Why Reformed Soteriology Matters

As we have seen throughout this short series of articles, maintaining a biblically faithful soteriology is not something that can be taken for granted. In the Old Testament, many Israelites misunderstood the nature of the Mosaic covenant and fell into a legalistic understanding of salvation. Others fell into blatant idolatry. During his ministry, Paul expressed amazement at how quickly those whom he himself had taught were turning away to a different gospel (Gal. 1:6).

In the early church, Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism became a problem that never truly disappeared. Even though both were initially condemned, by the time we reach the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, semi-Pelagianism was the dominant view, and some were flirting with full-blown Pelagianism. Under the influence of various pagan ideas, salvation began to be understood in terms of an elevation of human nature that was accomplished through the administration of the sacraments by the ordained priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. This ecclesio-sacerdotal soteriological system completely replaced biblical soteriology over the course of the Middle Ages. Today, the biblical doctrine of justification continues to come under attack and to be either rejected or revised.

1. Reformed soteriology matters because it maintains fidelity to biblical teaching.

This teaching emphasizes and insists on the differences between salvation by works and salvation by grace. It maintains a firm Augustinian rejection of Pelagian and semi-Pelagian ideas. It also rejected the ontological conception of justification that had crept into the Roman Catholic Church and returned to a biblically covenantal understanding of God’s redemptive grace.

2. Reformed soteriology matters because it was rooted in decades of exhaustive and extensive exegetical labor by hundreds of Reformed theologians and ministers.

It was not something that one random “influencer” proposed without thinking it through. The decades of careful exegetical labors resulted in a comprehensive covenant theology that made the difference between the pre-fall state and the post-fall state perfectly clear. It forced the church to remember the biblical distinction between works and grace and between the law and the gospel.

3. Reformed soteriology also matters because it is intimately connected with every other theological loci.

It maintains the biblical connections between the doctrine of the Trinity, the divine decree, creation, providence, the doctrine of man and the fall, the person and work of Christ, the application of salvation in the ordo salutis, the church and her sacraments, and the last days. Unlike Arminian soteriology, for example, Reformed soteriology doesn’t introduce incoherencies and self-contradictions into its system of theology. It doesn’t have the Father intending one thing with regard to salvation and the Son intending something completely different.

4. Ultimately, Reformed soteriology matters because the gospel matters.

All the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are born dead in sin, enemies of God, and without hope unless God does something. But thanks be to God, He did do something in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ, and we are now called to proclaim this good news. Paul summarizes the good news in the first epistle to the Corinthians. It is the message

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. (1 Cor. 15:3–7)

Jesus is the one way of salvation for lost humanity. No one comes to Father except through Him (John 14:6).

As the Canons of Dordt explain:

It is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel. (Second Head of Doctrine, Art. V)

Reformed soteriology matters because it forces us to maintain this biblical gospel and helps us to avoid the many pitfalls that have tempted the church throughout the centuries. Soli Deo Gloria!