Jesus became human and lived a life without sin. Then he sacrificed his life in our name. By suffering death on the cross, Jesus took the punishment our sins deserved. Three days after Jesus died, he rose from the dead. Through his resurrection, Jesus conquered death so that anyone who believes in him can join him in everlasting life. Justification: to be made right in the eyes of God. Even in our best moments, our actions are stained with sin. Yet out of sheer grace, God gives us the righteousness of Christ.
Christ wipes our record clean. Our righteousness is in Jesus. Unconditional election: belief that God has chosen people to save in advance and prepares their hearts to receive the gift of salvation; God offers this gift to people not based on their merit but as an act of undeserved grace. God gives us the faith to accept salvation as an act of undeserved grace Canons of Dort, Main Point 1, Article 7. Our merits and strength have nothing to do with it. God preserves the seed of our faith in times of doubt.
And no matter how badly we sin, salvation in Jesus covers us. If God has chosen to give you the gift of salvation through Christ, you cannot lose your salvation. Sanctification: belief that those who are justified by faith in Jesus are continually being made more holy through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Through the work of the Holy Spirit, true faith in Jesus reshapes our hearts to better match the heart of Jesus. This continual process of being made more holy is called sanctification. It is impossible for holy faith to be unfruitful. This faith moves people to do by themselves the works that God has commanded in the Word. We still sin. A fourth characteristic of the church, unity, is worth including here. That characteristic is that the church is united by Christ with God and each other Belhar Confession, Point 2.
The church is called to proclaim this gospel promise to all nations and people without discrimination Canons of Dort, Main Point 2, Article 5. In a world full of injustice and hate, one way we bear witness to the gospel is to join God in standing for peace and justice.
God is so much greater than we are, and his ways so much higher than ours, that we can only know him truly as he makes himself known in his Word. In Reformed exegesis and hermeneutics, context is king. The largest context is what the whole Bible teaches on the particular topic at hand. Tradition can be the bane or blessing of the church. Tradition hurts the church when we elevate it to divine authority Matt.
Reformed theology does not depart from our ancient Christian heritage but affirms the catholic, orthodox doctrines of God and Christ that form the backbone of the great confessional tradition of worldwide Christianity.
Though the Reformers were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church, they did not cast off the Trinitarian faith of the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. They affirmed the doctrines that God is three persons in one divine nature Matt. Christ is everything to believers Col. Earlier we noted that Reformed theology is God-centered; here we clarify that it is centered on the triune God who comes to us through the only Mediator, Jesus Christ.
They traced in glowing detail his mediatorial office as the Prophet, Priest, and King of his people. However, a survey of a Reformed catechism or systematic theology shows that there is much more to Reformed theology than the doctrine of salvation.
The first volume in the Reformed Systematic Theology series draws on the historical theology of the Reformed tradition, exploring the first 2 of 8 central points of systematic theology with an accessible, comprehensive, and experiential approach. God-centered teaching calls us to God-centered living. Gisbertus Voetius, a renowned professor of Reformed theology, regularly gave his time to catechizing orphans.
Reformed doctrine has been treasured by some of the greatest evangelists of all time, such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. Which is the real church? Which one should I join? Which one really teaches and lives what the Bible says? In fact, most of them do. But each church brings its own unique emphasis.
The Reformed Churches formed one branch of the Protestant churches that broke from the Roman Catholic Church of that day. They began in the sixteenth century in Switzerland under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin.
John Calvin was born in Noyon, France, in Educated in the humanities, he earned his academic stripes summa cum laude at age Inspired by the teachings of reformers like Martin Luther, Calvin took up serious study of the Bible. His education and his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew gave him access to what for most people remained a hidden book. His study of the Bible prompted him to write commentaries on almost every book of Scripture.
He never did tackle the book of Revelation, which may have been wise on his part, given the endless variety of interpretations that generate so much more heat than light today. He also wrote a fabulous summary of biblical teaching entitled The Institutes of the Christian Religion. In fact, the Institutes have just been translated and published in Russian and are enjoying an enthusiastic response. Because he was persecuted by the Roman Church, Calvin had to flee France.
There Calvin became an active preacher, teacher, leader, and proponent of Reformation teachings. While in many ways a child of his age, Calvin made a tremendous contribution to helping us understand the Bible and the faith to which it calls us. Reformed teaching was introduced to Scotland by John Knox, who was initially influenced by the Lutheran stream of the Reformation.
His teacher, Patrick Hamilton, was burned to death for his faith, and Knox himself was captured by the French and forced into hard labor as a galley slave. Once freed, he studied with Calvin in Geneva, returning to Scotland in In spite of stiff opposition from both church and state, Knox succeeded in establishing what came to be known as the Presbyterian Church.
How did Calvin get along with other church leaders of his day? Opposing Roman Catholic teachings of the time, he agreed with the other Reformers that. So what were some of the differences that have kept the followers of these Reformers in separate denominations ever since?
Here are a few:. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Clearly Jesus wanted the church to be one unified fellowship around the whole world.
But through these two millennia the church has been fractured into different groups—groups that often tear each other apart over relatively unimportant things. So was it good or was it bad that it happened? Thoughtful Reformed Christians would probably answer that question by saying it was both.
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