Do you know what the word “Reformed” means? Are you happy that you are a member of a Canadian Reformed Church? Do you go out of your way to try to convince others of the richness of the Reformed faith?

I ask these questions because I sense that among us there are those who, if they were asked, would answer “No!” to all three questions. They do not know why they are what they are. They see their church membership as a burden. They speak to others, not about the richness of that faith, but only about what they consider to be “its warts and blemishes.” They have lost their first love. In some cases criticism and cynicism have set in big time.

How should one react to this type of negativism? I think the first thing that we need to do is go back to the basics and ask questions like: “What does it mean to be Reformed anyway? What are the qualities that best describe a Reformed person?”

No doubt, we will all have an image in our mind but allow me to give you my answer to these questions. To me a Reformed, biblically based believer is, among others, someone who is:

a. Awestruck⤒🔗

The first mark of such a believer is that their life centres on God and on His great deeds. Such a person just cannot get over the fact that the incomparable God of heaven and earth has made us, rescued us, redeemed us and desires to fellowship with us eternally. What are we that God is mindful of us? What are we that we are heirs to such a great and glorious salvation? These questions, and many like them, are the kind that should never stop circulating in our minds. All through our life we should walk in wonder with our God.

Indeed, such a sense of reverence and awe should be evident in the way we work, in our leisure, also in our worship. But is it? In this regard, I commend to you a marvellous new book written by E.T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1997). In it, he shows very clearly that the problem of our age lies in the fact that people want to be big and are content to let God be small. In work, the driving force is materialism. In leisure, the main aim is pleasure. In worship, the call is for ever increasing involvement. People are no longer content to let God be God, to obey Him, to listen to His Word, to praise Him, to petition Him – these things are no longer enough.

Does this mean that there is no room for human response to God? Of course, there is, but let it be a response driven by a deep sense of the majesty and holiness of our God.

b. Biblical←⤒🔗

Yet a Reformed believer is not only someone who thinks great thoughts of God, but also a person who listens carefully, interacts constantly and adheres faithfully to the will of God as revealed in the Bible. He or she is not selective, pitting Old Testament against New Testament, law against gospel, Word against Spirit. No, such a person bows before the total Word, recognizing that while the shadows are fulfilled “their truth and substance remain for us in Jesus Christ” (Art. 25, B.C).

In other words, the proper approach is not one of picking the parts you like and disregarding the parts you do not. Loving your wife as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25-33) is not an option but a command. Keeping your vows (Ecclesiastes 5:4-7) is not a “human maybe” but a “divine must.” Obeying your elders and minister (Hebrews 13:17) is not conditional advice but authoritative pronouncement. Holy Scripture is meant for “the regulation, foundation, and confirmation of our faith” (Art. 5, B.C.).

c. Humble←⤒🔗

Are we old people, new people, a mixture of old and new people? Some see themselves as “old people” meaning that they are constantly busy with their sins and shortcomings. You would never know from talking with them that originally God created people in His image and still recreates them today through the power of His Spirit. Others see themselves as “new people.” However, the problem is that they interpret this to mean that they have arrived. They no longer need the law of the Ten Commandments, not even as a rule of thankfulness. They have the Spirit! Still, others see themselves as a mixture of old and new, as multiple spiritual personalities. Sometimes they are living like “old people” and sometimes they live like “new people.”

So how should we see ourselves? If you are a Reformed believer, you should see yourself as “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Does this mean that sin lives in you no more and that perfection has arrived? No, for the apostle Paul makes this conditional, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” In other words, it is Christ who gives us a new status, a new life, a new future. Nevertheless, that does not mean that sin has been banished totally from our lives. For the same Word that tells us that we are “new creatures” in Christ also tells us “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

Where does this leave us? As new people, but as new people who are not without sins and shortcomings. We are new but we shall not experience the total effects of that newness until that day when we come into the very presence of God. In the interim we are to live our lives in total dependence on God and on his grace. We need to realize that in and of ourselves we are weak and vulnerable and that only in Christ are we strong (Philippians 4:13). A healthy dose of humility should clothe us all and a daily reliance on Christ should be our abiding strength.

d. Confessional←⤒🔗

Perhaps you would not include this quality in your description of a Reformed believer. You are a purist and believe that in the Christian life all talk of confessions and being confessional should be outlawed. Maybe you would even like to go further and say that Canadian Reformed people are “confessionalist” because, according to you, they place the confessions above the Word.

Now it strikes me that the church has always had to steer a steady course between the two dangers of “confessionalism” and “anti-confessionalism.” In this regard there are two extreme positions. There is the view that the confessions are on par with or above the Word and at the other extreme, the view that we should have little or nothing to do with the confessions. Both are positions that need to be avoided at all costs.

How then are confessions meant to function in the church? Not as inspired writings and not as useless documents, but as necessary guides to which we are bound because they faithfully summarize the teaching of Scripture. They represent the voice of the church as it echoes throughout the centuries. They were written with the blood of the martyrs. In them you hear Irenaeus and Athanasius, Tertullian and Augustine, Luther and Calvin. Interacting with them brings you face to face with the struggle of the church to stay on course and not to be diverted into the way of heresy and blasphemy. Both to idolize them as well as to ignore them does a grave disservice to the manner in which Christ Jesus has used them to preserve his church.

e. Constructive←⤒🔗

Another important quality of a Reformed believer is that he or she is a builder, not a wrecker. They see all that God has done for them in Jesus Christ and they want to give their all to Him. They want to build up the church and to promote the kingdom of God. They do not ask “what can this church do for me and how will it meet my needs?” but “what can I do for the church with the gifts that God has given me?”

Alas, however, this kind of a positive attitude is not always present. Some people only major in negatives. Even some who are in positions of leadership seem to get caught up in this. Instead of listening charitably and carefully to the church community in which God has placed them, they withdraw into clubs of like minded critics and lob their verbal or printed grenades. At the same time all who disagree with their ideas are mocked and dismissed. Such people, whether they are championing the cause of orthodoxy or invention, do not build up anything. They only disturb and polarize.

So what are you: a wrecker, a critic, a cynic, a fence sitter, a builder? I hope that you are a builder, that you are someone who wants to make a contribution. I hope too that when you run into things you disagree with you will do more than talk. If people offend you, go to them and confront them in love. If you do not like the way things are done in the church, come up with an alternative that both respects the reformational character of the church and enhances it. If you think you have a confessional problem, do your homework, ask advice, and, if necessary, file a gravamen. If you disagree with a synod decision, approach your church council with your concerns. If you want new songs in the Book of Praise, send your suggestions to the committee. I challenge you to be a constructive Reformed believer.

f. Aggressive←⤒🔗

Perhaps this one catches you off-guard. You associate being a Reformed believer with being meek and mild, passive and unresponsive. Well, maybe we have bought into that idea far too much. In a world where Jehovah’s Witnesses openly hawk their wares on street corners and Mormons are not afraid to go door to door with their heretical teachings, we have far too many Reformed believers acting like wimps.

Do you know how rich we are? I will never forget as a teenager reading a book written by H.H. Meeter called The Basic Ideas of Calvinism. (It has since been republished and edited by Paul Marshall). It brought me face to face with the beauty, the depth and the breadth of the Reformed faith. It lit a fire in my soul that is, thanks to the grace of God, still burning. At the same time it, and other readings over the years, have convinced me that there is nothing as rich as our faith. The world is filled with isms, sects, cults and religions but there is nothing that compares with the heritage that God has given us.

I remember a man from my youth who became dissatisfied with the Canadian Reformed Church of Toronto. He was critical of the leadership, the liturgy, the people, the confessions, so he left together with his family. Years later I met him and I asked him how he was doing. He wasn’t! His life was a shambles. His children had gone off in different directions. Some tried this church, then that church. His grandchildren, however, were members of none. A steady dose of criticism had turned them off. Constant church hopping had left them rootless. With deep sorrow in his eyes he said “I have lived my life according to the words of Hosea 8:7 – ‘They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.’ All I ever did was criticize, criticize, criticize. I was always in the opposition. The grass was always greener on the other side of the fence. Finally, I withdrew. But look at what has happened to me and to my family? Only after I left did I begin to realize that people are people no matter where you go and that the church on earth will always be a struggling affair. One more thing, after I left I finally began to appreciate what I had left behind, but by then it was too late. I couldn’t go back.” I asked, “Why not?” He answered with one word: “Pride!”

What a tragic story! Sadly, there are many more like it. People who constantly criticize, people who have lost touch with the faith they once professed, people who are always negative, reap a whirlwind of bitterness in their own lives and in the lives of their children.

And so I ask: “Do you know how rich you are as a Reformed believer?” If you do, spread the word with zeal. If you do not, become a student and go on a journey of discovery. I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed.