What kind of "Calvinists" are we? How are we different from various stripes of American calvinism? We are sacramental calvinists. We are high church puritans...

Communion Meditation for
Oct 10, 2010 Christ Church Spokane

I desire for a man-centered, feelings based Christianity to be eradicated from our midst. A feelings based Christian life is riddled with doubt and instability. We are sacramental Calvinists… It means our foundation is covenant renewal worship. Christ Himself is the foundation for our life of course. But the way we appropriate this is evident with His Word. And His Word is most concrete when given to us by His ministers in the Lord’s Day Service. The foundation for our Christian walk is not our regular quiet time. It is not our ability to walk victoriously by the Spirit more than another does. No, it is what the Lord does for us every Sunday. He forgives our sins, speaks to us with His Word in Scripture, creeds, prayers, and songs. That is our ballast. These are sure words that allow us to live in confidence throughout the week. The grounding of our Christian life is centered in the objective signs and seals of His favor towards us, namely the Lord’s Supper and baptism. Our feelings and emotions follow the truth of covenant union with Christ, not the other way around. Feelings and emotions are inescapable and important in our obedience, but not as the engine.

This is a sacrament. Meaning that this is a glorious mystery, the union of Christ and His Church through the action of a meal together. The Lord’s Supper is precisely not subjective, that is, something that I muster up from my own head. This is why traditions that reject the sacrament of God make for themselves rival sacraments to feel close to God….. i.e.- The invitation system, speaking in tongues, singing songs that massage your emotions, or sermons that make you feel just right.. The apex is in your feelings about God, helped by whatever external manipulation does the trick. This is why not a few evangelical churches are constantly spinning out some new paradigm or program because the ballast of the Bible is missing---the objectivity of the covenant. The foundation for the maintenance of our joy, for our assurance, for everything, is Christ in worship and in The Lord’s Supper. Why? Because it is God’s Word to us, applied effectually. We look away from our deceptive and flaky hearts to Christ and His work. It is not healthy to muster up emotions within us for the preservation of our faith, we look away from our squirrely hearts to objective words… “This is My body for You,” believe it, eat it, drink it, and have joy in My authoritative Words, not your words, not your thoughts, and not your feelings, says the LORD. We just believe..Joy of joys. Believe by eating and drinking.

For too long Christians that treasure the doctrines of grace still have a feelings based Christianity. For years Christians have embraced as the center of their Christian life their experience or their knowledge. I would call this the predominant norm in American Calvinistc Christianity, a Pietism-laden Calvinism. This is not much more than a step away from modern evangelical Christianity, which is based on your decision, not on God’s promise to you and your children.
Even Jonathan Edwards brethren, for all his great work, had a very subjective focus in his writings. Presbyterianism in his time was far more rationalistic. Many in the 1700’s and esp. afterwards, overreacted against the rationalism and became what’s called pietistic. Pietism can be dangerous because it puts undue emphasis on the experience of the believer and not enough on Christ himself. It is His signs and seals, His and ours covenant renewal. This is why we have a covenant renewal worship service every Sunday. God calls us, forgives us, consecrates us, communes with us, and commissions us. God renews covenant with us not because we fall out of it every week, but because it is the practice of renewal and recreation.
Why does God give us a rainbow with water and refracted light frequently? He didn’t give one rainbow to Noah and then we are to meditate holy thoughts about that one rainbow long ago. No, He gives the covenant signs, and we remember, and He remembers, and our union with Him is strengthened. Like a family that sups together every night, their union with each other is strengthened bodily and spiritually each night. A covenant is renewed, as it were, between them. As a man and wife commune with each other, their union is strengthened. The world is filled with symbol and sacrament, mystery and ritual. And we practice renewal and tradition all the time. In our circles we are trying to recover the older Calvinistic Christianity, a more covenantal Christianity. The grounding of our religious experience in Christ is His objective words and signs—His claim over me in the binding ritual of baptism and the nourishment of covenantal words—“This is My body for you, do this in remembrance of Me.” I fear for many Christians in America that we are overly influenced by an individualistic emphasis of the faith, a vague existential pietism. This points people downward to their own hearts and feelings for assurance rather than away from me, to the One whose Word assures… That’s what I need. I need to look at Him and not myself. I desire for my sheep to be protected from the rampant doubt and depression that creeps into our lives. The antidote for it is not mustering up your feelings just right, it is submitting to and believing his Word. This is why some of the Puritans wrote such long tomes trying to encourage people with what true saving faith looks like…because so many were plagued with doubt that they didn’t have the right religious conversion experience. In other words, for all the great doctrine, there still was too much emphasis on people’s impression and experience, at the expense of the objectivity of God’s covenant, and covenant theology itself, expressed today in covenant renewal worship.

God is not capricious. Are you baptized? Do you believe? Then cast aside your sin and doubt, and receive objective love through his covenant seal now.