Walking Through Westminster, WCF 15.1-6 "Of Repentance unto Life"

Westminster Confession of Faith 15.1-6

I. Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace, the doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the Gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ.

II. By it, a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature, and righteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of His mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments.

III. Although repentance is not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God's free grace in Christ, yet it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it. 

IV. As there is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation; so there is no sin so great, that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent.

V. Men ought not to content themselves with general repentance, but it is every man's duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins, particularly.

VI. As every man is bound to make private confession of his sins to God, praying for the pardon thereof; upon which, and the forsaking of them, he shall find mercy; so he that scandelizeth his brother, or the Church of Christ, ought to be willing, by a private or public confession and sorrow for his sin, to declare his repentance to those that are offended; who are thereupon to be reconciled to him, and in love to receive him.

Summary

Repentance is a grace of God. It is a gift. What does it mean? The Westminster Divines were a little wordy in section 2, but the gist of repentance is that it is a turning. In repentance, a sinner turns from his sins, and turns to God. Repentance is not true repentance if only done out of a sense and sight of the danger of sin, but also the filthiness and odiousness of sin. In other words, repentance isn't legitimate if you are only scared of hell. True repentance means turning from sin, not just to escape punishment, but because you actually see sin for its true ugliness and are rightly repelled away from it. It's like when a kid gets caught doing something wrong and says "Sorry", and his mom asks, "Are you sorry for what you've done, or are you sorry you got caught?" Repentance is not legitimate if it is only done because you "got caught", but it must be done because you see sin as being truly evil, ugly, and revolting. 

Nathaniel rebukes King David for his sins. David responded with true repentance, seen in Psalm 51.

Repentance also requires true apprehension of God's mercy in Christ. In order to properly repent, you must know that God forgives the penitent. True repentance is not done in fear that God will not forgive you, but in knowing that God will forgive all who come to Him in repentance. Repentance also requires a purposing and endeavoring to walk with God in all His commandments. In other words, if you know that you intend to go right back to your sins, then don't waste your breath repenting for them. True repentance does not require perfect obedience to follow, as perfect obedience has to be provided to you by Christ, but it does require faithful obedience to follow. Those who declare repentance with their mouths, but do not intend to change their ways, are not truly repentant, and do not have God's forgiveness. 

Repentance doesn't earn God's mercy, in the same way that faith doesn't earn justification. But repentance, like faith, is the channel, the instrument whereby we lay hold on something. We use faith to grasp justification. We use repentance to lay hold on God's mercies. And, because God's mercies are deep, wide, and strong, we know that no sin is "unrepentable". The only unforgivable sin, according to Matthew 12:31, is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. If you look at the context of that passage it becomes clear that what this means is a person sees the works of God through the Holy Spirit, but they attribute it to demonic activity. In other words, they see what God is doing, but refuse to repent. The unforgivable sin is portrayed in Revelation 9:20-21, "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

True repentance is radical, life-changing. It means not just admitting that we are sinners, but being real with ourselves and others about the specific ways we sin. One way that we often try to skirt repentance is a cheap, general acknowledgment of our fallen nature. "Of course I make mistakes. Nobody's perfect," we might tell ourselves, or others. But true repentance doesn't just see and acknowledge sin as a general state of affairs; it sees and acknowledges the specific ways that we sin against God and others, and it specifically repents from and hates those sins. We never sin against God and others in vague generalities; we always sin against them in specific ways. We must repent for those specific sins, not simply the fallen state of being a sinner. 

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A Brief Update

Beloved friends,

As many of you know, Olivia and I have begun a new ministry at Trinity Chapel Charlotte, a church plant of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP). We are excited for the future God has for us in this new work. 

With the transition, we will be transitioning out of the apartment ministry. With that coming to a close, we want to thank all you who have faithfully supported us through your prayers and financial gifts. As indicated in the newsletter sent out last month, if you feel the Lord leading you to direct your support elsewhere, please feel free to end your support of us at this time. Move on to support something else great, knowing that you go with our tremendous thanks! You have loved us very well and we have felt so blessed by your partnership. 

However, if you feel that the Lord is leading you to still support us through prayer and finances, we would love to continue this relationship. Trinity Chapel is an unincorporated church, meaning that any gifts given are now tax-deductible (woohoo!). Trinity Chapel has a Paypal registered to its website (https://www.trinitychapelclt.org/give/) where you can also find mailing info if that is your preferred method of giving.

Our goal over the next 5 months is to raise roughly $180,000 to cover Keith's salary for the next 3 years. The method used in ARP church planting is to have 3 years of a salary raised, diminishing over that period as the church becomes able to support their own pastor. So Keith's salary for the next 3 years will transition gradually from outside support, to church support, as in the following rough model:

Year 1: 100% Outside Giving/0% Church Support

Year 2: 75% Outside Giving/25% Church Support

Year 3: 50% Outside Giving/50% Church Support

This model operates on the assumption that a church will be unable to fully support their pastor for a time (a "worst case scenario" of sorts). If God blesses the work sooner than later, and a church becomes financially able to support a pastor after a year, the outside support could cease then. However, if the soil proves difficult, and a church struggles to grow, this model allows for the ministry to continue for at least ~3 years, so we can make a good run at it.

Our intention is to raise all of these funds through established churches within our presbytery (the regional body of churches in North Carolina). But we know that some of you see value in our ministry, enjoy Keith's preaching, and may want to continue (or begin) supporting us. If that is the case, we hope you will commit to supporting our first year at Trinity Chapel, that we might start well and see what the Lord will do!

If you have any questions, please feel free to message me on Facebook, text/call (630-502-9081), or email me at my fancy new email address (kginn@trinitychapelclt.org). 

Thank you for taking the time to read our update. We love y'all!

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One Year in the Deep End

How has it already been a year since we began this adventure? There have been so many ups and downs, frustrations and joys over this past year, it's hard to know where to start! 

In the Apartments

Our apartment ministry continues to grow, albeit slowly and not in all the ways we expected. We have come to know many of our immediate neighbors in a close way, and we will often just spend time outside together, chatting, playing soccer with the kids, helping with groceries...

Our office management underwent a change several months ago. We ran into difficulties with the former office staff. Our visions for what this LIV ministry program should be were obviously different, and no one seemed to be happy with how things were going. However, the new staff are so encouraging to work with! We are freer now to pursue this program in the way that seems best to us, which is just so much more enjoyable. We have already noticed an improvement in our personal attitudes and the response of our neighbors.

We have had rough times, however. Many of you might know that Keith was the victim of an armed carjacking in the apartment parking lot last Thanksgiving. Praise God, the car was recovered the very next morning, the criminal was caught, and Keith had no lasting harm done to him. We strongly felt that this was a spiritual attack more than a simple crime, and our hearts were very discouraged in this ministry for a while. There was a very real possibility of us leaving then with no hard feelings from the LIV ministry, or the management, and we thought about seeking something safer; something easier. 

But the Lord encouraged our hearts. Through the support of God's people, especially in our local church, we were strengthened to endure and continue our ministry. We were reminded of Acts 14:22, "that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." By God's grace, we endured, and the carjacking even opened up new doors for us to get closer with families and the management. 

In the Church

In my role as pastoral apprentice of outreach/evangelism there have also been highs and lows. This role has afforded me plenty of new opportunities to meet people. The local restaurant outreach in particular has been very fun, even just on the strategic and social levels. It has been a thrill to walk into an establishment with a secret mission, not just to care for the souls of the wait staff and managers, but to maybe meet another patron, or secretly buy a mom and kids' meals and have the cashier tell them the angels covered their costs today. What a treat for me!

There have also been opportunities to merge our ministries together. And so we held our church's Christmas Eve service outside, in the middle of our apartment community. Several church members have made the effort to get involved in our apartment events. Our church has been particularly encouraging to me in these ministries and we have been encouraged to see this attitude rub off on church members.

Future Hopes 

In spite of the effort and the prayer, the ground has proven hard. We have yet to witness a conversion through these efforts and that has been discouraging. People have been led to Christ through our words and actions, but we have yet to see someone embrace Him as their Savior. 

I am reminded, though, that there was a drought of rain for more than 3 years in Elijah's time. It did not rain in Israel for years, but Elijah was bold when he told the wicked king Ahab, "Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain." (c.f. 1 Kings 18) Following his prophetic declaration, he went and prayed. But even then, he had to pray seven times to the Lord before God sent a little cloud to rise out of the sea. 

Though the first year of our ministry looks like a drought, we have seen little clouds popping up all around: increasing relationship with our neighbors; increasing interest in evangelism; increasing concern for their souls among the people we meet. Our field of labor is marked by dry, hard ground, and we've yet to see the Spirit pour out rain, but I believe we hear the sound of an abundant rain coming. The Lord keep us faithful until we see it. 

Thank you for your support, friends. We love y'all!

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The Law of Greatest Love: First and Foremost

"The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire...saying, I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." (Deuteronomy 5:2-6)

First and Foremost

Before God delivers any of the Ten Commandments to Israel, He establishes the basis of this Law. He rehearses for Israel what God has brought them through; what He has done among them. This is highly significant as we try to understand the nature of God's Law and our relationship to it. 

The Law of Moses is Gracious

A common misconception in large portions of evangelicalism is the idea that God's Law, specifically the Ten Commandments, are given through Moses as a list of commandments that Israel must keep in order to have a relationship with God. We view the Law given through Moses the same way we might view the Law given to Adam. The Westminster Confession says, "God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which He bound him and all his posterity, to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it." (WCF 19.1) In other words, when Adam received commandment from God, he received it with the promise of life for obedience and the threat of death for disobedience. Adam disobeyed God, broke the Law, and here we are. 

We are mistaken if we think that the Law given through Moses functions the same way. To lump Moses in with the same covenant of works that Adam was under is mistaken. The reason this is so important is that, as Christians today, if we ask the question, "Does a Christian need to keep the Ten Commandments?" the answer is YES! But we automatically import this idea that the need is relative to being made right with God. So if I asked a random person in an evangelical church, "Do Christians need to keep the Ten Commandments?" their answer would probably be something like, "No. We are justified by faith alone, not by keeping the Ten Commandments. Keeping the Ten Commandments is legalism." We hear the question about Christians keeping the Ten Commandments, and we automatically assume that we are asking, "Do Christians need to keep the Ten Commandments in order to be justified before God?" The answer to that question is an adamant NO. But that is a different question than, "Do Christians need to keep the Ten Commandments?"

The Significance of Order

Consider what God does in giving the Ten Commandments. First, He establishes and rehearses the history of His relationship with Israel. He emphasizes two things in this preamble to the Ten Commandments: 

1. His enduring, personal covenant with Israel ("The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire" 

2. His salvation and deliverance that He has already provided for them ("I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.")

Only after God has established and rehearsed His relationship with Israel does He then give them the Ten Commandments. He 

So another way to say it in contemporary "Christianese" is that God gives the Law to His people, because they have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus. God doesn't give His Law to Israel so that they can earn His love, but because they have already graciously received His love. The Law instructs them in how to live in this loving relationship with God. He already has a personal relationship with them. He has already accomplished their deliverance from Egypt. And, in light of this grace He has already given Israel, He then gives them the Law as a gift, not a curse.

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The Law of Greatest Love: Dividing the Tables

"Jesus said unto him, 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 great 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 22:37-40) 

Dividing the Tables

Jesus divides the Law into two general sections, both relating to love: we must love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. The 98th question of the Westminster Larger Catechism asks, "Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?" The answer given is "The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments, which were delivered by the voice of God upon Mount Sinai, and written by him in two tables of stone; and are recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. The four first commandments containing our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man."

If we list the Ten Commandments out according to this division, we see the following:

Loving God

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, etc.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Loving Neighbor

5. Honour thy father and thy mother, etc.
6. Thou shalt not murder.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, etc.

Since the Ten Commandments are a summary of God's moral law, and a perfect reflection of His own character, everything about how to love God and how to love our neighbors is summed up in the them. One consistent thing we will see in the Ten Commandments is that each commandment contains both positive and negative elements. So every duty commanded also carries a contrary sin forbidden; and every sin forbidden also carries a contrary duty commanded.

For example, the seventh commandment not only forbids adultery, but also commands the duty of loving your spouse. The eight commandment not only forbids stealing, but also commands the duty of seeking our neighbor's welfare. We will consider this reality with each of the Ten Commandments as we address them. Ultimately, we will see that each of these commandments is wrapped up in the word "love", and we will see that "love" is properly defined and clarified in each of the commandments.  

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The Law of Greatest Love: Introduction

"For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" (Deuteronomy 4:7-8)

The Law of Greatest Love

In the history of the world, there has never been anything like what Moses and Israel experienced at Mount Sinai. God manifested Himself in a tremendous firestorm of lightning, thunderous booms, smoke, and the trumpet blast (Exodus 19:16-20). The smoke covered the mountain to such an extent that it was no longer visible and the earth quaked and shook. And out of the midst of this terrifying storm, God commanded His people to stay away from the mountain, lest they gaze upon God's glory while still in their sins and be destroyed. But God called for Moses to ascend the mountain, where God wrote with His own finger in stone the Ten Commandments.

These Ten Commandments are the perfect self-revelation of God's own moral character. They are the Law of God written with His own finger (Exodus 34:1). They are perpetually binding on all people, and will never fade away, even into eternity, for they are the full expression of love for God and our neighbor (Matt 22:37-40; Rom 13:8-10; 1 John 2:3-8). Jesus was very clear in the sermon on the mount:

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matt 5:17-18)

It is in light of this that I am branching out into a new writing venture, specifically focusing on the Ten Commandments. How can these commandments comprehensively cover our relationship with God with other people around us? Are Christians still obligated to keep them all? What do we do with the hundreds of other commandments in the Bible? Lord willing, we shall seek and discover some answers...

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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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