What does it mean to be Reformed? We have about everything but Reformed bubblegum, though I think we have Christian gum out now. Now that is something to chew on. Hmmm. However, we live in a world where terms are thrown around and each person uses the same term somewhat differently. So we have all sorts of people who say they are Reformed and yet are clueless as to the basic issues. We have others who once they hear the term “Reformed” go into a bit of a tizzy.
B.B. Warfield set out what I think the basic issue is. In his works he says that a person who is Reformed has seen the glory of God. Note that he did not say that this person thinks that he has seen the glory of God, but that he has seen the glory of God.
I think that is a good working definition. Whatever is good theology comes from and reflects the glory of God. During the Reformation the term soli deo gloria was set out as one of the five solas. Without soli deo gloria, we are really confined to humanism of many flavors. Calvinism is really just a virile form of humanism without the glory of God as its root. This is why, I think, that so many have a bad view of Calvinism. It is because so many Calvinists believe and practice what they do without being driven from a love for the glory of God and a desire for the glory of God in and over all things. Calvinism is nothing but an intellectual system apart from the glory of God as its engine and as its objective.
Scripture is quite clear. Man is commanded to eat, drink, or whatever he does to do it to the glory of God (I Cor 10:31). On the other hand, just talking about God and speaking highly of Him is not the same thing as doing something to the glory of God. I have heard speakers speak highly of God and yet seem to be caught up more with their method of speaking highly of God than with God Himself.
The glory of God is only really seen when God is working in a person’s heart and giving him a love for Himself. It is, then, not the efforts of man to glorify God that does it, it is man being an empty vessel for God to manifest Himself through. People are full of themselves even if God is on their lips unless God is in them shining His glory through them. Man was created to be a vessel, not a self-directing and self-powering being.
For His Glory & Pleasure,
Richard Smith
God Loves... Himself 