Reformed is not Enough - part VI: The Epilogue

There are some great quotations in the epilogue of Reformed is not Enough.

“To say that a man is a husband by covenant is not to say that he is keeping the terms of it. Our inability to grasp this simple illustration (in either direction) should be a strong indicator that we are in the grip of a powerful and erroneous idea. In this fallen world, we have to grasp what happens whenever a covenant is broken. When men and women marry, they exchange vows in public, promising to forsake all others. Why is this necessary? The answer is that we are a race of sinners, and we cannot assume that people will do what they say they will…

“So again, when someone is baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are ushered into an objective, visible, covenant membership. Regardless of the state of their heart, regardless of any hypocrisy, regardless of whether or not they mean it, such a person is now a visible saint, a Christian. God has made a statement concerning this person, and the one baptised has an obligation to say amen to God’s statement through how he goes on to live his life.” (Page 194)

Then

“Whenever someone is baptized, something really happens that puts them into communion with all other visible saints. This does not guarantee they will be faithful to that communion, but they must be a participant of the communion in order to be able to betray it. An American can betray his country, but a Canadian cannot betray the United States in the same way. A man who is married to a woman can betray her, but a man who never met her cannot do so.” (Page 195)

And

“Branches in Christ that bear much fruit are pruned and blessed. Do they have communion with those branches that bear no fruit, and which will be cut off and burned? They do not have a common future, but they do have a common present place on the same vine. To change the image slightly, together they partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” (Page 196)

What do we do when we need to help those who are unfaithful?

“If covenant members are doing what is demonstrably wrong, and it is necessary for you to be involved, you may say that they are not being fiathful to the covenant. And the response is to call them to faithfulness, call them to Christ, call them back to their baptism and to the terms of the covenant, and not to an invisible experience which neither you nor they would necessarily recognize.” (Page 197)

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