Reformed? So What?!

Total depravity.
Unconditional election.
Limited atonement.
Irresistible grace.
Perseverance/Preservation of the saints.
All true yet all meaningless as simple words on paper or spoken from a pulpit. Give me a $50 gas card and I'll be grateful. But if I don't have a car to put the gas in, it is pointless. The same is true for sound doctrine. Receiving sound doctrine is vitally important. Receiving the correct blood is also important but if the heart is not beating, it’s a waste of blood. If the sound doctrine is not lived out, it has no purpose. Sound doctrine in a dead life is dead doctrine.
There are a lot of us in reformed circles who have fallen prey to this travesty. We know what we believe but we don’t believe what we know. It has not caused change in our life making us conformed more to the image of Jesus Christ. If I really believe a parachute will save my life from the jump I’m about to make, I will do more than just hold it and show it off on the way down; I am going to strap it on my back as tight as I can stand it. And so the question is, do I live like God is sovereign? Do I live like my very life depends on the grace of God? Is my excitement in the content of the Truth of God or in the idea that I can explain it? Unfortunately for many, our excitement is in the idea that we actually know the truth more than the next guy. We actually hold the correct key that opens the mansion. The problem will be when we are not allowed up to the door. What will keep us from approaching? Our pride. Correct doctrine does not leave room for pride. A pastor’s teaching may sound right on and be absolutely correct interpretation but if it is taught with pride, it is false doctrine. If we really believe what we say we believe, then we ought to be the most humble people who ever walked the face of the earth!
A new favorite passage of mine is 1 Peter 3:15.

… always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you…

Anyone who is reformed should love this verse! This is why we study so hard and practice defending our doctrine in the mirror.

Again, the problem is that we do what I have just done. We leave off what comes before and after it. The beginning of verse 15 says, “but sanctify Christ as Lord in you hearts…”
The end says, “yet with gentleness and reverence.”
The greater context tells us the point of the passage. We are not being exhorted to be closet Christians and when someone knocks on the door to crack it open and whisper, “There’s a Christian in here.” This passage is not suggesting or even implying any form of passive Christianity. Nor is it suggesting or implying a “proud that I know more than you” Christianity. What this passage is DEMANDING is a life that is out-rightly, blatantly, unashamedly being lived for Christ and his glory. A life that is being offered as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God as a reasonable act of worship. A life lived righteously in the face of the world that tells us to live for ourselves. And when the world confronts us, which it will if we are living this way, we will be forced to give a defense for turning our back on the world’s system. I don’t care if you can explain predestination if you don’t live like you are.

Don’t love doctrine more than you love people.

As you come to doctrinal conclusions and make them your own, if you are right, it’s not because you figured it out!

Person 1:
Do you love Jesus?
Yes.
Do you live Jesus?
Yes.
Are you reformed?
What’s that mean?
Let’s talk.


Person 2:
Do you love Jesus?
Duh.
Do you live Jesus?
I can tell you who He is.
Do you live Jesus?
I can tell you why He came to earth?
Do you live Jesus?
I can tell you who He died for.
Do you live Jesus?
Not really because I’m depraved. That’s the T in TULIP. Totally depra…
Do you live Jesus?
No but I’m reformed.
Reformed? So what?!!