LUMEN and Reformed Theology
by Dr. Peter A. Kerr
When a theological vision resists easy classification, readers often reach for familiar categories. Is it Reformed? Is it liberal? Is it revisionist? These labels help orient expectations, but they can also obscure what is actually being proposed. LUMEN does not fit neatly into these camps—not because it rejects them wholesale, but because it begins from a different center.
LUMEN begins not with a system, a polemic, or a reaction, but with a confession: God is holy. Scripture consistently presents holiness not as control, severity, or distance, but as fullness—goodness, truth, and love existing in perfect unity and abundance (Isa 6:3; Ps 99:3; 1 Jn 1:5). From this center, theology unfolds not as a mechanism for managing outcomes, but as a grammar for participating in God’s life.
Shared Convictions
LUMEN shares much with the Reformed tradition, and it is important to say so plainly. It affirms the seriousness of sin (Rom 3:23), the necessity and priority of grace (Eph 2:8–9), the sovereignty of God (Ps 115:3), and the absolute centrality of Christ’s saving work (Col 1:19–20). It agrees that God is not reactive, that salvation is initiated by God, and that human pride has no place in redemption.
Both LUMEN and Reformed theology reject moralism. Both insist that salvation is not earned. Both proclaim Christ alone reveals the Father and reconciles the world to God (Heb 1:1–3; Jn 14:9). These shared commitments matter. They establish common ground that should not be minimized.
A Difference of Starting Point
Where LUMEN diverges from classical Reformed thought is not in failing to affirm God’s greatness, but in how that greatness is understood and expressed. Much Reformed theology begins with divine sovereignty defined primarily in terms of control—often articulated through meticulous providence, unconditional election, and exhaustive determinism. God’s glory, in this framework, is frequently associated with unilateral decision and comprehensive ordination.
LUMEN proposes a different starting point: God’s holiness understood as holy love. God’s sovereignty is not diminished by this move; it is re-described. God does not rule because He must control, but because He is full. His power is not threatened by freedom; it is expressed through love that refuses coercion (Deut 30:19; Matt 23:37).
God works all things toward good not by scripting evil, but by redeeming what freedom makes possible (Rom 8:28). Suffering is not a preferred instrument of divine display, but a tragic reality God tirelessly heals, bears, and transforms. Judgment is not the defense of divine honor, but love’s resistance to what destroys communion (Ezek 18:23; Heb 12:6). This difference is not about denying sovereignty, but about redefining its mode. God’s power serves love, not the other way around.
Providence Without Coercion
Reformed theology has often been pastorally motivated by a desire to secure confidence: nothing happens outside God’s will; therefore nothing is meaningless. LUMEN shares this pastoral concern, but resists the conclusion that God must therefore will all that occurs.
Instead, LUMEN frames providence as formative rather than deterministic. God shapes histories, circumstances, and opportunities without violating the integrity of creaturely will. He works creatively within creation rather than coercively upon it. Divine action is not less intentional for being non-coercive; it is more faithful to the God revealed in Christ.
Jesus does not compel belief. He invites. He does not overwhelm resistance with force. He absorbs it in love. The cross itself stands as the clearest revelation of divine power exercised without coercion—God overcoming evil not by scripting it, but by outlasting it in holy love.
Faith, Freedom, and Glory
A related difference emerges in how faith is understood. In some Reformed frameworks, faith functions primarily as the instrument by which salvation is applied—necessary, but tightly bounded by prior decree. LUMEN understands faith more relationally: faith is the creaturely analogue of divine self-giving. God gives Himself without coercion; faith receives without control.
This preserves freedom without exalting autonomy. Faith is not a human achievement, but a relational posture made possible by grace. It protects the space in which love can be real. If God’s self-revelation compelled assent, obedience would collapse into self-preservation or reward-seeking. Faith preserves love by preserving freedom.
Glory, then, is not something God seeks in order to be complete. Glory arises when holy love is received and reflected (Jn 17:22–24). God does not need glory; He diffuses it.
Why This Matters
LUMEN does not ask Reformed readers to abandon their tradition. It invites them to look again—especially at Christ. Whatever does not look like Jesus crucified and risen must be re-examined, not preserved for the sake of system alone (Col 2:9). LUMEN is not anti-Reformed. It is not liberal. It is not revisionist. It is christological. It insists God’s holiness, God’s sovereignty, God’s justice, and God’s love must cohere in the face of Jesus Christ. Where they appear to conflict, the problem lies not in Christ, but in our categories.
A Shared Invitation
At its best, Reformed theology has always sought to honor God alone. LUMEN shares that desire. It simply proposes God is most honored not when His control is maximized, but when His holy love is most clearly seen. LUMEN does not attempt to replace Reformed theology. It illuminates it—affirming what is true, questioning what distorts, and inviting deeper coherence. It invites all traditions to gather not around systems, but around the living God whose holiness is fullness, whose power is love, and whose purpose is to form a family that freely reflects His light.
Supporting Scripture (in NASB)
Isaiah 6:3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”
Psalm 99:3 Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He.
1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
Colossians 1:19–20 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Hebrews 1:1–3 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.
Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Ezekiel 18:23 Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord God, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?
Hebrews 12:6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.
John 17:22–24 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
Colossians 2:9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.
