Written in 1648, the Westminster Shorter is a rich document. It is doctrinal and devotional, packaged in theological statements brief enough to be memorised, and deep enough to develop a systematic theology from. Below the answer to each Catechism question, we have included a short comment of our own. Our full commentary may be downloaded here:
DownloadMan's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.
As beings, both male and female, created imago Dei (in the image of God), we are not truly human until we are able to glorify God in our enjoyment of Him. This glorifying and enjoying can also properly be called worship. It therefore follows that until our acts flow from the first desire to worship God, they cannot properly be called good works that are pleasing to Him.
The Word of God, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.
Every kind of worship we bring, be it in public or private, must find a positive warrant in the Word of God. There is a wrong way to glorify and enjoy God, and the word 'may' in the text above reminds us that the things we do to worship God must fall within the confines of his commandments. God does not tolerate 'strange fire' (Leviticus 10:1-20), nor does He accept worship given to Him by unprescribed means. Rather, we must worship in spirit and in truth.
The Scriptures principally teach what Man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of Man.
The object of the Scriptures is God and God alone. Through it, we are taught two things: (1) how to believe God rightly; and (2) how to obey God rightly. It is presented in this order because believing rightly is necessary to obeying rightly - theology begets worship. We must first rightly know God before we can rightly glorify and enjoy Him. Therefore, we must not devise for ourselves our own ideas of God but must searh the Scriptures for who God has revealed Himself to be. Accordingly, we are not allowed to be a law unto ourselves but are commanded to obey God. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of Man.
God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
God is a Spirit, meaning that He has no body, nor is He visible. Because God has no visible image, we are not to worship Him by any image. His infinity follows from His spirituality, in that He is unbound by space and time. His infinity in relation to space is called omnipresence and in relation to time is called eternity. Therefore, because He is unbound by time, He does not change, but remains the same throughout the ages. Through the light of nature, God's attributes are seen in His holy ordering of His creation. This revelation through nature is sufficient to condemn all who suppress the truth in unrighteousness and exchange the worship of the Creator for worship of creatures.
There is but one only, the living and true God.
We distinguish the one living and true God from the idols of other religions by the name He revealed to His people: YHWH. Therefore, any other god called by any other name is false and does not exist. Further, since He is the living and true God, He alone has the right to dictate how He should be called, and we must only look to the Scriptures as the only rule to direct us how we should worship Him. He has no other name and the impious attempts of modern Man to call upon Him by the names of other gods store up for themselves His wrath, for He is a jealous God.
There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
The one living and true God is one in substance and three in persons. The substance of the one God is undivided amongst the three. Whatever the Father is, so also the Son and the Holy Ghost. Therefore, all three share the same mind, will and power and all three are the same single principle from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things (Rom. 11:36). When we say that they are three persons, we mean that the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father, nor the Holy Ghost. They are to be distinguished by their personal properties. The Father is unbegotten and begets the Son - His is paternity. The Son is begotten of (or generated from) the Father - His is filiation. THe Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father through the Son - His is procession. Hence, not in hierarchy nor priority, but in order, the Father is first, the Son second, and the Holy Ghost third. But because the divine substance is undivided amongst the three, the divine works are also undivided amongst the three. The Catholic faith is thus this: we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance.
The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby, for His own glory, He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.
The foreordination by which He foreordained whatsoever comes to pass is both free and unchangeable. It is free in that He was not bound to decree such, but sovereignly chose according to His own will. The determination of His decree was not from without, but within, to the end of His own glory. It is unchangeable because it flows from the purpose of the unchangeable God. He is able to declare the end from the beginning, because the end remains certain and sure according to the unchangeable foreordination of God. We also note that by this foreordination, God brings about all that has come to pass, all that is coming to pass, and all that will come to pass. This we know to be His secret will, known only to God and God alone. Yet, by foreordaining whatsoever comes to pass, God is not the author of sin, nor does He do violence to the will of creatures, nor does He take away the liberty and contingency of second causes. Rather, his foreordination establishes these things and orders them to fall according to the nature of these second causes. Therefore, because God is not morally responsible for the evil in the world, but instead remains sovereign over and through its existence, He is able to intend such evil for good.
God executes His decrees in the works of creation and providence.
This decree also works itself out in the eternal election of some angels and some men unto everlasting life, and the lest unto everlasting death before the foundation of the world. This number of elect angels and men is unchangeable and definite, and can neither be increased nor decreased. To the elect, God actively works faith into their hearts by His Holy Ghost, that they might repose on Christ for righteousness and whole salvation, while to the reprobate He withholds His mercy and passes over them in their miseries. Our duty is not to concern ourselves with this secret decree of God, but simply to obey His revealed will. We are like children looking from the underside of the tapestry, without seeing in full the beauty of what is being sovereignly woven. The only comfort that we have is not that we know God's thoughts fully, but that we fully know God who works all things for the sake of His own glory, which is the good of all those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). Because of God's decree, which He executes for His glory, all things have a purpose and an end. Therefore, everything that has ever existed finds its place and meaning within the decree of God. There are no maverick molecules.
The work of creation is God's making all things of nothing by the word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good.
God created all things both in heaven and on earth, ex nihilo (ie, out of nothing). The world was void and without form (Gen. 1:2), and God created from the word of His power. Creation ex nihilo does not contradict the logical maxim ex nihilo nihil fit or 'out of nothing comes nothing', since creation ex nihilo asserts that all things come from God. Further, because creation did not begin by emanation from His own substance, creation was not a necessary act, but was a free act of God's will in the execution of His decree. All creation was completed in six days, and God rested on the seventh (not to replenish any depletion in Himself, but to set the creational pattern of six days of work and one day of holy rest. This day of holy rest would later be instituted in the Mosaic administration as the Jewish Sabbath. His creation was very good, for all that God actively creates is good. We therefore detest the error of those who argue that God created a fallen world in sin and misery.
God created Man male and female, after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
Since God is the Creator of Man, God alone has the right to declare the sex of every individual Man. Moreover, the sexual differences which God has instituted translates into roles that each take in society and nature. Male came first and then female came from him. The man is the head of the woman. For the man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the man. Yet, both man and woman are the image of God and both are given to the other for mutual help and procreation. Therefore, man and woman are of equal dignity, honour and worth. As the image of God, they exercised and enjoyed righteous dominion over the creatures. God, having put Man in the garden, subjected all things under his feet, whereby He commissioned him to demonstrate such rule over the creatures by naming them. Therefore, the Reformed tradition concludes that Man was to serve a threefold office: as prophet, he was to declare the truth of God to the whole of creation; as priest, he was to represent the whole of creation in dedication to God; as king, he was to rule the whole of creation. Further, because of the imago Dei, the life of humans are to be prized above all other lives, regardless of ethnicity, language, sexual orientation or religion - all human life is to be accorded with dignity and respect befitting the image of God.
God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures, and all their actions.
God, having created the world, continues to uphold everything by the word of His power. He sustains and governs all of reality, according to His decree, from beginning to end. The deists are thus in error when they state that God, having created the world, leaves it alone and is no longer actively involved in its preservation and rule. Rather, he continuously upholds and guides all things together. This providence is said to be 'holy', for God is holy. It is a just preservation and governance, for God shows kindness to all as the benevolent ruler of reality. Under His sovereign hand, even the evil enjoy the sunrise, the beauties of the earth, and the common joys and pleasures of life. Moreover, his rule is said to also be 'wise'. Even though we should experience evil and commit evil at times, we know that in His own wisdom, he orders all things towards His absolute glory and our ultimate good. Finally, his rule is also said to be powerful, for it is nothing less than the almighty arm of God that holds the plans of Man and the passage of time. He alone installs earthly rulers, and even they answer to His ultimate authority. Therefore, we are comforted by the fact that our destinies are not ruled by blind fate nor karma, but the living and true God who is holy, wise and powerful.
When God had created Man, He entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.
This entrance of God into a covenant of life is called a special act of providence because God was neither obligated to enter into such a covenant, nor to reveal Himself in a special way apart from the light of nature. This means that the covenant is a voluntary condescension on the part of God. It was neither necessary nor essential, but was freely entered into by Him. This covenant of life, also known as the Covenant of Works, is named as such because the reward for Man's perfect obedience was eternal life and fellowship with God. By his work, Man was to either merit eternal reward or eternal damnation for himself and his posterity, by his obedience or disobedience respectively. Though eternal life is solely God's prerogative to give, He obliged Himself to Man, promising the joy of life upon perfect obedience and the pain of death upon mere disobedience. The condition of this covenant was that positive command given apart from the natural law: that he was to eat of every tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If he were to eat of the Tree, he would surely die.
Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created by sinning against God.
It is important to first note that the fall of our first parents was neither surprising nor novel to God, but was duly executed according to the purpose of His holy will, having purposed to order it to His own glory. Nevertheless, this faill, though foreordained, was truly unnatural and is therefore properly called a disturbance in creation. Moreoever, though foreordained by God, moral responsibility for the fall still belongs to Man alone because the contingency of secondary causes is not taken away but established by His decree. Adam and Eve were not coerced into choosing sin. Rather, they freely chose to eat of the Tree, having been seduced by the subtilty and temptation of the Devil. Further, this fall was not simply a physical or spiritual fall, but primarily moral one.
Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.
First, we note that sin is not defined unto itself, but rather, so defined in relation to that which it is opposed to. Sin is not eternal; it had a beginning, and it will have an end. Sin is a legal wrong, since it is the transgression of law. Yet, there is a moral aspect as well, for God's eternal law is properly called moral. It is a law which demands moral obedience from its subjects: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' Ultimately, because obedience to God always requires a heart wholly disposed towards Him, any disobedience rendered is always moral. And before this moral law was written onto stone in the ten commandments, it was already binding on the souls of our first parents.
The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their eating the forbidden fruit.
The sin of Adam was what all sin is: the transgression of the law of God. Specifically, it is identified as their eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were tempted by the Devil, whose attack was on the veracity of God's work: 'Did God really say...?' The contradiction to God's word ('You shall not surely die') followed the undermining of His truthfulness. Also by this temptation arose the first divorce of God's law with God's character. The temptation contained these words: 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes would be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' By this, our first parents were tempted to believe that God's forbidding the eating of the Tree stemmed from His insecurity and lack of love for them. Therein lay the first root of legalism, in that God's law is no longer seen within the beauty of God's character, resulting in the fruit of antinomianism, which states that God's law is a thing to be shunned.
The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression.
We note that the covenant of life made with Adam was not made with him as an individual, but as covenant head of his wife and all his posterity. Since all mankind descended from Adam, all mankind is comprehended in Adam's fall from the estate wherein he was created. As such, there is none righteous, for all have fallen short of the glory of God that Adam once possessed. This transference of original guilt is known as imputation, because the sin of Adam is reckoned by God as the sin also of posterity - the same sin is laid to their account, and is reckoned as theirs. In Romans 5:12-19, Paul not only speaks of the wages of sin as penetrating to all, and not only of the judicial penalty or condemnation as coming upon all (which is merely the effects of imputation), but also of all as implicated in the sin of Adam with the result that they became sinners. Thus, though we, as members of posterity, did not personally and voluntarily as individuals eat of the forbidden fruit, we are nevertheless 'constituted sinners' (in the language of Paul). The sin of Adam is reckoned to be as really and properly ours as is the righteousness of Christ in justification.
The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
In the fall, our first parents left their created estate of holiness and blessedness and entered into an estate of sin and misery. The estate of sin and misery is refers to the disobedience of Adam coming upon us as both culpa and reatus, because where God is concerned, there can be no reatus without culpa. This is to say that there is no liability to penalty without blameworthiness. Reatus is the liability in punishment (the obligation to satisfy justice) arising from culpa which sin entails. We, as Adam's posterity, thus bear both the penal consequences of sin, which is death - the just condemnation of God, as well as the fact that we are truly constituted sinners. That is to say, not only does the wages of sin come upon all, and not only does the judgement of condemnation pass upon all, but all are also inflicted with the sin which is the basis of condemnatory judgement and of which death is the wages.
The sinfulness of that estate whereinto Man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
This sinfulness into which Man fell consists of two things: original sin; and the actual transgressions which proceed from it. This original sin consists of the reatus and culpa of Adam's sin imputed unto us by ordinary generation (see Q16 & 17), and the corruption of our nature. We who inherit Adam's nature inherit it with both his guilt and corruption. Indeed, the overt act of sin on Adam's part cannot be conceived of apart from the evil disposition which the overt act registered. In the order of nature this sinful inclination is prior to the overt act of sin, yet they are one in that the sin cannot be construed except in terms of both aspects. The sin of Adam as imputed to us must therefore be construed as comprising the same two aspects which apply to Adam's own sin (the evil disposition which gave rise to the act committed as well as the act itself). Hence, both guilt, and depravity of hearts came upon Adam's posterity just as they came upon him. Therefore, we are said to have been conceived in iniquity, born as children of wrath, dead in our trespasses. And our depravity of nature arises as a penal consequence of the imputation of the first sin of Adam.
All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.
As a result of this depravity, our thoughts, desires and wills are perpeually vile and sinful and are hostile to God. Instead of worshipping the living and true God, we either turn to idols or false ways of worship. We lose communion with God, and have His wrath and curse on us all. To the first curse belongs the consignation of the whole human race to liability to all the miseries of this life and to death itself. We are further cursed in Eve as women and wives. No longer will childbearing be painless, nor the beauty of being a suitable helper to the man be manifest. No longer will she be content to submit to her husband's headship. We are cursed in Adam as men and as husbands. No longer will the ground submit to his dominion, nor his work bear fulfilment. Rather, it will bring thorns and thistles in vanity and he shall only partake of the fruit of the land by the sweat of his brow. And when all is said and done, the futility of this life will give way to the emptiness of its end, for from dust he emerged and to dust he shall return. All of this life would have simply been a taste of the vanity of vanities. Further, no longer will he desire to lead his wife well, but will surrender his proper headship either in grotesque slavishness to her or evil oppression over her. To this, is added the further curse of eternal torment in hell, consisting of the everlasting separation from God's comfortable presence and the most grevious torments in soul and body without intermission. Upon cessation of earthly miseries begins the eternal miseries and torment, for God is a consuming fire and the destroyer of both body and soul.
God, having out of His mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
God did not leave all mankind to perish, but decreed to save some unto everlasting life. This election was according to His own good pleasure, and can therefore properly be called unconditional. There is no condition that the elect need nor can satisfy to be comprehended in this electing decree. This He freely did because He set His love upon His people from all eternity and purposed to make them His. This doctrine of unconditional election is the basis of our abject humility and worship of God, in that His salvic purpose were not based on anything within us, but solely on His good pleasure and sovereign grace. This election was bound up in the eternal covenant made between the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, in that the Father would give this people to the Son and the Son would become their Mediator to the Father. This unity of purpose includes the Holy Ghost's work in uniting this elect to the Son. The Holy Spirit works faith in God's elect - faith necessary to receive the Redeemer, as well as all other saving graces to enable new obedience as evidence of their election into the Covenant of Grace. Under the law, this covenant was administered by promises, prophecies, priestly sacrifices, and other ordinances given to the Jews, all foreshadowing the Redemmer to come. Under the gospel, this Covenant is administered by the preaching of the Word of God, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and prayer. Though differing in administration, the substance of the Covenant remains the same: The Redeemer will bring them into an estate of salvation. He is the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, the seed of Abraham in whom the nations would be blessed, and the son of David who would sit on the everlasting throne.
The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever.
Jesus, means 'rescue'. His title, Christ, means 'anointed'. He alone is the anointed one through whom God would save His elect from their present estate of sin and misery. He is the eternal Son of God (see Q6), and is of the same substance as the Father. To His eternal divine nature He added a temporal human nature, with all the essential properties of humanity except sin. This becoming man is properly called the Incarnation. And this unity of the divine and human nature in the one person of the Son is properly called the hypostatic union, for in His one person (hypostasis) is united two natures. Being truly God and truly man, Jesus is of the same substance as the Father in His deity and of the same substance as us in His humanity. In his temporal human nature, the Son did not divest Himself of His Godhood but rather hid His glory behind the veil of human flesh. He took on true humanity and suffered all the infirmities of humanity and more. As man, Jesus continued as the true God, because the finite cannot contain the infinite. Just as He suckled from His mother's breast, He continued to hold her molecules together by the word of His power. He does all that is proper according to each nature.
Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.
Jesus took upon Himself a human body, having been supernaturally conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost. Being conceived apart from ordinary generation by Adam's sons, he was born without original sin. He stands alone as the only true human not descended from Adam, and thus does not have Adam as His federal head. Hence, in humanity, He is able to act as the covenant head of the Covenant of Grace. Yet, it was necessary for the Mediator to be God, that He might sustain the infinite wrath of God the Father as propitiation for the world, and that He might give worth and sufficiency to His sufferings and work, that He might conquer His enemies and bring His elect to everlasting salvation. It was equally necessary for the Mediator to be true man, that He might redeem our whole humanity, that He might render perfect and perpetual human obedience to the law of God, that He might sympathise with our sufferings and turmoil, that He might pay the human penalty for the disobedience of God's law, and that He might stand as the first born among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). Thus, it was necessary for Him to be both God and man, perfectly representing both in exquisite harmony and unity.
Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in His estate of humiliation and exaltation.
These three offices that Christ executes as our Redeemer corresponds exactly to the three offices that Man was to execute as the head of the old creation. Further, He executes these offices not from eternity, but in time, both in His humiliation and in His exaltation. By these three offices, Christ is demonstrated to be the one who restores nature as the second and better Adam. Though these three offices diverged from Adam - and subsequently, prophets, priests and kings issued from him, all three offices reconverge in Christ, who has come to restore the corruption of each office brought about by Adam's fall. He is the better prophet, the better priest, and the better king than all who had come before Him. Therefore, it is proper to call Christ the head of the new creation by virtue of His three offices.
Christ executes the office of a prophet in revealing to us by His Word and Spirit the will of God for our salvation.
In the Old Testament, the prophets were those who spoke the word of God to the people of God. Therefore, their oracles carried inherent authority and they always prefaced their prophecies by these holy words: 'Thus saith the LORD'. However, when Christ spoke, never did He speak without authority, nor did He ever preface His words by the same that the old prophets used. Rather, He always said: 'I say unto you'. Therefore, He is the greater prophet, for He did not speak on a delegated authority, but His own. The same God who spoke through the prophets in the past is the same God who spoke to the first century Jews in Palestine by His own human mouth. Further, no prophet has been the object of his own prophecy, but Christ alone is. Abraham looked forward to His day (John 8:56), Moses and the prophets spoke of Him (Luke 24:27), and John the Baptist ushered Him in (John 1:23). Yet, Christ stands alone as both the subject and object of His prophecy. When He began His ministry, He was proclaiming: 'The time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand - I am here!' (Mark 1:15). By being the object of His own prophetic utterances, Christ was doing nothing less than revealing the will of God for our salvation, which is Himself (There is no other name under heaven by which we msut be saved). All these He communicates to us by His Word and Spirit. His Spirit, the Holy Ghost, works through the inscripturated Word to speak inwardly to us about the things concerning God's will for our salvation and eternal communion with Him.
Christ executes the office of a priest in His once offering up of Himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.
In the Old Testament, the priests were those who mediated for the people of God, before God. Therefore, their task included the ceremonial rites of purification and sacrifice, to present a blameless people before God. As priest, Christ too performed a sacrifice - Himself as the sacrificial Lamb, to propitiate the wrath of God. While in the past the priests offered up the blood of bulls and goats that could not take away sin, Christ offered up His blood as the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. Therefore, Christ as priest is both the sacrificer and the sacrifice in His one person. Just as the sin of the people was laid on the lamb to be slaughtered, so also was the sin of the world laid upon Him that He might be slaughtered. Man's transgression of the law required Man to die. And Jesus did die for others. Though true that in this sacrifice He dealt with individual sins, it is equally true that in this sacrifice He also dealt with sin - by that sufficient oblation, He has reached back to the time of Eden, as far as sin reaches, and purged creation of it, having perfected for all time all who are being sanctified. Having satisfied divine justice, He has thus reconciled us to God; all who are far off He has brought near. Upon His substitutionary death, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the Holy of Holies was made open for all who would enter. By His propitiation, He has satisfied divine justice and we are made right before God. Upon His ascension and coronation, He now continues to act as our advocate and Great High Priest, interceding continuously for us before the Father.
Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to Himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies.
In the Old Testament, the kings were those who exercised rule over the people of God, defending them by the sword and kingly might, and ensuring that the priests might conduct proper religious worship in the land unmolested. Upon His ascension, Christ was so crowned king in glory as a reward for His work. This kingship He holds in distinction from the reign He has by reason of His deity. This kingship is of two, namely His kingdom of grace and His kingdom of power. As king of grace, Christ has subdued us to Himself as His people and we submit gladly to His righteous rule. This He did not do by martial conquest, but through His death and resurrection He has purchased us for Himself. Therefore, we are not our own, but belong body and soul to Him. This rule He exercises in the hearts of His people by His Spirit, conforming them to His image. As king of power, Christ rules over the entire cosmos as the God-man. This rule He must hold until all things are put under His feet - and this rule He exercises in His sovereign providence over creation, controlling everything to the good of His Church. The gates of hell would not prevail against His Church, for even hell bows to the rule of Christ the King. Truly, our enemies are under His kingship and He is thus able to defend us from them, for by His rule in power He continues to restrain and conquer them until the last day, where death is finally defeated. On that day, Christ the God-man shall deliver up the kingdom to God, that He might be all in all, where all His people might worship in spirit and in truth forever in the eternal promised land.
Christ's humiliation consisted in His being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death on the cross, in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.
The humiliation of Christ consisted of four stages: His being born, His life, His death, and His continuation in death for three days. First, His being born is humiliation because He set aside all visible glory and hid it in the veil of flesh. Being the eternal Son of God in the bosom of the Father, He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped (Philippians 2:6), but desired to become true creature. Further, the station of His birth was not one of human esteem, but was of such a condition belonging to a carpenter and his wife. Second, His life is humiliation, because throughout His life, he willingly submitted Himself to the law that He Himself gave. Being the eternal second person of the Trinity, He was present at Sinai, having been the One through whom His Father gave the law unto Moses. Yet, upon assumption of His humanity, He was made subject to the very law that He bound His people to. This - he fulfilled on behalf of His people, that He might merit for them the perfect obedience that the law demanded. Throughout His life, He endured the miseries of this life, including sorrow and grief (John 11:35), loss and yearning, hunger and thirst (Mark 11:12). Third, His death is humiliation because on the cross He underwent the curse that was meant for the lawbreaker: 'Cursed is the one who hangs on the tree' (Deut. 21:23). He was crucified before men, where He was mocked and had His garments divided by them. There, he satisfied divine justice and propitiated the Father's wrath due to sin. This death, He willingly undertook to purchase the eternal inheritance of all the Father had given Him. Fourth, His continuation in death is humiliation, for His body was buried and there He remained under the power of death for three days.
Christ's exaltation consists in His rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.
Note the difference in tense from the previous question - though Christ's humiliation had an end, His exaltation does not and continues to this day. His exaltation consists of four stages too, namely His resurrection on the third day, His ascension into heaven, His sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and His coming to judge the world at the last day. His resurrection is exaltation because He conquered death by His own power. Those who doubted now had no excuse for their ignorance, for His claims were vindicated upon His fulfilment of His prophecy that He would rise on the third day. by His resurrection, He was made the Lord of the living and the dead, having shared in both estates and continuing in life. As the Head of His Church, His resurrection is for their justification and assures those united to Him that they too shall join in His resurrection. Second, His ascension is exaltation for it was upon His ascension that He was crowned King of the universe and invested with regal power over all creation. Thirdly, His sitting at the right hand of God the Father is exaltation, for it is confirmation that His purifying work has been finished. Fourthly, His coming to judge the world at the last day is exaltation, for it is that glorious and terrible day where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. On that day, those who denied Him today will beg the mountains to crush them, than face His wrath (Rev. 6:16). His name and His people will be vindicated, and His glory will be made visible for all to see. That day, He shall come with His legions of angels, with a trumpet blast, a shout and the voice of the archangel, to judge the world in holiness. This exaltation in which He has entered and continues in was His reward for having been humiliated according to the will of the Father (Philippians 2:5-11). Though exalted from before all worlds as God the Son, now His humanity shares in this exaltation and He is exalted as the God-man.
We are partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual application of it to us by His Holy Spirit.
We note that this redemption purchased by Christ is distinguished from its application to us. Therefore, a distinction has traditionally been made between what is called redemption accomplished and what is called redemption applied. By redemption accomplished, we refer to the work of Christ in His humiliation and ascension. It is His objective work that has definitively secured our redemption from sin, death, and hell. By this accomplishment therefore, Christ is properly called our Redemmer. By redemption applied, we refer to the work of Christ's Spirit in making His redemption ours - by redemption applied, we are made true partakers of Christ's work and are therefore redeemed. Thus, unless Christ's redemption is applied to us, it shall be of no benefit to us and we remain unredeemed. We note that this application is properly called effectual, for it does not fail - whomever Christ purchased redemption for will have it applied to them, for the Spirit who does so is the Spirit of Christ (Philippians 1:19).
The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.
Though, concerning the sufficiency of His redemption, it was universal in extent, concerning the efficacy of His redemption as it is applied, it is truly limited in intent - Christ only had His bride in mind when He walked the earth and went to the cross. The Spirit's effectual application of Christ's redemption to us begins with His working faith in us. This working of faith must come from outside us, for in ourselves we cannot have faith and please God. Since the old heart cannot produce faith in itself, for it cannot please God, it follows then that part of the Spirit's work in working faith is the giving of a new heart that can produce faith. This giving of a new heart is called regeneration, for it is the process by which we who were dead in our trespasses are brought to life. Regeneration was called rebirth by Christ in His conversation with Nicodemus (see John 3:3). This faith is the instrument by which we rest in Christ and are thereby united to Him. This union with Christ is joining of us to Christ, in which we share all of His benefits and graces.
Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel.
Effectual calling is the work by which the Holy Ghost persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ in faith. Effectual calling, otherwise known as irresistible grace, does not mean that the Holy Ghost possesses us and divests us of free thought and choice (we are not puppets in our salvation). Rather, by effectual calling, the Holy Ghost persuades and thereby enables us to come to Christ for our salvation. This persuasion and enabling He does by three things: (1) He convicts us of our sin and misery, (2) enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ and (3) renews our wills. The first relates to his use of the law to reveal to our hearts our sin and misery, that we might be led to despair in our own righteousness. The second relates to His use of the gospel in the preached Word to convey to our minds the knowledge of Christ and His redemption. The third relates to His use of His regenerating power to renew our wills that we might desire to put our faith in Christ. There is a distinction between the outward and inward aspects of the call of the Holy Ghost. The outward call refers to the Holy Ghost's mediate work through the audible preaching of the Word by the preacher. It merely conveys information about the gospel of Christ to the audience. This outward call is resistable and thereby ineffectual in itself, for a great many who have outwardly heard the preaching of the gospel have succeeded in increasing their damnation by their rejection of it. The inward call refers to the Holy Ghost's immediate work by taking the preached Word and cutting the heart of the sinner with it (Heb. 4:12-13), thereby convicting him of his sin and misery by the law and presenting Christ as his redeemer by the gospel. This inward call is accompanied by His regenerating power, so that our wills are renewed that we might desire Christ and embrace Him. This inward call is irresistible and effectual, for it is made only to the elect whom the Father chose and the Son redeemed.
They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.
The benefits of redemption are distinguished into: (i) those that we partake of in this life, and (ii) those that we partake of in death and beyond. That is why we are able to confess that Christ is our only comfort in life and in death, firstly, because He lives beyond death and is able to meet our needs forevermore, and secondly, because we know that even death cannot separate us from Him who loved us and gave Himself up for us. We note second that these benefits are the benefits of Christ's redemption wrought for us and only becomes ours when we are united to Christ by faith as given to us in effectual calling. therefore, it is proper to say that these benefits have their first principle in our union with Christ - apart from this union, these benefits are not ours to enjoy. From this union flows every spiritual blessing that comes from our Father through Christ, as applied to us by the Spirit. We note thrid that there are several benefits that do flow from one another. Therefore, it is proper to say that some of these benefits are the secondary principles of the other benefits. For instance, from justification flows peace of conscience, where we know that all our sins have been taken away.
Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
The ground of justification is the righteousness of Christ and nothing else. It is imputed unto us by way of our union with Christ, and received by faith alone. Therefore, faith is properly said to be the instrumental cause of our justification, for it is by faith that we are united to Christ and become partakers of the benefits of His redemption. The righteousness that justifies us is what Luther called an "alien" righteousness - that which comes from outside of us and not from within. This faith is a pure resting and receiving the promises in Christ without any semblance of works contained within. Accordingly, the ground for our pardon is not even our repentance. Rather, it is the righteousness which Christ wrought for us on the cross, received by faith. We repent from our sins not for pardon, but because we have been pardoned. Further, genuine faith is followed by good works and other graces. These good works and other graces flow from our union with Christ. We can thus conclude that if a person says he has faith but has no works, he never had faith to begin with. Lastly, we note that the saints in both the Old and New Teataments were justified the same wau: by faith in Christ - their faith looked forward to Him, while ours looks back to Him (Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness). When we die and come before the holy Lord, our only and ever plea shall be Christ and Christ alone. For only with His righteousness freely offered and received shall we see God.
Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.
Just like justification, adoption is also an act of God's free grace. Therefore, it is not something we do to ourselves, but something that God does to us. This act is properly called adoption, because we are not naturally the sons of God. Rather, we are by nature sons of disobedience (Col. 3:6), children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), hostile to God (Rom. 8:7), and darkened in our minds (Rom. 1:22). Though God was properly called our Father in that He was our Creator, He was not our Father in the ethical sense, for we were His enemies upon whom His wrath rested. However, by our union with Christ, the sonship of Christ becomes ours and therefore the Son has made us sons (John 1:12). Upon our justification, we are adopted by God and are added to the number of the sons of God, thereby receiving all the privileges that belong to His children. Some of these privileges include: having His name written upon us (Rom. 3:12), having His Spirit poured upon us as an anointing (Gal. 4:6), remaining under His fatherly love and discipline (Matt. 6:26), remaining under His protection and provision (Prov. 14:26), having our prayers and pleas heard by Him (Ps 66:17-20), being led by His own hand to eternal rest (Heb. 4:9), and being made co-heirs with Christ in glory. All these he does not for our sake, but for the sake of His Son who now stands as our Elder Brother and first-born. All these privileges are first His and He is content to share them with us. Finally, because we have been adopted, we are counted as sons and the Father truly loves us as much as He does the Son and these privileges have now become our rights.
Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.
Just like justification and adoption, sanctification is an act of God's free grace. Therefore, it is not something we do to ourselves, but something that God does to us. It flows form our union with Christ. This process is called sanctification, for it is the process by which God makes us holier like Himself by His Holy Ghost. In the process of sanctification, the Holy Ghost renews us in the whole man, conforming us to the image of the Son (Rom. 8:29). This renewal is gradual and progressive, and it begins the moment we are justified, and continues and never ends until we die and enter glory. In this life, sanctification will never be complete, for remnants of corruption continues to abide within us and give rise to a continual and irreconcilable war between the flesh and the spirit. Yet, though at times the abiding corruption may prevail, the strength given by the Holy Ghost does enable us to overcome sin and grow in grace, perfecting our holiness. By this sanctification, we are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and to increasingly live in righteousness. Repentence, itself, is the first fruit of sanctification that follows our justification. This is because our pardon of sin is not founded upon our repentence, but on the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. Repentence and faith do happen simultaneously, but repentence is not the cause of our pardon.
The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification, are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
Assurance consists of an objective aspect, and a subjective one. In the former, we are assured that we are loved by God regardless of what it is we feel or experience. In the latter, we individually experience God's love for us and are thereby assured. This may wax and wane on account of our indwelling sin. But the objective aspect never does, for it is grounded in the finished work of Christ. To assure oneself of God's love, both aspects must be spoken to: it is impossible to assure one of salvation if he is not first assured of Christ. If our lives do not bear consistent fruits of salvation, it is natural to lose the assurance of salvation. Yet, the solution is not to seek to produce such fruits on our own strength, but to turn to assurance of Christ, that we may be assured of God's love for us and then strive for fruit in gratitude to that love. Another benefit is the peace of the conscience. By assurance of salvation, the believer apprehends that he is amongst God's people and that therefore his sins are remitted and his debt is paid in full. Therefore, his conscience is at peace, for he is no longer an enemy of God. Further, there is joy in the Holy Ghost. This benefit is properly called joy, because in the Holy Ghost, we are united to the Son and reconciled to the Father - therein lies our joy: that we are in holy communion with the Trinity. Lastly, we increase in grace, resulting in the confirmation and perfection of faith, a greater mortification and vivification, sanctifying us perpetually until we attain the fullness of salvation, persevering to the end.
The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.
There is a double benefit that is spoken of here, one which pertains to the soul and the other which pertains to the body. The soul upon death shall pass into glory and shall remain with Christ until the final resurrection, awaiting the reunion of soul with body. The body upon death shall rest in the grave until the final resurrection, where soul shall be reunited with body. We note that this benefit flows from union with Christ. Christ, having taken upon human soul and body amongst other things, has united our souls and bodies to Himself, that He might raise us up on the last day. Particularly, the benefit that our souls experience in death is properly called a benefit, for we shall see Christ and be made perfect in holiness, no longer with any trace of sin.
At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgement, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
At the resurrection, our bodies shall be raised to life and our mortal bodies shall put on immortality. Death shall be defeated and swallowed up as the last enemy of God's people. On that day of resurrection, we, being raised up in glory, will be openly acknowledged by God as His children and acquitted as being innocent, not because of any merit or righteousness that we have inherently, but because of that which Christ imputed unto us. The ground of our justification is the same ground of our final acquittal - being none other than Christ as he is presented to us in the gospel. Having been made perfect, we shall be perfectly blessed, for we shall see God and enjoy Him forever.
The duty which God requires of Man is obedience to His revealed will.
We distinguish between God's secret decretive will and His revealed perceptive will. The Scriptures indicate to us that we ought only concern ourselves with His revealed will and submit wholly and joyfully to it, leaving speculations about His secret will aside; the secret things belong to the Lord, but the revealed things belong to us and our children, that we might obey them (Deut. 29:29). This is the duty which He requires of us: to fear Him and to keep His commandments, for that is the whole duty of Man (Ecc. 12:13). It is therefore proper to say that God's revealed will is revealed particularly in the moral law. Obedience to this moral law he requires of all: Jew or Gentile, Christian or pagan. All are bound by this duty and owe obedience to God by virtue of Him being their creator. Though this moral law was later summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments given to Israel at Sinai, it was a duty that existed in the heart of Adam and all his children by virtue of them being created in God's image. Therefore, even before the Ten Commandments were given, Man sinned and sin was indeed in the world.
The rule which God at first revealed to Man for his obedience was the moral law.
The moral law is common not to Jews only, but to Gentiles as well. Indeed, all who come from Adam under Eden have this moral law. Therefore, all men have a sense of divinity and a seed of religion in them, common to all as their humanity. By virtue of this common moral law, all men know righteousness and holiness and their consciences bear witness that we are moral agents who are bound by God's objective moral standards.