So Simple, So Profound

A tradition is not the goal. A tradition is a purely human construct, and therefore flawed and marred by sin. The gospel is the goal. This holds for the Reformed faith. It is not the gospel, but it serves the gospel. It is not the truth, but serves the truth. Reformed Christianity is not Christianity “come into its own,” nor does it exist to “correct” other traditions or “hold the truth in trust” for the less fortunate. It is rather a powerful tool to help us arrive at ever more faithful expressions of the gospel.

Well said, Peter Enns, who was defending his book Inspiration and Incarnation when he penned these words. When Reformed Theology and the gospel become almost synonymous in people's minds, problems ensue. Jesus is stripped of being the whole Truth, with some of the pieces handed over to indefinite hermeneutical issues such as predestination and the scale of the atonement. I could put you onto the website of a church here in Ireland that will basically condemn you as a heretic if you don't sign up to their uber-Reformed doctrines, as if mental assent to a list of hard-to-grasp concepts is what the Christian faith is all about!

Of course such people aren't indicative of all those who hold to Reformed Theology, but the tendency towards this almost esotericism seems to exist in the Reformed tradition more than most, at least in my experience anyway.

The solution? The gospel.

In talking about this issue a friend of mine helped me to see things clearer than I've seen them before. She said that all she really knows is that Jesus died and Jesus rose again. So simple and so profound. Christ crucified and Christ resurrected is the gospel. The rest is basically superfluous.