Walking Through Westminster, WCF 17.1-3 "Of the Perseverance of the Saints"

Westminster Confession of Faith 17.1-3

1. They, whom God hath accepted in His beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.

2. This perseverance of the saints depends, not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ; the abiding of the Spirit and of the seed of God within them; and the nature of the covenant of grace; from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof. 

3. Nevertheless they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalancy of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their perseverance, fall into grievous sins; and for a time continue therein: whereby they incur God's displeasure, and grieve His Holy Spirit; come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves. 

Summary

Can a Christian lose their salvation? That is one of the most debated questions in the history of theology. We certainly know that apostasy, falling away from the faith, is a reality in our world. We all know stories of people who profess faith in Jesus, or grow up in the church as apparently faithful covenant children, and then 20 years down the road, they are painting their hair purple, living in open rebellion against God, and treating the church as just another embarrassing step in the process of "progressing" on into true maturity and enlightened living.

The question before us is whether that person ever had a saving relationship with God, or not. Did they have something real and really lose it? Or did they never have the real thing and only lose the appearance of it, the sham covering?

The Confession echoes the Bible's teaching when it declares that, "They, whom God hath accepted in His beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally away from the state of grace." If God has set His hand on a human soul to save them, then they assuredly must be saved. The basis for that truth is that God is the one doing the saving; not the sinner. Two important words come up in relation to this truth: monergism and synergism. Monergism is the reality that salvation is all a work of God. Synergism is the mistaken belief that the sinner must work with God in order to reach salvation. If we were in any way required to contribute to our salvation, we would surely make a mess of it and our perseverance would be thrown into the ether. But because salvation is of the Lord, not of us, we can rest assured that the saints will persevere all the way to eternal life, no matter how much they may struggle on the way there. 

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Walking Through Westminster, WCF 16.5-7 "Of Good Works" Pt. 2

Westminster Confession of Faith 16.5-7

V. We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin, or eternal life at the hand of God, by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come; and the infinite distance that is between us and God, whom, by them, we can neither profit, nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins, but when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty, and are unprofitable servants: and because, as they are good, they proceed from his Spirit, and as they are wrought by us, they are defiled, and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection, that they cannot endure the severity of God's judgment.

VI. Notwithstanding, the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in Him; not as though they were in this life wholly unblamable and unreproveable in God's sight; but that He, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections.

VII. Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands; and of good use both to themselves and others: yet, because they proceed not from an heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word; nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful and cannot please God, or make a man meet to receive grace from God: and yet, their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing unto God.

Summary

There's a great standup bit by comedian Norm MacDonald in which he makes the basic point that everyone is a hypocrite. After a great few minute introduction on the topic of hypocrisy and how we don't like it, he delivers a great line about all of us being rightly lumped into that camp. "Can you imagine," he asks, "having a little kid there, 7 or 8 years old, sitting them down...and telling them who you really are? Like, 'Hey, Billy, let me tell you all the evil (stuff) I've ever done.' That doesn't seem like a good idea."  

Essentially, we are all hypocrites on some level or another, because we are full of evil, but don't want anyone else to really know it. The problem we run into is that, while we can hide our evil from each other, God sees right through our hypocritical guise. He knows everything about how evil we really are. That's why the Confession echoes the Biblical teaching that we can never, by our own attempts at goodness, earn heaven. The distance between our sin and God's goodness is so vast that we can never cross it. Even when we have done everything commanded of us (which, if we are honest we never even come close to), Jesus still taught us that we were "unprofitable servants". Even if we did everything God told us to do, we still wouldn't have Him in our debt. He wouldn't owe us anything. Children growing up are often required to do chores (or they should be). When a child has done his chores, he has no right to go to his mother and demand payment. He was only doing what was expected of him. It is the same with God. 

This doesn't mean that God doesn't care about our good work: He does. If you are in Christ, then not only has God accepted you, but He accepts the good works you do, as done in Christ. Christ takes your imperfect good works and purifies them with His own blood so that the Father finds them wholly acceptable and pleasing. But they are only pleasing through Christ, not through you. 

The question then becomes: can unbelievers do "good works"? The Confession in section 7 echoes what Scripture teaches: good works can only be truly done by faith (Heb 11:6). As the unbeliever, by definition, does not have faith, none of their works can truly be called "good" the way that God defines it. This does not mean that their works are not helpful. It is better to live in a society where even unbelievers try not to harm their neighbor. It is better to live in a world where people try to help each other; where even unbelievers strive to live by God's 10 Commandments. However, because their works do not come from a heart that is born-again, thankful to God, and seeking to please God through faith, their works cannot be "good" in the sense that God requires. Yet, the Confession teaches (again, echoing Scripture) that it is still more sinful for the wicked to neglect good works. In other words, it is better that all men do works that are outwardly good; souls who reject God's Law because they don't believe in Him anyway are only making things worse for themselves on Judgment Day, not better. 

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Walking Through Westminster, WCF 16.1-4 "Of Good Works" Pt. 1

Westminster Confession of Faith 16.1-4

I. Good works are only such as God has commanded in his holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretence of good intention.

II. These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith: and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the Gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that, having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life.

III. Their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ. And that they may be enabled thereunto, beside the graces they have already received, there is required an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit, to work in them to will, and to do, of his good pleasure: yet are they not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty unless upon a special motion of the Spirit; but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them.

IV. They who, in their obedience, attain to the greatest height which is possibly in this life, are so far from being able to supererogate, and to do more than God requires, as that they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do.

Summary

What is it that makes something good? We are often tempted to think that our own positive imaginings, ideas, or feelings about a thing make it "good". We like a particular person and so we call him a "good man". We like a particular idea and so we call it a "good idea". But the Scripture teaches, and the confession summarizes this truth, that the only thing that makes something good or not is what God says about it. God is all-goodness, there is no spot in Him of evil or wrongdoing. So, when He says that a thing is "good", it must be, of necessity. And anything that He declares "not good" is not good, of necessity. 

Based on this, when we come to the question of what makes a work good, the confession teaches that only thing that makes a work good is what God has said about it. Only if God has commanded it in His holy Word is a work defined as "good". We, in our unending efforts to justify ourselves, want our works to become good based on our own zeal or good intentions. This is what leads certain religious sects towards self-flagellation, extreme ascetism, or unneeded suffering. But God never called any of these things "good", and so we cannot call them good works. Many people today may proclaim the goodness of veganism, teetotalling, grain-free diets, childlessness, etc. But they are either self-deceived, or willingly imposing a standard on themselves and others that God has not set. 

Paul saw this in the church in Colosse. He said to them, "you subject yourselves to regulations -- 'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,' which all concern things which perish with the using...these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh." (Col 2:20-23) Good works are those that God says are good, and no others. 

Only the believer is truly capable of doing good works. While unbelievers may have the appearance of good works, they do not come from a living soul, freed from sin. Sin corrupts the human soul to the core so that no one living apart from Christ can truly do anything good. Yet, believers adorn their faith in Christ with their good works. The good works of the Christian are what stops the mouths of their enemies. The Spirit gives believers the ability to do good works, and continually produces goodness in them as the fruit of His work in their souls. 

When the confession speaks of works that "supererogate", it is speaking of the idea that we could ever meet and go beyond God's standards. Even if we did everything that God commanded of us, Jesus still said that the proper response was to say, "We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do." (Luke 17:10) Even when we have done all that is commanded of us, we have not profited God anything. God has not gained anything when we have only done what we were obligated to do. A child may occasionally be rewarded for good behavior, but that reward is a grace. A child ought to obey their parents simply because of their authority. In the same manner, God expects us to obey Him. He may reward us for our obedience, but that is a grace and we can never surpass His commandments to the point where He is indebted to us for anything. 

God is good. He tells us what is good. His Spirit enables us to do good through faith in Christ. And He is good to graciously reward even the smallest motions of faith and obedience. He loves His children, and He loves even the most childlike acts of godliness.

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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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