An Exaltation of God Through His Gospel
I would like to open this chapter up with my favorite expression of the Gospel, given by Peter in Acts:
Acts 11: 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
We should take a moment to profess and appreciate how beautiful the Gospel is, now that we have the majority of the Bible as context:
God Designed a Perfect World and Made us in His Image
In Genesis, God created man in His image. He gave him a woman as his companion, a beautiful garden to live in, and dominion over the Earth. God also gave Adam a single rule, not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of course, the two of them did, ushering in a world of sin that threatened to forever separate man from God.
After We Separated Ourselves from God, He Reached Back Out
For centuries after, God’s people rebelled against Him. God gave them ordinances, they followed idols. He gave them leaders, they turned against them. He gave them prophets, which were largely ignored, He gave them judges and kings as mediators, and they too fell into sin. Each time we pulled away, God faithfully pursued us, even though we were unworthy.
The OT God was not Just a God of Justice, but a God of Mercy
God’s relationship with the Israelites could be almost neatly divided between Him doling out punishments to establish the wages of sin, and Him forgiving those who love Him. He blessed Abraham, who suffered cowardice. He blessed Moses, in spite of his temper, He forgave Jonah, despite his vindictiveness toward the Ninevites, and He blessed David and Solomon, in spite of their worldliness.
Even those God had condemned to suffer, such as the Sodomites, Ishmael, and Esau, He was willing to have mercy on. Concerning Sodom, Abraham haggled God down to sparing the entire city if He could find just ten righteous men (spoiler alert: He did not find 10 righteous men).
For Ishmael, when Hagar cried out for help for both herself and her son in the wilderness, God cared for them both. Even Esau, who God had hated before he was even born, still built wealth, a family, and reunited with Jacob, even after losing both of his birth rites.
God Loves us so Much, He Chose Mercy as the Eternal Basis for Sanctification
Over thousands of years, God lived on a precedent of mercy, in spite of the Israelite’s penchant for breaking His covenants. In Isaiah, He rebukes Israel for their sin, and instead of wiping them out, He laments that their hearts are not toward Him. So, God tells them that He’ll give them new hearts and send them a Messiah to wipe clean their sin. Instead of doubling down on a system of Laws to curtail righteousness, God sent His only son to die on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice.
This was all to redeem His people, who were incapable of redeeming themselves. All His people needed to do was to believe in Jesus, and through His sacrifice and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit they (and by extension, we) would be saved. The Old Testament, the New Covenant, and the Gospel together make up the single greatest love story in the history of world.
True and Biblical Christianity is Based on God’s Mercy and Sovereignty
God established an economy of mercy. He provided mercy and guidance to His people. In return, He charged them as their two greatest commandments to love Him and to love each other. Free of the deathly grasp of sin and led toward righteousness by the Holy Spirit, Christians themselves would live as a pleasing offering to God through their devotion to Him and their kindness to others (Hebrews 13:15).
God, who considered them His children and promised that through the return of His Son, would establish a New Jerusalem where they could abide with Him forever. This what the Gospel means to a biblical Christian. But it is not what it means to the Roman Catholic.
Roman Catholicism Messily Scribbles Over God’s Covenant of Mercy to Aggregate Power and Prestige Toward their Church
The Roman Catholic cannot have faith in an abounding grace from God, they must constantly garner for themselves a sufficient amount of grace to be considered saved through a series of sacraments. They must acknowledge that they are always in danger of losing their salvation should they not be in congruence with the Church (for example, not submitting to the Roman Pontiff, using contraception, and deliberately missing Mass are all mortal sins).
CCC 2036, “The specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance, demanded by the creator, is necessary for salvation.”
“Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace.
If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God. (CCC, 1861)
The Roman Catholic cannot find salvation from the dedication to Jesus Christ. They must submit and devote themselves to the Roman Church, to Mary, and to the Pope, lest they fall out of the fold of their denomination, guaranteeing damnation in their worldview.
“We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff” (Unam Sanctam, 1302).
”It is impossible to save one’s soul without devotion to Mary and without her protection.” -Saint Anselm, Archbishop and Doctor of the Church, 1033-1109 AD
The Roman Catholic cannot freely grow and learn in Christian doctrine. They are ensnared in a narrative of extensive, unbiblical, and self-sabotaging traditions, that force them to mangle their scriptural revelations to fit within the narrative of their “Sovereign” church.
“It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgment. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.” (CCC, 119)
Furthermore, in order to restrain petulant spirits, It decrees, that no one, relying on his own skill, shall,–in matters of faith, and of morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine, wresting the sacred Scripture to his own senses, presume to interpret the said sacred Scripture contrary to that sense which holy mother Church,–whose it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the holy Scriptures,–hath held and doth hold; or even contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers; even though such interpretations were never (intended) to be at any time published. Contraveners shall be made known by their Ordinaries, and be punished with the penalties by law established. (Council of Trent, 2nd Decree)
“This truth [of the Gospel] is contained partly in written books, partly in unwritten traditions.”(Original Council of Trent Deliberation)
The beautiful Gospel of Jesus is buried beneath an ocean of caveats. The relationship between God and man is confounded by a pantheon of unnecessary mediators. The holy book God cultivated Himself cannot even be trusted without the authority of the Roman Church.
Reformed Christianity (Christianity Distilled to its Purest Practices and Doctrines) is a Better Path
As a Reformed Christian, I am dedicated to the Triune God alone, whom I study through the Bible. I know these to be the Word of God and that His truth and intentions have been divinely breathed into the scripture. As a servant of Jesus and a student of His Word, I can profess without an ounce of cognitive dissonance that:
- As a member of His flock, chosen before the creation of the world, Jesus willingly died to redeem me. This was to the pleasure of God Himself. I am no longer enslaved by sin, for now, I am under grace.
Ephesians 1: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
- Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, I am spiritually guided toward a life of repentance and devotion to God.
John 16:26: But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Titus 3:5: He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- As a saved man, I can rejoice in the mercies of God and serve Him with a devotion born purely out of love and gratitude. A devotion that is not perverted by the Sisyphean ordeal of rituals to secure a piecemeal stock of grace that is constantly depleting.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
- Jesus is my sole mediator between myself and God. Through Jesus, my Lord and High Priest, I can approach God with confidence.
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- I worship God alone. Jesus is my only mediator. Though called to live a righteous life and repent, my good works are pre-ordained by God and I am sustained by grace alone.
Ephesians 2:2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
The Bible is the only guaranteed source of God’s doctrine. I live by these precepts, knowing that they are wholly congruent with the scriptures.
Roman Catholic history is built on lies, mistakes, and mistranslations. Their doctrines are woven from an ever-expanding web of assumptions and corruptions that only loosely conceal their own internal contradictions. Their leaders purposefully suppressed the knowledge of the scriptures and revised Christian history to exert control over their congregation and prop up a false Chief Shepherd.
In Closing
I won’t sacrifice my undivided devotion of God to submit to a corrupt body of men. I exalt and glorify God alone, who provided me a Lord and Savior through Jesus. By Jesus’ lordship and sacrifice (and with the direction of the Holy Spirt) I have been justified through grace by my faith. All of this is outlined and foretold in the Bible, which is the only true written word of God.
Soli Deo Gloria, Sola Christus, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, and Sola Scriptura.