Walking Through Westminster, WCF 2.1

Westminster Confession of Faith 2.1

"There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal, most just, and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty."

Summary

         Although there are many things that are wrongly called “gods”, yet in truth there is only one being who deserves the title of God and rightly bears it: the Triune Jehovah (1 Cor 8:6). Every other so-called “god” is either a figment of man’s imagination, or is a demonic spirit who wrongly attempts to steal the title; a deceiver who tricks sinful, foolish men to worship them, rather than the one, true God. It is not the case that every heathen worships nothing; there may be some substance behind the idols, but every other god is just that: an idol; something that makes promises which it cannot keep, and which cannot even sustain its own life. The distinction is found in what follows in the section.

The true God is infinite in His being and perfection. He is not some tribal deity, nor is He confined to a particular geographic locale, as pagans wrongly suppose. Rather, He is the infinitely perfect, infinitely present God. In His substance, He is a spirit, invisible. He is not contained within a physical body, as some early believers wrongly supposed and as Mormons wrongly believe. He is immutable (unchangeable), meaning that He is not changed or altered by time, space, or experience. He is immense, so much so that He is actually incomprehensible. There is an important difference between God being comprehensible and apprehensible. God is not comprehensible, meaning that no other being can understand Him fully. But He is apprehensible, meaning that other beings can grasp Him, or lay hold on Him by faith. We cannot now and never will or could understand everything about God; only God can fully understand Himself. However, we can understand some things about God, insofar as He reveals them to us.

God is defined as being “most” of several things: most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, most loving. He is “most” at these things because He is these things. It is not the case that there is a scale of wisdom apart from God, and that He just happens to be at the top of the scale. He is wisdom. Wisdom is defined by His own nature. The same with holiness, freedom, absoluteness, and love. He is holiness. He is freedom. He is absolute. He is love. God isn’t just better at these things than we are, He is these things. Because of this truth about God, we know that He must work all things together, and that He must do so for good reasons, because goodness is defined by His own nature. He works all things together for His own glory, but also for the good of His people, which is why the section recounts how God’s greatness is also expressed in His love. Unlike the false idol of Mohammed and his followers, the true God is not only sovereign and immense and powerful and perfect, but He is also loving, gracious, merciful, longsuffering. He doesn’t merely possess goodness and truth, He abounds in goodness and truth. There is more goodness and truth in God than we would ever know what to do with. His greatness is expressed in His forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet, again unlike Mohammed’s false god, the true God doesn’t extend forgiveness arbitrarily. Rather, God’s greatness is seen in His sovereign, eternal plan to come in the nature of men and die for their sins, so that God might be just and the justifier of all who seek Him in Christ (Rom 3:25-26). 

But to all those who sinfully refuse to seek Him in Christ, God will not extend forgiveness, but rather righteous and terrible judgments. God must do this if He is to be just, and He longs to do it because He hates all sin. God has to judge sin. He has to punish wickedness. If He didn’t, He would cease to be just, and not be in accord with His own nature, which is impossible. It is not a question of whether or not God will judge sin. The question is whether God has already judged your sins in Christ, or whether you will stubbornly refuse to be in Christ and bear the judgment for your sins alone. In case we had any doubts or suspicions, the section ends with the guarantee that God will by no means clear the guilty, meaning extend arbitrary forgiveness without the shedding of blood. Men who dare to hope in arbitrary forgiveness from God outside the shed blood of Jesus are hoping in a falsehood and further damning themselves to eternal condemnation.

+ Blessings in Christ +