What is required is a clear recognition of the distinctiveness of Reformed theology.

More needs doing than restating what has been said and done in the past. The challenges of speaking persuasively to the issues and in the language of today must be met. At the same time theology must look to the future, always faithful to God’s Word and rejoicing in his promises. In this sense a Reformed theology which is truly reformed strives always to be God-centered and God-controlled. It aims constantly at being a ministry to the congregations which will be God-glorifying for the preservation, the extension, and the deepening of the Gospel once for all delivered to the saints. It looks ahead with eager expectation to that day, when the Lord Jesus returns to consummate all his work and so lead a faithful people to the full and everlasting blessedness of their inheritance.

But what, you ask, does all this mean for a distinctively Reformed theology?

     

Such a theology will always seek to be continually and consistently biblical. In appreciation for the leading of the Holy Spirit in the churches of the past it takes seriously its creedal standards. At the same time in obedience to these confessions themselves, it refuses to put theology into a “straight–jacket.” This can and at times has been done with unhappy and even disastrous consequences for God’s people. To make God’s sovereignty the all-controlling principle from which all else is deduced soon diminishes other equally biblical teachings. The same may be said, when predestination, or man’s salvation, or the church with its ordinances, or the church’s mission to and for the world, or the future glory of those who trust in the Lord becomes the “key” which is chosen to unlock the riches of God’s truth.

Precisely here we face one of the most fundamental issues involved in doing theology obediently and fruitfully. It is the task of searching out and setting forth, for the sake of communicating God’s Word to mankind, an over-arching view, a biblically–defensible perspective which will demonstrate the unity of the Holy Scriptures.

The Bible has been given by God through men inspired by the Holy Spirit over a long span of centuries. It comes to us in a wide variety of forms. In it we find stories and poems, truths to be believed and commands to be obeyed. It speaks about families and peoples and nations as well as individuals in all the many-sided relationships of life. Consistently it makes known to men in every age what otherwise would remain unknown about their past and present and future. And all this it does as the Word of the living God to people living in the confusions and contradictions of human history.

Not a few, attempting to engage in theology have therefore rejected the confession of the believing church that Holy Scripture constitutes a divinely-given and unbreakable unity, both in the form in which it has come down to us and in the message which it brings to all men everywhere. Its teachings are not scattered across its many pages in isolation; much less in contradiction to each other. There are not, properly speaking, theologies of the Old and of the New Testament, theologies of the patriarchs, of the priests, of the prophets, of Jesus, or of Paul and Peter and John. In Scripture we have the one Word of the one true God with the one, central and all-controlling message of how sinful men can be restored to fellowship with God, to whom they are always responsible.

This demands of the congregation of believers and its theologians the right approach to the Bible. More is required than the confession that the Holy Scripture is God’s reliable, infallible and inerrant Word, a conviction which we share with evangelical Christians of all ages. We must take seriously also the form and manner in which its content is addressed to men. What this means for the Reformed believer and theologian is that all the preaching and teaching and work to which Christ Jesus has commissioned his church, therefore also its doing of theology, should in the nature of the case be covenantally-oriented. With this I come to the heart of the message which I leave for your reflection.

To develop this in all its details cannot be done in the time allotted. Hence some comparatively brief statements must suffice for now.

That Scripture, both in the Old and the New Testaments, is covenantally-structured in content as well as form, cannot be rightly denied. Today theologians are again addressing themselves in depth to this subject of the covenantal structure of Scripture. Much of what they have done through their studies sheds a measure of new and fuller light on the truth which the Reformed churches have long confessed and cherished.

Clearly the Bible teaches that God has created man, in order t hat he might rightly know, love and serve his Creator. Strong were the original ties between God and our first parents. But in willful ignorance and disobedience man as sinner has broken and continually breaks the bonds between himself and God. Sin is repeatedly assessed as covenant-breaking with all its tragic consequences for individuals, families, and society at large. It brings down upon man divine wrath for time and eternity. But sin can never frustrate the purposes of God. In grace He opens the way of reconciliation to covenant fellowship with himself in the Mediator and Surety of the covenant, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the Old Testament speaks of Israel as his covenant people through whom salvation’s message shone in preparation for the Savior’s advent. With the institution of the New Testament church, after the death and resurrection and ascension of Christ, the middle-wall of partition was broken down. By this decisive act of God the good news must now be proclaimed everywhere for the ingathering of peoples once “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). Here the distinction between believing church and unbelieving world is clearly delineated, as well as the relation of covenant to church and kingdom. Only such an understanding of Scripture as the book of God’s covenant does justice to its form, its message and its purpose.

This emphasis on God’s covenant may well be considered the outstanding distinctive of the Reformed churches and therefore of their theological pursuits.3 Nowhere else has it been more enthusiastically discussed, believed and put into practice. Its importance for cultivating the godly life to God’s praise cannot be overrated.

The significance of God’s covenant for understanding the pervasive approach and message of Holy Scripture has been stated clearly by that eminent Reformed theologian, Herman Bavinck.

All higher life among reasonable and moral creatures manifests itself in the form of a covenant . . . Love, friendship, marriage, and all societal cooperation in commerce, industry, education, art, etc. rest in the final analysis on the foundation of a covenant, that is, on mutual loyalty and all manner of moral, universally recognized obligations. Therefore it cannot be surprising that also t he highest, the richest life of man, which is religion, possesses this character. In Scripture the covenant is the permanent form in which the relationship between God and his people is presented.4

Here the saving grace of God is magnified. It is God who in Jesus Christ calls and brings men into covenant communion with himself for time and eternity. At no time, however, does this allow for preaching a cheap grace. The God who reconciles sinners also renews their lives by his work as Holy Spirit. Here their lives are changed by faith to a joyful and holy obeying of his revealed will. And with that message of life and light and liberty the believing church in word and deed calls those who are “strangers from the covenants of the promise” to seek the Lord while He may be found.

This is no recent discovery of a few Reformed theologians or preachers.5 It did not arise with Cocceius and his brand of “federal theology.” We do not owe it to the Puritans, although they lived by its riches. Long before Zwingli or Bullinger or Calvin called attention to its central significance in their teaching and preaching, it was taught by the fathers of the ancient church who still saw its glory only dimly. It springs from Holy Scripture itself to which we pledge ourselves to be faithful by God’s grace.

How we will engage in theological pursuits from this covenantal understanding of Scripture is clearly discernible from our Catalogue of studies.

What is commonly called “Practical Theology,” we, out of deep conviction, entitle “The Division of the Ministries.” We protest the notion that those theological disciplines dealing with the Scriptures, with the church and its history, with dogmatics and ethics and apologetics are simply theoretical, so that after these are learned the student will also receive some practical instruction. All healthy theology, we believe, is geared first and foremost to the life and calling of God’s people in this world. Principle devoid of practice is a futile and fruitless exercise; practice without solid grounding in principle will only produce confusion which dishonors God, destroys the spiritual health of believers, and perverts the high calling of the church in the world. At every point in theological study principles and practice must walk hand in hand. God’s people are to know with increasing clarity who they are, why they are what they are, and what they are called to do in word and deed to God’s praise. This means doing theology from the covenantal perspective on Scripture.

This approach to theology was the strength and song of the Christian Reformed Church for many years. While many of its professors of theology could be mentioned as faithful representatives of this conviction, among them Vos and Berkhof and Volbeda, none stressed its propriety and fruit fulness so continually as a man whose life and labors in theological studies have been much too cavalierly ignored in recent decades.

He was Willem Wynand Heyns, called to teach at Calvin Seminary in 1902 after serving the churches as pastor for sixteen years.6 For twenty five years he taught almost every minister and missionary who served the Christian Reformed Church. For years afterward he was remembered with love and respect.

During those years he taught Preaching, Church Worship, Pastoral Care, Church Government, the History of Christian Preaching and -not to be forgotten—some courses in Christian Missions. From the earliest days of his ministry he wrote voluminously for t he edification of the church. All this he did in the light of strong convictions concerning the centrality of God’s covenant for the doctrine and life of God’s people. Heyns was largely self-taught, without any opportunity for formal education beyond the simple instruction given in his seminary before 1886, when he was graduated. But diligently he developed courses in Reformed theology of which no one, recognizing that he was a child of his own time, needs to be ashamed.7

Although teaching what even then was called Practical Theology, he undergirded every course with Scriptural principles. He studied the best of the fathers of the ancient church as well as the theologians of Reformation times. He acquainted himself with the writings of spiritual friend and foe alike. He taught all his courses, relating them to the other theological disciplines, from the perspective of God’s gracious covenant in Christ Jesus. Often he was involved in discussions and debates, since not everyone in the Reformed churches thought as he did on this theme. But always he showed himself to be a godly man, gracious and open-hearted and filled with deep love for the cause of Christ and his church.

His appeal was first and last to Scripture itself. Again and again he demonstrated in his courses how its teachings were the foundation for the Reformed creeds, for the Church Order, and by no means least, for the liturgical formularies which give instruction and comfort and direction to believers. In this way, he helped to shape a church which for decades lived with deep covenantal consciousness and commitment. During those years the church and its membership established, maintained and developed Christian schools, institutions of Christian benevolence, and Christian missions at home and abroad. For him all doctrine was unto godliness, a life lived consciously in covenant faith and service to the Lord.

Clearly this came to expression also in his work entitled Manual of Reformed Doctrine. It was widely received not only in this country but also in the Netherlands and even South Africa. By way of translation from the Dutch edition it found its way into the Reformed churches of Hungary, where for years it was the approved text for their high schools and academies. His aim he stated with unmistakable candor and clarity, calling it “a doctrine of faith” and explaining,

A Doctrine of Faith does not mean to be a condensed work on Dogmatics. Its task is more practical, having for its aim to impart concerning the truths of salvation, both the dogmatical and ethical, such a knowledge as is necessary for the participant of the Covenant of Grace, that they may become mature believers, who know how they “ought to walk and to please God, that they may abound more and more,” I Thess. 4:1, and who are “men of God, furnished completely unto every good work,” II Tim. 3:17, in the social and civil and especially in the religious spheres of life.8

By engaging in his theological enterprise from the biblical perspective of God’s covenant he served his students and his churches well. And to such study of theology we are summoned today. Too little is heard today of true covenantal distinctiveness, even in churches which still pride themselves in being considered Reformed. In consequence, not only theology, but also preaching and daily practice among God’s people, conform themselves to a world which would destroy the covenantal distinctiveness of God’s people.

Heyns would be the last to expect us to endorse every word he spoke and wrote on God’s covenant. We find some speculative elements with which few today would agree. But his approach to Reformed theology as biblically grounded and confessionally responsible deserves to be emulated because of its strong covenantal awareness. This gave life and breath and warmth to his teaching. This stirred ministers to preach the blessed message of God’s grace in Christ at home and abroad. This taught congregations to engage in “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Cor. 7:1).

Doing theology from this perspective can never be a dull and dreary exercise. It is rather a joyful enterprise. It is an ongoing celebration of the mighty words and works of God which bring men and women and children into the experience of ever-closer fellowship with the God of their salvation. It inspires the hearts to sing with ever greater persuasion,

How blessed, Lord, are they who know the joyful sound, Who, when they hear Thy voice, in happiness abound! With steadfast step they walk . . . ⁹

For such people know and trust and seek to serve the God of the gracious covenant.

May the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of all truth and wisdom and goodness, richly bless this seminary and its many supporters, so that the name of our God may through its efforts be honored and adored world without end.

1. Theological Foundations for Ministry, Ray S. Anderson, ed.; 2. Karl Barth: “The Place of Theology,” p. 47.

2. Systematic Theology (2nd edition), p. 597.

3. Gereformeerde Dogmatiek 3rd edition), Herman Bavinck, II. pp. 605-624; III. pp. 199–244. For a survey and evaluation of the intensive discussions on the doctrine of the covenant in the churches of the Secession of 1834 and those of the Doleantie of1886 (the two reformatory movements among the Reformed in the Netherlands during the 19th century) cf E. Smilde: Een eeuw van strijd over Verbond en Doop; also for quite a different perspective on and evaluation of this same period of struggle, cf B. Holwerda: Rondom 1905; as well as writings too numerous to mention here by Klaas Schilder, C. Veenhof, D. Van Dijk, etc. The two streams of church-reformational action united in 1892, adopted in 1905 decisions which enabled the churches to live and work together fruitfully, until more binding decisions were taken, despite vigorous pleading and protestation in 19#. These were for a time rigidly enforced, leading to disciplinary action of ministers and consistories, out of which was established “The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, art. 91.” All attempts at reunification have failed, especially since “The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (synodical)” have increasingly drifted away from the Scriptures and the Reformed confessions in doctrinal, ethical and other deliverances.

During all this period discussions on the doctrine of the covenant engaged the serious attention of many in the Christian Reformed Church, which in 1908 adopted, for the sake of promoting peace in the churches and maintaining room within the bounds of Scripture and the confessions for differences in definition, approach and emphasis, the decisions of 1905.

4. Bavinck, op cit., II, p. 611.

5. For a survey of the development of the doctrine of the covenant cf Bavinck, op. cit., III, pp. 219–217; Peter Y. DeJong: The Covenant Idea in New England Theology, pp. 15–62; Gerhardus Vos: De Verbondsidee in de Gereformeerde Theologie.

6. Heyns was born of Secession stock in the Netherlands on March 18, 1856; served in the Dutch army, entered the Theological School at Kampen in 1881, then moved with his parents to the United States and enrolled in the Theological School at Grand Rapids, Mich. He served the congregations of Allendale, Mich. (1886-1891); Harrison, S.D. (1891–1898); Chicago, IL, First Church (1898–1902). He died at the age of 77 yrs. at Grand Rapids, Mich., on November 9, 1999.

7. A bibliography of Heyns’ writings is given in A Bibliography of the writings of the Professors of Calvin Theological Seminary, Peter De Klerk, ed. and compiler; pp. 14–14.15.

8. Manual of Reformed Doctrine, p. 7. Throughout this work the significance of the doctrine of the covenant for the faith and life of God’s people is stressed; not only for the preaching of the Gospel to the congregations but also for evangelism and for the witness of church members in education, societal relationships, politics, etc.

9. Psalter-Hymnal #172 of the Christian Reformed Church; versification of Psalm 89, verses 5 and 6 of which constituted the “theme song” of the Convocation.

NOTE: This address was delivered at the first convocation of the Mid-America Reformed Seminary at Orange City, Iowa by Dr. Peter Y. DeJong, administrative dean. The meeting was in Dordt College Chapel, Sioux Center, Iowa. September 8, 1982.