This is the second lesson of a series seeking to explain the basics of who we are as a church, what we believe, how we worship, and what it means to belong to Cornerstone Reformed Church. We are a Reformed church within the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), and in this series we will go through our theology, practice, and pastoral commitments. Our hope is that this would help new members understand our life together, help long-time members remember our shared commitments, and help all of us grow in faithfulness to Christ, His church, and His Kingdom.

In this lesson we continue to look at what it means to be Reformed, walking through the Doctrines of Grace, focusing specifically on the 5 Solas of the Reformation.

The Doctrines of Grace

Calvinism and the Five Solas of the Reformation are at the heart of Reformed Theology. They are often referred to as the Doctrines of Grace. 

The debate over these doctrines, especially Calvinism, in my opinion, comes down to this: do we believe that God is completely sovereign. Almost all Christians would say yes, however when it comes to things such as salvation, many try to explain God’s sovereignty away. So do we believe in God’s sovereignty or not? 

J. I. Packer, in his book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, explains it like this: 

“I do not intend to spend any time at all proving to you the general truth that God is sovereign in His world. There is no need; for I know that, if you are a Christian, you believe this already. How do I know that? Because I know that, if you are a Christian, you pray; and the recognition of God’s sovereignty is the basis of your prayers. In prayer, you ask for things and give thanks for things. Why? Because you recognize that God is the author and source of all the good that you have had already and all the good that you hope for in the future. This is the fundamental philosophy of Christian prayer. The prayer of a Christian is not an attempt to force God’s hand, but a humble acknowledgment of helplessness and dependence. When we are on our knees, we know that it is not we who control the world; it is not in our power, therefore, to supply our needs by our own independent efforts. Every good thing that we desire for ourselves and for others must be sought from God, and will come, if it comes at all, as a gift from His hands.

If this is true even of our daily bread (and the Lord’s Prayer teaches us that it is), much more is it true of spiritual benefits. This is all luminously clear to us when we are actually praying, whatever we may be betrayed into saying in argument afterwards. In effect, therefore, what we do every time we pray is to confess our own impotence and God’s sovereignty. The very fact that a Christian prays is thus proof positive that he believes in the Lordship of his God.” 

So in one way or another, every Christian believes in the sovereignty of God. 

The problem most people have with God being completely sovereign is that this means that God is sovereign over our salvation. The problem comes because many believe that verses like John 3:16 mean that God sent Christ so that all would have the opportunity to be saved. If saving everybody was why Christ came into history, with so many in hell we’d have to say He failed miserably. If we believe what the Bible says we know this cannot be true because the Bible clearly teaches that God is perfect in all His ways and cannot and will not fail at anything, ever. Many think, however, that He only came to make salvation possible, but if you follow this solution logically you come across some major holes, like: what about those who were already in the grave from the Old Testament, did Christ die for them? One of the biggest hang-ups is that by saying that salvation is partly in our hands we’re saying the cross by itself doesn’t save, and that we must do something to give the cross its power. If this is true that means, at the end of the day, the glory is ours and not God’s.

Jesus knew who He was dying for and the cross will save all for whom it was intended. Jesus dies for His bride, the church. Jesus’ bride is the elect of God and that is to whom His death is applied. Man’s unbelief does not keep the Savior’s hands tied because all three persons of the Godhead work together for the salvation of man. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three and yet one, known as the Trinity. According to the Bible our salvation began in eternity past. The Father first foreknew all those whom He would save, the Son came to earth to live, die, and rise again to save sinners, and the Holy Spirit gives the new birth, regenerating sinners and applying salvation. So the Father elects us, the Son pays our debt and protects us from the wrath of God, and the Spirit is the One who resurrects us from our spiritually dead state and applies salvation to us. You could say the Father chooses us, the Son gets bruised for us, and the Spirit renews us and produces fruit in us.

The problem we have with this is that everybody’s not elect… the Father decides. In our minds it only seems fair that everyone should get the chance for salvation, but really the only fair thing for God to do is to send us all to hell because we are all sinners. Every man at some point, on some level chooses sin over God, but God in His infinite wisdom and mercy chooses to save some by giving them the power to turn from their sins by responding in repentance and faith to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything God does is for His glory and that is the ultimate reason He allows our salvation or our damnation… That, in fact, is why He ordains everything that comes to past: for His glory… He is the creator, we are the creature, we have no rights when it comes to God; He can do us no wrong… 

Trust me, this took me a while before I could grasp all of this and was ok with it. At first I was extremely angry by all of these proposals but I kept running into them in Scripture so I felt like I had to get to the bottom of all of it. As I worked through all the Scripture and the doctrines of Calvinism I became convinced and before I knew it I was an all out Calvinist. I just could not find a way around all the Scripture that talked about election and predestination. But I can say now that I get great joy from the fact that my salvation and the salvation of those I preach the gospel to is in His hands and not mine.