Paramount Church

There is nothing more notable or glorious in the church than the ministry of the gospel. Anglican Diocese of the Rocky Mountains, ACNA, GAFCON.

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

". . . there lies always upon God’s Minister, Wo be unto me, if I preach not the Gospel, if I apply not the comfortable promises of the Gospel, to all that grone under the burden of their sins."

~John Donne (1572-1631), Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral London @TWRjack

[Prydain Blog @WillPrydain]

From Psalm 18, courtesy of @ParishPrayer: https://t.co/y6GE2TS31p

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

How can our imperfect works be acceptable to God?

How can a struggling Christian be freed from the exhausting question, "Have I done enough?"

John Calvin’s answer is deeply comforting. God does not accept our works because they are perfect. He accepts them because we are in Christ.

As Calvin explains:

"Works are approved by God as if they were whole and perfect. But if we recall the foundation that supports it, every difficulty will be solved. A work begins to be acceptable only when it is undertaken with pardon. Now whence does this pardon arise, save that God contemplates us and our all in Christ? Therefore, as we ourselves, when we have been engrafted in Christ, are righteous in God’s sight because our iniquities are covered by Christ’s sinlessness, so our works are righteous and are thus regarded because whatever fault is otherwise in them is buried in Christ’s purity, and is not charged to our account. Accordingly, we can deservedly say that by faith alone not only we ourselves but our works as well are justified" (Calvin, Institutes, 3.17.10).

What makes Calvin's statement so powerful is that he does not merely say that God forgives the believer. He goes one step further and explains why the believer's imperfect obedience can genuinely please God.

The comfort is found in this line: "God contemplates us and our all in Christ."

Not merely us in Christ, but our all in Christ.

That means God looks upon the believer and upon the believer's works through the lens of union with Christ. The defects remain real. Calvin is not pretending that our works are inherently perfect. Rather, "whatever fault is otherwise in them is buried in Christ's purity, and is not charged to our account."

That is why Calvin can make the startling statement: "By faith alone not only we ourselves but our works as well are justified."

In other words, God does not accept our works because they are flawless. He accepts them because Christ has covered both our sins and the imperfections that still cling to our works.

Calvin says that just as our sins are covered by Christ’s sinlessness, so the defects and shortcomings in our good works are buried in Christ’s purity and are not charged to our account.

That means the believer never has to wonder whether he has done enough. Even our best works are imperfect, but they are accepted because Christ is perfect.

The result is profound assurance. The believer is freed from the exhausting question, "Have I done enough?" Good works no longer become a source of anxiety or self-justification. They become an expression of gratitude because they are already accepted in Christ.

This is why good works bring assurance rather than anxiety. They are not the foundation of our acceptance with God; they are the fruit of our acceptance with God.

Or as Calvin puts it, "By faith alone not only we ourselves but our works as well are justified."

Or, stated simply:

God accepts the believer because of Christ, and therefore He accepts the believer's works because of Christ.

He graciously accepts both the worker and the work because both are covered by Christ.

The Christian’s confidence is not in his works. His confidence is in Christ, who graciously accepts both the worker and the work.

That is a deeply encouraging motivation for holiness. We do not work in order to be accepted. We work because, in Christ, both we and our works are already accepted (Calvin, Institutes, 3.17.10).

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

“Do you not believe in surrendering to Christ?”

I believe in receiving and resting on Christ.

The Reformed confessions define saving faith as receiving and resting on Christ (e.g., WCF 11.2).

“Surrender” is a Higher Life category, not a Reformation category.

“I Surrender All” may be a sincere hymn of Christian devotion, but it is not the language by which the Reformers defined saving faith.

[Jacob Trotter @jacobtrotter41]

Some buck at speaking of Christ "according to" His humanity or divinity.

But this practice has biblical & traditional support.

Romans 1:3 speaks of Christ "according to the flesh."

"according to" is κατά (Greek) or secundum (Latin).

See how Anselm uses this language in CDH:

[Roy Jaquez @Royformed]

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O YHWH, my Rock and my Redeemer.

— Psalm 19:14

[Prydain Blog @WillPrydain]

Psalm 15, courtesy of @ParishPrayer: https://t.co/Zsiqrt2uFp

[Heidelblog @Heidelblog01]

"I will be a God to you and to your children." (Gen 17:7)

[Anthony | Reformed Dogmatika @SolaDogmatika]

“In this Trinity none is afore, or after another: none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal…

He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity.” https://t.co/9DzYjlCTeG

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

False.

The Father is the Father because He is unbegotten. The Son is the Son because He is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit because He eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The creeds (see Art. 8 in the 39 Articles) distinguish the divine Persons by eternal generation and procession, not by authority and submission.

“As the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit … none is greater or less than another, but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal”(Athanasian Creed).

[Richard Barcellos @richbarcellos]

T or F: “The Father is the Father because He sends the Son. The Son is the Son because He submits to the Father’s will. The Spirit is the Spirit because the Father and the Son send Him. There is no Holy Trinity without the order of authority and submission.”

[Prydain Blog @WillPrydain]

Psalm 12, courtesy of @ParishPrayer: https://t.co/rIRX8gmhIZ

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

". . . it is a great error to change the meaning of faith to include acts of obedience and repentance in an effort to make a disposition other than knowledge, assent, and trust a condition of justification." ~HT: @MichaelHorton_ , Christ the Lord: The Reformation and Lordship Salvation

[Heidelblog @Heidelblog01]

"I will be a God to you and to your children." (Gen 17:7)

[Mitch S. @MitchellSheten1]

Very helpful!

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

The Reformation did not teach, “Every member a minister.”

It taught the priesthood of all believers.

Every Christian is called to belong to Christ, serve his neighbor, and bear witness to the gospel. But not every Christian is called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament.

Every believer is a sheep in Christ's flock, but not every believer is a shepherd of Christ's flock.

The businessman has a vocation. The mother has a vocation. The teacher has a vocation. The plumber has a vocation.

Their work is sacred because it is a calling from God. But a vocation is not the same thing as the ministry of the church.

This confusion is often justified by an appeal to Ephesians 4. Yet the context is Christ's ascension and heavenly reign:

"Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men" (Eph. 4:8 KJV).

What are these gifts?

"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers" (Eph. 4:11 KJV).

The ascended Christ gave gifted men to His church. Pastors and teachers are Christ's gifts to His people.

Why did Christ give these gifts?

"For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12 KJV).

As Michael Horton notes, many modern Evangelicals read this passage as though pastors equip the saints so that the saints can do the work of ministry. But Paul actually presents pastors and teachers as Christ's gifts to the church for a threefold purpose:

1. For the perfecting of the saints.
2. For the work of the ministry.
3. For the edifying of the body of Christ (see: What About Bob? The Meaning of Ministry in the Reformed Tradition,https://t.co/Hj9UJqslE2)

And to what end?

"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13 KJV).

In other words, the ascended Christ continues to care for His flock by giving pastors and teachers to preach the Word, administer the Sacraments, and shepherd His people unto Christian maturity.

For this reason, we ought not despise Christ's gifts but cherish them. As John Calvin wrote, "there is nothing more notable or glorious in the church than the ministry of the gospel" (Calvin, *Institutes*, 4.3.1).

He then asks, "Who, then, would dare despise that ministry or dispense with it as something superfluous, whose use God willed to attest with such proofs?" (Calvin, *Institutes*, 4.3.2).

Do not confuse the priesthood of all believers with the ministry of the church.

Every believer is a sheep, but not every believer is a shepherd.

There is one ministry—the ministry of Word and Sacrament entrusted to Christ's ordained servants—but there are many vocations and callings through which Christians love God, love their neighbors, and perform good works in the world.

The former belongs to every Christian.

The latter belongs to those lawfully called by Christ through His church to preach the Word, administer the Sacraments, and shepherd Christ's flock.

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

One of Calvin's most comforting insights is that the believer's good works can never become the foundation of self-confidence before God.

Why? Because our good works are themselves God's gifts.

Quoting Augustine, Calvin writes:

"I do not say to the Lord, 'Despise not the works of my hands.' 'I have sought the Lord with my hands and am not deceived.' But I do not commend the works of my hands, for I fear lest, when Thou lookest upon them, thou mayest find more sins than merits. This only I say, this I ask, this I desire: despise not the works of thy hands; see in me thy work, not mine. For if thou seest mine, thou wilt condemn it. If thou seest thine own, thou wilt crown it. For whatever good works are mine are from thee."

Our confidence is not in our works, but in Christ. Even the good works that follow faith are God's gifts, not grounds for boasting. The Christian's confidence is not in what he has done for God, but in what God has done for him in Christ.

~John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.14.20.

[Jeffrey Perry® @JeffreyPerry09]

Episode 1 is live!

https://t.co/vrtopOxtXX

[Roy Jaquez @Royformed]

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O YHWH, my Rock and my Redeemer.

— Psalm 19:14

[Brian Onstead @brianonstead]

Sanctification is empowered by the gospel and directed by his law.

[Prydain Blog @WillPrydain]

Psalm 11, courtesy of @ParishPrayer: https://t.co/h2KSLqTuH4

[☧ Today in Christian History @HistoricalRook]

#OTD June 2, 553:
The Second Council of Constantinople concluded. The council condemned Nestorianism, the error that taught Jesus Christ was two separate persons (one divine and one human) rather than one Person with two natures. This decision helped affirm the orthodox Christian understanding of Christ as one divine Person with two natures, fully God and fully man.