The Reformed doctrine or Calvinistic understanding of man has been misunderstood by some critics in that it leads christian to have a negative or unhealthy self-image due to its teaching of doctrine of original sin or doctrine of total depravity.
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The Reformed doctrine or Calvinistic understanding of man has been misunderstood by some critics in that it leads christian to have a negative or unhealthy self-image due to its teaching of doctrine of original sin or doctrine of total depravity.
It is, however, partially due to the traditional way of presenting the doctrine of man before soteriology or christology. When we consider the reformed teaching of man under the light of reformed soteriology, Reformed doctrine neither present negative self-image nor leads believer to unhealthy self-image. It becomes more evident especially as we consider man from the reformed doctrine of “holistic sanctification” explained from the perspective of “holistic gospel”.
As we examine Reformed doctrine of ‘definitive sanctification’ we can find that it provides a good theological foundation for holistic sanctification. A key concept of definitive sanctification explained by John Murray is “death of sin”, which implies that the regenerated has been died to sin in every areas of his life. In other words, ‘death to sin’ given to the regenerated is cosmological death which includes not only his spiritual dimension but also all area of his lives. Sin’s power has been lost in every areas in the life of the regenerated believer. Due to such an “holistic” change given at regeneration in the life of believer, he is able to fight all kinds of attack from sin and Satan and, therefore, to have a positive self-image.
In this way, we may conclude that Reformed understanding of man does not provide any negative, pessimistic image to believer. Rather, it gives believer the power to pursue the “holistic sanctification” on the foundation of “definitive sanctification” not only in his personal spiritual life but also in his communal, social life as well.