The Canons of Dort, First Head of Doctrine, Article 3

Article 3: The Preaching of the Gospel

In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends proclaimers of this very joyful message to the people he wishes and at the time he wishes. 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).

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The authors of the Canons are careful to link the end (God’s gracious desire to save sinners who do not deserve his favor), with the means by which those same sinners are called to faith in Christ--the preaching, teaching and communication of the gospel (the message of Christ crucified) to non-Christians.  

The Canons correctly remind us of Paul’s words in Romans 10:14-15, well worth quoting in their entirety:  “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" (Romans 10:14-15)  

In 1 Corinthians 1:18-20, Paul points out that “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."  Where is the one who is wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”  According to Paul, it is the preaching of Christ crucified that is power of God, and the specific means that God uses to grant us faith.  This is why in Romans 1:16, Paul can state, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” 

Although the preaching of Christ crucified is foolishness to the Greek, a stumbling block to the Jew, and probably both to a modern American, the preaching of Christ crucified is the only divinely ordained means through which God offers forgiveness of sins to sinners.  As Calvin has said, “every time the gospel is preached it is as if God himself came in person solemnly to summon us.”

As the Canons make plain, it is God, in his grace, who uses the proclamation of Christ crucified--the foolishness of preaching--to call us from darkness to light, and to grant us entrance into the kingdom of his dear Son.

Therefore, in this article, the Canons remind us that God has not only ordained the ends (those whom he will save), he has ordained the means by which he will save them--the preaching of Christ and him crucified. 

The Canons of Dort, First Head of Doctrine, Article 2

Here's the next installment of my notes on the Canons of Dort.  An introduction to the Canons can be found here -- Click here: Riddleblog - Notes on the Canons of Dort (Introduction) and my notes on the first head of doctrine, article one can be found here -- Click here: Riddleblog - Notes on the Canons of Dort (First Head)
 

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.
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In the opening articles, the Canons are careful to demonstrate that any possible deliverance from our sinful condition (guilt, condemnation and the inability to save ourselves) arises from something good in God--specifically his love for his rebellious creatures--and not because there is something “good” that God sees in the sinner which motivates him to act to save them.

Because of our guilt and sinfulness, God is under no obligation to save anyone.  In fact, the entire human race is already under his just judgment and sentence of death (Romans 5:12, 18; 6:23).  But because of his great love for us, God sends Jesus Christ to secure for us our redemption (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10).

This means that it is God who seeks sinners, not sinners who seek God.  We must be clear about this fact.  Jesus himself made it perfectly clear that the essence of his own mission was that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).

But the American religion, on the other hand, understands the manifestation of God’s love to be a response to the goodness and worth that God sees within sinful men and women.  But what is there in us that is good?  The Scripture says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).  We do not seek God, we do not understand the things of God and every inch of us is tainted, stained, and ruined by sin (Romans 3:9-20).  Indeed, the prophet Habakkuk declares about God, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13).

This is why we must be careful to realize that the very essence of grace is that it is purely gracious.  As one Puritan divine puts it, “there is no reason to be given for grace but grace.”  The only place to look for an answer to the questions about sin and grace then is in the justice, the love and the mercy of God, not in the supposed "goodness" of sinful men and women.

This is why God sent his Son into this world, not because we are worthy, but because he is gracious.  And this love is most clearly visible in this—"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

Yes, the Canons of Dort actually quote John 3:16 in the second article!  Imagine that?

The Canons of Dort, First Head of Doctrine, Article 1

With this post, I'm beginning a new series at the Riddleblog entitled, "notes on the Canons of Dort."  This is material which I prepared some time ago when I took our congregation through the Canons during our evening service.  Those notes will be edited and posted here.

The goal of this series is to go through the Canons of Dort, article by article, and explain many of the basics of the Reformed faith, especially those associated with the so-called "five points of Calvinism."  It is my hope that you will find this helpful, edifying, and that you will discover as I once did, the Canons are not the theological bogeyman people make them out to be.  The Canons are biblical, non-speculative and very pastoral.  They deserve to be read and studied by God's people.

It has long been my concern that many "five point" Calvinists are not familiar with the document which gave the five points confessional status in the Reformed churches.  Hopefully, this series will in some measure help rectify that shortcoming.

This series is designed to be a basic introduction to the Canons, so all of you arm-chair theologians out there, please keep this in mind as the series unfolds. 

 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).*

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I.  The Canons begin with the human condition as set forth in the Scriptures.

• All of humanity is subject to the just judgement of God [Romans 3:19]
• All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory [his righteous requirements for perfect obedience— Romans 3:23]
• The human race is under the curse—which is death [Romans 6:23]

Too often Americans approach matters of sin and grace from a cultural rather than a biblical perspective.  Since this is the case, many of our contemporaries begin the discussion of human sinfulness and God’s grace with a far different set of  presuppositions than we find in Scripture and which are summarized in the opening article of the Canons. 

This difference in presuppositions explains why there is so much anger and confusion whenever a Reformed Christian even mentions the five-points of Calvinism in a non-Reformed context.

According to most of our contemporaries, we must not begin this discussion with the fact of human sin, but with a kind of democratic egalitarianism.  In other words, most Americans already assume the notion to be true that “God isn’t being fair with his creatures, unless everyone has an equal chance at heaven."  While it is easy to acknowledge that we are sinners, it is not easy to take that admission to the obvious conclusion--because we are sinners, we are guilty before God.  In fact, when you take this as far as Scripture does--we are sinners, we are guilty before God, and we are unable to do anything to save ourselves from God's anger toward our sins--then the trouble begins.

II. These typically American presuppositions are as follows:

• All men and women have an equal opportunity to go to heaven and God would not be acting fairly if any were somehow deprived of that to which they are entitled—they must deprive themselves.
• Of course, all have sinned, but free will and natural ability remain.  We are not robots after all.
• We are may be guilty , but we still have the ability to remove the curse from ourselves with Christ’s help, if only we are willing.

These different presuppositions (The Reformed--"we can do nothing to help ourselves" v. the American ideal--"everyone should be given an equal chance to go to heaven") explains why Reformed theology strikes so many Americans as a strange and cruel.  The theology set forth in the Canons does not begin with the rosy estimation that most Americans have about human nature--it begins with a biblical realism about human sin and a great confidence in God's grace to save his people from their sins. 

The Canons therefore strive begin where Scripture does--with the biblical teaching regarding the sinfulness and inability of men and women to save themselves.   Because we begin with humanities’ sin, guilt and inability to come to faith, God’s grace is seen as a rescue of those [the “elect”] who deserve God’s wrath, but are instead chosen to be the recipients and beneficiaries of God's mercies in Christ.  

III.  This is an age-old debate

• Those in the Augustinian tradition emphasize God’s graciousness to sinners—it is God who saves sinners from beginning to end.
  
• Those in the Pelagian tradition focus upon humanities natural ability—salvation from sin stems from acting upon our knowledge of God’s commands.  If God commands something, it is because we have the ability to carry out that command.  (Ironically, this has more in common with Kant’s categorical imperative “ought implies can” than it does with the biblical estimation of human nature after the fall!).
• Most American Christians are “semi-Pelagian.”  Simply put, semi-Pelagians see human salvation from sin not so much as a divine rescue in which men and women who are described as “dead in sin” require a resurrection from death to life before they can even respond to God.  Semi-Pelagians often speak of salvation as a kind of transaction in which God contributes grace and men and women contribute faith.  He has done his part, now its up to you . . .
  

As Augustine once said, “the grace of God does not find men fit for salvation, but makes them so.”  This is a fundamental choice every Christian must make--either we can save ourselves by acting upon the proper information (Pelagianism), God will help us save ourselves (semi-Pelgianism), or God save sinners who can do nothing to save themselves (Augustinianism). 

The Bible speaks to this matter directly.  "We are dead in sins and transgressions,” (Ephesians 2:1).  We are by nature “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), we “do not seek God” (Romans 3:11), and like the leopard, “we cannot change our spots” (Jeremiah 13:23).  In fact, we cannot even come to God unless he first draws us to himself (John 6:44, 65).  How, then, can we say as our contemporaries do, that our salvation depends upon our choice, our willing, our efforts, even if God helps us do these things. 

Scripture is clear that the latter is not the case.  In the first chapter of John’s Gospel we read, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13).  And, as Paul says in Romans 9:16, “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”

We are fallen and enslaved in sin.  If God did not act first in our lives, no one would have any hope of heaven nor enjoy the comfort of eternal life.  Indeed, the wrath of God would still abide on us.  That is where Scripture begins when addressing the matter of sin and grace.  This is where the Canons begin as well.