Walking Through Westminster, WCF 14.1-3 "Of Saving Faith"

 Westminster Confession of Faith 14.1-3

I. The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also, and by the administration of the sacraments, and prayer, it is increased and strengthened.

II. By this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.

III. This faith is different in degrees, weak or strong; may often and many ways assailed, and weakened, but gets the victory: growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance, through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith.

Summary

Faith is a grace; a gift given by God. True faith is not something conjured up by us in our hearts, but something that God the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of His elect people. It is the responsibility of the believer to exercise that God-given faith, but the faith itself is from God. This faith is normally given by the Spirit through the ministry of the Word, particularly the preaching of the Bible. Additionally, this saving faith is strengthened and increased through the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. This is not to say that saving faith is only ever wrought through these means, but that these are the channels the Spirit normally uses to work saving faith in a believer's heart. The Lord may, of course, work in unordinary ways to produce saving faith. For example, John the Baptist expressed faith in Christ when he was still in his mother Elizabeth's womb.

This saving faith leads the Christian to believe everything that the Bible says. The Christian acknowledges all of the Bible to be true because it is God speaking therein. Based on God's supreme authority, the Christian submits even his own mind to the truths of Scripture. The Christian does not submit to the Bible because of the authority of the Church, the pope in Rome, the opinion of critical scholars in high academia, nor even because their own reason tells them to. Rather, the Christian submits to every part of God's word because of the authority of God Himself. 

This does not mean that a Christian never wrestles with believing the Bible, nor does it mean that they believe what every human teacher might say about the Bible, but it does mean that the Christian believes everything in the Bible in the way it is meant to be believed. This is what it means to "act differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains". We yield obedience to the commands of Scripture; we tremble at the threatenings of Scripture; we embrace the promises given to us in Scripture. We accept the histories as history. We embrace the miraculous events portrayed in narratives as real and true. We embrace the metaphors of the psalmists in describing the character of God. We take the Bible as it is presented to us, and in no other way than that.

All that being said, the ultimate significance of saving faith is not found in our relationship to the Bible, but to the God who reveals Himself in and through the Bible. The chief significance of saving faith is found in what we will do with Jesus. Real, living faith must lead the believer to accept, receive, and rest upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. Those three theological terms and statements cover the entirety of human life; from the moment we are reconciled to God all the way into eternity. So another way of saying it is to say that saving faith looks to Christ alone for everything that we need for all of our life. Saving faith looks to no other source for anything that we need, for all our needs are met by God the Father through Jesus, His Son.

Saving faith is the same in every believer in its object (Christ), its source (the Holy Spirit), and its ultimate end (victory and eternal life). But saving faith differs among individual Christians in its strength and conflict. Some Christians have weaker faith than others; some have stronger faith than others. Some Christian's faith is attacked in one way; some are attacked in wholly different ways. Some Christians have faith that leads to a full assurance of their salvation; others struggle all their life with finding full assurance. But Christ is the author of every Christian's faith, and He is the one who will ultimately finish it in each of us, bringing it to full fruition in heaven. 

When people board a plane, some folks are totally confident in flying; others only have enough confidence to get them on board and in their seat. While their levels of faith and assurance may vary, the success of the flight does not truly depend on their individual levels of confidence, but on the skills and training of the pilot. If God has given you saving faith in Jesus, then it ultimately depends on Him to bring you to your eternal home. Your faith may weaken or falter, but God has promised and He is faithful to fulfill what He has sworn.

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Walking Through Westminster, WCF 13.1-3 "Of Sanctification"

Westminster Confession of Faith 13. 1-3

I. They, who are once effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart, and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them: the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified; and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

II. This sanctification is throughout, in the whole man; yet imperfect in this life, there abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part; whence arises a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

III. In which war, although the remaining corruption, for a time, may much prevail; yet, through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part does overcome; and so, the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

 Summary

All those whom God has chosen, called, and regenerated, He will also sanctify. The word "sanctify" means "to set apart" or "to make holy". So God determines to not only call His people and regenerate them, but He does these things in order to make them holy. It is important to note that God is the one doing the sanctifying. Sanctification is not where God abandons His people to their own devices. It is not as though God justifies a person, makes them born again, and then leaves them to figure out the rest on their own. Rather, the work is all of God, from beginning to end.

What does it look like to be sanctified? First, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed. This means that the dominion of sin over the human soul is undone. Mankind in his fallen state is under a yoke of bondage, unable and unwilling to do anything but sin. But when God calls us to Himself, that yoke of bondage is destroyed in such a way that we become able and willing to not sin. This happens instantaneously, the moment that the sinner is converted. While this does not destroy all sin within the human soul, the power of those lusts are weakened and put to death with time as the Christian walks in grace and the Spirit's power. The Christian becomes stronger and stronger in true holiness, and weaker and weaker in sin. 

While the Christian may make more or less progress in their pursuit of holiness, they will always remain imperfect in this life. Remnants of sin's corruption will continue in every part of the person (the mind, body, will, etc.) The continued existence of these remnants of sin, combined with the Spirit's presence in the soul of the Christian, leads to an irreconcilable conflict in the soul of the Christian. Paul describes this conflict in Romans 7, which is worth your personal reading. Paul says therein, "For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I want to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do." The Christian now has the desire and the ability to do good, but the remnant of sin within us means that we do not always do what we know we should; we still sin, as our lusts resist the Spirit and the Spirit within us wars against our lusts. 

In this irreconcilable conflict, the Christian has ups and downs, wins and losses. The reality is that a Christian may be, for a time, overcome by their lusts and the power of sin still within them. A Christian may, for a time, backslide into old sinful habits or practices. They may even appear to have given up on Christ completely. But if God has called them, He has promised to never give them up. If they are truly God's children, He will always call them back, no matter how long He may allow them to stray.

The English reformer, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, jailed and under punishment of death, recanted all of his Reformed beliefs and confessed his teachings as sin. By all accounts, he had returned to the church of Rome as a corrected son, and had given up on true Bible religion. But Mary was determined to see him burn, in spite of his recantations. On the day he was to die, Cranmer stood in front of University Church at St. Mary's to issue a full, public recantation of his teachings. Instead, he recanted of his recantations, declaring all of them invalid and reasserting his belief in the Bible. Although it seemed Cranmer had totally backslidden, yet in his dying day, he returned to the true faith of Christ and admirably embraced the martyr's death that God had put before him, and entered into glory.

This reality should give us both caution and hope. Caution, that we not dismiss everyone who backslides as a hopeless unbeliever. When someone goes astray it is easy to be cynical and lose hope for them. But God would teach us through examples like Cranmer that, until death, no one is truly beyond the hope of returning to Christ. Even if we are the guilty party, and we are wholly uninterested in the things of God, and wonder if we are even Christians anymore, we can still hold out hope for ourselves that God will, in due time, restore us to the joy of salvation and not cast us off.

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Walking Through Westminster, WCF 12.1 "Of Adoption"

Westminster Confession of Faith 12.1

All those that are justified, God vouchsafes, in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have His name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a Father: yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption; and inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.

Summary

What did Jesus come to do? One very adequate answer is that He came to die for our sins (1 John 2:2). In line with last chapter, WCF 11, we know that He came to justify us before God the Father. But He doesn't just do that. His work of reconciling us to God does more. We are not simply reconciled as servants or creatures or image-bearers, but we are reconciled as sons and daughters of God. He adopts us into His family and we become His children. 

In one sense, everyone who has ever lived has been God's child, in the sense that He is their Creator and they are His creatures. They even all bear His image. But when God adopts believers into His family, He does so through Jesus. That is, the believer is viewed as a child of God in the way that the Father views Jesus as His Son. That unique relationship that the Father and Son have always had for all eternity is what the believer enters into. They are able to cry to God, "Abba, Father". We don't think of this much, but consider that no angel in heaven calls God their Father. In fact, the author of Hebrews makes clear that God's relationship with the angels is one of a Ruler and His servants (Heb 1:5-7). The believer experiences a relationship with God unlike any other creature, even unbelieving humans. The love that God had for His Son from eternity past is the love that is poured out on the believer in Christ, as we are called sons and daughters of the Father; fellow heirs with Christ of eternal life and everlasting glory. 

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Walking Through Westminster, WCF 11.1-6 "Of Justification"

Westminster Confession of Faith 11.1-6

I. Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifies; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.

II. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love.

III. Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real and full satisfaction to His Father's justice in their behalf. Yet, in as much as He was given by the Father for them; and His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead; and both, freely, not for any thing in them; their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice, and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.

IV. God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect, and Christ did, in the fullness of time, die for their sins, and rise again for their justification: nevertheless, they are not justified, until the Holy Spirit does, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them.

V. God does continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified; and although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God's fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance.

VI. The justification of believers under the Old Testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the New Testament.

 

Summary

 

The chosen people of God are not only called, but also justified by God. Justification means that God pardons their sins and accounts them as righteous in His sight. It does not mean that they actually are righteous; they are sinners. But God counts them as righteous for the sake of Christ alone. This righteousness is given to them as a free gift, laid hold of by faith alone, which is itself a gift of God. Faith alone is the instrument whereby the elect lay hold of Christ's righteousness and are justified by God. But that faith which justifies them is a living faith, not dead, and it is a faith which produces the fruit of the Spirit in them, working through love. This is how we reconcile the apparent contradiction between Paul and James:

 

"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law...but to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness". (Romans 3:28; 4:5)

 

"You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." (James 2:24)

 

Paul is speaking of what it is that justifies a person before God: faith alone, and not works. James is speaking of what sort of faith it is that justifies a person: not a faith that is dead and alone, but a living faith which always produces good works. Justification by faith alone means justification by living faith alone; dead faith has never and will never justify anyone before God. 

 

Christ paid the penalty for His people in full, discharging their debt to the Father. But inasmuch as He was freely given by the Father in love, and not because His people deserved it, the satisfaction He provided is still gracious. In this way, God demonstrates His exact justice in the substitutionary punishment of His Son, and He demonstrates His rich grace in giving His Son freely for sinners. "...that God might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:26b)

 

Once God has justified a sinner, He never rescinds on it. He invented the principle of double jeopardy. Once God has dealt with His peoples' sins in the death and resurrection of Jesus, He never brings them up again. Another way to say this is that those whom God justifies can never become unjustified again. However, as His children, the elect can fall under God's fatherly displeasure. Their sins may lead God to hide His face from them for a time of chastisement, much as our earthly fathers may punish us for a time when we transgress or disobey them. But His fatherly mercy will always win out and He is quick to forgive. When we humble ourselves, confess our sins, and renew our repentance, God restores us to His favor again. 

In the contrast between Paul and James (above), it is interesting that they both use Abraham as their example. Abraham, the spiritual father of all believers, is the prime Biblical example of faith in God. Abraham, and all Old Testament believers, were justified in the same way that New Testament believers are justified: faith in Jesus Christ alone. In Hebrews 11, the apostle goes through a laundry list of OT believers, from Abel to the prophets. He declares that all of them were justified by faith, and even faith in Jesus. Some people, especially apostate Jews, believe that Jesus isn't in the Old Testament. But Paul says that even Moses, the greatest prophet, believed in Jesus. In fact, Moses went through with his God-ordained mission because "he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:26). Another way to say it is that the Bible is always the book of Christians: Abel was a Christian; Abraham was a Christian; Moses was a Christian; David was a Christian; and they were all Christians in the same way that we are: by faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

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