Reformed Theology: Introduction

The Centrality of God and the Authority of Scripture

Welcome to The Basics of Reformed Theology by Kim Rydelbarger. He originally prepared this series as a series of blog posts for Westminster Seminary in California. So what I just want to do is go over an introduction to all of the topics that we're going to be covering through this series.

First, we're going to be talking about God. Reformed theology begins with God and ends with God. God is central to everything for a Reformed believer. We're going to talk about the inspiration and authority of the Bible.

Obviously, God reveals himself specifically through the Bible and in a more general way through natural revelation. Next, we'll be talking about the sufficiency of Scripture. In other words, Scripture is all that we need for life and godliness in Christ Jesus.

The Trinity, Christ, and the Holy Spirit

We'll talk about the Trinity, which is the nature of God. We will talk about the deity of Jesus Christ, which is a synchronon for Reformed theologians and Christianity in general. The deity of Jesus, Jesus is God in the flesh.

It's what separates Christianity from many pseudo-Christian cults. We will also talk about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerating the believer, bringing the believer from death to life.

Creation, Covenant, and Election

We'll talk about God's attributes, which are many. We'll talk about creation, God creating the world and creating human beings as his creation. We will talk about us as God's creation being divine image bearers, what that means.

We will talk about the covenant of works and the fall of Adam. All of humanity is in a covenant with God right now, the covenant of works or the new covenant. We'll talk about election, how God elects certain people to salvation.

Basically, we'll talk about election being mercy. We'll also talk about the covenant of grace, which is the new covenant and the covenant that was made with the Trinity in eternity. We'll also talk about the incarnation of Jesus, God becoming flesh, taking on a body.

Christ the Mediator, Law and Gospel, and the Order of Salvation

We'll cover Jesus, the covenant mediator. There needs to be a mediator between God and man, that would be Jesus. We will talk about the titles of Jesus as prophet, priest, and king. We'll talk about the death of Christ, which is necessary.

We will talk about the law and the gospel. Many even Christian denominations and viewpoints get this wrong. We need to know specifically what the law and the gospel is and how they relate to one another.

We'll talk about the order of salvation. This is of no small consequence and of much debate between Reformed theologians and Arminians and providentialists. We'll talk about justification and sanctification in the life of the believer.

Good Works, the Church, and the Sacraments

We'll cover good works and the Christian life. We'll cover the marks and mission of Christ's church. We'll cover the sacraments that we consider to be in scriptures. Again, this would differ from the Roman Catholic Church, which holds to seven sacraments.

We will talk about baptism, its mode and its efficacy, what it does and doesn't do. We'll talk about the Lord's Supper. Again, that is another one of the sacraments and what that means for us as believers.

Christ's Return and the New Heavens and New Earth

We will talk about the second coming of Christ, which is more along the lines of eschatology, the study of last things. And finally, we're going to go over the new heavens and the new earth. I encourage you to join me as we go through all of these topics.

We're going to do short videos, probably five or six minutes on each of these topics. I look forward to you listening and learning more about the Reformed faith.