DeYoung Grace Defined and Defended

What a 400-Year-Old Confession Teaches Us about Sin, Salvation, and the Sovereignty of God
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4335-6442-0
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

Christians love to celebrate grace, but often talk about it in vague generalities. But such an important biblical concept ought to be clearly defined so it can be consistently defended. In this book, best-selling author Kevin DeYoung points modern readers back to an old document originally written to do just that. Warmly pastoral and broadly accessible, this book introduces readers to the Canons of Dort, a 17th-century work summarizing the central doctrines of the Christian faith. Widely regarded as a key pillar of the Reformed tradition, the Canons of Dort stand as a faithful witness to God's grace-offering a depth of understanding that the church still needs today. In three concise sections-covering history, theology, and practical application-DeYoung explores what led to the Canons and why they were needed, the five important doctrines that they explain, and Dort's place in the Reformed tradition today.

Kevin DeYoung (PhD, University of Leicester) is the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, and associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte. He has written books for children, adults, and academics, including Just Do Something; Impossible Christianity; Daily Doctrine; and The Biggest Story Bible Storybook. Kevin's work can be found on clearlyreformed.org. Kevin and his wife, Trisha, have nine children.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Deyoung, Kevin

Leseproben

1

God’s Purpose and Good Pleasure in Predestination

The First Main Point of Doctrine

I took AP Western Civilization when I was in high school. I’ve forgotten a lot since then, but I vividly remember the class where we talked about the Reformation. Even though it was a public high school, my teacher found a way to get us talking about Luther and Calvin. In discussing Calvin, we couldn’t avoid a heated conversation about predestination.

The class uniformly thought the idea of God choosing people for salvation was ghastly. But I remembered my mom telling me that “we like John Calvin,” so I felt duty bound to put in a good word for the Genevan Reformer. I raised my hand and, once called upon, explained to my classmates that predestination simply meant that God looked into the future to see who would believe, and then God elected those people for salvation. To my delight, the class seemed quite satisfied with my explanation. To think that God chose those whom he knew would choose him was a much easier pill to swallow. Only years later did I realize that I had magnificently defended Calvinism with Arminianism!

The First Main Point of Doctrine in Dort is the longest and the most theologically complicated. But at the heart of the debate is a straightforward question: Did God choose the elect because they would believe, or did God choose the elect so that they might believe? Or to put it another way, is divine election based on foreseen faith or according to sheer grace and God’s free good pleasure? That’s what Dort’s first point means to answer.

Two Quick Notes

Before we turn to the canons themselves, I need to make two brief introductory remarks.

1. This book is not a biblical defense of the five points of Calvinism, nor is it a theological exposition of Reformed soteriology. There are a number of good books that set out to do one or both of those tasks.1 While I trust this book will also be biblical and theological (see Appendix 4 for all of Dort’s Scripture proofs), my first goal is to explain the Canons of Dort. Think of this not as a mini systematic theology or as an exegetical exploration of key salvation texts, but as a brief, accessible commentary on the background and theology of Dort itself. Of course, in explaining Dort, I hope to say something valuable about the theology of the Bible as well. But you can be the judge of that.

2. When referencing or quoting from the canons, I will put the article in parentheses. Since each of these references will be for the main point of doctrine under consideration, I’ll note the article number only. Besides the articles provided in the text of each chapter, the canons also include a section called “Rejection of Errors” after each main point of doctrine. These rejections can be found in Appendix 1. I will cite these parenthetically, so that (Rejection III) refers to the third rejection for the main point under discussion. There is a concluding section entitled “Rejection of False Accusations” included in Appendix 2. Finally, The Opinions of the Remonstrants can be found in Appendix 3. These will be referenced as (Opinions C.3) or (Opinions A.9) and so on.2

Framing the Debate (Articles 1–5)

Article 1: God’s Right to Condemn All People

Since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse, and to condemn them on account of their sin. As the apostle says: “The whole world is liable to the condemnation of God” (Rom. 3:19), “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

Article 2: The Manifestation of God’s Love

But this is how God showed his love: he sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (1 John 4:9; John 3:16).

Article 3: The Preaching of the Gospel

In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends messengers of this very joyful message to the people and at the time he wills. By this ministry people are called to repentance and faith in Christ crucified. For “how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching? And how shall they preach unless they have been sent?” (Rom. 10:14–15).

Article 4: A Twofold Response to the Gospel

God’s wrath remains on those who do not believe this gospel. But those who do accept it and embrace Jesus the Savior with a true and living faith are delivered through him from God’s wrath and from destruction, and receive the gift of eternal life.

Article 5: The Sources of Unbelief and of Faith

The cause or blame for this unbelief, as well as for all other sins, is not at all in God, but in humanity. Faith in Jesus Christ, however, and salvation through him is a free gift of God. As Scripture says, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is a gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). Likewise: “It has been freely given to you to believe in Christ” (Phil. 1:29).

• • •

These first five articles are essential for understanding the rest of this First Main Point and for putting all of the canons in a proper biblical framework.

At the outset, before even talking about election unto salvation, we have to accept that “God would have done no one an injustice if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse, and to condemn them on account of their sin” (Article 1). The question is not simply, “Why do some people get passed over?” but, “Why should anyone be saved?” We are all deserving of punishment and death. It is only by God’s grace that any of us receive eternal life.

Because God loves us, he sent two great gifts into the world. The supreme gift was the sending of his Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (Article 2). The other gift mentioned here by Dort is the sending of messengers to proclaim this good news (Article 3). As we’ll see again, the doctrine of predestination does not eliminate the need for faithful preachers and evangelists. God normally works through means, which means he saves his people through the preaching of the gospel (Acts 18:9–11; 2 Thess. 2:13–14).

Most Christians would agree with everything in Articles 1–3. There is nothing too controversial (for orthodox believers) about sinners deserving death, God showing love, and preachers proclaiming the gospel. And among Bible-believing Christians, there is nothing much to debate when it comes to Article 4: whoever believes in Christ is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already (John 3:18).

By the time we get to Article 5, however, Dort is setting us up for the crux of the matter. Some people believe, and some people do not. That much is self-evident. We can all see this. Further, as Christians, we probably all agree that unbelief is our fault, while salvation is the free gift of God. Following the Bible, Dort has divided humanity into two classes: those who are lost (because of sin) and those who are found (because of grace). This much we can all (for the most part) agree on.

Election Defined (Articles 6–11)

Article 6: God’s Eternal Decree

The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within time, and that others do not, stems from his eternal decree. For “all his works are known to God from eternity” (Acts 15:18; Eph. 1:11). In accordance with this decree God graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of the elect and inclines them to believe, but by a just judgment God leaves in their wickedness and hardness of heart those who have not been chosen. And in this especially is disclosed to us God’s act—unfathomable, and as merciful as it is just—of distinguishing between people equally lost. This is the well-known decree of election and reprobation revealed in God’s Word. The wicked, impure, and unstable distort this decree to their own ruin, but it provides holy and godly souls with comfort beyond words.

Article 7: Election

Election is God’s unchangeable purpose by which he did the following:

Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, God chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common misery. God did this in Christ, whom he also appointed from eternity to be the Mediator, the head of all those chosen, and the foundation of their...