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Membership Requirements

Affirmations & Denials of Grace Reformed Network

Affirmations & Denials

The following are required for fellowship in Grace Reformed Network

1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith

Exceptions to the following paragraphs of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith are permissible for GRN churches:


  • 22.8 – While we subscribe to the principle, we do not require member churches to subscribe to the scruples contained therein.

  • 26.4 – A church need not affirm that the Pope is the antichrist in order to be a part of GRN.

Creedal

GRN churches affirm the following four ancient creeds:


  • The Apostles’ Creed


Note: On the sentence that Christ “descended into hell”: with the  Reformed through history, we understand this to mean that Jesus was  forsaken by God for our sake; that he bore the judgment and wrath of God  we deserve; and that at his death he entered into exile and returned  from that exile at his resurrection.


  • The Athanasian Creed

  • The Nicene Creed (381 AD)

  • The Chalcedonian Creed (451 AD)

Law/Gospel Distinction

GRN churches affirm a historically Reformed understanding of the distinction between the law and the gospel.


The law and the gospel are both revealed in the pages of Scripture—in  both the Old and the New Testaments. Reformed churches and theologians  have always understood that there is a distinction between the law and  the gospel that must be maintained. Many have seen the distinction to be  a doctrine of first importance, and others have pointedly observed that  ignorance of the distinction has been a cause for many abuses in the  history of the church through the centuries.


Simply defined, the law is the revelation of God’s  standard for holiness and righteousness. In it, God communicates what he  requires of human beings if we are going to be in right relationship  with him and inherit eternal life. The law summons us to love and honor  God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—and to love our  neighbor as ourselves. The law requires complete and perfect obedience  if we are going to earn eternal life through it.


The gospel, on the other hand, is the message about  what Jesus has done for us, in our place, to accomplish our salvation.  It is the message of God’s salvation that he has worked through his Son  that is grounded completely in his grace and is applied to sinners by  faith apart from works. The gospel is entirely about Jesus and what he  did, not about what we must do. The gospel actually contains nothing in  it—whatsoever—for us to do. Where the law demands everything and gives  nothing, the gospel demands nothing and gives everything.


If we confuse the categories of law and gospel, we end up effectively  losing both. An improper understanding of law and gospel leads us to  soft-pedal the law. If we think that keeping the law, in any way, to any  extent, is a part of our righteousness before God, we are forced to  relativize it. To lower its standards. To dumb it down. This is so that  sinners can actually keep it! In doing so, we have gutted the law of all  of its holiness, goodness, and glory.


An improper understanding of law and gospel also results in our  turning the gospel into a covenant of works, where the gospel becomes a  covenant in which we earn righteousness before God through our  obedience—not totally, of course, but somehow our works factor in. The  gospel is made to sound hard. All of this results in the saints being  robbed of the peace and rest that is ours in Christ.

Covenant Theology

GRN churches are historically covenantal, and so GRN churches affirm the tri-covenantal framework of the Covenant of Redemption, Covenant of Works, and Covenant of Grace.


The Covenant of Redemption is the covenant made in eternity past  between God the Father and God the Son, in which it was agreed that the  Son would redeem a people for himself through his obedience. This  covenant is a covenant of works for the Son, and its benefits are  mediated to the elect through the Covenant of Grace.


The Covenant of Works is the covenant God made with Adam in the  garden, through which he could attain the reward of eternal life–for  himself and his posterity–through his obedience, or through which he  could bring death upon himself and his posterity through his  disobedience.


The Covenant of Grace is a post-fall covenant between God and the  redeemed. It is a gracious, unconditional covenant in which the merits  of Christ are given to sinners by faith.

Confessionalism

GRN churches affirm a confessional understanding of the Christian faith and of the church.


A confessional understanding of the Christian faith and the church is  grounded in the finished work of Christ in the place of sinners, which  stands for them, unaffected by how they are feeling or performing in any  given moment.  Confessional Protestantism is built upon doctrine–which  centers on Christ–that is to be trusted, rested in, and believed. The  Christian life is understood to be inherently corporate, and Christian  devotion is understood to be inherently church-shaped. The Christian is  rightly viewed as a pilgrim in this life on his way to his homeland, who  is faced with a thousand spiritual dangers. And so, the ministry of the  church is meant to protect, nourish, and sustain the saints on their  way to the new heavens and the new earth.


GRN churches affirm that pietism and revivalism have characterized and greatly impacted the Protestant church in the United States for centuries.


Pietism places the emphasis in the Christian life on personal  intensity and devotion. There is a hyper-focus on the Christian’s  affections, disciplines, obedience, and performance. In pietism,  identity is seemingly derived from what the saints do, and assurance is  tethered to how well the saints are performing their duty. There is a  need for ongoing improvement and a tendency to try to measure or  quantify progress in the Christian life. The real issue with pietism is  that the saints are finally pointed back in on themselves, rather than  outward to Christ, in order to know they have peace with God.


Revivalism places the emphasis in the Christian life on personal,  moral transformation that results from a conversion experience.  Revivalistic Christianity is inherently subjective and grounded in  personal experience, and the Christian faith is seen to consist of  personal intensity and devotion.


Emphasis on morality and transformation might be aimed at the  individual–and the society through individuals–as in evangelicalism; or  it might be aimed directly at the society, as in liberal Protestantism.  Both are contrary to a confessional understanding of the Christian life  and the church.


Therefore, GRN churches deny that pietism and revivalism are compatible with a confessional understanding of the church and the Christian life.

Ordinary Means of Grace

GRN churches affirm that God works through the ordinary means of grace to impart, sustain, strengthen, and nourish the saints’ faith in Christ.


The ordinary means of grace have been given by God to the church.  These means are the ministry of the word, the administration of the  sacraments, prayer, and song–in the context of the gathered church.  These are the means God ordinarily uses to grow and sustain his people.  There is nothing special about the means themselves; rather, God, by his  Spirit, uses them as he has promised in his word.


Related to this, GRN churches believe that the most significant  things in the Christian life happen when we are assembled together and  that the Lord’s Day gathering is the most important thing we do each  week.

Practice Church Membership

GRN churches affirm the practice of church membership.

Church membership is the best way we know to accomplish what is  clearly laid out in the New Testament, in terms of relationships in the  church. Pastors are to equip and shepherd the saints, and they are to  oversee the church. Christians are to obey their leaders. Christians  also have obligations and responsibilities to one another and to the  church, as a whole.


Practicing church membership entails clearly defining the group of  people who comprise a local congregation. This way, pastors know the  people they are responsible for; congregants know who their pastors are;  and every member knows the people he/she is obligated to live in  community with according to the Scriptures.


Lastly, church membership makes church discipline possible. Simply  put, it is necessary to know who is a part of the church in order to be  able to remove someone from the fellowship.

Plurality of Elders

GRN churches affirm that the New Testament prescribes that individual churches have a plurality of elders.


GRN churches are to seek to establish a plurality of elders as soon  as there are multiple elder-qualified men in the congregation.

Doctrine of Two Kingdoms

GRN churches affirm the doctrine of Two Kingdoms.

The common kingdom is established by the Noahic Covenant. Its  concerns are ordinary cultural activities: marriage, procreation,  provision, and judicial action of proportionate justice.


The redemptive kingdom is established by the promises and  accomplishment of the Covenant of Grace. Its concerns are sacred  activities of faith and worship.


GRN churches deny theonomy and reconstructionist views.

It is our understanding that covenant theology and the doctrine of  Two Kingdoms are at odds with theonomy and reconstructionist  understandings. (In addition, see the 1689 London Baptist Confession,  especially 19.4, et al.)

Romans 7

GRN churches affirm that Romans 7 is written by Paul as a Christian, and that it, therefore, applies to Christians.

Coming to Christ

GRN churches affirm that the answer to the question, “Must one forsake sin in order to come to Christ?”, is, “No.”

This question is effectively what sparked the Marrow Controversy in the Church of Scotland in the eighteenth century.


There is nothing that a sinner can do nor needs to do in order to  prepare himself/herself to receive Christ. Jesus is to be offered freely  to all sinners. The offer of Christ (the gospel) is not conditioned on  anything in the sinner or on anything the sinner has done. For more  information on the Marrow Controversy, see The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson and Offering and Embracing Christ by John Biegel.

Gender & Sexuality

GRN churches affirm that gender is the gift and design of God–and that he made human beings male and female on purpose.


GRN churches affirm that the only appropriate venue for sexual expression is the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman.

Not an Issue of Fellowship

It is also important to outline matters over which GRN churches will not divide or break fellowship.

Eschatology

GRN does not require its churches to hold a particular position on the millennium.

Views on Creation

GRN does not require its churches to hold a particular position on the age of the earth.

Christian Liberty & Issues of Conscience

In accord with a historic understanding of Christian liberty, GRN does not require its churches to take particular stances on issues of conscience.

Bible Translation

GRN does not require its churches to use a particular translation of the Bible.

Political Views

GRN does not understand voting patterns to be a test of orthodoxy or of fidelity of Jesus.

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