I have found over the last few years I almost stop even talking about Calvinism.  Yeah, I believe it but I started thinking about the role of the church and the role of people in salvation.  I guess, in seed form I was becoming more catholic in my understanding of salvation.  More of a corporate aspect than the individual aspect.  More of the BODY and less of the middle toe aspect of things.”

This quote was from a recent dialog I had with a friend. It sums up the typical mind of a Christian that is outgrowing the Evangelical and even the Reformed faith.  

Salvation has everything to do with the Church and how God uses the Church to bring us to Him and His eternity. Salvation does not come from nature, although God uses nature for His purpose. Salvation does not come from invisibleness of some sort, even in doctrinal format. “Salvation” comes from God transcending to His people in way of Covenant!

Some may say that that is “covenantal doctrine.” It is, but it is not the doctrine in and of itself that saves us.  Yes, Paul says that faith comes by “hearing” the Word of God: God’s covenantal faithfulness and how we become a part of His plan, despite us being law-breakers. That is a humbling thing, but it is not our humility that saves us. Our humility is a result of our salvation rather than a cause. The real cause of our salvation is Christ’s willingness to die for His people!

Doctrine verifies what God is doing in our lives! Yes, in OUR lives, in the world He gave US. This great people that God has put together under the reign of His son gives us faith, which is necessary to be a part of this salvific plan. But it is God’s grace that brings us to this point; His mercy in action; His eschatological placement of us in an eternal plan, as opposed to the temporal plan of life on earth that results in death.

The preaching of the word, evangelistically speaking, verifies what God has already begun in the heart of the recipient. Our doctrine only points to a greater reality, a reality that cannot be summed up in “Five Points” or one or two sentences, or even sermons. Our doctrine is merely a tug on the garment to turn around and look at the bigger picture of what God has already been doing. This is something that I have been convicted of through the past couple years. I came to a point in my studies, as a Presbyterian, to where I could really go no further, doctrinally speaking. Certainly there was a point of arrogance there,  too: that I had arrived. Then the catholic reality hit me! I could study doctrine my whole life but miss the main point of God and His people. After all, didn’t Christ say that the real summary of His entire Law was to “love thy neighbor?” My Christian brother is my neighbor, in the fullest sense.

Doctrine is necessary to protect God’s people from heresy and to free their minds to be “lead by the Spirit,” as Paul says in Galatians 5:25. Doctrine gives us the ability to crucify the flesh so that we can walk in the Spirit. It does not give us a mental library so that we can show God at the end of our days all the knowledge we have stored. In fact, St. Paul says that knowledge puffs up (1 Cor. 8:1). This does not mean that we learn doctrine and then purposefully forget about it. This means that we learn doctrine and then purposefully move on to love our neighbor.

If, for instance, you are not a part of Christ Church then you do not love your neighbor. In fact, you hate them! Jesus says that a there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friend (John 15:13). If you have been in a scuffle with a person at church and you have fallen away from Christ’s Church because of that, then you hate that person (not to mention Christ). You should “lay down your life” for that person by doing everything possible to help them, even if it means dying.

This type of Anglican theology reminds me of the movie The Mission. The first part of the movie shows a priest floating down a river to his death because he chose to love those that were called to the kingdom. This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! You can take your Bible and worship it all you want, and you can hang your theological degrees on your front porch, but you are nothing if you are not laying your life down for your neighbor (Church - visible or invisible).