Salvation, the Church, and the Means of Grace
Christ’s saving work is the foundation; this section explores how its benefits are received and lived out in the community of faith. We’ll consider election, calling, regeneration, faith, and the Reformed teaching on perseverance, while attending to the relationship between God’s grace and human responsibility. We’ll then turn to the church: its unity, mission, worship, sacraments, and care for its members. Finally, we’ll explore prayer and spiritual disciplines as practices of communion with God, not ways to earn His favor. These posts connect personal faith with life together, showing how Christian hope forms a people who worship, grow, serve, and encourage one another.
Lesson 20
Election and Predestination: God’s Sovereign Saving Purpose
Explore the Reformed understanding of election and predestination, including their relationship to grace, human responsibility, assurance, and evangelism.
Lesson 21
Effectual Calling: How the Gospel Becomes Personal
Follow the work of the Spirit in calling and renewing people, and consider how repentance and faith respond to the gospel.
Lesson 22
The Church: God’s Covenant Community
Discover the church’s identity, unity, marks, and mission as the gathered people of God across times and places.
Lesson 23
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper: God’s Covenant Seals
Explore the meaning of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, including differing Christian views and their shared focus on Christ’s promises.
Lesson 24
Church Discipline and Restoration: Covenant Fidelity
Learn how church discipline can protect the community, address serious wrongdoing, and seek repentance, reconciliation, and restoration.
Lesson 25
Prayer, the Psalms, and the Spiritual Disciplines: Communion with God
Explore prayer, the Psalms, and spiritual disciplines as ways Christians seek God, express the full range of human experience, and grow in faith.