Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Ephesians 3:14-19.

 

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;  and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:14-19.

 

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The central part of today’s Scripture is the prayer that we may know the love of Christ.  Paul prays that we “being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge”. 

 

So, let us consider that love of Christ and “what is the breadth and length and height and depth”.  Is Christ’s love a love that stretches to everyone:  broad (everyone is covered)?  Or, is Christ’s love a love that extends only to His church, God’s elect?

 

Arminians claim that Christ loves everyone, but they will admit that love is not a saving effective love, because that love will allow the loved ones to go to hell unless they themselves generate enough wisdom, “free-will”, and endurance not only to choose Christ for themselves but also to persevere to the end, so as to not fall from grace.  This love is broad but thin. 

 

On the other hand, consistent with Scripture, Calvinists (proponents of Reformed Doctrine) claim that Christ only loves God’s elect, His church.  Although this love is less broad (maybe even narrow), it is unfathomable in its depth.  Christ does absolutely everything to obtain the salvation of every one of God’s elect, every one of His church.  

 

Throughout Scripture, Christ love is compared with the love of a husband for his wife:  including but not limited to the Book of the Song of Solomon, many of Jesus’ parables about the bridegroom and the bride in the Gospels (the Books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), the Book of Ephesians, and the Book of Revelation.  Here is a  keyword search of bride to help begin the search – Click here: BibleGateway.com – Keyword Search: bride      

 

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing;  but that she would be holy and blameless.”  Ephesians 5:25-27.

 

“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”  Revelation 21:2

 

Is a husband’s love, a love for everyone?  Will a husband do everything for everybody?

 

Christ’s love is a peculiar love, a special love just for His church.  Just as a husband should not love and give himself up for all women, but only his own wife, Christ only loved His bride, His church, and gave Himself up only for His bride, His church, not for everyone in the world. 

 

In Christ’s intercessory prayer in John 17:9, we see Christ praying for only those whom God gave Him, not for the world:  “I ask on their behalf;  I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me;  for they are Thine;”

 

Although we will never be able to completely fathom the depth of Christ love for His church, the Reformed Doctrine Canons of Dordt helps us understand more of the depth of Christ’s love for God’s elect, His church.  The following Article 8 describes God’s will and purpose for His elect and what Christ did for them.  The following Article 9 then describes this love of Christ as “a bridegroom for his bride”.

                                              

Article 8.  For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation:  that is, it was the will of God, that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the Father;  that he should confer upon them faith, which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased for them by his death;  should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed before or after believing;  and having faithfully preserved them even to the end, should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence forever.

Article 9.  This purpose proceeding from everlasting love towards the elect, has from the beginning of the world to this day been powerfully accomplished, and will henceforward still continue to be accomplished, notwithstanding all the ineffectual opposition of the gates of hell, so that the elect in due time may be gathered together into one, and that there never may be wanting a church composed of believers, the foundation of which is laid in the blood of Christ, which may steadfastly love, and faithfully serve him as their Savior, who as a bridegroom for his bride, laid down his life for them upon the cross, and which may celebrate his praises here and through all eternity.