Euangelion
I get frustrated when people talk about the “Reformed view” of something. Usually, they mean either the WCF or Calvin, but that’s a narrow view of “Reformed.” The Reformed view on anything – justification, sacraments, the Spirit, or the discipline of the church – is usually a spectrum with various nuances and some genuine diversity across the magisterial Reformers and even among the Protestant scholastics.
One interesting piece of diversity within the Reformed fold was Martin Bucer’s attempt to reconcile Lutheran and Reformed views in Germany through the Tetrapolitan Confession. Sadly, this confession did not win people over and Lutheran confessions such as the Augsburg Confession were adopted instead. It is viewable at Google Books. It is interesting that there is no mention of imputation, but it also says this about good works:
“But since they who are the children of God are led by the Spirit of God, rather than that they act themselves (Rom 8:14), and ‘of him, and through him, and to him, are all things’ (Rom 11:36), whatsoever things we do well and holily are to be ascribed to none other than to this one only Spirit, the Giver of all virtues. However it be, he does not compel us, but leads us, being willing, working in us to both will and to do (Phil 2:12). Hence Augustine writes wisely that God rewards his own works in us. By this we are so far from rejecting good works that we utterly deny that anyone can be saved unless by Christ’s Spirit he be brought thus far, that there be in him no lack of good works, for which God has created in him”.
Is this a confession of faith that N.T. Wright could sign up to since it invokes Wrights’ concern about the Spirit in the Christian life?
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