Loveland
Protestant Reformed Church
709 East 57th Street; Loveland, CO 80538
Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June through August)
Vol. 5, No. 13 Pastor: Rev. G. Van Baren Phone: (970)
667-9481
Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
Contents:
Adoption
TheAddress of the Gospel (3)
Is Romish Baptism Legitimate?
Adoption is very often not included in the "order of salvation." The reason is not that Scripture does not speak of it, but that it is a benefit of justification. It is, therefore, understood to be included in justification.
Indeed, adoption is the first and greatest of the benefits of justification. That our sins are freely pardoned and we made righteous in Christ means that God not only receives us, but receives us as His own dear children.
Nevertheless, Scripture speaks often of our adoption and very often of the fact that we are by grace children of God, and He our Father. It is, then, not inappropriate to speak of it separately.
Adoption, like justification, has several steps. It can be traced back to the counsels of eternity and has its completion in the new heavens and earth. The steps, therefore, are:
(1) God sets His love on us and chooses us from eternity to be His children (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:5). Remember, God does not choose us because we are or will be fit to be His children, but that we may be His children. We are predestinated unto the adoption of sons (Eph. 1:5).
(2)In Christ's suffering and death God provides a legal basis for our sonship, for we would have no right to His fatherly love and care and to dwell in His house without that legal foundation (Eph. 2:13; Gal. 4:4-5). We might think of it this way - that our adoption papers are written and sealed with the blood of Christ.
(3) Through the work of the Spirit we are actually received into God's fellowship and family, and experience His love and care for us (Gal. 4:6-7). Kspeaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit, John 14:18 says literally: "I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you."
It is here that God does a wonder by which our adoption transcends the earthly reality of adoption. God by the Spirit causes us to be born again in His own image and likeness, so that we are like Him, something that can never be true of our adopted children (I Jn. 3:1-2; Eph. 4:24).
(4) "Finally, because "it does not yet appear what we shall be" (I John 3:1-2) there will be in the judgment day what Scripture calls "the manifestation of the sons of God" (Rom. 8:19). Then all will see what we are in Christ and we will be received into our eternal home to dwell there with our Father forever. In that day our bodies will also be redeemed from the presence and power of sin - the "adoption" we still wait for (Rom. 8:23).
Predestinated eternally, prepared in Christ, possessed through the Spirit, and perfected in eternity - what a marvelous and gracious work of God! As John says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!" (I Jn. 3:1). Rev. Ronald Hanko
Because questions come up so often which involve the more general question of what can be called, "the address of the gospel," I have decided to devote a few articles to that general subject.
In the last issue, I talked about the contents
of the gospel. What I said in that article is hardly unknown, or is hardly disputed by any
one who knows and loves the Reformed faith.
But now we come into more controversial material. I want to face now the question: To whom is the gospel addressed?
* * * *
In a certain sense of the word it can be said that the gospel is addressed to God's people because the Scriptures are written for the sake of God's people. These Scriptures have sometimes been called, with justification, Christ's love letter to His bride.
I well recall the story of a minister who was publicly lecturing on the truth of the infallible inspiration of Scripture. In the course of his speech he was suddenly interrupted by a college student who mockingly opposed the speaker's thesis on the grounds that Scripture contained many contradictions. The minister calmly replied: "I would not expect you to understand. You have been opening some else's mail."
Even such passages as are often claimed to refer to all men refer instead to God's people.
When Isaiah calls the thirsty to come to the waters, that Word of God is addressed to God's people who alone are thirsty (Isaiah 55:1, 2). When Jesus calls the laboring and heavy laden to come to him, He is specifically and concretely directing that call to His own people because they are the only ones who labor and are heavy laden (Mt. 11:28). And so, Scripture very often defines the people addressed in the gospel as being God's people -- although they are given spiritual names which identify them according to their spiritual characteristics.
If it is true that Scripture is the infallibly inspired record of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ as the God of the salvation of His people, and if all preaching is absolutely limited to the sacred Scriptures, then preaching is primarily directed towards God's people.
Let that be understood, first of all.
* * * *
But the fact of the matter is that the contents of Scripture are, in a certain sense, indeed addressed to everyone who hears.
Only Hyper-Calvinists deny this obvious truth and insist that the gospel must be addressed in all its parts, only to the elect.
We want no part of such a view.
That the gospel is addressed to all who hear is obvious from many considerations.
In the first place, it is preached widely and broadly so that everyone within hearing hears this preaching. This wide hearing of the gospel is true in the church where are found many unbelievers (who may very well be hypocrites); but it also, necessarily, takes place on the mission field where the gospel is proclaimed to all the nations.
Yet, it is not only an unavoidable by-product of the preaching that all hear. God wants many more than the elect to hear the gospel.
And this hearing of the gospel is not just simply a certain auditory phenomenon such as happens when the janitor in a college happens to step into a classroom and hears a professor lecture on the theory of relativity. When men hear the gospel, they are confronted by Christ Who is proclaimed in the gospel.
And when they are confronted by Christ Who is proclaimed in the gospel, they are confronted with the demands of the gospel.
God wants it that way. It is necessary and important for God to do this. To deny this truth is really to deny an important part of God's plan and purpose. Prof. Herman Hanko
A reader has sent us the following question: "Those baptized in the Church of Rome or apostate Protestant Churches; is that baptism legitimate? or is it illegitimate on the grounds: (1) that they are apostate churches, or (2) that there is no right to baptism due to unconverted parents. If we accept their baptism; on what grounds is it acceptable? (1) Do we recognize the authority of the one who did this (i.e., priest or unregenerate minister) or (2) the doctrinal position of the church?"
It is a great temptation to say that the baptism of apostate churches is not legitimate, especially that of Rome, which is the false church. We nevertheless have difficulties with this position.
For one thing, the idea that Romish baptism, or the baptism of other apostate Protestant churches is invalid, is very much a minority position in Reformed Churches and, as far as we know, was rejected by all the leaders of the Reformation (cf. Calvin's Institutes, IV, 15, vi). This, in itself, of course, proves nothing, but should lead us to investigate further.
In the second place, then, if one rejects Romish (or other) baptism because Rome no longer has any of the marks of the true church, then it is difficult to see how the baptism of other Protestant churches that have also departed from the truth, but to a lesser degree, can be viewed as legitimate. Indeed, the logical conclusion of the matter seems to be the teaching (called "Donatism" in the early church) that only the baptism of a church that has all the marks of the true church is legitimate.
Similarly, if one claims that the sacrament is invalid because its administration is not Biblical, one has the same problem. How, on this basis, does one avoid, for example, the Baptist teaching that only baptism administered by submersion and to adults is legitimate, or on the Reformed side, the rejection of baptism as administered in Baptist churches?
Nor do we see how one can reject Romish or apostate Protestant baptism because the person who administers the sacrament is evil. We would agree with the teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith at this point, that the "efficacy of a sacrament (does not) depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it" (Rom. 2:28, 29, I Pet. 3:21).
Last, and most importantly, we would be reluctant to reject anyone's baptism in view of the Biblical teaching that baptism is a sign of regeneration (cf. Tit. 3:5). That is the fundamental reason it can only be administered once. We can only be regenerated - born again - once! This, we believe, is the reason Reformed churches have rejected rebaptism, and should avoid the temptation to call the baptism of Rome, of the anabaptists or of other groups, illegitimate - that is, the fear of rebaptising anyone.
Since the sacrament of baptism is not essential to salvation, we would prefer to face the possibility that a person is unbaptised because illegitimately baptised, than the possibility of rebaptising someone and so denying the fact that salvation cannot be given more than once, as rebaptism suggests. That, it seems to us, is the greater error.
As long, therefore, as baptism is administered into the Name of the Trinity, that is, according to its institution in Matthew 29:19, we would not reject it or rebaptise those who had previously received the sacrament elsewhere. Rev. Ronald Hanko
We would like to offer to you a free copy of our newest pamphlet, "The Lord's Hatred of Divorce" by Prof. David Engelsma and published by the Hudsonville, MI Protestant Reformed Church. In a very sharp message based on Malachi 2:14-16, the author points out the terrible evil of divorce. The terribleness of this evil is seen in our land and the world generally today. You surely will want to consider the seriousness of this sin and God's judgment of it. A free copy will be sent to you at your request.
"Men are to be taught, indeed, that the Divine benignity is free to all who seek it, without any exception; but since none begin to seek it, but those who have been inspired by heavenly grace, not even this diminutive portion ought to be taken from his praise. This is the privilege of the elect, that being regenerated by the Spirit of God, they are led and governed by his direction. Wherefore Augustine as justly ridicules those who arrogate to themselves any part of a good volition, as he reprehends others, who suppose that to be given promiscuously to all, which is the special evidence of gratuitous election. "Nature," says he, "is common to all men, but not grace." He calls it "a transparent subtlety, which shines merely with vanity, when that is extended generally to all, which God confers on whom he chooses." Calvin's Institutes, Book II, Section 10
Last Modified: 30-Apr-1999