Answering Some Deep Questions About Reformed Theology and Philosophy

The Garrett Ashley Mullet Show

A friend of a friend asks you if the following statement is true according to your beliefs: 'God does not love you because you do good works, but rather, that you do good works because God bestows that gift to you.'

The short answer is 'Yes.' The longer answer is found in John 14:15 and 1 John 4:19.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

And also,

“We love because He first loved us.”

He continues on to ask you to define generally the concept of your Reformed Church as it relates to the general Protestant Church as a whole, and whether your church a subset of the general Protestant Church.

Here again, the short answer is 'Yes.' And the longer answer is that the concept of the Reformed Church is that it actually relates to the Catholic Church in the traditional sense of the “Catholic Church” being the Universal Church, or Christ’s Church. The Reformed Church was, and remains, one among several attempts to call what we typically refer to now as the Roman Catholic Church to repentance and revival along the lines of the Biblical text as our only infallible source of truth for Christian life and doctrine.

That said, God alone knows perfectly all the names which are written in The Book of Life, and these alone ultimately are those who actually comprise the Church proper and for all eternity, who will rule and reign forever with Christ in eternity future by God’s grace. The object of our saving faith is not this or that tradition or church itself, however, but rather Christ, whose atoning sacrifice restores us to a right relationship with the Father also grants us access to eternal life.

So this friend of a friend continues, and asks whether the word “preordained” describes the concept of being chosen by God at birth.

And to that I would say that both “preordained” and “predestined” refer to the mysterious concepts spoken of in passages like Romans 8:29-30 – “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

There is also Ephesians 1:3-14 to consider, which says in part:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him."

Thus the concept of being chosen by God is not merely at birth, but before the foundation of the world. Admittedly, this is a thing mysterious, and known fully by God alone; yet if it is neglected by any sincere Christians of good faith through the past two millennia, that is to our peril, since it is Scripture, and not just conjecture and sophistry.

Your friend's friend then asks whether this is similar to the covenant that the Jews say exists between the Jewish people and God. And the answer to this is in the affirmative, with the caveats which are typical of both the Old Testament and New Testament narrative. That is, we as Christians do not disagree with Christ, who said he did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill the Law, since he is the one the Prophets and the Law were pointing to.

Jews often claim to be “the chosen people” of God, it is true. But God’s plan has always been to reconcile His chosen people from all nations to Himself. Therefore, we can readily admit that God’s chosen people included not only the Jews, but also non-Jews – like Rahab and Ruth, for instance – whose faith was credited to them as righteousness just as the author of Hebrews writes.

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