What is the Reformed Faith?

Dr. Steven C. Riser

New Beginning is part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. But, what is an evangelical? Historically, the term evangelical was used to refer to those who embraced the essential truths of Christianity.

These truths are summarized in the seven essentials of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

The term evangelical comes from the term evangel which means Gospel or good news. Therefore, an Evangelical Christian is one who is committed to sharing the good news of God's love in Christ with others! What greater cause could any one have than sharing the greatest news in the world!

As evangelical Christians, we seek to cultivate a Christ-centered and Biblically based Faith. We do not want to be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. Nor do we want to be so earthly minded that we are no heavenly good. We do not want to take to Bible too literally or too liberally-rather we want to discern it's intent. In short, we seek to be balanced Christians who are Biblically faithful and culturally relevant.

In addition, evangelicals also share a common heritage in the solas of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation. Today the light of the Reformation has been significantly dimmed. Evangelical Churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than the Spirit of Christ. As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the historic faith of the Christian church.

This aticle will consider two questions:

• What is the Reformed Faith?
• What are the Implications of the Reformed faith for our daily lives?

What are the essential truths and the implications of the Reformed faith?

The Reformed Faith is summarized by the following terms:

• Sola Scriptura: Scripture Alone.
• Solus Christus: Christ Alone.
• Sola Gratia: Grace Alone.
• Sola Fide: Faith Alone.
• Soli Deo Gloria: To the Glory of God Alone.

What do these Sola's mean?

Sola Scriptura - Our only Divine Authority for our beliefs and our behavior.

The Holy Scripture is the sole source of written Divine Revelation and the final authority of faith and conduct; it alone can bind the conscience. It alone teaches all that's necessary for our salvation from sin and it alone is the standard by which all Christian beliefs and behavior must be measured. This means that there is no creed, council or individual who may bind a Christian's conscience. It also means that the Holy Spirit doesn't speak independently or contrary to what is contained in Scripture. Personal spiritual experience is never an adequate substitute for Biblical revelation. The Church is guided, far too often, by the culture. As Biblical authority declines, the Church becomes increasingly emptied of power, integrity, moral authority and divine direction for it's mission.

Solus Christus - The Source of Salvation and the only mediator between God and man.

The Bible says that it gives us a wisdom which leads to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of Christ alone as revealed in the Scripture. His substitutionary atonement (death of the cross in our place) alone was sufficient for our justification (being declared not guilty) and reconciliation (being brought into right relationship) to the Father. If the atonement of Christ is not declared and the necessity of faith in Christ and His work is not solicited, the Gospel is not preached.

Christ and His Cross have moved too far from the center of our focus and vision. As the Christian faith has become secularized and its interests blurred with those of the culture, the result is a loss of moral absolutes and a growth of permissive individualism, a substitution of wholeness for holiness, recovery for repentance, intuition for truth, feeling for belief, chance for providence, and immediate gratification for enduring hope. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand! According to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, the wise person, the one who built his house on the rock, is the one who hears and obeys Christ's teaching.

Sola Gratia - The Basis of Salvation.- apart from which there would be no salvation!

In salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by God's grace alone. The supernatural work of the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ by releasing us from the bondage of sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life. Salvation is not in any sense a human work. Man is incapable of regenerating himself and faith is not produced by our unregenerate human nature. Salvation by grace is antithetical to salvation by works. Eph.2;8,9 You can't mix the two-they are like water and oil-they don't mix! Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature. The health, wealth and self-esteem Gospels have given many a false sense of confidence. The Gospel is not true because it works, it works because it's true. God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but it is the sole efficient cause of salvation. Human beings are born spiritually dead and therefore are incapable of even cooperating with regenerating grace. Grace has been defined as God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

Sola Fide - The Means of Salvation.

Justification-being made right in God's sight is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. Christianity stands or falls on this cardinal truth. Too often this truth is ignored, distorted and sometimes even denied by those claiming to be Christians but are not if they reject God's way.

Although human nature has always recoiled from recognizing God's way of salvation (by grace through faith in Christ alone), Our current culture has fueled the fires of discontent with the Biblical Gospel. Some have allowed the discontent to affect the nature of our ministry and teaching. It is important that we affirm that there is no basis of acceptance before God except in Christ's saving work, not in moral decency or devotion to a church. The Gospel is not about what we can do for God but about what He has done for us that we couldn't do for ourselves in dying on the Cross in our place. Don't buy the deceptive reasoning that it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. The fact of the matter is, you can be sincere and be sincerely wrong! Sincerity is not the test of truth!

Soli Deo Gloria - The Purpose of Salvation - to please God and demonstrate His greatness!

Whenever biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been displaced, the Gospel of Grace has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it has always been for one reason: our interests have displaced God's and we are going astray rather than following God's way. Or, we are seeking to do His work our way. The loss of God's centrality in our lives and in His church is common and lamentable. When we lose God as our central focus, worship becomes entertainment, preaching the Gospel is turned into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. If we are not Bible-based, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered and person-oriented, we are moving away from God's wisdom, grace, power and love!

God does not exist to satisfy human ambition, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or for our own selfish interests. God sovereignly works out everything for His own glory! God alone is sovereign in salvation; We are not. He is the One we seek to please in worship; not ourselves. Our concern must be God's Kingdom not our own popularity or success.

Salvation is accomplished by God's grace and for God's glory. We are called to glorify (please) Him in all that we do. We must live our entire lives submitted to His authority (the Bible), surrendered to His power (the Spirit). We cannot glorify Him if we confuse worship with entertainment, if we pick and chose what parts of the Bible we want to believe, or if we advocate a gospel of self-improvement, self-esteem or self-fulfillment over the Gospel of the Grace of God!

A call to repentance, renewal, and reformation

The faithfulness of previous generations is in stark contrast to the unfaithfulness of the present generation. There was a time when Christian beliefs and behavior were markedly different with those in the culture. Today they are often not. Previously the Church was more Bible-based and Christ-centered with zeal to extend Christ's Kingdom. Today the Church is losing its Biblical fidelity, moral compass and missionary zeal.

The only solution? Confession and repentance. We need to confess and repent of our worldliness. We need to acknowledge that we have been influenced by the false gospels of our secular culture which are not the Gospel. We have weakened the church by our own lack of serious repentance, our blindness to the sins in ourselves, which we see so clearly in others, and our inexcusable failure adequately to tell others about the good news of God's love (saving work) in Jesus Christ.

God is calling back all those who have deviated from His Word in matters of faith and practice.

This includes any who would have (a false) hope in eternal life apart from explicit faith in Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved! When we hear God's quiet voice, may we be quick to respond. What is God saying to you today?