N.B. This is a little project I've been working quietly: an exposition of the Westminster Larger Catechism which was written following the Cromwellian Revolution in order to teach adults the essentials of Reformed theology. I have completed the first 33 questions and answers with an exposition for each part. I would dearly love some encouragement in the project. Is this something I should strive to complete? Would this be of benefit to the church and believers? I have tried to make the theological exposition both Scriptural and relevant to the concerns of the church in the 21st century. Please let me know what you think in the comments below.
A
catechism is a form of question and answer designed to teach theological and
ethical truths. The Westminster Larger Catechism (1643) was written during the
Cromwellian Revolution along with the Shorter Catechism (1646–47) and the
Westminster Confession of Faith (1646). The Shorter Catechism was written for
beginners in the faith and children, while the larger and more substantial
catechism was written for adults and Christian ministers. While the Shorter
Catechism has enjoyed considerable popularity and widespread use, the Larger
Catechism has tended to be neglected by readers, perhaps owing to its longer
and more difficult sentences which can be tricky to memorise. Thomas Ridgeley’s
Body of Divinity, a two-volume work printed in 1731–33, appears to be
one of the few major works written on the Larger Catechism. Arguably the best
guide in modern times is by Johannes G. Vos, The Westminster Larger
Catechism: A Commentary (2002). This takes the form of question-and-answer
commentary – opening theological discussion on the original questions. This
essay makes particular effort to consider the Scripture references given by Vos
and to explain the verses exegetically in the light of the catechism. The
Larger Catechism is a work firmly located within the realm of Nicaean and
Chalcedonian orthodoxy on the person and work of Christ, the hypostatic union,
and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It stands within the Reformed tradition
of Zwingli and Calvin with respect to soteriological issues such as the
doctrines of justification by faith alone and the difference between
sanctification (infused grace) and justification (imputed grace). It is also
decidedly Calvinistic in its treatment of the doctrines of election, the fall
of man, effectual calling, and the perseverance of the saints. It is one of the
first documents to expound federal or covenantal theology following the lead of
Archbishop James Usher’s Irish Articles (1615) which had done much of
the groundwork for exploring this kind of hermeneutic in Reformed theology. This
essay will explore the main theological themes arising in the Larger Catechism
and connect Puritan and Reformed theology with the concerns of the twenty-first
century. Each question and answer will be marked in bold and italics, followed
by my own commentary on the text.
1.
What
is the chief and highest end of man? Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify
God, and fully to enjoy him for ever.
The
Christian lives for the glory of God – this is his chief and highest end. It is
not his only end as there are many other designs and purposes in life, but this
end should be the chief and highest of them all. He disavows any glory for
himself and is careful to ascribe all glory and honour to the name of the Lord
God. As the psalmist says, ‘Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake’. (Psalm 115:1). The glory
of God is closely associated with his name which is the sum of his attributes,
and the psalmist highlights his love and faithfulness as reasons for glorifying
God. The Protestant Reformers determined to make this principle central to
their theology and practice and summarised it with the slogan soli deo
gloria which means ‘to God alone be the glory’. All of life was to be lived
before the presence of God (coram deo) and for his glory. As Paul says
to the Corinthians, ‘Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do,
do all to the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31). All of life – food, drink,
or whatever is done by the Christian – is for God’s glory and enjoyment. The
Christian is called not only to glorify God, but to enjoy him. He is to be our
highest delight and pleasure. The psalmist says, ‘As the hart panteth after the
water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God,
for the living God’ (Psalm 42:1–2), and as Saint Augustine famously said, ‘Thou
hast created us for Thyself, O God, and our heart is restless until it finds
repose in Thee’. The Christian thirsts for the living God. His heart is
restless for God himself. Though our enjoyment of God begins in this life, it
also continues into the glorious life of the world to come and is therefore
fundamentally eschatological. It is an enjoyment not for time, but for
eternity. The believer shall enjoy God forever in the new heavens and new earth
wherein righteousness dwells – a kingdom perfected by the glory and beauty of
Christ.
2.
How
does it appear that there is a God? The very light of nature in man, and the
works of God declare plainly that there is a God; but his word and Spirit only
do sufficiently and effectually reveal him unto men for their salvation.
The
analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga has argued on the basis of Calvin’s
concept of the sensus divinitatis (‘sense of divinity’) and the semen
religionis (‘seed of religion’) that belief in God is properly basic to
humanity. All human beings by the light of nature know that God exists. Even if
there were no philosophical arguments for the existence of God, it would be
perfectly reasonable from the inward sense of deity to postulate the existence
of a being infinitely greater than ourselves. It is only the noetic effects of
sin that eviscerate belief in God by sheer obstinance or the refusal to
acknowledge his sovereignty over humankind. In the words of the psalmist, ‘The
fool hath said in his heart, “There is no God”’ (Psalm 14:1). He is a fool not
because he holds philosophical objections to God’s existence or suffers with
doubts, but because he lives in moral rebellion against his creator. There are
many so-called arguments for the existence of God from the light of human
nature and the works of God in creation and these have their respective
strengths and weaknesses. The psalmist reminds us that all creation speaks of
God’s existence – everything that exists reveals the invisible hand of
providence. As the psalmist says, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and
the firmament sheweth his handywork’ (Psalm 19:1). Creation speaks of the
creator. Paul argues in his letter to the Romans that ‘For the invisible things
of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are
without excuse’ (Romans 1:20).
There are several philosophical
arguments for God’s existence known as the cosmological argument, the
teleological argument, the ontological argument, and the moral argument.
Firstly, the cosmological argument postulates God’s existence as the First Cause
of all reality who brought the universe into being out of nothing or ex
nihilo. The Big Bang Theory postulates that the universe had a beginning in
time – something which Christianity presupposes in interpretation and reading
of Genesis chapter one. Since nothing comes from nothing, it follows that
something – perhaps an all-powerful divine being – brought the universe into
being out of non-existence. Secondly, the teleological argument aims to
demonstrate the presence of design and finetuning in the universe as evidence
of the existence of God as a master builder or designer who created all things
with purpose and intention. If the physical laws governing the universe were
altered even slightly then stars would not form, galaxies would not exist,
planets would not come into being, and life would be impossible. This is a
powerful argument for the presence of a grand designer who tunes the universe
so that it is just right for the emergence of life and human consciousness.
Thirdly, the ontological argument developed by St. Anslem argues that God, as a
being than which no greater can be conceived, necessarily exists. Since
existence is an attribute of perfection or maximal excellence, God must exist
by definition. Finally, the moral argument for the existence of God aims to
demonstrate from the universality of moral law in human society and the innate
sense of knowing right from wrong as dictated by conscience that God exists as
moral lawgiver and judge. ‘And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but
after this the judgement’ (Hebrews 9:27).
Notwithstanding the many arguments for
the existence of God, the ultimate reason why we should believe that God exists
is because he has revealed himself to us by his word and Spirit. Deus dixit.
God has spoken. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments demonstrate the
existence of a God who is infinite, eternal, and unchanging in his being and
perfections. The Holy Spirit makes this revelation effectual in our hearts and
illuminates the Scriptures so that we can comprehend this revelation of God to
humanity. Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God to man as the writer to
the Hebrews argues: ‘God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds’ (Hebrews 1:1–2). Jesus Christ is the God-man or theanthropos.
He is the infinite and eternal Son of God manifest in the flesh. He is the one
who became incarnate and assumed human nature for our sakes, so that all the
glory of God shines most perfectly in the face of Jesus Christ. And this
revelation is given for our salvation. It overcomes the noetic effects of sin
in our lives and enables us to see that something lives in every hue that
Christless eyes have never seen.
3.
What
is the word of God? The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the
word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.
God’s
revelation in Scripture – in both the Old Testament and the New – is necessary
not only to know that God exists, but to know that He is able to redeem us. The
Bible is the book of all books. It is God’s holy and infallible word to
mankind. The origin of the Holy Scriptures is found in God Himself. The many
statements in Scripture telling us that ‘God spoke’, or ‘God said’, or ‘Thus
says the Lord’ indicate this divine origin for Scripture. God spoke the Law to
Moses and even wrote the commandments on tablets of stone with his own finger.
He inspired the prophets through dreams and visions and ecstatic trances. He
spoke to them audibly or sometimes impressed upon their hearts and minds his
infallible word. The entire Bible testifies to the fact that our God is a
speaking God. He is not silent. Paul says to Timothy that ‘All scripture is
given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works’ (2 Timothy 3:16a). In the
original Greek, the idea here is that Scripture is the very creative breath of
the Almighty God. We should not so much speak of the ‘inspiration’ of Scripture
as to speak of its ‘expiration’. It is literally ‘breathed out’ (theopneustos)
by God and this ‘breathing out’ is principally a work of the Holy Spirit. As
Peter reminds us, ‘For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but
men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter
1:21). David was able to say that the Spirit of God spoke through him: ‘The
Spirit of the LORD speaks by me; his word is on my tongue’ (2 Samuel 23:2).
When David spoke, God spoke. Though the Bible is the product of many human
authors who wrote with diverse styles and in different manners; nonetheless God
in his providence ensured that every word written by the prophets, evangelists,
and apostles was the very word of God. Indeed, there is a humanness to
Scripture which is seen in the stylistic and poetically differences between
authors, but there is also a divinity to Scripture which we neglect to our
peril. As with the hypostatic union in the deity and humanity of Christ, the
Scriptures are both divine and human: the very word of God and God’s word
through humankind.
The substance or content of the word
of God is gospel of Christ. The very first gospel promise in Scripture is found
in the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15: ‘I will put enmity between you and the
woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel’. This gospel was
foretold and anticipated by Moses and the prophets and revealed in the types
and shadows of the Old Testament. The reality of His incarnation comes into
view in the New Testament. Christ was incarnate of the virgin Mary. He dwelt
among men. He spoke with authority and preformed many signs and wonders by the
Spirit of God. He was betrayed by His friends and was sold out for thirty
pieces of silver. He was crucified, dead, and buried. The third day, he rose
again. He appeared to many witnesses and afterwards ascended into heaven. He
sat down at the right hand of God the Father, the Almighty. He will come again
with glory to judge the living and the dead. According to the Apostle John, the
Scriptures were written to lead us to faith in Christ Jesus: ‘But these are
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and
that believing ye might have life through his name’ (John 20:31).
It is generally agreed among
theologians that there are four attributes of Scripture: its authority,
clarity, necessity, and sufficiency. The Scriptures are the authoritative word
of God. As God’s word, the Bible carries all the authority and power of the
Godhead in written form. God speaks. We believe and we obey. Protestants also
insisted upon the clarity or perspicuity of Scripture. Roman Catholics tended
to regard the Scriptures as a document in need of an infallible interpreter
(namely, the Pope); whereas Protestants insisted that the central message of
Scripture is clear and easy to understand – even a child could grasp the
central message of Scripture with the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The
Bible is also necessary for salvation. Without God’s word, we could never know
the good news about Jesus Christ. God may have revealed himself in redemptive
history, but we would have no way of knowing this for sure without the Bible.
Similarly, the Bible is the sufficient word of God – it teaches us all that we
need to know for salvation and the life of faith. The Reformers taught a
doctrine of ‘Scripture alone’ or sola scriptura. This was not to
deny the place of the ecumenical creeds and confessions of the Church, but to
recognise that they had secondary importance to the Bible itself. God’s word
stands in a unique category by itself. It alone is the authoritative holy and
infallible word of God. Creeds, confessions, and catechisms are secondary to
Scripture which is the only infallible rule of faith.
The holiness of Scripture means that
it is set apart by God. It is sui generis. We should never approach the
Bible as we would any other book. This was the error of higher criticism under
Protestant Liberal theology. Scholars approached the Bible as though it were in
the same category as world literature in general. It was no different to
reading Milton or Shakespeare. The holiness of Scripture, however, requires us
to approach the Bible prayerfully and with due reverence for its contents. We
should always approach Scripture on our knees. The infallibility of Scripture
means that it is truthful in everything that it says. Jesus brings together
both the holiness and infallibility of Scripture when he says, ‘Sanctify them through
thy truth; thy word is truth’ (John 17:17). Since God cannot lie, his word
cannot lie. Textual criticism allows us to get back to the original text as
closely as possible through the scholarly comparison of manuscripts. This is
why knowledge of Biblical languages is so important within the scholarly
community. Bible scholars seek to understand the Scriptures as they were
originally given in the Hebrew and Greek and this knowledge is passed on to
pastors and teachers in the Church. We can be sure that our word-for-word
translations are a faithful representation of the Bible as originally given –
they are more than 99% accurate and faithfully translate the word of God into
the vernacular. The King James Version (KJV) is superior in literary qualities,
while the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New American Standard Version
(NASV) are among the most literal translations. Other good translations include
the New Internation Version (NIV), the New King James Version (NKJV), and the
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
4.
How
does it appear that the Scriptures are the word of God? The Scriptures manifest
themselves to be the word of God by their majesty and purity, by the consent of
all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give glory to God; by
their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up
believers unto salvation; but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the
Scriptures in the heart of man is alone able to fully persuade us that they are
the very word of God.
The
majesty of Scripture refers to its royal dignity. It is the divine word of a holy
God. It stands above the literature of the world as the highest work of God to
humankind. This is not Shakespeare or Milton, it is not even Homer or Virgil,
it is God himself speaking to lost humanity. There is a literary greatness
about Scripture, and it has inspired some of the greatest human writers and
poets in history. The Bible contains history, poetry, prophecy, psalms, letters,
parables, eschatology, and apocalyptic. It covers the whole range of human
emotion and experience. In many ways it is a thoroughly human book, written by human
beings under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit for the glory of
God. It has a certain purity or quality of infallibility. It is entirely free
from error and therefore inerrant in the original autographs. The human writers
were so guided in the process of writing Holy Scripture that they could not
write untruth. They could not make a mistake. Everything the Bible says is true
– even the parts we find difficult to understand or accept. Every word of God
is pure. There is no room for untruth with God. Therefore, although the Bible
is a thoroughly human book as written by human authors, it is also a thoroughly
divine book as written by the breath of God. The Bible is a book without
contradiction. All the respective parts of Scripture agree with every other part.
This is the ‘consent of the whole’ – a remarkable achievement for a book
written over several centuries by multiple authors from diverse backgrounds.
Atheists and critics of Scripture often charge the Bible with multiple contradictions,
but usually when asked to show some examples fail to produce the evidence of
contradiction. Most atheists have barely considered what the Scriptures
principally teach and show themselves to be poor theologians in their selective
reading of Scripture. We readily admit that there are things which are
difficult to understand in Scripture and things which transcend reason such as
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity or the hypostatic union, but there is nothing
contrary to reason in Scripture. Even the Apostle Peter admits that there are ‘things
hard to be understood’ in Paul’s epistles (2 Peter 3:16), but just because
something is difficult to understand or explain does not mean that it breaks
the law of noncontradiction. Christians have been wrestling with the text of
Scripture for over 2,000 years. There is nothing in its pages which can surprise
the Christian church. Most ‘apparent contradictions’ can be readily resolved by
a good and scholarly commentary or by books specifically dealing with Bible
difficulties.
The scope of the whole – the whole
counsel of God – is designed to bring glory to God himself. The Scriptures take
us from the dawn of creation, to the fall of humankind into sin, to the history
of God’s chosen people Israel, to the redemption of lost humanity by Christ,
the son of David, to his second coming and return in glory, and to the
establishment of his eternal kingdom in a renewed heaven and earth, resplendent
with the glory of God. This message known as the gospel is designed by its
light and power to convince sinners of their exceeding sinfulness and convert
them to God. Scripture is fundamentally missional. It is a love letter from God
to humankind designed to awaken us from our unconverted state to a state of
redemption by Christ and new life in the Holy Spirit. It is also a book for the
Church to comfort, edify, instruct, and build up believers in the most holy
faith to complete salvation. It is a book concerned with the destiny of God’s
chosen or elect people in Christ – the Church. Despite all these many proofs that
the Scriptures are the word of God, it is only the Holy Spirit speaking by and
with the Holy Scriptures who is able to convince us of this great truth. The
Holy Spirit who spoke the Scriptures into being also speaks into our hearts,
creates light and life within us, and leads us to faith and repentance in the
gospel of Christ. We seek the Spirit with the prayer: ‘Open thou mind eyes,
that I may behold wonderous things out of thy law’ (Psalm 119:18).
5.
What do the Scriptures principally teach? The Scriptures principally
teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of
man.
This
question and answer separate the whole of divinity into two principal parts:
what man is to believe concerning God (theology) and what duty God requires of
man (ethics). Theology, properly speaking, is the study of God in three persons
(Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Though theology principally focuses on the
names, nature, attributes, and triunity of God, there are also many other
aspects of theological study such as the person and work of Jesus Christ
(Christology), the nature and basis of salvation (soteriology), the person and
work of the Holy Spirit (pneumatology), human nature, the fall, and grace
(anthropology), the Church and sacraments (ecclesiology), and the last things
and Christian hope (eschatology). While all of Scripture is equally inspired,
not all of Scripture is equally inspiring. Some parts of Scripture are more
important, though not more infallible, than other parts. There are things that
the Scriptures principally teach. For example, it is more important to
understand the messages of the Gospels or Paul’s epistles, than it is the
minutiae of Levitical law. This is not to say that Levitical law is
unimportant, only that for the new Christian in particular the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus is paramount as this is principal message of Scripture.
Jesus makes this point to the Scribes and Pharisees who often focused on the
minutiae of the law or tradition and yet missed the bigger picture of justice,
mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). The Scriptures also teaches us how then we
ought to live in the light of what we have learned about God. This is the
domain of applied ethics. Modern systematic theology often separates ethics
from theology as a distinctive discipline in its own right. You will not find
expositions of the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer in many modern
systematic theologies, though it was common to include both in bodies of
divinity written by Puritan and Reformed divines. The Larger Catechism devotes
considerable space to these ethical and practical subjects concerning the moral
law and the importance of prayer. This is a reminder that theology must be
applied and lived out in experience. Orthodoxy (right doctrine) is crowned with
orthopraxy (right practice). What we learn about God and Christ must change the
way that we live and how we conduct ourselves in the world. It is for this
reason that many Puritan and Reformed writers incorporated multiple practical
uses into their sermons and writings. Yes, there was exposition of Scripture
and doctrine, but there was also a concern for practical application and the
usefulness of theology in everyday life. We are to be doers of the word, and
not hearers only (James 1:22).
6.
What
do the Scriptures make known of God? The Scriptures make known what God is, the
persons in the Godhead, his decrees, and the execution of his decrees.
The
Scriptures presuppose the existence of God. Genesis does not begin with an
attempt to prove that God exists. It simply says, ‘In the beginning, God …’
(Genesis 1:1). As we read the Scriptures, several key things are made known
about God: the being and nature of God, the persons in the Godhead, namely
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the plans God made from eternity before the
universe was created, and the carrying out of his plans by the works of
creation and providence. The Bible does not seek to present arguments for God’s
existence, it simply assumes that he exists and is sovereign over the world he
has made. The Dutch American philosopher Cornelius Van Til took up this idea of
presupposing the existence of God and used it as a method of doing Christian apologetics.
Since God stands at the back of all created reality, life, the universe, and
everything becomes intelligible and meaningful in him. ‘Suppose we make the
contrary assumption, that God does not exist – immediately the universe, human
life, our own souls, all are buried in unfathomable darkness and mystery’ (Johannes
G. Vos). God is the necessary presupposition for the intelligibility of all
human life. The contrary point of view is impossible. Metaphysics is meaningful
because God is the creator of all reality: ‘For in him we live, and move, and
have our being’ (Acts 17:28). Epistemology is intelligible because God is the
source of all knowledge and wisdom. As the psalmist says, ‘Great is our Lord,
and of great power: his understanding is infinite’ (Psalm 147:5). And ethics and
morality is significant because God is the moral lawgiver and judge of the
whole earth – ‘And shall not the judge of all the earth do right?’ (Genesis
18:25). ‘When we follow the Bible and start out by assuming the existence of
God as the Bible does, then every fact in the universe becomes an argument for
God’s existence. For there is not a single fact anywhere that can be better
explained by denying God’s existence than by assuming God’s existence’ (Johannes
G. Vos). It is for this reason that the Bible describes the atheist as being
foolish: ‘The fool hath said in his heart, “There is no God”’ (Psalm 53:1). Not
only does the atheist deny the existence of God who is the necessary
presupposition for all reality, he also lives in moral rebellion towards the
God who made him and loves him.
7.
What
is God? God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory,
blessedness, and perfection: all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable,
incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise,
most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant
in goodness and truth.
God
is a most pure and holy Spirit (John 4:24). This means that God has no body or
parts. He is not composed of matter or even God-stuff. He is purely immaterial
and spiritual. He is also infinite – limitless and endless in space, extent,
and size, even transcending our concept of space and time (Exodus 3:14; Job
11:7–9). His glory is the sum of his attributes (Acts 7:2). It is everything
that God is. The blessedness of God is his perfect contentment and happiness
within himself as Trinity (1 Timothy 6:15). His perfection means that he is
free from all possible flaws and defects (Matthew 5:48). He is complete. Whole.
Perfect. His all-sufficiency means that God needs no-one beside himself
(Genesis 17:1). He is completely satisfied with himself as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. He is eternal in the sense that he transcends time and is not
bound by the passing of moments (Psalm 90:1–2). With God, one day is as a
thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day. He is the everlasting God.
He is not subject to change and is therefore immutable (Malachi 3:6; James
1:17). He is incomprehensible and unfathomable to the human mind, and yet
personally knowable through faith in Christ Jesus (1 Kings 8:27). He is present
everywhere or omnipresent (Psalm 139: 7–10). He fills heaven and earth and
transcends the limits of spacetime. He is almighty, all-powerful, and
omnipotent (Revelation 4:8). There is nothing that he cannot do, save that
which would deny himself. He knows all things. His knowledge and wisdom are
infinite. He knows all things about himself and the universe with one simple
act of knowing. He is omniscient (Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 139:1–4; 147:5). His
knowledge is always exemplified by good sense and wisdom. He is the most wise
God, applying his knowledge perfectly in every circumstance (Romans 16:27). He
is the thrice holy God – set apart and sanctified – the Father is holy, the Son
is holy, and the Spirit is holy; these three are one God, equal in power and
glory (Isaiah 6:3; Rev. 15:4). In his sight, we are an unclean people – fallen,
finite, and sinful. Holiness is the darling attribute of God, and it is crowed
with his love and mercy (Exodus 34:6). God is merciful, kind, loving,
longsuffering, patient and abundant in goodness and truth. He himself is the
supreme standard of goodness – the ultimate expression of the True, Good, and
Beautiful. He is always just, concerned with the proper conduct of human
affairs, fair, and truthful. He is honest and faithful in all his dealings with
humankind. His is our summum bonum – our chief and highest end – our
highest and ultimate good.
8.
Are
there more Gods than one? There is but one only, the living and true God.
It
is a fundamental truth of Judeo-Christian religion that there is only one true
and living God. This is a basic tenant of what is known as monotheism. The
Shema prayer in Deuteronomy reminds us of this great truth about God: ‘Hear, O
Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD’ (6:4). The decalogue also forbids the
worship of false gods and commands us to have no other god beside YHWH (Exodus
20:3). There are several views on the existence and nature of God. Atheism is
the belief that God does not exist (for the atheist, man is the measure of all
things), while agnosticism refuses to commit to a definite answer on the
question of God. According to the agnostic, God may or may not exist.
Polytheism is the belief in multiple gods as in many eastern religions such as
Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism or belief in a pantheon of gods as with
classical Greece and Rome. Pantheism is the belief that God and the universe
are essentially the same thing. God is the universe and the universe is God. Spinoza
put it famously with the slogan Deus sive Natura (God or Nature). While panentheism
insists that though God and the universe are essentially the same, nevertheless
God transcends the world while remaining fully a part of it. Deism is the
belief that God created the world and wound up the mechanisms of the universe
as one might wind up a clock, but the clockmaker does not intervene personally
in providence, miracle, or redemption. He simply leaves the universe to
function by itself. Against all these views, theism argues that God and the
world are fundamentally distinct entities. The Reformed philosopher Cornelius
Van Til would emphasise this point to his students by drawing two circles on
the blackboard: a larger one labelled God and the other labelled the world or
cosmos. Christianity is fundamentally a two-circle religion. There is God and
there is the world. This is known in Reformed theology as the Creator-creature
distinction. God created the world out of nothing or ex nihilo in
technical Latin. The world is not part of the divine essence. God is
being itself. He is the highest reality. As Karl Barth would say, God is wholly
other. All other being is a shadow and privation of the divine. God is also the
‘true’ and ‘living God’. He is the true God in contrast with false gods and
idols, and he is the living God in that he supremely has life in himself. This
is known as the doctrine of divine aseity or the belief that God has life in
and from himself alone. The word aseity comes from the Latin words ‘a se’ or
‘aseitas’ meaning that God’s existence is derived wholly from himself and not
from any other being outside of himself. Creation is entirely dependent upon
God for its existence and being. God depends on no one. He is the fountain of
all life and created reality. ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our
being’ (Acts 17:28). The world depends on God, but God does not depend on the
world.
9.
How
many persons are there in the Godhead? There are three persons in the Godhead,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one true, eternal
God, the same in substance, equal in power and in glory; although distinguished
by their personal properties.
It
is sometimes argued by unitarians and critics of the Holy Trinity that there is
no basis in Scripture for this doctrine. The Trinity, they argue, is a later
development of patristic theology. This view is patently false. While there is
no single verse to cover everything taught by the Trinity, there are many
verses which collectively teach this doctrine – and from which we may
reasonably deduce that God is a Trinity of persons. There are some verses which
mention the names of the three divine persons together such as in the great
commission: ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’ (Matthew 28:19). Notice
that the word ‘name’ is singular, yet there are three persons mentioned:
Father, Son, and Spirit. One name, three persons. The benediction also teaches
a doctrine of the Holy Trinity: ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen’ (2
Corinthians 13:14). Notice that the grace of Christ comes before the love of
God the Father. No Jew such as the Apostle Paul would dare place the name of
Jesus before the name of God unless Jesus were fully divine and equal with the
Father and the Spirit. There are also verses which individually speak of one of
the three persons as God: The Father is God (1 Corinthians 8:6), the Son is God
(John 1:1–3, 14; 10:30; 20:28; 1 John 5:20b), and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts
5:3–4). Though there are three divine persons, yet there is only one God (1
Corinthians 8:4; Exodus 20:3). The divine persons are the same in substance and
equal in power and in glory (Matthew 11:27; Hebrews 1:1–3), despite being
distinguished by their personal properties (John 1:18; 15:26).
10. What are the personal properties of
the three persons in the Godhead? It is proper to the Father to get the Son,
and to the Son to be begotten of the Father, and to the Holy Ghost to proceed
from the Father and the Son from all eternity.
Although
there is only one true and living God, yet there are three co-equal, co-eternal
persons in the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The Father is eternally unbegotten and fount of divinity, the Son is eternally
begotten of the Father, and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and
the Son. The prologue to John’s Gospel says that the eternal Word (Jesus
Christ) was made flesh and dwelt among us. John claims to have seen his glory –
‘the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth’ (John 1:14). The most famous verse in the Bible reminds us that Jesus is
eternally begotten of the Father: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son …’ (John 3:16). While the relationship between Father
and Son is that of filiation, this would not be appropriate for the Holy Spirit
who is said to proceed from the Father and the Son by way of spiration.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says concerning the Paraclete, ‘But when the
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, which proceedeth
from the Father, he shall testify of me’ (John 15:26). Though the Spirit has
this tendency to hide himself and magnify Christ, yet he is coequal and
coeternal with God himself (Cf. Galatians 4:6). The idea that the Spirit
proceeds from the Word as much as he does from the Father is known
theologically as the filioque clause in reference to the addition of the words
‘and the Son’ to the Nicene creed. The Eastern Orthodox Church objects to this
addition and argues that the Son and the Spirit proceed eternally from the
Father only with God the Father himself being the fount or source of deity. By
insisting that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, the Western
Church was attempting to protect the deity of the Son. If the Spirit proceeded
from the Father only, this would suggest that the Son was somehow ontologically
subordinate to the Father. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church insist that
they were protecting the place of the Father as the fount of divinity thereby
preserving the divine monarchy of the Father and his role as the principal
origin of the Trinity. A compromise to this dilemma between East and West may
be found by arguing that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through
the Son, though no formal agreement has been made between the Western and
Eastern Orthodox churches. This would require a general council of bishops,
pastors, and elders of both Eastern and Western Churches including Roman
Catholics, Protestants, and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
11. How doth it appear that the Son and
the Holy Ghost are equal with the Father, ascribing unto them such names,
attributes, works, and worship, as are proper to God only.
The
prophet Isaiah describes a vison of YHWH in which the Lord God is worshipped by
angels. Isaiah records the angels as saying to one another: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy,
is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory’ (Isaiah 6:3). The Gospel
of John applies this refrain to the Lord Jesus Christ: ‘These things said
Esaias when he saw his glory, and spake of him’ (John 12:41). In other words,
Jesus Christ is the Lord of Hosts, God of Himself, equal with the Father and
the Holy Spirit. Note also the shadow of the Trinity in the declaration of God
as thrice holy: God the Father is Holy, God the Son is Holy, and God the Spirit
is Holy. Divine titles are also given to Jesus Christ in John’s first epistle:
‘And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his
Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life’ (1 John 5:20). Jesus
is both the true God and eternal life – names typically given to God alone. Similarly,
divine names are also given to the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. Ananias and
Sapphira are caught out in a lie by the Apostle Peter. Although the lie is
against the Holy Spirit, Peter says they have lied directly to God: ‘But Peter
said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and
to keep back part of the price of the land? … Thou has not lied unto men, but
unto God’ (Acts 5:3–4). In other words, lying to the Holy Spirit is the
equivalent of lying to God himself. This is because the Holy Spirit is and coequal
with God the Father and God the Son – the same in power and glory.
Divine attributes are similarly
ascribed the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Lord Christ in the
prologue of John’s Gospel is described as the Word of God, the eternal Logos,
who was with God in the beginning and is the one ‘by whom all things was made’
(John 1:1). Jesus receives the divine title of Logos and is described as the
sovereign creator of the universe – certainly a divine accolade. Isaiah
famously describes the incarnation of Christ in the following words: ‘For unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon
his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace’ – there could be no higher
title or accolade that this! Jesus is Wonderful. He is the very definition and
meaning of the concept of Wonder. He is the Counsellor and comforter of lost
souls in need of mercy and grace. He is the Mighty God, coequal and coeternal
with God himself, he is equal with the everlasting Father who has no beginning
and no end, and he is the Prince of Peace. There is divine peace in Christ
which is fully shared by each member of the Trinity and by all whom come to
faith in Christ. ‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall
keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:7). Similarly
divine attributes are attributed to the Holy Spirit – particularly omniscience
and wisdom. Paul says that the Spirit of God ‘searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God’ (1 Corinthians 2:10–11). Not only does the Spirit of God
search all of creation, he also searches the deep things of God. He is
expressly named ‘the Spirit of God’ for this reason.
Not only does the Lord Christ share the
names and attributes of God, he also shares in the divine works of creation and
redemption. Jesus Christ is clearly described by the Apostle Paul as the
creator of heaven and earth: ‘For by him were all things created, things that
are in heaven, and things that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were
created by him, and for him’ (Colossians 1:16). He is also the source of our
redemption: ‘In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace’ (Ephesians 1:7). His name is Jesus
because he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). In other words,
Jesus Christ is both creator and redeemer – titles typically attributed to God
himself. The same can be said of the Holy Spirit who was present at the
beginning with God in the work of creation. ‘And the earth was without form,
and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters’ (Genesis 1:2). The Spirit was present to
energise the work of creation. Nothing was made without his almighty power as
he brooded over the dark and formless waters of created reality. The Lord
Christ and the Spirit are also worshipped as God and received into the worship
and liturgy of the Church in the baptismal formula (Matthew 28:19) and the
benediction (2 Corinthians 13:14). Worship should be ascribed to God alone. If
the Scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are the objects
of worship, then they are plainly teaching us that both are coequal and coeternal
with God himself.
12. What are the decrees of God? God’s
decrees are the wise, free, and holy acts of the counsel of his will, whereby
from all eternity, he hath, for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained
whatsoever comes to pass in time, especially concerning angels and men.
One
of the most important passages of Scripture on the doctrine of divine
predestination is found in the book of Ephesians. Here Paul argues that we
receive all our salvific blessings from the Father in Christ from eternity. He
argues that we were chosen in Christ ‘before the foundation of the world’ and
that we were predestined unto the ‘adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will’ (Ephesians 1:4–5). Paul
also argues that we have obtained an eternal inheritance in Christ, ‘being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will’ (v. 11). Paul also makes a similar case for the
doctrine of predestination in Romans chapters eight and nine: ‘For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,
that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified:
and whom he justified, them he also glorified’ (Romans 8:29–30). Divine
foreknowledge contains within itself the idea of being foreloved by God. When
the Scriptures speak of knowing God and God knowing us, it is a reference to
his and our love for one another. Those whom God foreloved, he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. This verse leads to a
golden chain of salvific blessings culminating in glorification. The foundation
of all these blessings – calling, justification, glorification – is the
electing love of God and his purpose of predestination. If you want to
understand why God chose you and called you, consider his great love for
sinners which stands at the back of the purpose of predestination.
Paul reminds us in the following
chapter that our election is not according to our works or efforts: ‘For the
children [Jacob and Esau] being not yet born, neither having done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works,
but of him that calleth’ (Romans 9:11). Election is not based on foreknowledge
of our works – whether good or evil – but upon the eternal purpose of God. Some
God chooses according to his mercy and grace, others he eternally condemns
according to his perfect justice. ‘As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated’ (v. 13). Those whom God loves; he elects to eternal life.
Those whom God hates; he condemns to eternal misery. It comes down to his
sovereign choice of some to life and blessedness, and others to misery and
condemnation for sin. ‘For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion’ (v. 15).
The decision to show mercy and compassion to lost humanity rests ultimately
with God alone and is not based on foreseen faith, works, or human merits of
any kind. ‘So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that sheweth mercy’ (v. 16). Human will or exertion contributes nothing
to our salvation, it is all a work of sovereign grace and mercy to lost
humanity. Some hearts he softens and effectually draws to faith Christ, others
as with Pharoah during the Exodus he hardens to the overtures of grace and
warnings of judgement. ‘Therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy,
and whom he will he hardeneth’ (v. 18). It is God’s sovereign right to show
mercy to whom he wills and to pass by and harden the hearts of those who have
sinned against his infinite majesty. This is known as the doctrine of double
predestination. God chooses some freely to everlasting life [election], and
others he condemns to eternal perdition for their sins [reprobation]. God would
be under no obligation to save anyone. The fact that he does is a testimony to
his mercy and grace. He would be perfectly just should he condemn all humanity
to eternal perdition, and yet he choses to save countless multitudes by his
grace. Paul describes God as being like a potter moulding clay. He has a right
to do with the pots as he pleases – to make one for honour and another for
dishonour. Paul poses a question for his readers to ponder: ‘What if God,
willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction [his purpose of
reprobation]: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory [his purpose of
election]?’ (vv. 22–23). God is patient with the vessels prepared for
destruction [the reprobate] because he has a purpose in mind to save his elect
[the vessels prepared for glory] through the unfolding ages of history. His
grace and mercy are made known in the purpose of election, while his justice
and wrath are glorified in the purpose of reprobation. Nothing in
predestination makes God the author of sin (see Romans 9:14–14, 18). Human
beings are always the proximate cause of sin, though God ultimately controls
all things according to his perfect wisdom and righteousness. What wicked men
intend for evil; God intends for our ultimate good. As Jacob famously said to
his brothers, ‘But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it
unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive’
(Genesis 50:20). God sovereignly permits human sin in order that he may bring
about his higher purpose of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore,
we worship God not only as Creator, but as Redeemer and Father through Jesus
Christ.
13. What hath God especially decreed
concerning angels and men? God, by an eternal and immutable decree, out of his
mere love, for the praise of his glorious grace, to be manifested in due time,
hath elected some angels to glory, and in Christ, hath chosen some men to
eternal life, and the means thereof: and also, according to his sovereign
power, and the unsearchable counsel of his own will (whereby he extendeth or
withholdeth favour as he pleaseth, hath passed by and foreordained the rest to
dishonour and wrath, to be for their sin inflicted, to the praise of the glory
of his justice.
God’s
eternal decree is immutable or unchangeable. The reason God elected some angels
and men was owing to his mere love and not to any merit, worth, or foreseen
faith in those elected. The decree of election was designed to magnify the
grace and mercy of God. He has chosen some angels to perseverance in holiness
and glory and some men and women in Christ to eternal life. The rest he has
passed by, foreordaining them to dishonour and wrath for their sins to the
praise of his glorious justice. Paul describes some angels as being elect or
chosen in his first letter to Timothy (5:21). The elect angels would persevere
in holiness and obedience to God even when Satan and a multitude of wicked
angels would rebel and sin against a Holy God. This was not owing to any merit
in the elect angels, but because God loved them and desired that they should
remain faithful. There are several passages which describe how men and women
have been chosen to eternal life in Christ including Ephesians 1:4–6 which we
have already considered under the previous question. Paul also considers the
doctrine of election in Thessalonians 2:13–14: ‘But we are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ’. God has chosen a certain number of men and women from the
beginning to salvation and through the ordained means of sanctification (growth
in holiness) and belief of the truth (faith) concerning Jesus Christ. The rest
of humanity God has chosen to pass by and condemn for their rebellion and sin
(Romans 9:17–18, 21–22; Matthew 11:25–26; 2 Timothy 2:20; Jude 4; 1 Peter 2:8).
God has chosen to condemn some according to his sovereign power and to the
praise of his infinite justice. Some may object that this seems unfair, but
fairness would require God to condemn all human posterity descending from Adam
– to be for their sin inflicted. It is God’s sovereign grace and mercy that
intervene in the plight of man and save countless multitudes to eternal life. God
has also ordained the means whereby a person is saved. In other words, he has
ordained that they should hear the gospel, repent of sin, believe in Christ,
and be baptised.
14. How doth God execute his decrees? God
executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence according to his
infallible foreknowledge, and the free immutable counsel of his own will.
This
question divides the execution of God’s decrees into two great parts: creation
and providence. God does all things in creation and providence according to his
infallible foreknowledge – that is his perfect knowledge of everything that
comes to pass in creation and the unfolding of time. His decisions are made
according to the free (unconstrained) and immutable (unchangeable) counsel of
his own will. In other words, nothing the creature can do can thwart or frustrate
the eternal plans of God. They belong to his free sovereign choice and the
counsel of his own will. In other words, what God decides to happen will most
certainly and infallibly take place. There is not a rouge atom in this vast
universe outside of the sovereign control of the almighty God.
15. What is the work of creation? The work
of creation is that wherein God did in the beginning, by the word of his power,
make of nothing the world, and all things therein, for himself, within the
space of six days, and all very good.
The
opening words of the Bible remind us that God is creator of all things visible
and invisible: ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’ (Genesis
1:1). Theologians argue that God created all reality out of nothing or ex
nihilo in the technical Latin. The writer to the Hebrews argues that the
universe was not made of preexisting materials: ‘Through faith we understand
that the world was framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear’ (Hebrews 11:3). In Genesis, we read
that God spoke light into being, he created the firmament, he separated the
earth from the waters, and made the earth fruitful, and he created the sun,
moon, stars, fish, foul, beasts, cattle, and finally man in the image and
likeness of God himself. Everything God made was originally ‘very good’ and
without sin, defect, or corruption (Genesis 1:31). Many of these aspects of
creation were worshipped as idols by the pagan nations surrounding Israel. The sun,
the moon, the stars, and animals were all subjects of worship in the
surrounding cultures such as among the Egyptians and Babylonians. Genesis
reminds us that God alone is sovereign creator of all these things and that he
alone should be worshipped and adored. Creation has no power or life apart from
God. According to the book of Proverbs, God has made ‘all things for himself:
yea, even the wicked for the day of evil’ (Proverbs 16:4). Nothing, not even
the wicked (fallen men and angels), fall outside of his sovereign work of
creation. All things are made for his pleasure and delight out of sheer love
and grace to humanity: ‘Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour
and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and
were created’ (Revelation 4:11). God does not need the world for his own
pleasure since he is infinitely satisfied within himself as the Triune God, he
does however delight in the work of his hands and take pleasure in his
creation, supremely in mankind whom he made after the image and likeness of a
Holy God. Creation is the outpouring of divine love to humanity.
The doctrine of creation is not
threatened by the science of evolution. Evolution simply describes the process
of ‘change over time’ following the initial work of creation by the process of
natural selection in the animal world. It says nothing about origins as some
creation scientists wrongly assume. This would be the science of abiogenesis
rather than evolution. Archbishop Usher famously made elaborate calculations
based on the chronology and genealogies of the Bible to determine that the
earth is about 6,000 years old – even dating the work of creation to about 4004
BC. This is unacceptable in the light of modern science which determines the
world to be approximately 4.50 billion years old. Some fundamentalist
Christians known as Young Earth Creationists (YEC) argue that this view of
earth’s antiquity is incompatible with the Bible’s teaching that the earth was
created in six literal days. This view assumes that the days of creation
represent literal twenty-four-hour days. The problem with this view is that the
sun by which we measure days, times, and seasons, was not created until the
fourth day. Before this period, there was no such thing as a twenty-four-hour
day. This suggests that the Genesis account should not be taken literally. Many
point to the poetic structure of Genesis one, the parallelisms in the text, and
the framework hypothesis to argue that it should be read as poetry rather than
history. Notice the framework in the following diagram between the respective
days of creation:
|
Day 1: Light |
Day 4: Luminaries |
|
Day 2: Sky and Water |
Day 5: Birds and Fish |
|
Day 3: Land and vegetation |
Day 6: Land animals and humankind |
Many
orthodox students of the Bible are now Old Earth Creationists (OEC) and hold
that the word day (yom) is sometimes used to express a long period of
time: one day is said to be with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). In other words, God does not measure time after
the same manner as human beings. This view of an old earth would also give
space for the adaptation and evolution of species over time according to God’s
providence. Although undiscernible to us from the perspective of modern science,
the process of evolution is actually governed and guided by the hidden hand of
divine providence. This view is known as theistic evolution or sometimes as
evolutionary creationism.
16. How did God create angels? God created
all the angels spirits, immortal, holy, excelling in knowledge, mighty in
power, to execute his commandments, and to praise his name, yet subject to
change.
The
word ‘angel’ simply means ‘messenger’ or ‘one who is sent by God’. All the
angels were created by God ‘whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him’
(Colossians 1:16). Angels are described in Scripture as ministering spirits created
by God ‘who maketh his angels as spirits; his ministers a flaming fire’ (Psalm
104:4; cf. Hebrews 1:7). The angels were originally created to keep God’s
commandments and do his bidding: ‘Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength,
that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word’ (Psalm 103:20).
The writer to the Hebrews reminds us of the essential dignity of the Son of God
by whom God has revealed himself in the last days. He shows also his
pre-eminence above the angels in office as God’s eternally begotten Son. There
is an ontological distinction between the angels and the Son of God. Angels are
God’s creatures and were created at a particular time in history; Jesus Christ
is himself the Son of God and eternally begotten of the Father. He is God of
God and Light of Light. He has always existed from the beginning with God as
Trinity, whereas the angels were created at some point in spacetime. Hebrews describes the angels as ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation
(Hebrews 1:14). The angels who sinned with Satan at their head were liable to
fall and were condemned for their rebellion to eternal misery. God did not
spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down into hell, and delivered them
into chains of darkness, to be reserved to the day of judgement (2 Peter 2:4). Jude
reminds us of the terrible fate faced by the angels who fell into sin: ‘And the
angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he
hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the
great day’ (Jude 6). Reprobate humankind and the angels await an eternal fire,
a place of blackest darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth,
where the worm never dies, and the fire never goes out. Jesus warns us that he
will say to the reprobate: ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels’’ (Matthew 25:41). The angels are also
ontologically separate from humanity. They exist as pure spirits whereas human
beings are a psychosomatic unity of body and soul. Sometimes the angels
appeared to take human form in the Bible, but this was only a temporary form so
they could minister directly to human beings. They usually take the form of
pure invisible spirits who worship and serve the Creator who is forever
blessed. Covenant children of God are assigned a host of angels to watch over
and protect them. Jesus says, ‘Take heed that ye despise not one of these
little ones; for I say unto you, ‘That in heaven their angels do always behold
the face of my Father which is in heaven’’ (Matthew 18:10). It is not clear if
this means we each have a guardian angel as the Roman Catholic Church teaches,
but it is sufficiently clear that covenant children are protected by hosts of
God’s angels who minister before his face.
17. After God had made all other
creatures, he created man male and female; formed the body of the man of the
dust of the ground, and the woman of the rib of the man, endued them with
living, reasonable, and immortal souls; made them after his own image, in
knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; having the law of God written in their
hearts, and power to fulfil it, with dominion over the creatures; yet subject
to fall.
In
terms of biological sex, God originally created human beings as either male or
female: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him; male and female created he them’ (Genesis 1:27). This is not to deny
authentic struggles many have with their gender identity or with the medical
condition of gender dysphoria. Some people feel a mismatch between their
biological sex and their gender identity and may wish to transition. Such folk
should be loved and accepted into the family of God’s people, and not demonised
as currently happens in many fundamentalist and evangelical circles. Adam’s
body was originally made of dust: ‘And the LORD God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul’ (Genesis 2:7). Carbon is the second most abundant element in the
human body – some 18% in terms of total mass percent – and is second only to
oxygen which comes in at 65%. We are made of dust and return to the dust of the
ground when we die (Genesis 3:19). According to the Genesis account, Eve was
made from one of Adam’s ribs suggesting her equality with Adam (Genesis 2:22):
‘That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his
head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out
of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his
heart to be beloved’ (Matthew Henry). The Genesis account also tells us that
Adam became ‘a living soul’ (Genesis 2:7b). This not only reminds us that Adam
is a creature with breath in his lungs, but also with an immortal soul. When we
die, our soul returns to God who gave it: ‘Then shall the dust return to the
earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it’
(Ecclesiastes 12:7). Jesus reminds us that we should not only fear those who
can only kill the body, but rather we should fear God who is able to destroy
both body and soul in hell (Matthew 10:28). Human beings are a psychosomatic
unity of body and soul. Although the soul can technically exist without the
body (as in the intermediate state described as paradise in Luke 23:43), it is
actually designed to exist within the body. The souls of the departed will be
reunited with the body at the resurrection. The Genesis account also reminds us
that human beings were originally created after the image and likeness of a
Holy God. This does not refer so much to the body (as God has no body or parts)
but to the rational and affective soul which God housed inside the body. God’s
image includes true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Paul suggests we
attain true knowledge when we put on the new man ‘which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him’ (Colossians 3:10). The divine image in
man also consists in righteousness and holiness as Paul argues in Ephesians,
‘And ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness’ (Ephesians 4:24). These aspects of the divine image (true
knowledge, righteousness, and holiness) were lost during the fall and only a
shattered postlapsarian image remains in humankind. Some theologians suggest
that our dominion over lesser creatures is also an aspect of the divine image (Genesis
1:26; Psalm 8:6–8) – God has entrusted us with stewardship of the world and
care for all his creatures. Christians should lead the world in their concern
for the care of creation and confront the problems caused by humanmade climate
change and pollution. Human beings were also created with the moral law of God
written in their hearts and were able to distinguish between right and wrong: ‘For
when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the
work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another’
(Romans 2:14–15). A sense of right and wrong is impressed upon every human
being no matter how corrupt they become, and their conscience means that all
actions are done ‘with knowledge’ of the difference between right and wrong. God
originally made humankind morally upright with the power to fulfil God’s law:
‘Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have
sought out many inventions’ (Ecclesiastes 7:29). The fall ruined man’s ability
to keep the law of God and enslaved his mind and heart to sin. Though humankind
was originally created in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness,
nonetheless human beings were created with a liability to fall into sin and
temptation. This happened when Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil and fell into the darkness of sin and rebellion
toward God (Genesis 3:6; Romans 5:12). Thomas Boston identifies four states
which human beings transition through in the process of redemption: the original
state of perfection, the fallen state in rebellion and sin, the state of grace
by the Redeemer, and the eternal state of glory for the Christian and misery
for the reprobate.
18. What are God’s works of providence?
God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and
governing all his creatures; ordering them and all their actions, to his own
glory.
The
word providence means to ‘foresee’ and ‘attend to’ something. It refers to the
protective care of God for the world and all his creatures, especially humanity.
There is not a single rogue atom in this vast universe outside of the sovereign
protective care of God. Deism denies this teaching and argues that God is no
longer involved in creation by way of miracle, providence, and redemption. The
God of the Bible however is intimately involved with his creation and the
affairs of humankind. The catechism identifies a few characteristics of God’s
providence. It is most holy, most wise, and most powerful. As the psalmist
says, ‘The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works’ (Psalm
145:17). Everything the Lord God does is just, righteous, holy, and fair. He
does nothing contrary to his own holiness and the ethical purity of his being. God’s
providence is also most wise. As the psalmist says, ‘O LORD, how manifold are
thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches’
(Psalm 104:24; cf. Isaiah 28:29). Every application of divine omniscience in
the world comes with divine wisdom. God makes no foolish decisions. Everything
he does, by the very fact that he does it, must be considered most wise. God’s
providence is also powerful and effective. God the Son is said by the writer to
the Hebrews to uphold ‘all things by the word of his power’ (Hebrews 1:3). He
merely speaks a word, and the universe is effectually upheld at his command.
The Lord Jesus says that God’s providential care comes down to the smallest of
details, even to the care of sparrows and the number of hairs upon our heads –
not one sparrow can fall to the ground without the will of our heavenly Father
(Matthew 10:29). Jesus goes onto say that the ‘very hairs of your head are numbered’
(Matthew 10:30). If God considers such small details, to the very hairs on our head,
how much more does he love and value human beings who are made after his image
and likeness: ‘Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows’
(Matthew 10:31). The design of providence is to return all glory and honour to
God himself: ‘For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom
be glory for ever. Amen’ (Romans 11:36). Everything that happens comes ultimately from
God, it is mediated through him and sustained by his mighty power, and it returns
with glorious dividends to him for all eternity.
19. What is God’s providence towards the
angels? God by his providence permitted some of the angels, wilfully and
irrecoverably, to fall into sin and deamination, limiting and order that, and
all their sins, to his own glory; and established the rest in holiness and
happiness; employing them all, at his pleasure, in the administrations of his
power, mercy, and justice.
God
allowed some angels to rebel against him and fall into a state of transgression
and sin. They did not keep their first estate of glory, but left their proper
habitation, and were condemned to everlasting chains in blackest darkness to
await the day of judgement (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4). Unlike with human posterity,
God did not provide a way of salvation for the fallen angels. Jesus Christ did
not take to himself the nature of angels, but that of human posterity in the
seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16). Christ came as a man to save humankind, and not
as an angel. Satan, also known as the devil, is the father of lies, untruthful,
and murderous. This reminds us that the fallen angels are themselves liars,
mistrustful, and murderers. ‘He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it’ (John 8:44). Satan’s
power, and that of the fallen angels, is a limited power and restrained by God
sovereignty. For example, though Satan appears before Job, falsely accused him,
and gained permission to tempt him, he could do no more than what God’s
almighty hand would allow (Job 1:12). The devil was on a leash and could do
nothing without divine permission. The elect angels who remains faithful were
kept in a state of holiness and happiness in Mount Sion, the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22). The elect angels are God’s
servants and messengers – they swiftly carry out his will and purpose in heaven
and on earth (Psalms 104:4). They are described as God’s ‘ministering spirits’
who are sent out to minister to those who will be heirs of salvation (Hebrews
1:14). Christ is ontologically superior to the angels in every way as the Son
of God (Hebrews 1: 4–6). As Vos reminds us, ‘Christ is higher than the angels,
for they are only God’s servants, whereas Christ is God’s Son. When Christ came
into the world, the angels worshipped him, indicating that he is higher than
they. The angels are created beings; Christ is their divine Creator’ (Johannes
G. Vos).
20. What was the providence of God toward
man in the estate in which he was created? The providence of God toward man in
the estate in which was created, was the placing him in paradise, appointing
him to dress it, giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of the earth; putting
the creatures under his dominion, and ordaining marriage for his help;
affording him communion with himself; instituting the Sabbath; entering into a
covenant of life with him, upon condition of personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience,
of which the tree of life was a pledge; and forbidding to eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.
The
Lord God placed Adam in paradise – a beautiful garden Eastward in Eden which he
was expected to care for and enjoy (Genesis 2:8). While aspects of the story of
paradise may be mythical (such as a talking snake who walked on all fours), it
nonetheless contains important theological truths which are certainly real and
important to understand and believe as Christians. Adam was expected to dress
and keep the garden as God’s steward and caretaker: ‘And the LORD God took the
man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the
LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat …’ (Genesis 2:15–16). Adam was free to partake of the fruit of every
tree save that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God blessed our first
parents and commanded them to be fruitful, and to replenish the earth, and
subdue it. God gave Adam dominion over all the creatures in creation – ‘over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth’ (Genesis 1:28). Adam served as a Prophet, Priest, and King in
the garden of Eden and unbeknownst to him as a type of the Messiah who would
come to redeem humanity. As a prophet, Adam was to instruct Eve in the
commandments God had given them to be fruitful and multiply, to have dominion
over the creatures, and to avoid the tree of knowledge on pain of death. Adam
was also to lead family worship and instruction in divinity as a priest and he
was rule the earth, subdue it, and govern all creatures as a king. Marriage was
originally ordained by God and Eve was specially created as a helpmeet for Adam
and an assistant in all his labours: ‘And the LORD God said, It is not good
that the man should be alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him’ (Genesis
2:18). God originally enjoyed sweet communion with humankind. He blessed their
relationship and even walked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the
day (Genesis 1:28; 3:8). The Sabbath, God’s special day of rest, was instituted
in Eden: ‘And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in
it he had rested from all his work which God created and made’ (Genesis 2:3).
In modern capitalist society, the Sabbath is quite a radical idea of rest from
a world that highly prioritises work and energy. God says we must rest from our
labours and set apart time to glorify him. The Christian Sabbath falls on a
Sunday since this is the day on which Christ rose from the dead. This means
that we rest from our labours on the Sabbath, we glorify God as our creator,
and we purposefully worship and serve our Risen Saviour at least once a week.
The covenant of life, also known
as the covenant of works, was first instituted in the garden of Eden. This
covenant says, ‘Do this, and live’: ‘For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them’
(Romans 10:5). If Adam had obeyed the commandment of God to refrain from eating
from the tree of knowledge, he would have attainted eternal life and felicity
with God. The condition of the covenant of works was perfect and perpetual
obedience to God’s commands. God commanded Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). The tree of
knowledge was a test of Adam’s obedience – would he obey God and gain eternal
life, or would he attempt to live autonomously without reference to God and in
rebellion to his commandments? It was a pure test of obedience. If Adam and Eve
had obeyed God, then they would have lived forever in a state of grace. The
covenant was probationary meaning that God would have observed humankind’s
obedience and awarded them with a state of grace and righteousness for their
faithfulness to his commandment. We are not told how long Adam and Eve lived in
paradise before they committed their sins – it could have been several years.
Genesis 5:3 says that Adam was 130 years when Seth was born. He may have lived
in Eden for some considerable time before Seth was born. The penalty for
disobedience to the covenant of works was death. This included both physical
death and spiritual death. Adam’s body would eventually die and would decay in
the ground to dust. It also included alienation from God and eternal death in
the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his fallen angels. This is known in
Scripture as ‘the second death’ and as a place of burning and torment called
‘Gehenna’ by Jesus Christ. We do not view such Scriptures literally in terms of
fire and brimstone; they merely suggest that hell is a place of eternal misery
and separation from God, a place of blackest darkness where there is weeping
and gnashing of teeth. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge were both placed
in the middle of the Garden according to Genesis 2:9. Adam was forbidden to eat
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden
according to Genesis: ‘But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die’ (Genesis 2:17). This was the warning humankind was given against falling
into sin. If Adam disobeyed, he would die. If he obeyed God, he would partake
of the tree of life and live forever with the Lord God. The future of humanity
seemed to balance upon a knife’s edge.
21. Did man continue in that estate
wherein God at first created him? Our first parents being left to the freedom
of their own will, through the temptation of Satan, transgressed the
commandment of God in eating the forbidden fruit; and thereby fell from the
estate of innocency wherein they were created.
The
historical account of the fall of humanity into sin is found in chapter three
of Genesis. The serpent (a symbol for the devil) deceives Eve (see 2
Corinthians 11:3). Adam, following Eve’s temptation, also falls into sin. God
calls his children to account for their sin and they make excuses. God
pronounces a curse upon the earth and particularly on the serpent, and his
overthrow by the seed of the woman is foretold in the protoevangelium in which
a Redeemer would come to crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). God clothes
the nakedness of Adam and Eve – an act of atonement for their sin which
probably involved a sacrifice on God’s part. Adam and Eve were cursed, expelled
from the garden, and doomed to die physical death, though God spares them as
his elect children from eternal punishment. The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds
us that God originally created humankind in a morally upright condition: ‘Lo,
this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought
out many inventions’ (Ecclesiastes 7:29). In other words, lost humanity has
sought out many ways to disobey and disbelieve God. Paul reminds us in Romans
that sin came into the world through the transgression of Adam: ‘Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned …’ (Romans 5:12). While Adam may not
have been the first actual human being, he was certainly the first human in a
covenantal or federal relationship with God. He represented all humanity as a
public person. When Adam fell, humanity fell. In other words, sin and death
came upon all humanity because of Adam’s original sin, but the grace of God
which justifies sinners to everlasting life comes more abundantly to lost
humanity through the Redeemer Christ Jesus. Under the law sin and death
abounded, but under Christ grace has much more abounded unto eternal life. Christ
was a second Adam. He came to undo the work of the first Adam and bring about
an eternal redemption for lost humanity. The reason why Paul argues that sin
came through Adam rather than Eve who was first to actually sin is because Eve
was deceived by Satan in the form of a serpent, but Adam sinned without being
deceived in the full knowledge of what he was doing: ‘And Adam was not
deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression’ (1 Timothy
2:14). God sovereignly permitted Adam and Eve to fall into transgression and sin.
Since the fall humanity has been enslaved to sin. We are sinners both by nature
and by choice. Humanity because of Adam exists in a fallen state. Our first
parents lost communion with God. They became afraid of God and hid themselves
and their nakedness in the garden. Their consciences told them that they had
sinned. How exactly did Adam who was created with true knowledge,
righteousness, and holiness actually fall into sin? This is a question that has
puzzled theologians for hundreds of years. Suffice to say, the origin of sin is
a mystery. The most we can say is that sin originated in the angelic world with
Satan at the head and subsequently spread to humanity through the temptation of
Satan. God sovereignly permitted sin to enter the world that thereby he might
bring about the higher purpose of redemption so that we would not merely
worship him as Creator, but also as our Father and Redeemer. It is difficult to
say whether the fall relates an historical or mythical account. Some aspects
seem historical, while others seem mythical. It may perhaps be best to view the
fall as a theological myth. The significance is not so much the history as it
is the theology of the account. The point of Genesis three being that humankind
fell into sin at some point in our prehistoric past.
22. Did all mankind fall in that first
transgression? The covenant being made with Adam as a public person, not for
himself only, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by
ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in that first
transgression.
There
is a threefold doctrine of imputation in Scripture: Adam’s sin was imputed to
his posterity; our sin was imputed to Christ on the cross; and Christ’s
righteousness is imputed to those who repent of their sins and believe in his
name. When Paul preached in Athens, he argued that God ‘has made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth’ (Acts 17:26).
This is the concept of the organic unity of the human race and the idea that we
all descend from the same family. We are all ‘of one blood’. Essentially, we
are all the children of Adam and Eve. While the account in Genesis may not be
considered historical by some critics, modern science has nonetheless confirmed
the basic fact that we all descend from Mitochondrial Eve who existed some
200,000 years ago. She was not the first human being, but her genetic code is
the point from which all modern humans descend. This is an important fact for
combating racism. Simply because folk may look different, sound different, or
have a different colour skin to us, they have often been the subject of racism
and xenophobia. However, the account in Genesis reminds us that there is only
one race – namely, the human race – to which we all belong by ordinary
generation from Adam and Eve. However different we may look and sound to each
other; we are all fundamentally human beings and should treat each other with
dignity and respect. There should be no place for racism or xenophobia within
the church and modern human society. We are all Eve’s children.
Adam was constituted by God as the
original representative of humanity – a federal or covenantal head. Much like a
politician may represent his constituency, so Adam represented all human
posterity. Sin and death came into the world by Adam’s transgression. This sin
was reckoned by God as belonging to all humanity since Adam was a public
person. Death spread to all humanity because of Adam’s sin. However, a second
Adam had been chosen by God the Father to represent lost humanity – namely,
Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. If death came through Adam, then
life, grace, and peace came through Jesus Christ. He came to undo the work of the
first Adam and put the world right again by his love and mercy. ‘For as by one
man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous’ (Romans 5:19). Adam brought sin and death; Christ
brought grace and peace. When Adam fell, we all fell with him. When Christ rose
again from the dead, humanity rose with him to everlasting life. ‘For since by
man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Corinthians 15:21–22).
23. Into what estate did the fall bring
mankind? The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
According
to the apostle Paul, death is the consequence of sin: ‘Wherefore, as by one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned …’ (Romans 5:12). Sin came into the world by Adam and
death is the result of his sin not only for himself, but also for all posterity
descending from him by ordinary generation. We have all sinned in Adam and
without a Redeemer we die in Adam. Paul argues that ‘the wages of sin is death;
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans
6:23). We deserve death because of sin. We have earned it fully both by nature
and by choice. But salvation is a free gift of grace from God. It comes to us
through the undeserved mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sinfulness is
universal in humankind and there is none without sin (save Jesus Christ). Paul
says in Romans, ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God’
(Romans 3:23). Sin in this sense is an archery term. It means we miss God’s
target. We come short of his glory. This is true of every human being – save
Jesus Christ himself. The consequences for sin were severe (See Genesis
3:17–19). Since Adam listened to his wife Eve and partook of the forbidden
fruit, God cursed the ground for Adam’s sake and said that Adam would eat the
fruit of the ground in sorrow all the days of his life. Thorns and thistles
would also multiply, and Adam would eat the herb of the field by the sweat of
his brow rather than the fruit of the garden of Eden. This is not to say that
thorns and thistles did not exist until this point as some creation scientists
maintain, only that they would multiply in the fields that Adam tilled and
prepared for growing food. Adam would physically sweat in the process of making
bread until he himself returned to ground. Since he was made of dust, God would
return his body to the dust of the ground. He would die and face the judgement
of a holy God. These consequences for sin are known collectively as the curse and
highlight the fact that man’s relationship with God was broken and that he
would no longer enjoy communion and fellowship with God in the garden of Eden. Paul
says, ‘For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now’ (Romans 8:22). This pain is certainly seen in modern day destruction
of the natural environment, manmade climate change, and pollution. Christians
are called to be stewards of God’s world, and to care for the creation he has
given us. Sadly, our relationship with God and creation is broken by the fall
and will not be fully restored until the resurrection and return of Christ. The
Lord God drove humankind out of the garden and placed at the East of Eden Cherubims
(winged angelic beings) and a flaming sword which turned everyway, to keep the
way barred to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). Adam was shut out by God and
condemned for his sin.
24. What is sin? Sin is any want of
conformity unto, or transgression of any law of God, given as a rule to the
reasonable creature.
Sin is defined by Scripture as
transgression of the moral law of God: ‘Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law’ (1 John 3:4). Sin is
characterised by a selfish and self-centred autonomy which disregards the moral
law of God. In the simplest terms, sin is breaking God’s law in thought, word,
and deed. It is a kind of antinomianism – a position which sets itself up in
opposition to the laws, commandments, and statues of God. It consists not only
in positive transgression but also is lack of conformity to God’s law. Sin is
both doing things that we shouldn’t do and not doing the things we should be
doing. Paul makes this point in his letter to the Galatians: ‘For as many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of
the law to do them’ (Galatians 3:10). Similarly, James says, ‘Therefore to him
that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin’ (James 4:17). We
are sinners both by nature and by choice. That means that we inherit the guilt
and corruption of Adam and that we freely choose to sin against God. The
purpose of the moral law of God is to reveal the sin in our hearts and lives.
As Paul says to the Romans, ‘Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no
flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin’
(Romans 3:20). Calvin describes the moral law of God as a kind of mirror or
looking-glass in which we behold the spot and stains of sin upon our faces. The
law has an evangelical function to reveal sin and drive us to Christ for mercy.
It is the needle with which we sew the silken thread of the Gospel. The
principal commandments by which we are judged are those known as the Decalogue
or Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1 – 17) and the two greatest commandments urged
upon us by Christ: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 22:37–39).
Christian perfectionism as in the Wesleyan tradition denies the Biblical
picture of sin as both guilt and corruption. It reduces sin to ‘voluntary
transgression of a known law’. However, the Bible has a much more comprehensive
definition of sin as a form of guilt and corruption inherited from the original
sin of Adam which his is inherent in his posterity also as want of conformity
to God’s requirements in the moral law.
25. Wherein consists the sinfulness of
that estate whereinto man fell? The sinfulness of that estate wherein man fell,
consisteth in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of that righteousness
wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly
indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and
wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually; which is commonly called
original sin, and from which do proceed as actual transgressions.
The
guilt of Adam’s transgression in the Garden of Eden was imputed or reckoned as
belonging to all his posterity. As Paul argues in his letter to the Romans,
‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned … For as by one man’s
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous’ (Romans 5:12, 19). Sin came into the world by Adam’s first
transgression and death was the consequence of his sin. Death has come upon all
humankind because all have sinned in Adam. There is no-one without sin and
therefore everyone is subject to the penalty of death. We all dies because we
are sinners. By Adam’s disobedience human posterity was made sinful, but by the
obedience of Christ many will be made right with God. The apostle Paul, drawing
on the arguments of the Psalms and the Prophets, argues that everyone is
sinful. ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’ (Romans 3:10). Nobody is right
with God by nature. We are all at enmity with him. There is no-one who
understands God, no one who seeks after God. No-one that does God. And there is
no fear of God before their eyes (See Romans 3:10–19). In other words,
everybody is guilty before a Holy God. The moral law of God condemns us all. Paul
concludes with this point in mind: ‘Now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God’ (v. 19). That is final nail in
the coffin of our condemnation. We clasp our hands over our mouths and cry
‘guilty, guilty, guilty’. According to the apostle Paul, we are dead in
trespasses and sins. The believer is regenerated by God’s grace and in a very
real sense is brought back to life from the dead: ‘And you hath he quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we
all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the mind; and were by nature children of wrath, even as the
others’ (Ephesians 2:1–3). Not only were we dead, but we were children of
disobedience. Our conversation was with the wicked. We were children of wrath
like the rest of mankind. There must be a transition from wrath to grace in
true evangelical conversion. Even the elect were once great sinners in need of
mercy. It does us preciously little good to point out the sins of others if we
have not considered our own. Pointing out the speck in our brother’s eye is
futile if we do not recognise the plank in our own (Matthew 7:3).
The natural human being is at enmity
with God as Paul teaches: ‘Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for
it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that
are in the flesh cannot please God’ (Romans 8:7–8). By nature, we cannot please
God. Everything we do is tainted with sin. Not only are we sinful in our
actions and words, but also in our thoughts and imaginations. Before the great
flood of Noah, the wickedness of the world had infected the human mind and
imagination: ‘And GOD save that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually’ (Genesis 6:5). Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and with
his family was spared from judgement, but God brought down his wrath on the
rest of humankind. The story of the flood which is likely a myth nonetheless
teaches an important theological truth: God takes sins seriously. Our own
lusts, not God, tempt us to sin. James reminds us of this in his address to the
dispersed Jews: ‘Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is
tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth
death’ (James 1:13–15). In other words, original sin is the source of actual
transgressions. We can never pin the blame for our sinfulness on God. He is
pure and holy, but our hearts are corrupted by lust. Jesus reminds us that the
heart is the source of our transgressions: ‘For out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
These are the things which defile a man …’ (Matthew15:19–20a). This is known as
the doctrine of total depravity in Reformed theology. This is not to say that
every sinner is as bad as he can possibly be, only that sin is total in the
sense that it has impacted every aspect of our being: heart, mind, will, and
affections. Human hearts are rotten hearts. Sinners are capable of relative or
non-redemptive good by God’s common grace in the world, but no-one can merit
salvation, or preform spiritual and salvific good. Human beings are dead to God
in trespasses and sins. There is no spiritual life in lost humankind. Only God
can remedy the plight of the sinner and regenerate his dead and lifeless heart.
Our sinful deeds are the work of a corrupt and sinful heart.
26. Original sin is conveyed from our
first parents unto their posterity by natural generation, so as all that
proceed from them in that way are conceived and born in sin.
The
British monk and theologian Pelagius who lived in the fourth century after
Christ denied that we are born with a sinful nature. He argued that human
beings are born with a blank slate and only learn to sin by imitating the bad
behaviour of others. Saint Augustine championed the orthodox doctrine of
original sin by arguing that infants need to be baptised because they are born
sinful. He also built his case from the clear teaching of Scripture on this
subject. David reminds us that we are all conceived and born in a sinful
condition: ‘Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive
me’ (Psalm 51:5). The book of Job reminds us of a similar truth. If our parents
were sinful, their children will also be sinful: ‘Who can bring a clean thing
out of an unclean? Not one’ (Job 14:4). You cannot bring clean children from
corrupt parents. ‘What is man, that he should be clean? And he which is born of
a woman, that he should be righteous?’ (Job 15:14). Only a new birth or
regeneration by the Spirit of God can bring a new nature to humankind: ‘That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again’ (John 3:6–7). The new
birth gives us a new heart with new desires. It infuses life, grace, and peace
into the human soul. It takes away the filth of depravity and gives a new
operative principle of love to God and humankind. Though baptism does not necessarily
cause regeneration in the soul, it is nonetheless the sign and seal of a new
nature and new life. It is an effective means of grace and symbolises the
washing of the soul with the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is why Saint
Augustine argued that, on Pelagius’s point of view, it would be meaningless to
baptise infants, since they are born clean in his eyes. Infant baptism only
makes sense if children are born with sin in their hearts and need to be washed
by the grace of the Holy Spirit. We baptise children because they are sinful by
nature. ‘Natural generation produces only sinful human nature; the new birth
produces a new nature’ (Johannes G. Vos). The sin of Adam is not inherited by
way of sexual reproduction as Saint Augustine mistakenly thought, but federally
by way of covenantal representation. Adam sin is imputed to his posterity or
reckoned as belonging to those descending from him. We do not inherit Adam’s
guilt in the same way as we inherit genetic material such as hair colour or eye
colour, but by way of representation in the same way as we might inherit a
fortune or a property from our parents or grandparents.
27. What misery did the fall bring upon
mankind? The fall brought upon mankind the loss of communion with God, his
displeasure and curse; so as we are by nature children of wrath, bond slaves to
Satan, and justly liable to all punishments in this world, and that which is to
come.
The
fall of Adam into sin and transgression resulted in a separation between God
and man. The Lord God came looking for Adam in the Garden and called out to him.
Adam replied, ‘I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked; and I hid myself’ (Genesis 3:10). Here Adam who was originally created
to enjoy fellowship with God is now afraid to meet his maker and is ashamed of
his nakedness. The consequences of the fall were serious. Adam was driven out
of paradise by God: ‘So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden
of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way
of the tree of life’ (Genesis 3:24). The way to eternal life and felicity was
blocked and Adam was separated from sweet communion with the Lord God. The
apostle Paul reminds the Ephesians of their former corruption: ‘Wherein in time
past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and
were by nature children of wrath, even as others’ (Ephesians 2:2–3). Prior to
evangelical conversion, we were worldly folk under the governance of Satan who
is called the prince of the power of the air. He is the corrupt and evil
angelic spirit who works in the hearts of the children of disobedience who live
in rebellion toward God. Our conversation and way of life embraced such folk.
We were great sinners in thought, word, and deed. We gave priority to the flesh
– our fallen sinful nature. We thought not of the Being of beings, but only of
the lusts of the body and material things. We were children of wrath by nature,
under the sovereign judgement of a holy God. We were enslaved to sin and to the
corruption of the flesh – fulfilling the most depraved desires of the mind.
The consequence of sin in this
life is death. This was made clear by God’s commandment to Adam in the garden
of Eden: ‘But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat
of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die’ (Genesis
2:17). Of course, showed grace to Adam and Eve and did not immediately demand
their lives. He allowed them to live for many years after their disobedience
and to father many children. He allows such common grace to all sinners in this
life – an allotment of undeserved time on this earth. However, God will
eventually claim our lives and return our bodies to the dust of the earth as he
promised Adam. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that it is appointed to
human beings to die once for sin, and then face the judgement of a holy God (Hebrews
9:27). In his epistle to the Romans Paul reminds us that ‘the wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’
(Romans 6:23). The end of sin is death, but the fruit of holiness through God’s
grace is eternal life and felicity with God. Adam brought death upon us all; Christ
brings eternal life. There are also consequences for sin after we have died –
eternal consequences. Jesus shall say to the reprobate on the left hand,
‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels’ (Matthew 25:41). Hell is described in Scripture as a place of
blackest darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, where the worm
never dies, and the fire never goes out. The reprobate will be cast into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous to life eternal (Matthew 25:46). The ultimate
consequence of sin apart from the saving grace of Christ is eternal misery and
separation from the loving presence of a holy God.
28. What are the punishments of sin in
this world? The punishments of sin in this world are either inward, as
blindness of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart,
horror of conscience, and vile affections; or outward, as the curse of God upon
the creatures for our sakes, and all other evils that befall us in our bodies,
names, estates, relations, and employments; together with death itself.
The
Gentiles who lived apart from Christ are described by the apostle Paul as
having a blindness of heart and mind as a punishment for sin (Ephesians 4:18). Their
understanding is darkened by sin and their minds clouded by vanity. They are
alienated from the life of God, ignorant of Christ, and spiritually blind to
the good news of the gospel. They are dead in trespasses and sins. Paul
describes this state as being given over to ‘a reprobate mind’ by God as a
punishment for sin (Romans 1:28). The reprobate are eternally separated from
God. They can never be saved or partake of the divine nature. They are cursed
by God from eternity to eternal misery. They will suffer eternal torment for
their sins. Paul says something similar concerning the reprobate in his second
letter to the Thessalonians: ‘And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie’ (2 Thessalonians 2:11). Strong
delusions are sent by God as a punishment for sin. The more you sin, the
greater the delusions become, until your heart is so hardened that it is
totally beyond redemption. You are more ready to believe lies, than the
everlasting truth of the Gospel. Paul describes the reprobate as treasuring up
wrath with the hardness of an impenitent heart for the day of wrath and the
revelation of the righteous judgement of God (Romans 2:5). The sinner, as it
were, is storing up treasures of wrath for the day of day of judgement when
God’s righteous anger will be revealed against the reprobate sinner. Isaiah
speaks of God’s righteous judgements against sinners in Zion who experience
what the catechism describes as ‘horrors of conscience’: ‘The sinners in Zion
are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell
with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?’
(Isaiah 33:14). Cain famously said to God, ‘My punishment is greater than I can
bear’ (Genesis 4:13). His fear of divine punishment was greater than his fear
of sinning against God. This is often the way with the reprobate. They may fear
hell, but they do not fear sin. Judas experienced such horror of conscience
before the chief priests and elders saying, ‘I have betrayed the innocent
blood’ (Matthew 27:13). It was too late for Judas. He died by suicide. With
horrors of conscience, reprobate sinners are also given over to ‘vile
affections’ by God as a punishment for their sins (Romans 1:26). Our affections
should be holy and turned toward God, but in the heart of the reprobate they
are given over to vile passions and sins. God punishes sin by allowing the
reprobate sinner to descend deeper and deeper into depravity. The sinner is
effectually storing up wrath for the day of judgement. Not only is the sinner
himself cursed by God, but so is his environment. God says to Adam after the
fall, ‘Cursed in the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all
the days of thy life’ (Genesis 3:17). This present world is under a curse which
explains all calamities, sufferings, and evils we face from our environment
(Deuteronomy 28:15–68). The ultimate consequence of sin in this life is the
ubiquitous presence of death. ‘What fruit had ye then in those things whereof
ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death … For the wages of sin
is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’
(Romans 6:21, 23). The fruit of sin is death. Death is described as something
we have earned. Death is the wages of sin. No one will be able to say on
the day of judgement that their punishment is unfair. God will simply be giving
out justice and due penalty for sin which is death – eternal death and
everlasting separation from the beneficent presence of God.
29. What are the punishments of sin in the
world to come? The punishments of sin in the world to come, are everlasting
separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in
soul and body, without intermission, in hellfire forever.
Eternal
perdition is a doctrine of holy Scripture. There is a place of eternal misery
and separation from God, a place of blackest darkness where there is weeping
and gnashing of teeth. It is called Gehenna or hell by the Lord Jesus – a place
of rejection and burning. Hell is described as a place of fire and brimstone in
Scripture, though we do not take such images literally. Whatever may be the
nature of hell, it is a terrible place with torments beyond our imaginations.
The Bible describes hell as a place of separation from the beneficent presence
of God. Pauls says that sinners ‘shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power’ (2 Thessalonians
1:9). The Lord Jesus describes hell as a place ‘where their worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched’ (Mark 9:43–48). In other words, it is a place of
eternal conscious torment of both body and soul – the worm being those
creatures that devour the body in the grave, and the fire being a symbol of
divine judgement upon sin. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich
man who finds himself in hell asks that Lazarus may dip the tip of his finger
in water and cool his tongue for he was tormented in a flame (Luke 16:24).
While we should not take such parables too literally, whatever hellfire may be,
it is a terrible place in which to find yourself.
The book of Revelation describes the
torments of hell as taking place in the presence of the holy angels and under
the judgement of the Lamb of God. The wicked are to drink the wine of the cup
of wrath of God without admixture: ‘If any man worship the beast and his image,
and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of
the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup
of his indignation with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up
for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast
and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name’ (Revelation 14:9–11).
Those who worship the beast are eternally reprobate sinners. They are those who
would rather believe and side with the devil than with the Lord Jesus. The sign
of their disbelief is symbolically engraved on their foreheads and hands. They
will drink the cup of the wine of the wrath of God without admixture – a cup of
fire and brimstone. Brimstone is an old word for sulphur. If you have ever
smelt burning sulphur, you will know it creates a terrible stench and a foul
taste in the mouth! This punishment is not temporal as some annihilationist
teachings suggest, but eternal and without intermission. The smoke of their
torment will rise for ever and ever. In other words, it will rise eternally.
There will be no rest, no intermission, no respite. Those who worship the beast
are those who worship anything but the true and living God such as false idols,
money, sex, fame, and power. Hell is reserved for such people. Jesus says it is
better to mortify the body than sacrifice the soul eternally to hell. We should
quite literally ‘cut off’ and ‘pluck out’ our sins, lest they drag us down to
eternal bodily torment (Matthew 5:29–20). If heaven is eternal, then hell must
be eternal. The Lord Jesus teaches this doctrine quite clearly in Matthew’s
gospel: ‘And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous
to life eternal’ (Matthew 25:46). If heaven is eternal bliss for the righteous,
then hell is eternal misery for the sinner. If we deny that hell is eternal,
then we also deny the words of Christ that felicity and life are eternal for
the elect. In the original Greek, the word ‘everlasting’ and ‘eternal’ are the
same word. For a point of clarity, the ESV offers the most correct translation
of this verse: ‘And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life’ (Matthew 25:46). While it may be contended
that as God is a loving God, he would not condemn sinners to eternal conscious
torment as both universalism and annihilationism teach; it must also be
remembered that God is both just and holy and therefore cannot pass by our
sinfulness. The sins of the elect were punished in Christ upon the cross who
drank to the dregs the cup of God’s righteous indignation toward sin. He drank
this cup for the purpose of saving the elect only. The reprobate must drink
this cup for themselves eternally in hell.
30. Doth God leave all mankind to perish
in the estate of sin and misery? God doth not leave all men to perish in the
estate of sin and misery, into which they fell by the breach of the first
covenant, commonly called the Covenant of Works; but of his mere love and mercy
delivereth his elect out of it, and bringeth them into an estate of salvation
by the second covenant, commonly called the covenant of grace.
The
covenant of works, sometimes referred to as a covenant of life, is so named
because by it humankind would have originally gained eternal life by works of
obedience to God. Since the fall of humanity into sin and depravity, this has
become impossible. We all inherit the guilt and corruption of Adam and even our
best works are tainted by sin. God has chosen to redeem elect humanity from
this fallen estate by a second covenant – a covenant of grace. He chooses out
of his mere love and mercy to save some part of humanity for his own glory. He
was in no obligation to save anybody. The fact that he chooses to save some is
a witness to his grace and underserved favour. God would have been perfectly
justified if he had chosen to condemn all humanity to everlasting misery. It is
grace that he chose to save some and bring them to eternal felicity. God has
appointed his elect to obtain salvation by the redeemer Jesus Christ: ‘For God
hath not appointed is to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus
Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 5:9). The covenant of life was broken, and humanity
resided under the curse of a broken law. Paul pictures our situation in his
letter to the Galatians: ‘For as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
things which are written in the book of the law to do them’ (Galatians 3:10). It
was impossible that such a broken law could ever justify sinners. Justification
is by faith, and not by works of the law. Only one person has ever fulfilled
the obligations of the law of God entirely. That person is Jesus Christ. It was
necessary that God should send the Lord Christ as a mediator – one who would
bear the curse himself in his own body on the cross: ‘Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree’ (Galatians 3:14). Christ suffered the
penalty due to our sin in his body and mind upon the cross. He was cursed by
God for our sakes. Upon the cross, our sin was imputed to Christ and reckoned
by God as belonging to him. Christ’s righteousness and perfect obedience to the
law of God was imputed to us and received by faith alone. This is the doctrine
of double imputation.
The covenant of grace comes to us
from the merciful heart of God. It was after the kindness and love of God that
our Saviour appeared for the redemption of lost humanity. ‘Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by
the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on
us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life’ (Titus
3:4–7). Christians are saved from the sins by God’s mercy through Jesus Christ.
Our salvation is not based upon our personal merit, works, or performance. It
is according to God’s mercy in the work of regeneration. This is the doctrine
of the new birth. God washes us with the grace of the Holy Spirit. He renews us
to a state of grace and implants the Holy Spirit in our hearts – even as Adam
once enjoyed the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit in his heart. This washing
– by the waters of baptism and the grace of the Holy Spirit – is shed upon us
abundantly through Jesus Christ who saves us from sin, death, and hell.
Justification is by God’s unmerited and underserved favour. We become heirs of
God, co-heirs with Jesus Christ, and inheritors of life eternal. This is the
Christian hope. The Christian may be a pessimist about the present, but he is an
optimist regarding the future. Our hope is eschatological and kept in heaven
for us. Salvation is impossible under the covenant of works. ‘Therefore, by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law
is the knowledge of sin’ (Romans 3:20). The law reveals sin. It is like a
mirror or looking glass in which we behold the spots and stains of sin upon our
faces. The only way of salvation is to get out of the covenant of works and
into the covenant of grace. As Paul says in Romans, ‘But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested … Even the righteousness of God which is
by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe’ (Romans 3:
21–22). The way to life eternal is no longer by works of the law, but by faith
in Jesus Christ and his covenant of grace towards us. Belief or faith is the
key word. We receive the righteousness of Christ by believing on him and
trusting in him. Luther called this the doctrine of justification by faith
alone – justificatio sola fide.
31. With whom was the Covenant of Grace
made? The Covenant of Grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him
with all the elect as his seed.
Adam
represented humanity in the covenant of works. When Adam fell into sin and
broke the conditions of the covenant of works, humanity sinned in him and fell
with him. Jesus Christ is called a ‘second Adam’ because in the covenant of
grace, he takes the place of Adam in representing sinners of lost humanity. Not
all receive representation by Christ in the covenant of grace, since the Father
chose a certain number of elect persons whom he would save by this covenant.
Jesus very clearly says in John 17:9, ‘I pray for them: I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine’. Christ’s
intercession or mediation is for the elect only and not for all humanity
generally. If Christ had represented the whole human race in the covenant of
grace, then all humanity without exception would have been saved. The Bible
actually teaches that Christ represented a certain number of elect persons whom
he would infallibly save by the covenant of grace. He does not merely give
humanity the possibility of being saved, but the certainty of it by his
intercession and mediation. He died to save, and not merely to make men
saveable. ‘Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from
their sins’ (Matthew 1:21). The covenant of grace, though revealed after the
covenant of works, was actually prior to this covenant both logically and
historically. It was made in eternity before the creation of the world between
the Father and the Son as Paul teaches in Ephesians chapter one: ‘According as
he hath chosen us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before him in love’ (v. 4). The covenant of
grace was revealed to lost humanity after Adam had broken the first covenant of
works and was declared in the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 where God
promised that the seed of the woman [i.e. Christ] would destroy the serpent,
namely Satan and his kingdom of darkness. The covenant of grace was made with
Abraham’s seed in Christ: ‘Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which
is Christ’ (Galatians 3:16). Ultimately, the covenant was made between the
Father and the Son in eternity and realised historically in Jesus Christ as the
second Adam. Though through the offence of Adam, many have died and perished in
sin. Yet through the obedience of Christ, many have been saved to righteousness
and life eternal. The grace of Christ has abounded to many and brought life
eternal to God’s elect. Paul makes this argument in Romans chapter five: ‘For
if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive
abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one,
Jesus Christ … For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous’ (Romans 5:17, 19). Notice
how Paul compares Adam with Christ. Adam was a great failure and has brought
death to many; Christ is a greater Redeemer and has brought life and peace to
his elect people. Adam’s offence condemned all humanity in transgression and
sin; Christ’s grace abounds to many overflowing to life eternal. ‘Where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound’ (v. 20b). Though sin has reigned unto
death through Adam, yet grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life by
the mediator Jesus Christ (v. 21). As sin and death came upon all men because
of Adam’s transgression, so the grace of God which justifies to life eternal
has come more abundantly to humankind through the person and work of Jesus Christ,
the second Adam.
32. How is the grace of God manifested in
the second covenant? The grace of God is manifested in the second covenant, in
that he freely provideth and offereth to sinners a Mediator, and life and
salvation by him; and requiring faith as
the condition to interest them in him, promiseth and giveth his Holy Spirit to
all his elect, to work in them that faith, with all other saving graces; and to
enable them unto all holy obedience, as the evidence of truth of their faith
and thankfulness of God, and as the way which he hath appointed them to
salvation.
The
Lord God promised Adam that a redeemer and mediator would come to rescue fallen
humanity. This promise is known as the protoevangelium in theological circles:
‘And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between her thy seed and
her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel’ (Genesis 3:15).
The protoevangelium is sometimes known as the ‘first gospel’ as it is the first
mention of the good news of salvation by a redeemer announced in Scripture. It
comes as a rebuke to the serpent who is set at enmity with humanity. There is
an antithesis between the elect (her seed) and the reprobate (the serpent’s
seed). The promise is that the redeemer will crush the head of the serpent but
would receive a wound to his heel in the process of redemption. This took place
at the cross where Jesus Christ died. He defeated sin, death, and hell. He
crushed the head of the serpent. But he was wounded for our sakes and died a
real death from the venom of the serpent. He could not stay dead however because
of the dignity of his person as the eternal Son of God. On the third day he
rose again and showed himself victorious over the devil and his seed. The
promise of eternal life is given in the Son of God: ‘And this is the record,
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that
hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life’ (1
John 5:11–12). The devil brought suffering and death; Christ brings life and
peace. The condition of the covenant of grace is faith in Christ for eternal
life. The most famous verse in the Bible teaches this concept: ‘For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16). The source of
salvation is the eternal love of God for a fallen world. From this love, God
gave his Son. He gave him to die upon a cross. Whoever believes in the Son has
eternal life, and whoever does not believe is condemned already. Adoption into
the family of God is conditional upon faith or reception of Christ: ‘But as
many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name’ (John 1:12). One must receive Christ by faith in
order to be adopted in the family of God and a covenantal relationship with the
Holy Trinity.
While the condition of the
covenant is faith, the promises are fellowship with the Holy Spirit. God is
said to ‘pour out’ the Holy Spirit upon God’s elect (Proverbs 1:23). Faith
itself is a gift of the Holy Spirit and a work of grace in the heart. ‘The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law’ (Galatians 5:22–23).
Notice how faith is included as one of
the graces given by the Holy Spirit. Faith is not something born of the free
will of fallen humanity but is a gift from the Spirit of God. ‘For by grace are
ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not
of works, lest any man should boast’ (Ephesians 2:8–9). Salvation is by grace alone (sola gratia)
through faith alone (sola fide) in Christ alone (solus Christus).
Good works, though not the condition of salvation, are the evidence of the Holy
Spirit in the believer. If there is no evidence of sanctification, there is no
grace of salvation. The Lord God says, ‘I will put my spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statues, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them’
(Ezekiel 36:27). The Holy Spirit enables the believer to trust and obey God.
Such good works are, according to James, the evidence of true faith. James
famously argues that faith without works is dead (See James 2:1–26). A purely
cerebral faith never saved anybody. There must be a changed life. True faith is
always living and active. Though we are justified by faith alone as the
Reformers taught, yet such faith is never alone as it is always accompanied by
good works. Our faith according to James is vindicated or justified by our good
works. There is no contradiction between Paul and James on this matter. The faith
which Paul commends is not the faith which James condemns. Paul commends a
living faith; James condemns a dead faith. Good works in the believer have been
ordained from eternity: ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them’
(Ephesians 2:10). Believers are encouraged to evidence their faith and
thankfulness to God by their good works, rather than merely making a bare
profession of faith without the requisite obedience to God.
33. Was the Covenant of Grace always administered
after one and the same manner? The Covenant of Grace was not always
administered after the same manner, but the administrations of it under the Old
Testament were different from those under the New.
The covenant of grace had been ordained by God from eternity as the solution of the fall of humanity and the breaking of the covenant of works. It was God’s redemptive purpose from eternity to save a people for his own glory by the mediator Christ Jesus – this elect people includes both Jews and Gentiles who collectively make up the church. The covenant of grace was realised historically when God enacted the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15. While the covenant of works remains in force today in that unsaved sinners are under the curse of a broken covenant, it is no longer a viable means of salvation since fallen humanity can no longer fulfil its conditions of perfect and perpetual obedience. The covenant of grace is the way and means of salvation under both the Old and New Testaments. The Mosaic law was given in the context of grace and God’s redemption of the Hebrews from the hand of Pharaoh (Exodus 20:2). It is a rule of life and holiness for those under covenant of grace. No one can attain life and felicity by obedience to the covenant of works since we are all tainted with the guilt and corruption of Adam. The way of salvation and eternal felicity is through the covenant of grace and the redeemer of God’s elect: Jesus Christ. Old Testaments saints were saved by grace through faith in the Messiah Jesus Christ. They were saved by looking forward to the coming of Christ, while today we are saved by looking backward to the finished work of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. It is a common error today to assume that Old Testament Jews were saved by obedience to law, while New Testament Christians are saved by grace. Dispensational theology makes a false division between Israel and the church and argues that God’s ways of redemption varied under different dispensations. The church according to this view is a parenthesis in the plan of God. However, according to Johannes G. Vos, ‘The catechism teaches the unity of the Old Testament and the New Testament in the one covenant of grace. According to the catechism, since Adam’s fall there has been only one way of salvation, and that has been by the covenant of grace. It is entirely wrong and harmful to set the Old Testament and the New Testament over against each other as if they taught different ways of salvation. The truth in that both Testaments teach one and the same way of salvation’. There has only ever been one way of salvation under the various dispensations of Scripture since the fall: by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This is true for both Jew and Christians. God does not have a separate purpose for Israel and the church. He has one plan, one people, and one way of salvation and that is by Jesus Christ.
References and Recommended Reading
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Ridgeley,
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Johannes G., and G. I. Williamson (ed.), The Westminster Larger Catechism: A
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G. I., The Westminster Confession of Faith: For Study Classes
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