Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from 1 Corinthians 4:14-21.

 

“¹⁴ I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. ¹⁶ Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. ¹⁷ For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. ²¹ What do you desire?  Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?”  1 Corinthians 4:14-21. 

 

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“For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.”  1 Corinthians 4:20.  

 

There is a radical difference between a kingdom based on God’s sovereign and almighty power and a kingdom based on man’s free-will.  A kingdom based on man’s free-will is subject to man’s weakness to get and to keep the faith;  it is dependent on man’s words to woo and motivate man.  A kingdom based on God’s sovereign and almighty power is subject to God’s strength to give faith and to keep the faith;  it is dependent on God’s resurrection power to make alive man dead in sin and to irresistibly draw him to saving faith and to preserve him to the end. 

 

This is no small difference.  This is no balance between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.  This is no mystery.

 

I pound the table on the importance of Reformed Doctrine a/k/a Calvinism not to exalt John Calvin, but rather to exalt God.  I contrast Calvinism with Arminianism not to cause division between minor doctrines but to recognize the Grand Canyon of differences between such doctrines.  I teach TULIP a/k/a Reformed Doctrine of Salvation not because I am being paid to do so or because I want to stay within the subject of my blog, but rather because I see TULIP taught throughout Scripture.  You can see that the daily devotions cover all of Scripture in its order.  

 

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”  Romans 1:16.  

 

“and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”  1 Corinthians 2:4-5.