This book describes the objectivity of the new covenant (the one under Christ as opposed to Moses). Wilson takes baptism as the point of public confession of faith and a public agreement to abide by the new covenant just as marriage is a public confession of love and a public agreement to abide by wedding vows. I don't really get why it's called reformed is not enough or maybe I just don't remember (reformed refers to a sect of protestant belief defined by the westminster confessions; basically is calvinist). Quite frankly, I don't know if I agree with everything that Wilson says but there's a good chunk of wise words.

According to the Bible, a Christian is one who would be identified as such by a Muslim. Membership in the Christian faith is objective - it can be photographed and fingerprinted. (21)

Chapter 2: Calvanistic Bona Fides

God ordains non-coercively. This makes no sense to some people, but how many basic doctrines do make sense? We do not understand how God made the solar system from nothing any more than how He determined my actions today without annihilating me. But He did. (26)

Chapter 3: Evangelical Bona Fides

Modern evangelicals write books on How to Be Born Again, which betrays the fact that they are not grasping the Lord's teaching in the third chapter of John. Does anyone write books on how to be born the first time? Who would buy it? (35)

It is worth noting yet again that if a man could repent and believe with his old heart, he doesn't really need a new one. (37)

Chapter 4: Reformation Bona Fides

Too many professing Christians think that salvation by grace is actually salvation by tiny works.

The temptation, - from the very beginning - has been to see faith as a point in time affair, after which the work of sanctification takes over. The Galatians stumbled into thinking this way: "Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are y now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3). (42)

Chapter 8: The Visible and Invisible Church

The heavenly Church is invisible to me for the same reason the church in China is invisible to me - I am not there to see it. (71) [the church in glory shall be the same church as today except cleansed. thus being a member only of the "invisible" church is not possible]

Chapter 9: Notae Ecclesiae
(marks of the true church)

Rather, the center was Christ preached and Christ given through the sacraments - to be received by faith. The Reformers said that you recognize a man by looking at his face, not the ends of his shoelaces, and if you want to recognize the Church, then you must look straight at her Head, who is Christ….The head, Jesus Christ, is recognized by the believer in His gospel and sacraments. The Gospel is the center. (81-82)

Chapter 10: Sacerdotalism

Grace is not a fluid that can fill up a reservoir. Grace is a covenantal relationship between persons. Now the Scriptures do tell us that grace can be both added and multiplied. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord" (2 Peter 1:2, 1 Peter 1:2, Romans 1:7). But we have to be careful not to fall prey to abstract nouns. If I pray that someone's marital happiness will increase, I am asking that a relationship between persons will flourish not that something will happen in their marital "tank", something that can be checked with a dipstick. (91-92)

Chapter 13: Church Unity

Ephesians 4:2-6

We find three basic points in this text. The first is that unity of the Spirit is something to be kept. It is not manufactured by us but preserved by us. The second thing is the attitude which is willing to obey this command, and which rejoices in it. This is the attitude of lowliness, meekness, patience and loving forebearance. It follows that the attitudes that defy this word from God would be haughtiness, insolence, impatience and harshness. The third thing is the nature and basis of the unity that is to be kept. This given unity (one body) is grounded in the fact that everything about the Christian faith has Trinitarian unity - one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. (117)

Some think that striving for unity means refusal to fight over anything, which is not at all correct. We need to have more Church fights over pastors adopting openness theism and fewer fights over what color to paint the church nursery. (118)

We have assumed that love is to be defined by Hallmark cards rather than by the Word of God. (119)

Chapter 14: Blessed Assurance

A Christian assured of his salvation

• has love for the brothers (1 John 3:14). (127)
  
• has true humility of mind (Matthew 18:3). (127)
  
• has delight in the means of grace (1 Peter 2:2-3). (127)
  
  When someone is genuinely converted, it is not necessary to chase him down the street in order to get him to seek our spiritual food. (128)
• understands spiritual things(1 Corinthians 1:18). (128)
  
• is obedient(1 John 2-3). (128)
  
• is chastened for disobedience [by God] (Hebrews 12:5-8). (129)

Chapter 15: Apostasy: A Real Sin

Elect covenant members who are tempted to look inside themselves for assurance will only find doubts (and to their surprise later, eternal life). Elect covenant members who look to Christ on the cross and Christ on the throne in evangelical faith receive assurance and life (1 John 5:13). (134-135)

Chapter 16: Heretics and the Covenant

Mark this well: adultery is not the same thing as divorce. It is certainly covenantal unfaithfulness and is grounds for divorce, but if there is no divorce, then the marriage remains binding on both parties. An adulterous husband is a covenant-breaking husband, not an ex-husband. In short, we must distinguish between covenant-breaking and covenant-separation. (144)

Chapter 17: Sons of Belial

What do we call these people within the covenant who do not understand the first thing about it? We have already considered the heretics, but there are a large number of people who are not smart enough to be heretics. What do we call them? (147)

Chapter 18: False Brothers

The believing heart looks at the prohibition of stealing, for example, and sees Jesus Christ. The unbelieving heart looks at the gospel of Christ and sees something to earn. (153)

Stop trying to pick up grace. You have no hands. Grace picks you up, out of the miry clay, and sets your feet on the rock. A true heart knows this. (155)

Epilogue

The objectivity of the covenant is a true deliverance from morbid introspection. Those who want to come to the covenant without heart searching clearly do not understand the basics of the gospel. Abraham and Saul were wretched sinners, as were we all. But those who want to have their connection with the covenant be the point where they begin their morbid heart-searchings do not understand the gospel either. One of the central points of the new covenant is forgiveness of sin, and it is not too much to ask that forgiveness result in…forgiveness.
And when we get this lesson down, we become confident in our forgiveness and start doubting (with little evidence) the forgiveness of others….We are to take the baptisms of others at face value. We also take the teaching of Scripture at face value, and the behavior and words of these covenant members at face value. If there is conflict between what baptism means and what the baptized are openly doing and saying, then we are at liberty to point to the inconsistency and say that it constitutes covenantal faithlessness. But we need to be extremely wary of pronouncing on the secret things (Deut. 29:29). (193)

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