Reformation

As I said in My Walk, my wife and I came to realize we had reformed/convenantal convictions. We both grew up in broadly evangelical churches, but we realized that Reformed theology made more sense. Over the next 20 years, we embarked on a journey of discovering what the Protestant Reformation was all about.

The most important thing that I learned was the distinction between Law and Gospel! The second was the presence of the Covenant of Grace throughout history! I'll start with the second point.

Growing up in a EVFree church, I was taught that there is the Old Testament and New Testament. Those were effectively the divisions of the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. Israel in the OT was under the Law, and we, as NT Christians, are under Grace. Now that no longer makes sense. One big reason is the very immutability of God Himself. Immutability means unchangable. God is not able to change or grow. He is perfection itself. God is not surprised by what happens. If we allow that God can change His plan, then we have to say that God grows or changes. I don't believe that we can even say that God knew ahead of time that it was going to happen, but changed in time when it was needed. This backhandedly skirts His immutability.

What I believe now is that God called Abraham as the first member of the visible church. Israel does not exist until Abraham's grandchild, Jacob...and long into Jacob's life at that. The promises that God made to Abram/Abraham were made to the church, the invisible internal church. The Covenant that God "cut" with Abraham was to the church, not Israel. Israel is part of the church. The church is not part of Israel. When you approach the covenants this way, there is more consistency and logic. The pieces fit better.

Now to back up to the first and most important part, the distinction between Law and Gospel. The idea behind this distinction is that in the Scripture there are two types of Words. The Law is the word that puts a burden on us. It demands perfection. It levies penalties or even death upon those that fail to reach its demand.

The Gospel on the other hand tells us "Christ has done all that is required." It tells us, "Rest, Christian! Christ has done everything and rests...believe and do the same." During the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, the Roman Catholic church taught that infant baptism resets our "sin count" to 0 and from there we have to reach enough goodness to be able to enter Heaven. If we can reach 51% of holiness, God sees that and "imputs" Christ's righteousness to get us the rest of the 49%. This makes Christ but "half a savior." The Protestant fathers rejected this and instead insisted that Christ did everything by his active and passive obedience. There is nothing more that we MUST do, save believe.

People will then insist that this gives Christians license to sin and do whatever. Paul refutes this in Romans with "may it never be!" The Law has a three-fold purpose. Firstly, convict the sinner toward his need for a savior. Secondly, to inform the government in moral laws. Thirdly, to drive the believer more into the arms of Jesus as they are made aware of their sin through the preaching of the Law and Gospel and administration of the sacraments! Just as a child learns more to love their parents as they learn of their parents love for them! If a child does not grow in love of their parents, either their parents did something wrong or they misunderstood something. That is not possible when it comes to the Father's love for us!

So the best encouragement I have for you, Christian is rest! Listen to the words of your Savior and trust in the God that cannot lie, change, or be moved!