Cock-a-doodle-doo!

The cow opened one eye to see the glistening rays of the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon. The rooster’s upright silhouette appeared on top of a nearby fence post. Every morning he sang his song to summon the rising of the sun. The cow mused about how thankful she was for such a dignified and rewarding morning song. She wasn’t sure how the rooster knew what posture to adopt or what notes to sound. As lowly and uneducated as the cow was, however, she was certain the crowing of the rooster resulted in the sun’s coming up. The activity of the rooster’s crowing always preceded the activity of the sun’s rays breaking over the farm’s skyline. With her keen observation and extended experience, she was sure that if the rooster did not crow, the sun would not come up to light and warm the happy little farmyard she called home.

All the animals in the barnyard were beginning to stir. The horse had begun to amble over to the corner of the paddock, where the sweetest and most abundant alfalfa grew. The goat, with her unique tastes, started munching on grapevine leaves that grew up along the open squares of a wire fence. The rooster hopped off his post and strutted in the direction of the animals. He strode up to the horse, unwavering in his course, and demanded that the horse move over. In a moment the horse stepped away so as not to upset the rooster. The rooster must crow every morning! The rooster was to be revered. If he did not crow, how dreary would be the never-ending darkness of night.

Near the barn the cow could see a mother hen with her flock of fluffy chicks. Talking with the mother hen just last week, the cow had been grateful to hear that the mother hen was proud her latest brood included a cockerel. The cow didn’t know how the farm animals would survive if something would ever happen to the current rooster. She always worried anyway, but the possibility of lacking a barnyard rooster was a disconcerting thought that had plagued her for some time.

As much as the cow wearied of the rooster’s walking around like he was Mr. King Cluck, always demanding the best of the grain and the tastiest scraps that the farmer threw out, she was willing to make any sacrifice so that a rooster would always be present in her barnyard. She couldn’t imagine her days being filled without the risen sun. What despair, hopelessness, and anguish would abound if the beautiful, life-giving rays were stifled for a time before the farmer could acquire another rooster. She gazed at the mother hen and marveled at her careful guidance of leading her little chicks to the best areas of the yard to find insects and seeds. Surely, her mind could be at ease. The barnyard had an operative, dependable, and fit rooster. It looked like that would be the case for some time. The rooster would keep cock-a-doodle-“doing” his morning summons of the sun, and as a result the sun would continue to display its shining face of light, warmth, and comfort. There was that which the rooster must do for the sun to come up. 

The above short story is an adaptation and a summary of a children’s book called Little Peep, written by Jack Kent. There are lessons we can learn and apply from this children’s story to our self-righteous inclinations and to the doctrinal controversy that resulted in the separation between the Reformed Protestant Churches and the Protestant Reformed Churches.

It has been said,

There is a vitally important sense in which, in our salvation, our drawing nigh to God precedes God’s drawing nigh to us…this sense has to do with our experience of salvation…When we draw nigh to God, by faith including faith’s repentance, God draws nigh to us in our experience…There is a sense in which Israel’s returning to God, by His efficacious call, precedes Israel’s enjoyment of these blessings.¹

It has been said, 

God’s sovereignty. Man’s responsibility. God’s gifts and Christ’s merits does not exclude God’s use of means. Does not exclude God’s gift of the use of the means of our obedience. And yet, God commanded. I performed a duty. Two rails. They go side by side. In the wisdom of God: his sovereignty, our responsibility. And it’s all grace. And nothing but grace. “Labor to enter into the rest, lest ye fall in unbelief” (Heb. 4:11). And that labor is what we identified in Deuteronomy 10:12: Keep his commandments.²

It has been said,

And he [a little child] understands the more I do this, the more I hug and embrace her [my mother], the more I will enjoy her embrace and fellowship as well. Well, so it is with the life of conversion and good works. If the life of good works is the life of living, enjoying fellowship with God, then you understand the more you do that, the more that joy and fellowship you will have. It really is something like this: the more you fellowship with God, the more you enjoy fellowship with God. And because the life of turning from sin and living in obedience to God is the life of fellowship with him, the more you do that, the more you will enjoy the love of God your Father for Jesus’ sake.³

It has been said,

In the way of good works we enjoy, we experience, various aspects of salvation…It’s good to have clear in our minds…that when we speak of in the way of, we are speaking of the reward of grace…When we’re speaking of in the way of obedience, some good thing occurs, or we enjoy the fellowship of God…we’re speaking of the reward of grace…When scripture speaks again of “according to,” it means there is some correlation between good works and the reward…there is a correlation so that we understand the less of a good work, or the less good that a good work is, the less or smaller the reward. The less number of works, the less of a reward one receives. So, too, with regard to the more. The more that one walks in good works, the more of a reward is received…The same thing is true, of course, with regard to punishment. Those who sin greater are punished more greatly. The same, too, also with regard to the reward of grace.⁴

Finally, when favorably quoting Herman Witsius, the Standard Bearer printed the following without immediate repudiation:

Whence it is, that by how much one is more holy, by so much he is the more acceptable to God.⁵

Christ is the way to life, because he purchased us a right to life. The practice of Christian piety is the way to life, because thereby we go to the possession of the right obtained by Christ.⁶

The printing of the above quotes from Herman Witsius was only a few short years after Synod 2017 had declared a sermon on John 14:6 to be erroneous, a sermon that taught that the way to the Father included our obedience. Synod 2018 had decided concerning a related sermon on Lord’s Day 45 that 

it is erroneous to teach that the way to the enjoyment of fellowship with God, the way of approach unto God, the way to the Father is a way of requirements that God sets out for us and that the believer must meet by his obedience or godliness…The way of approach unto God is not our obedience, but Christ alone, by faith alone (B.C., Art. 23).⁷

What do the teachings of Prof. D. Engelsma, Rev. R. Van Overloop, Rev. C. Spronk, Rev. K. Koole, and former Rev. D. Overway have in common? These men continue to teach what the consistory of Hope Protestant Reformed Church taught in 2017. The doctrinal response of Hope’s consistory to a protestant stated, 

God actually works in us that obedience; and in the way of that obedience that He works in us, He wisely and sovereignly causes us to experience the blessings of salvation.⁸

Their faulty presumption is that the rooster’s crow is determinative in the sun’s coming up. The rooster’s crow is no longer merely the evidence and inevitable herald of the sun’s rising, but it is something more. Our repenting is then something more than just the evidence and infallible fruit of God’s work. Rather, our repentance becomes the determining factor for the quality and quantity of God’s shining face upon us. Whether or not these men want to admit that the rooster is causing the sun to come up, what they are teaching is that the sun’s rising is contingent on the rooster’s crowing. What happens if the rooster doesn’t crow, or crow perfectly, or crow long enough? Will the sun still rise? In their theology the sun will not rise until that sinning rooster crows. The theology of scripture and the creeds is that regardless of what a rooster may do, the sun will always rise upon God’s people (Gen. 28:15; 2 Cor. 4:6; Canons 5.8).

These men teach that the rooster’s activity precedes in an effectual, determinative way the sun’s coming up. The rooster embraces and sings to the sun, and then the sun, as a result, smiles back. And as a matter of fact, the more the rooster embraces the sun, the more sunshine the rooster gets! The rooster’s crowing is something more than a fruit and fruit only. The “doing” of the rooster obtains and has erroneously become a prerequisite to the life-giving rays of fellowship from the sun. Maybe we all need to consider whether we have fallen into the foolish, self-righteous reasoning of the rooster, the cow, and the Pharisee of Luke 18, who gave thanks and praise for the good “doing” that effectually caused the Sun of peace and fellowship to show his beauty that day.

Certainly, there are instances when the storm clouds of our sin obscure our experience of the light of life. The Holy Spirit assures us, however, that he will preserve us to the end (Canons 5). At the end of every storm, his efficacious, merciful, gracious light of fellowship pierces through the gray clouds, and once more we experience the light of his countenance shining upon us. The Sun never leaves us or forsakes us. The Sun is always aloft in the sky. We may feel for a time the consequences of a storm, the lack of the assuring warmth of the Sun, uncomfortable temperatures of emotional distress (severe at times), and many other effects of inclement weather. When we are elect, his Light will pursue us through the thickest, most tumultuous storm clouds that are placed between us and our shining Friend. He will save us, draw us by the cords of faith; and as a result of our Friend’s activity of drawing us near, he will work in us repentance and obedience.

We are assured that God will admonish us, call us to repentance, and work in us to live a life of repentance and thankful gratitude in obedience to his law (Heidelberg Catechism, A 64). The “theological and gospel” rooster has not been killed but is alive and well and crowing! As our Father pursued and found Adam and Eve hiding in the garden, trying to cover themselves with their “leaves of repentance”; as he sent the prophets to Israel and Judah to give the word of promise of a savior and to warn of the ways of sin; as he told Hosea to pursue his wife in her whoredoms; and as he came and drew near to Peter after his denials, God will pursue and save us by the power of his word even in our greatest falls into temptation. The cross is the reason. The cross is our justification. The cross is our sanctification. The cross is all our salvation. The cross is the “doing” of that which must be done for us to experience fellowship with God. The gospel is that Jesus saves sinners. The gospel is not that Jesus and sinners save. The truth of the effectual experience of salvation is not that man’s activity precedes God’s activity but that we experience salvation on the basis of Christ alone, through faith alone, that it might be by grace alone and to God’s glory alone.

Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:78–79)

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 4:6)