Our Confession

In Swedish Christianity there exist a certain naivety, if you come and says that you believe in Jesus, then are you a brother or sister. In one sense this childlike trust is beautiful, in another sense it scares me. Because we are living in a time when what we confess is important. Do we confess Jesus Christ of holy Scripture, or do we confess some other Christ? But everyone in Sweden that calls himself a Christian is their brother or sister, you can be a catholic and believe that you are saved by grace and through your own good works, and that everyone else that confess that we are saved by faith alone is anathema by the Catholic Church; they have never retracted this. Or you can be an apostate Swedish Church member that confesses that everyone is welcomed, that deny the order of creation, that deny the instituted marriage covenant between one man and one woman before God, that deny the concept of sin. Or you can be from the Word of Faith preaching that Jesus died spiritually on the cross, the so-called JDS doctrine. What we believe is not insignificant, it may decide our eternal destination.

Today I had a conversation with someone that does not fully know what she confesses. I felt in a way upset over how she downgraded this issue, like your confession does not count. The act of confession is very important in so many ways. We confess our sins before the LORD so that we may receive forgiveness, this is the theme in the Bible. Achan had to confess what he had done (Jos. 7:19), the people in Ezra had to make confession to the LORD and to separate themselves from the people of the land and from the strange wives (Ezra 10:11), and Daniel prayed and made confession unto the LORD (Dan. 9:4), and man with his heart believes unto righteousness, and with his mouth confesses unto salvation (Rom. 10:10), and the one that confesses Jesus him will Jesus confess before the Father and the angels of God (Matt. 10:21; Luk. 12:8). In the reformed traditions of Christianity, you have confessions, you have the Westminster Confession of Faith, and with Baptists you have The Baptist Confession of Faith (1689). I love these confessions; they summarize many of the biblical doctrines, and they are based on the Word. So, we have foremost the Word of God, nothing trumps God’s Word, but a confession is a good way to summarize some biblical doctrines.

The Baptist Confession of Faith starts with the Holy Scripture, 1. Of the Holy Scriptures: “The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diversified manners to reveal Himself, and to declare (that) His will unto His church; and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which makes the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God’s revealing His will unto His people being now completed.”

Except Scripture we have no other saving knowledge. We must know the Word; God’s Word must abide in our hearts. We must know them by heart, and Peter is saying that the Word of God is the incorruptible seed that lives and abides forever, by this seed are we born again (1 Pet. 1:23). 1689 continues to confess which books of Scripture are inspired. And in paragraph six they state: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word, and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.” They Confess that Scripture is sufficient. We do not need any internal new revelation; Scripture is all that we need. And they state that “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself (Paragraph 9).

Here comes a big difference, the Confession states which books are canonical, and that is the sixty-six books that we have in our Bibles. The Catholic Church on the other hand says that the deuterocanonical books called the Apocrypha belongs to Scripture. They even say, “But if any one receive not, as sacred and canonical, these same books entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic Church, and as they are contained in the old Latin vulgate edition; and knowingly and deliberately despise the traditions aforesaid; let him be anathema.” (The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Kindle, loc. 628) In Sweden when they translated the Bible called Bibel 2000 they included the Apocrypha. I wonder why. They have very seldom been included in any Protestant Bible.

And then the Confession continues: 2. Of God and of the Holy Trinity; 3. Of God’s Decree; 4. Of Creation; 5. Of Divine Providence; 6. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment thereof; 7. Of God’s Covenant; 8. Of Christ the Mediator; 9. Of Free Will; 10. Of Effectual Calling; 11. Of justification; 12. Of Adoption; 13. Of Sanctification; 14. Of saving Faith; 15. Of Repentance unto Life and Salvation; 16. Of Good Works; 17. Of Perseverance of the Saints; 18: Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation; 19. Of the Law of God; 20. Of the Gospel, and of the Extent of the Grace thereof; 21. Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience; 22. Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day; 23. Of Lawful Oaths and Vows; 24. Of the Civil Magistrate; 25. Of Marriage; 26. Of the Church; 27. Of the Communion of the Saints; 28. Of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; 29. Of Baptism; 30. Of the Lord’s Supper;31. Of the State of Man after Death and of the Resurrection of the Dead; 32. Of the Last Judgment. You see, they cover most of the Christian life in a few pages. Let us view Chapter XI about justification.

Par 1: Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies (Rom. 3:24; 8:30), not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous (Rom. 4:5-8; Eph. 1:7); not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone (1 Cor. 1:30-31; Rom. 5:17-19); not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith (Phil. 3.8-8; Eph. 2:8-10), which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God (John 1:12; Rom. 5:17).

We are redeemed and justified freely through Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law and his passive obedience in his death by faith, and this faith is a gift of God. We have nothing to boast about. We have not come to faith because of our excellence, because of a pure decision we made. Faith is a complete gift of God.

Par 2: Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification (Rom. 3:28); yet is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love (Gal. 5:6; Jas. 2:17, 22, 26).

Faith alone is the instruments of Justification, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28). But this justification brings works by love. But what does the Catholic Church teach?

The Subjective Redemption, however, is not the work of God alone. By reason of the fact that God has endowed human nature with reason and free will, Justification requires the free cooperation of men (D 799). The unfathomable mystery of the doctrine of grace lies in this intimate mutual co-operation of Divine power and human freedom. All the controversies and the heresies that have arisen concerning Justification derive from the difficulties posed by this mystery of co-operation, In the working-out of man’s Subjective Redemption, God supports man, not merely by an inner principle, grace, but also by an outward principle, the efficacy of the Church in its doctrine, its guidance of men and its work of dispensing the grace of Christ through the Sacraments. (Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Roman Catholic Books, 1964), 219.)

Rome believes that righteousness requires the free participation of man and the sacrament of the church. Ott goes on to describe that at the Council of Trent, they define righteousness as follows: ”Justification as a, ”translation from that condition in which man is born as the son of the first Adam into the state of grace and adoption among the children of God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour.” … On the negative side it is a true eradication of sin; on the positive side it is a supernatural sanctifying and renewal of the inner man.” (Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 250.) They cite five reasons for righteousness, 1) the final cause is the honour of God and Christ (primaria) and the eternal life of man (secundaria), 2) the efficient cause is the grace of God, 3) the meritorious cause is Jesus Christ as a mediator between God and man, and who has made atonement for us and merited the grace by which we are justified, 4) the instrumental cause is baptism, 5) the formal cause is God’s justice, in which he makes man just.[4] ”This means that the infusion of sanctifying grace effects the eradication of sin as well as inner sanctification.” (Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 251–252.)

They confess infusion of grace and eradication of sin, and their Canon 9 says: “If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema.” (The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Kindle, loc. 1001) This anathema from the council of Trent has never been retracted. Protestant does not use the term infusion but imputation, see paragraph 1 above. That is a big difference.

Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those who are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due to them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in their behalf (Heb. 10:14; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Isa. 53:5-6); yet, in as much as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them (Rom. 8:32; 2 Cor. 5:21), their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners (Rom. 3:26; Eph. 1:6–7; 2:7).

Here it is stated that Jesus Christ died vicariously, as a substitut for the sinner, undergoing the “penalty due to them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in their behalf,” he did not suffer for them that they potentially may be saved. He saved them completely and bought full satisfaction to God’s justice, “that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.”

God did from all eternity decree to justify all the elect (Gal. 3:8; 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Tim. 2:6), and Christ did in the fullness of time die for their sins, and rise again for their justification (Rom. 4:5); nevertheless, they are not justified personally, until the Holy Spirit in time does actually apply Christ to them (Col. 1:21-22; Tit. 3:4–7).

Here comes the doctrine so many people cannot stand, that God has decreed from all eternity to justify all the elect, but they are not justified until the Holy Spirit apply Christ to them, until the Spirit regenerates them. But God foresaw that he would justify the heathen through faith, and they were elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

God continues to forgive the sins of those that are justified (Matt. 6:12; 1 John 1:7, 9), and although they can never fall from the state of justification (John 10.28), yet they may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure (Ps. 89:31-33); and in that condition they usually do not have the light of his countenance restored to them, until they humble themselves, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance (Ps. 32:5; Ps. 51; Matt. 26:75).

The elect needs the continuing forgiveness of sins even if they are justified, and they may fall, by their sins, under the Father’s displeasure, which will require confession of sins and renewing of faith and repentance to be restored unto the Father.

The justification of believers under the Old Testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the New Testament (Gal. 3:9; Rom. 4:22-24).

Everyone is saved by faith alone, both in the OT and in the NT. This doctrine is very important, do not let yourself be deceived. This is the ground wherewith a man is saved; everything add to this is false. We need to be truly clear about this so that we will not be led astray.