Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from 1 Peter 5:10-11.

 

“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.  To Him be dominion forever and ever.  Amen.”  1 Peter 5:10-11.

 

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God’s dominion a/k/a sovereignty is the theme of today’s Scripture and the heart of Reformed Doctrine.  “… God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.  …”  The focus is on God and what He has done. 

 

We see God’s dominion a/k/a sovereignty in “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Reformed Doctrine of Salvation.  In stark contrast to the darkness and doom of “Total Depravity” that man contributes, God contributes the brilliant light of dominion and salvation in “Unconditional Election”, “Limited Atonement”, “Irresistible Grace”, and “Preservation of the Saints”.     

 

We read in today’s Scripture “the God of all grace” has “called you to His eternal glory in Christ”.  This is “Unconditional Election”.

 

We read in today’s Scripture that God “will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”  This is  “Limited Atonement”, “Irresistible Grace”, and “Preservation of the Saints”.     

 

This is your “only comfort in life and death” in Question and Answer 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism.

 

“For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father” in Article 8 of the Canons of Dordt SECOND HEAD OF DOCTRINE Of the Death of Christ, and the Redemption of Men Thereby.

     

“This doctrine affords us unspeakable consolation, since we are taught thereby that nothing can befall us by chance, but by the direction of our most gracious and heavenly Father; who watches over us with a paternal care, keeping all creatures so under his power” in Article 13 of the Belgic Confession.

 

This is God’s providence in His “most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures;  ordering them, and all their actions, to his own glory” in Question and Answer 18 of the Westminister Larger Catechism.

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”  Ephesians 1:3-6. 

 

God “… will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  1 Corinthians 1:8-9. 

 

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 1:6.

 

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;  and these whom He predestined, He also called;  and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  Romans 8:29-30. 

 

“To Him be dominion forever and ever.  Amen.”  Verse 11.