good pleasure.

     Adoption and propitiation are at the heart of the gospel message!  These words are used scarcely in the NT (adoption 5x) and propitiation (4x), but these gospel doctrines are woven through God's Word with Christ being the focal point and the grace of God for sinners on display!  What a blessing it is to be God's son or daughter through the blood of Jesus our Lord!!

Redemptive-Historical Preaching

Then He said to them, "These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."  Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:44-47)  

     In this 2-minute video clip Dr. Dennis Johnson of Westminster Seminary California explains the Christ-centered approach of redemptive-historical preaching.  This next short clip also illustrates how OT narratives and characters are meant to point to Christ, rather than merely provide moral object lessons for us.  In the above passage in Luke's gospel, and immediately prior to the Ascension of Jesus, our Lord says the threefold division of the Hebrew Bible bears witness to Him.  Why does so much modern preaching and worship services fail to clearly point to the Lord?  I'm afraid it is because we tend to see the Bible as moral instruction rather than see the glory of the Lord Jesus in every book.  
     In our search for a church home in Central Oregon, my wife and I visited a local Baptist church in which Christ was glorified through songs and hymns of worship, but the sermons were not much more than a moral lesson from week to week.  You know, the kind where you fill in the blanks on a sheet so you can "apply" the sermon during the week (e.g. we need to be like David this week and slay our own Goliath's, be men and woman after God's heart, etc. etc.).  While I am all for application in a sermon, if Christ and His redemptive work are missing I find myself restless and agitated.  Especially if this goes on for an extended period of time . . . week after week . . . series after series.
     One of the things that makes most Reformed worship stand out today is her focus on the centrality of preaching Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King.  In churches like these, everything in the worship service points toward Christ and, especially, in the expository preaching of Scripture concerning His redemptive work.  Regardless of what church you attend, Christ and His gospel should be the central focus week in and week out.  It is sad that I must ask, but are you getting Christ at your church or merely moralistic object lessons?