So Kevin DeYoung’s post DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed: What I Mean By Reformed got me thinking, what do I mean when I say I am “Reformed”? On the one hand, many Christians assume they know what that means (often erroneously) but what I have found is that in spite of the attempts of some people to be the “Reformed label police”, rather than a tiny, rigidly defined sub-sub-sub-set of Christianity, those who claim the title of “Reformed” cut a pretty wide swath across the Christian landscape. So inspired by Kevin, here is my attempt to define what I mean when I say “Reformed” (keeping in mind that these are my thoughts alone and do not represent official dogma of any church, organization or informal gathering)
First and foremost, and as James Lee pointed out this sometimes get forgotten, being Reformed is a distant second to being a Christian. Being Reformed means being a sinner, condemned justly to an eternal hell that has been saved as a gracious and sovereign act by a holy, just and loving God. Everything else that I am is subsumed by that reality. Alongside that reality is the truth that many other people are also saved, and are saved in the same way. Even though I believe that the Reformed doctrines of salvation are true, I recognize that many people saved the same way I was don’t view salvation the same way I do, but that does not make their salvation less valid or make them less brothers in Christ. Disagreeing with me is not grounds for excommunication (although maybe it should be…)
Being Reformed is more than merely a checklist of doctrines, and if you can check them all off with “yes”, you get in the club. Although the mere suggestion of this will cause weeping and gnashing of teeth among some in the Reformed movement, there are Reformed believers in all manner of denominations. There are Baptists who are Reformed, Anglicans that are Reformed, charismatics perhaps that are Reformed. There are some, but not by any means all, Presbyterians who are Reformed. Reformed describes a system of theology and Reformed also refers to a denominational tradition, but the two are not synonymous to the exclusion of all others.
Being Reformed includes the Five Points of Calvinism, but doesn’t stop there. Being Reformed is more than the Five Points and being Reformed is more than obedience to a particular confession.
Reformed means having a high view of God and His sovereignty, submitting to the reality that all things are under His sovereign control and indeed nothing happens outside of His sovereign rule. That is true when the sun is shining or during a torrential downpour, when people prosper and when bridges collapse, when a child is born and when a person dies. God is sovereign everywhere, including and especially when it comes to the salvation of sinners. It makes no sense to me whatsoever, nor is it defensible in the Bible, that God is sovereign over every aspect of His creation but would leave salvation even in part up to His children.
What this means is that salvation is all about the glory of God. The life of the redeemed, born-again believer is all about Christ, and not at all about us. Our lives are properly lives of gratitude and worship, giving all praise, honor and glory to the one who saved us.
Being Reformed also means that in opposition to the picture of a sovereign and holy God, I and all of mankind is hopelessly lost and depraved, not just lost in sins but dead in them, reveling in our sins and an enemy of God. Being Reformed means that I don’t see the Gospel as making good men better or reconciling friends with minor differences, but making dead men live again and a one-sided détente between mankind and the God we hated. We are recipients of salvation, not participants.
Reformed mans a high view of Scripture, not just as inerrant but also as perspicuous and sufficient. Scripture is our source for truth, in that outside of the Word of God we only know enough about God to condemn us, and nothing about God to save us. Every Christian, I mean every one, says they believe in the Bible but I find that not everyone bears that out in practice and in doctrine. That is not to imply that people who are Reformed are immune from this, but being Reformed should mean that we don’t try to “fill in the blanks” or try to cram our church traditions into the Word of God. It still happens but it shouldn’t.
Being Reformed involves a historical aspect as well. At the risk of sounding pompous (something that has never stopped me in the past), those who hold to Reformed theology look to the past far more than the present. Our book shelves are not filled with the latest drivel pumped out for mass consumption, but instead are lined with old books, in some ways the older the better, books penned four hundred years ago. We don’t go to the local Family Christian Store to buy books, we get them from book sellers that proudly affirm their own Reformed credentials and this marketplace has made available tons of books that would otherwise be out of print and perhaps lost.
This historicity means that we often look to the giants of the past to teach us. What did Calvin say on this verse, what was Spurgeon’s take on this doctrine, what about Edwards? Many brilliant, godly men have come before us and we sit at their feet to learn. This is to our benefit. But sometimes that means that I look to Reformed teachers of the past and assume that they are right. The measure of a doctrine is not how many Reformed teachers in the past agreed with it, but how it measures in fidelity to the Word of God. That gets lost more often than is healthy.
Being Reformed does necessitate holding to some key, non-negotiable doctrines. The inerrancy of Scripture. The vicarious substitutionary particular atonement of Christ. The depravity of man, the election by God of sinners, the sovereign working of the Spirit in regeneration, the security of believers.
Being Reformed ultimately is about God’s elect sheep hearing the voice of their Good Shepherd and following Him. That voice tells them that they are utterly lost in their sins but that in spite of our failed and blasphemous efforts to save ourselves, God sent His only begotten Son to live a perfect, sinless life of obedience and to willingly die on a cross in the place of His sheep, becoming a propitiation for them and eternally securing their salvation by His blood. All of this happened before any of us were born, but that makes it in no way less glorious or true. That God would, in eternity past, look upon me, as wretched and miserable a sinner as has ever lived and in spite of my sins, in spite of my enmity and slander of Him, would still choose to save me at the terrible cost of His own Son is what being Reformed means to me.
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