I like Reformed theology (the doctrines of grace, the 5 factors of Calvinism) the way in which I like a cherished image of my spouse. If I mentioned, “I like that image,” would you say to me, “However that’s not your spouse. That’s an image. You shouldn’t love an image. You must love your spouse”? When you mentioned that to me, I might say, “I do know it’s solely an image. I don’t love the image as an alternative of her; I like the image due to her. I do know the distinction. She is treasured in herself. The image will not be. It’s treasured solely as a result of she is.” The image is treasured as a result of it reveals her. It does the perfect an image can do.
That’s the way in which Reformed theology is treasured. God is efficacious in himself. Theology will not be invaluable in itself. It’s invaluable as an image, a portrait, a window, a telescope. So, I like Reformed theology as a result of I like God. I like Reformed soteriology as a result of I like the sovereign Savior. Reformed theology makes me glad as a result of God makes me glad. I discover in Reformed theology an unlimited Lake Superior wherein to paddle round and make thrilling discoveries as a result of Reformed theology is a lake-sized image of an ocean with out backside and with out shores. And that ocean is God.
Few folks have helped me go deeper or farther in that ocean than Jonathan Edwards. He wrote,
The enjoyment of [God] is the one happiness with which our souls may be happy. To go to heaven, absolutely to get pleasure from God, is infinitely higher than essentially the most nice lodging right here. Fathers and moms, husbands, wives, or kids, or the corporate of earthly buddies, are however shadows; however God is the substance. These are however scattered beams, however God is the solar. These are however streams. However God is the ocean. (Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2:244).
The truths of Reformed theology are shadows; God is the substance, the truth. The beauties of Reformed theology are beams; God is the solar. The depths of Reformed theology are the streams; God is the ocean. The delights of Reformed theology are candy, however in God’s presence is fullness of pleasure, and at his proper hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). Reformed theology is gorgeous as a result of God is gorgeous.
Reformed Theology and the Centrality of God
The portrait of God in Reformed theology is gorgeous first as a result of it relentlessly foregrounds the greatness of God, the supremacy of God, the centrality of God, or — the phrase most frequently utilized in Scripture — the glory of God. Geerhardus Vos, a Dutch-American theologian who died in 1949, captured the central theme of Reformed theology when he wrote,
Reformed theology took maintain of the Scriptures of their deepest root concept. . . . The basis concept which served as the important thing to unlock the wealthy treasuries of the Scriptures was the preeminence of God’s glory within the consideration of all that has been created. . . . [Reformed theology] begins with God. God doesn’t exist due to man, however man due to God. That is what’s written on the entrance of the temple of Reformed theology. (Redemptive Historical past and Biblical Interpretation, 241–42)
Once we tried to formulate a mission assertion for our church in 1995, which remains to be on the wall in our sanctuary as we speak, we mentioned, “We exist to unfold a ardour for the supremacy of God in all issues for the enjoyment of all peoples by Jesus Christ.” That was our effort to provide expression to what Reformed theology noticed within the Bible — specifically, that God is first. God is supreme. God is central.
Or to place it extra precisely, God is not only the primary actuality, the supreme actuality, or the central actuality; he is Actuality. He’s the one actuality that completely is. When God recognized himself and gave himself a reputation in Exodus 3:14, he mentioned, “I’m who I’m.” He merely and completely is. He by no means got here into being. When there was no universe, and no area or time, there was God.
“Reformed theology is gorgeous as a result of God is gorgeous.”
That is an electrifying reality! God merely is. Explosive. Wild. Untamable. It modifications completely the whole lot to know this. To foreground this and make it the bedrock, the capstone, and the all-pervasive actuality of your theology will form all thought, all feeling, and all of life and ministry.
Jonathan Edwards captured the supremacy and centrality of God like this:
All that’s ever spoken of within the Scripture as an final finish of God’s works is included in that one phrase, the glory of God. . . . The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is mirrored again to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, are one thing of God, and are refunded again once more to their unique. In order that the entire is of God, and in God, and to God; and God is the start, and the center, and finish [in this affair]. (God’s Ardour for His Glory, 242, 247)
That’s an attractive rendering of the reality and sentiment of the apostle Paul in Romans 11:33–36:
Oh, the depth of the riches and knowledge and data of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and the way inscrutable his methods! “For who has identified the thoughts of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a present to him that he is perhaps repaid?” For from him and thru him and to him are all issues. To him be glory without end. Amen.
Antidote for Pragmatism
I keep in mind ten years into my pastorate studying this horrible indictment of Christian pastors from Albert Einstein, and resolving, God serving to me, by no means to be responsible of this. Charles Misner wrote,
I do see the design of the universe as basically a non secular query. That’s, one ought to have some form of respect and awe for the entire enterprise. . . . It’s very magnificent and shouldn’t be taken as a right. In truth, I consider that’s the reason Einstein had so little use for organized faith, though he strikes me as a principally very non secular man. He should have checked out what the preachers mentioned about God and felt that they have been blaspheming. He had seen rather more majesty than that they had ever imagined, and so they have been simply not speaking about the actual factor.
Reformed theology is gorgeous as a result of it’s a nice antidote to a form of pragmatic, managerial, therapeutic dumbing down of the glory of God and the central actuality of the universe and the Bible and life and ministry.
God’s Dedication to His Glory
One of many ways in which Reformed theology portrays the glory of God and the centrality of God is by drawing consideration not simply to the God-centeredness of the Bible, however to the God-centeredness of God. God’s dedication to his personal self-exaltation — his God-centeredness — permeates the Bible from cowl to cowl. And Reformed theology holds the nice honor, the nice magnificence, of reveling in God’s God-centeredness. Hearken to this litany of God’s God-centeredness — God’s zeal to see his personal glory, his personal identify, exalted:
- “He predestined us for adoption . . . to the reward of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5–6 my translation). God deliberate his reward.
- “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalms 19:1). He designed it that approach.
- “You might be my servant, Israel, in whom I will probably be glorified” (Isaiah 49:3). That’s why he selected them.
- “He saved them [at the Red Sea] for his identify’s sake, that he may make identified his mighty energy” (Psalm 106:8).
- “I acted for the sake of my identify, that it shouldn’t be profaned within the sight of the nations” (Ezekiel 20:14).
- “Thus says the Lord God: It isn’t in your sake, O home of Israel, that I’m about to behave, however for the sake of my holy identify. . . . And I’ll vindicate the holiness of my nice identify . . . and the nations will know that I’m the Lord” (Ezekiel 36:22–23).
- “For my identify’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my reward I restrain it for you. . . . For my very own sake, for my very own sake, I do it, for a way ought to my identify be profaned? My glory I cannot give to a different” (Isaiah 48:9–11).
- “I’m he who blots out your transgressions for my very own sake” (Isaiah 43:25).
- “[Jesus comes] on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at amongst all who’ve believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:10).
- Jesus prays, “Father, I want that in addition they, whom you have got given me, could also be with me the place I’m, to see my glory” (John 17:24). He’s saying, “I died for this — that my folks would see my glory. I will probably be central and supreme amongst my folks.”
I do know that lots of people, 1000’s of individuals, don’t at first regard God’s God-centeredness as lovely and, due to this fact, they don’t regard Reformed theology as lovely. So far as they’re involved, what I simply described is megalomania. Earlier than C.S. Lewis was a Christian, he mentioned he learn texts like these and so they sounded to him “like a useless girl wanting compliments” (Reflections on the Psalms, 109). When Oprah Winfrey was 27, she heard a sermon on God’s jealousy for his identify and mentioned, “One thing about that didn’t really feel proper in my spirit as a result of I consider that God is love, and that God is in all issues,” and he or she walked away from biblical Christianity. Brad Pitt grew up in a Southern Baptist church however turned away as a result of he mentioned,
I didn’t perceive this concept of a God who says, “It’s a must to acknowledge me. It’s a must to say that I’m the perfect, after which I’ll provide you with everlasting happiness. When you received’t, then you definately don’t get it!” It appeared to be about ego. I can’t see God working from ego, so it made no sense to me.
So, it’s fairly clear that many individuals don’t discover God’s God-centeredness — God’s self-exaltation — lovely and, due to this fact, flip away from him and from Reformed theology. It’s like George MacDonald (certainly one of C.S. Lewis’s heroes), who mentioned (to my utter dismay so many a long time in the past), “From all copies of Jonathan Edwards’s portrait of God, nonetheless pale by time . . . I flip with loathing” (Creation in Christ, 81). That was like a intestine punch to me as a younger man, as I used to be falling in love with the God of Jonathan Edwards and this portrait of him known as Reformed theology. I’ve spent the lion’s share of my pondering within the final fifty years attempting to indicate that baked into the biblical portrait of God’s God-centeredness is an attractive reply to the accusation of megalomania.
Answering the Objection
The reply goes like this: God’s dedication to creating himself supreme and wonderful and central will not be megalomania, as a result of in contrast to our self-exaltation, God’s self-exaltation attracts consideration to what offers us the best and longest pleasure — specifically, himself. It doesn’t work that approach with us. That’s why we don’t like human beings who exalt themselves. Our self-exaltation attracts folks away from the one factor that may fulfill their souls: the infinite value and great thing about God in Christ.
If I say, “Have a look at me,” I’m your enemy. If God says, “Have a look at me,” he’s your good friend. When you obey me once I say, “Come, drink on the fountain of my resourcefulness,” you’ll die. When you obey God when he says, “Come, drink on the fountain of my infinite resourcefulness,” you’ll dwell. When God exalts himself, he’s loving us. He’s exhibiting and providing the one factor that may fulfill our souls without end — specifically, God. If Psalm 16:11 is true (“In your presence there may be fullness of pleasure; at your proper hand are pleasures forevermore”), what ought to he do to like you?
He ought to stand on each mountain and in each church, and say, “I’m that nice. I’m that nice. I’ll fulfill.” In our very expertise of supreme satisfaction in him, his final objective is fulfilled — specifically, the magnifying of his personal all-sufficient, all-satisfying glory, as a result of God is most glorified in us once we are most happy in him. That is the reply to the accusation of God’s megalomania: when he provides us himself at the price of his Son’s life, he’s each magnifying his personal value and satisfying our souls without end. There’s a identify for this, and it’s not megalomania. It’s love.
Reformed theology is gorgeous as a result of it foregrounds the centrality of the glory of God and, due to this fact, offers the deepest and longest satisfaction to the human soul. However neither C.S. Lewis, nor Brad Pitt, nor Oprah Winfrey, nor that treasured prodigal for whom you’d lay down your life will ever see this magnificence, except God, by all-powerful sovereign grace, rescues them from the blindness of our non secular depravity and dying, which is the second factor that makes Reformed theology lovely. The primary was that Reformed theology foregrounds the centrality of God. The second is that Reformed theology exalts the sovereignty of God’s grace in saving sinners.
Reformed Theology and Sovereign Grace
Reformed theology takes severely, with blood-earnest seriousness, the beauty-destroying, hopeless situation of human beings below the wrath of God and on our approach to everlasting punishment — if God himself doesn’t intervene. “For we now have already charged,” Paul mentioned, “that each one . . . are below sin, as it’s written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one’” (Romans 3:9–10).
The Bible describes us as spiritually useless and unresponsive to God (Ephesians 2:1), hardened in our hearts in opposition to non secular actuality (Ephesians 4:18), completely unable to alter ourselves: “The thoughts of the flesh is hostile to God, for it doesn’t undergo God’s legislation; certainly, it can’t. Those that are within the flesh can’t please God” (Romans 8:7–8 my translation). We’re, due to this fact, in line with Romans 6:17, “slaves of sin.” And all of this can be a depravity that makes us blind to the glory of Christ — the fantastic thing about Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4). To the pure human coronary heart, Christ seems as silly, or legendary, or mythological, or simply boring and irrelevant. With no miracle, a piece of all-powerful grace, we’re all hopeless in our alienation from God. No theology takes this depressing situation extra severely than Reformed theology, which is why no different theology can painting salvation by sovereign grace extra superbly.
God’s Will, Not Man’s
Reformed theology not solely takes this hopeless situation severely. It additionally takes sovereign grace severely. Oh, the fantastic thing about sovereign grace — the beauty-restoring energy of sovereign grace! Which means our rescue from the deadness, blindness, and ugliness of depravity into the life and great thing about salvation is present in God’s sovereign will, not man’s free will. Reformed theology doesn’t consider within the existence of human free will — not in the event you outline it as the ability of final self-determination. Left to our so-called “free will,” we die, as a result of by nature we love and select sin. The liberty to be the grasp of our personal destiny means dying. If there may be any hope for us in our insurrection in opposition to God, the hope will probably be in God’s sovereign, whole rescue. Reformed theology doesn’t consider that God contributes a useful 99 p.c and we contribute the decisive 1 p.c to our conversion.
Once we all get to heaven and lay our crowns earlier than the ft of Jesus, nobody goes to say, “Thanks, Jesus, for the 99 p.c that you simply contributed to my conversion, however there may be one crown I’m not going to put down at your ft — specifically, the decisive 1 p.c that I, by my free, self-determining will, offered; that crown belongs to my remaining, decisive non secular discernment.” Nobody goes to speak like that. As a result of that’s not the way in which it occurred — not for one particular person on this room.
Bought, Known as, Stored
Reformed theology bows to the attractive, humbling, treasured actuality that the blood of Christ — the blood of the brand new covenant (Luke 22:20) — bought a brand new coronary heart for his bride: “I’ll give them one coronary heart, and a brand new spirit I’ll put inside them. I’ll take away the guts of stone from their flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). Do you have got the brand new coronary heart that believes in Christ? That’s the way it occurred. Your new coronary heart was purchased with the blood of the covenant (1 Corinthians 6:20).
Then, on the premise of that bloody buy in historical past, God truly did it in your life. He took away the blindness, and triggered you to see the sunshine of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4–6). He triggered you to see the non secular great thing about Christ crucified as compelling. Christ grew to become your supreme treasure (Matthew 13:44). You skilled the present of religion (Ephesians 2:5–10). After which he gave you the Holy Spirit as a down fee, a assure, a seal (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:14). And he speaks these phrases over each certainly one of his blood-bought, believing kids: “I’ll put the concern of me of their hearts, that they could not flip from me. I’ll rejoice in doing them good . . . with all my coronary heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:40–41).
Are there any extra lovely phrases for a 78-year-old sinner to listen to (or an 18-year-old sinner) than this: “You might be mine. I’ll maintain you. You’ll not make shipwreck of your religion. Nobody can snatch you out of my hand. I purchased you, I known as you, I personal you, and I’ll maintain you”? Is there something extra agency, extra lovely than that?
Sure. There’s yet one more brushstroke so as to add to this canvas of lovely, sovereign salvation from the ugliness of whole deadness and blindness and depravity. And that brushstroke makes the firmness of sovereign grace as deep as it might probably presumably be. I’ll learn it to you from 2 Timothy 1:9: “[God] saved us and known as us to a holy calling, not due to our works however due to his personal objective and style, which he gave us in Christ Jesus earlier than the ages started.” You’ll by no means love him, worship him, obey him, or get pleasure from him the way in which you ought till your coronary heart leaps up with this actuality: God gave me saving, sovereign grace in Christ Jesus earlier than the creation of the universe. He selected me. He predestined me to consider, to be his baby — “to the reward of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6 KJV) — earlier than the muse of the world.
Wicked, chosen, bought, known as, and saved (T.U.L.I.P.). We’re saved by sovereign grace, infinitely lovely sovereign grace. Reformed theology is gorgeous as a result of the God of sovereign grace is gorgeous. Oh, that this sovereign God would look with such favor on the Acts 29 motion that nothing might transfer you from holding and heralding this lovely and beautifying Reformed theology.
