The Gospel

in the Reformed Faith

The Sovereignty and Grace of God
 Introduction

• Roman Catholics recite the Rosary prayer, which begins with the
Apostles’ Creed, after which they say “The Hail Mary”:
• Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
 Who are you?
• What descriptors would you use to define your identity?
• What does it mean to be Reformed?
• Reformed Christianity is rooted in the 16th century, when Protestant
reformers protested against the corrupt teachings and practices of the
Roman Catholic church
• The Reformed tradition identifies with the life and work of John Calvin
and the basic doctrines of the Protestant Reformation
• Reformed doctrinal beliefs are summarised in the 17th century
Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms
 Who are you?
• Presbyterianism is a subset of the Reformed tradition
• The term “Presbyterian” refers to a Greek term, presbuteros, meaning
“elder”
• The Presbyterian Church governing body is based on a system of elders,
ruling and teaching elders or ministers, who are ordained and
responsible for the discipline, nurture and mission of the congregation
 The Sovereignty of God
• At the heart of Reformed Theology is belief in God’s sovereignty
• Reformed people believe the Scriptures teach that God is in complete
and absolute control of his creation
• “To put it simply, when we talk about God as sovereign, we mean that
God is King” (Lucas 2006, 15)
• Therefore, we depend on him for all we have and are
 God’s Sovereignty and Divine Control

• Evil exists within the mystery of God’s divine sovereignty (Gen 50:19-
20; Isa 10:5-16)
• 19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of
God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to
accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen
50:19-20)
 God’s Sovereignty and Divine Control
• “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the
club of my wrath! 6 I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him
against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and
to trample them down like mud in the streets. 7 But this is not what
he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy,
to put an end to many nations. 8 ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’
he says. 9 ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like
Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus? 10 As my hand seized the
kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of
Jerusalem and Samaria—11 shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her
images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’” 12 When the Lord has
finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I
will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the
haughty look in his eyes” (Isa 10:5-12)
 God’s Sovereignty and Divine Control

• Divine sovereignty establishes human existence and choice

• Divine sovereignty and human choice are compatible
• God is sovereign but this does not mitigate human responsibility;
and
• Humans are morally responsible creatures but our actions do not
make God contingent
 God’s Sovereignty and Divine Control

• “Embedded in these passages is the teaching that God is good. In his

sovereignty, he stands asymmetrically behind good and evil. He
stands behind good until the good is finally creditable to him. He
stands behind evil in such a way, although it never escapes the
boundaries of his sovereignty, the evil is always creditable only to
secondary causalities” (Carson 2015)
 God’s Sovereignty and Election
• Paul describes the human race as separated from God (Rom 3:9-18).
We are spiritually blind (Rom 1:18-23; 2 Cor 4:3-4)
• No one seeks God (Rom 3:9-11)
• Because humans are sinners and spiritually dead, this condition
requires God’s election
• As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which
you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the
ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those
who are disobedient (Eph 2:1-2)
• Reformed people believe that God chooses specific individuals to
salvation, not groups of people
 Terms Denoting Election

• Heb term yada refers “to know” or “regard with favor” (Gen 18:19)
• Terms such as bachar and eklegomai mean “to choose” or “to select”
• The term proorizo means “to predestine” (Rom 8:29)
• The term proginosko could mean “foresight” or “foreloving”
• Based on the terms yada and ginosko, it likely refers to an intimate
relationship (Rom 8:29; 1 Pt 1:1-2)
 Unconditional Election
• Gen 18:19—intimate knowledge (yada) beyond advance knowledge
• 1 Pt 1:2—The elect “….have been chosen according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the
Spirit”
• Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world:
• “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in
these last times for your sake” (1 Pt 1:20)
• Rom 8:29—foreknowledge is both divine determination and advance
knowledge
 Calvinism

• Calvinists believes that God chooses individuals to be saved based on

nothing but his own free decision. Nothing a person has done or will
do—not even faith—has any bearing on God’s choice
• As Augustine, in some ways a forerunner of Calvinism, puts it, “God
does not choose us because we believe, but that we may believe”
(Predestination of the Saints, 17.34)
 Total Depravity

CALVINISM ARMINIANISM
• Humans are unable to savingly • Humans are not in a state of
believe the gospel. The sinner is total spiritual helplessness. His
spiritually dead, blind, and deaf will is not enslaved to his sinful
to the things of God. Human will nature. Each sinner possesses
is not free. It is in bondage to his free will to cooperate with God’s
evil nature, and therefore spirit to receive or to reject him.
cannot choose Christ or good Faith is man’s response that
until the Holy Spirit initiates the precedes regeneration and
work of regeneration. contributes to salvation.
 Unconditional Election

CALVINISM ARMINIANISM
• God’s choice of certain • God’s choice of certain
individuals to salvation before individuals was based on his
the foundation of the world foreseeing that they would
rested solely on his sovereign respond to his call. Election was
will. God’s choice of particular determined by or conditioned
individuals was not based on on what a person would do. God
foreseen response on their part. does not give faith, but humans
God gives faith and repentance possess free will to embrace or
to those whom he selected. reject Christ.
 Definite Atonement

CALVINISM ARMINIANISM
• Christ’s redeeming work • Christ’s redeeming work made it
intended to save the elect only possible for everyone to be
and actually secured salvation saved but did not actually secure
for them. The gift of faith is salvation of anyone. His death
infallibly applied by the Spirit to did not actually put away
all for whom Christ died, anyone’s sin. Redemption only
therefore securing their becomes effective if a person
salvation. chooses to accept it.
 Divine Grace

CALVINISM ARMINIANISM
• The Holy Spirit extends a special • The Spirit calls inwardly all those
call to the elect that inevitably who are called outwardly by the
brings them to salvation. The gospel invitation. Due to free
general or outward call is often will, one can resist the Spirit’s
rejected. But the special or call. The Spirit cannot regenerate
internal witness of the Spirit a sinner until he believes.
cannot be rejected; it always Human faith precedes and make
results in conversion. the new birth possible.
 Perseverance of the Saints

CALVINISM ARMINIANISM
• All who are chosen by God, • Those who believe and are truly
redeemed by Christ, and given saved can lose their salvation by
faith by the Spirit are eternally failing to keep up their faith.
saved. They are kept in faith by
the power of God and will
persevere to the end.
 Conclusion

CALVINISM ARMINIANISM
• This system of theology was • This system of thought
affirmed by the Synod of Dort in contained in the
1619 as the doctrine of salvation “Remonstrance” was submitted
contained in Scripture. to the Reformed Church in
Holland in 1610 for adoption. It
was rejected by the Synod of
Dort in 1619 as unscriptural.
 Prevenient Grace
• Arminians and Wesleyans insist that prevenient grace savingly
engages all people:
• 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world
(Jn 1:9)
• 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
myself (Jn 12:32)
• 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about
sin and righteousness and judgment (Jn 16:8)
 Effectual Grace
• Reformed people limits the efficacy of human free to the elect
• Effectual grace refers to the life-transforming work of the Spirit in that
he effectually brings people to himself
• Jer 24:7—“I will give them a heart to know me”
• Jn 6:37— “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever
comes to me I will never drive away”
• Jn 6:44— “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day”
• Rom 6:18— “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves
to righteousness”
• Eph 2:4-5—Imparts spiritual life to the dead
 The Priority of Divine Grace
• Calvinists: God’s grace is prior (cause) to human decisions and actions
are consequences (result)
• Arminians: God allows human freewill (cause) and is logically prior to
the divine plan (result)
 Question of Human Free Will
• How can God exert divine providence without doing violence to
human freedom?
• Compatibilistic freedom (soft determinism)
• Libertarian freedom (incompatibilistic)
 Libertarian Free Will

• Libertarian free will “means that our choices are free from the
determination or constraints of human nature and free from any
predetermination by God. All ‘free will theists’ hold that libertarian
freedom is essential for moral responsibility, for if our choice is
determined or caused by anything, including our own desires, they
reason, it cannot properly be called a free choice. Libertarian freedom
is, therefore, the freedom to act contrary to one's nature,
predisposition and greatest desires. Responsibility, in this view, always
means that one could have done otherwise” (Olson 2006, 20)
 Conclusion
• Reformed people think of the gospel as the good news of God taking
action to save people by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
• Arminian or Wesleyan think of the gospel as the good news of God
taking action to provide the possibility of salvation for people by the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
• Reformed people insist that repentance and faith are brought about
by God’s elective grace, while the Wesleyan believer insist that all
humans have the benefit of prevenient grace to repent and believe
• For Calvinists, regeneration precedes faith
• For Arminians, faith precedes regeneration
 Discussion Questions

• Do you struggle with the belief that God is King? Why?

• How does God’s sovereignty comfort you in the midst of pain and
struggles?
• How does our commitment to God’s sovereignty and grace provide us
with confidence and assurance?