Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc: The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is pleased to bring you the following message from the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. Since its start in 1974, this conference has attracted audiences to its biblical expository approach to Christian doctrine. The Alliance is a listener-supported ministry. Our purpose is to promote a biblical understanding and worldview.

Guest (Male): In this fourth session, I've been asked to speak about the theology of the Westminster Standards. The Westminster Standards, as you know, were penned at the end of England's long second Reformation. It symbolized the high-water mark of Protestant confessional work. Other later confessions tend to be knockoffs that are significantly borrowing from these texts. Don't be too grumpy about that if you're a Reformed Baptist; you know it's true.

In Scotland and in America until 1788, the Westminster Standards was understood to be a five-document package: the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger Catechism, the Shorter Catechism, and the Directory for Worship and a Directory for Church Government. In American Presbyterian churches today, references to the Westminster Standards is more truncated; it refers really to the Confession and the Catechisms only.

I've had an opportunity to speak about creeds and confessions and mention the Heidelberg Catechism, but let me say something about catechisms in general and then the Westminster Catechisms in particular before spending most of our time in the next hour looking at the theology of the Confession. In the long history of the church, all instruction intended to help people prepare for baptism or to train Christians in a life of faith and obedience was called catechesis. This oral instruction could include sermons, instruction manuals, and even poetry.

Nonetheless, in its various types and stages of development, catechetical material was historically designed to maximize the teacher's opportunity to speak and did little to test the learner's ability to understand. In 1538, a recently created order of Capuchin Friars came up with an interesting innovation: a printed dialogue. This dialogue was to be used in families, and the introduction encouraged fathers to use it with their children twice a week.

Alas, the creative work of the Capuchin Friars has long been forgotten. I think there are three reasons why their innovations have been overlooked. First, the leading Roman Catholic Capuchins became Protestant reformers, which made the Roman Catholics less eager to celebrate their work. Second, when most people try and concentrate their minds on Capuchins, their minds irresistibly drift to thoughts of cappuccino, the coffee named after the color of the Capuchin's robes. And thirdly, almost 10 years before this catechetical dialogue was created, Martin Luther launched his Small Catechism in 1529.

Luther's simple question-and-answer dialogue between a minister and a child was a roaring success. Catechizing along this format using this text quickly came to figure prominently in not just Lutheran but all Protestant churches. Reformers wrote their own catechisms. Eventually, about a third of the members of the Westminster Assembly wrote their own catechisms; it's just something that a good minister did. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually forced to copy the practice of the reformers. Roman Catholics were concerned that they were losing more ground to the Reformation because of catechizing than they were because of Protestant preaching.

The Westminster Assembly's two catechisms first appeared in embryo in 1647, with the Shorter Catechism appearing just 35 days after its elder brother, the Larger Catechism. This is a remarkably short period of gestation for such a useful document to be produced, a duration of gestation that is identical to that of the Australian koala and the European hedgehog. If the Shorter Catechism is the junior sibling of the Larger Catechism, the Westminster Confession of Faith is a mother to both of these texts.

As I mentioned in our previous session, the Westminster Standards were penned again at the end of England's second Reformation in the middle of a civil war. From start to finish, the Confession and Catechisms appeared between 1646 and 1648. They were quickly put to use by the Scots and by the English alike, and they were adopted by the Scottish Church and made official by the Scottish Parliament. England's Parliament was slower, less excited about them, and divided about what to do with them.

The Catechisms were the last of the doctrinal texts written by the Assembly, and they represented the high-water mark of Protestant creed-making. They've been celebrated by Presbyterians, imitated by Congregationalists and Baptists, and in the case of the Shorter Catechism, even reissued for publication by John Wesley, the spiritual father of the Arminian branch of the Methodist family tree. It may seem to be off-topic to talk about John Wesley when I've been asked to speak about the theology of the Westminster Standards, but it's of central importance for us to see that John Wesley had to systematically edit the Shorter Catechism in order for it to be safe for high-church, episcopal-minded, predestination-denying Methodists.

Wesley's systematic revision of even a text as simple as the Shorter Catechism is testament to the fact that Wesley saw a system of theology even in the simplest of the assembly's texts. The starting point in the Shorter Catechism is with God himself. The Shorter Catechism informs readers that man's chief end is entirely about glorifying and enjoying God. We exist for God's honor and praise, and we also exist to benefit from the one who made us for a relationship with him, what the Confession calls having a fruition of him as their blessedness and reward.

The Shorter Catechism next speaks of the will of God expressed in his decrees. That would not do for Wesley. Being no Augustinian, let alone a Calvinist, Wesley deleted all references in the Catechisms to God's divine decrees as if readers would not also encounter those words and doctrines in the Bible itself. Wesley's systematic revision of the Shorter Catechism is evidence that there is a theology in the Westminster Standards.

The Catechisms and Confession together teach a real system of theology, but it's also the case that there are theological emphases that are unique to each different document. The Shorter Catechism is the crowning achievement of the Westminster Assembly. It not only offers the most memorable doctrinal summaries of the 17th century; it is also most consistent in emphasizing the work of the Spirit and the importance of spirit-worked faith. Put the Confession and Catechisms beside each other, and you'll see how the Shorter is not just a summary of the Larger. It introduces nuances and has some important differences that matter.

The Larger Catechism, on the other hand, contains a masterful summary and exposition of the law of God. No fewer than 11 committees were appointed by the assembly for the Ten Commandments. One of its biggest expenditures of time and talent went into reflecting on what this document tells us about what God wishes to see in the Christian life. The Larger Catechism also reflects much more deeply than the Confession on the work of Christ. In its extended questions on Christ as the prophet, priest, and king, the Larger Catechism offers the fullest statement of the work of Christ that can be found in any Reformation text.

The Larger Catechism also reflects deeply on the fact that Christ did not simply come to save individuals; he came for his church. He died for his bride, and the Larger Catechism is the most churchly of these three documents. It asks us how to prepare for the benefits and blessings which we receive in church, including the reading of the word and the preaching of the word. It helps us think through how we might receive the sacraments and what we might think about afterward. Those who take just one of those three documents as their favorite will miss the emphases that are found in the others. The three together are stronger than any one by itself.

In our remaining time together, I want to pivot towards the Westminster Confession of Faith. I want you to see how on the very surface of the Westminster Confession of Faith, it all makes sense and hangs together. The Confession begins with the word of God. The opening sentence begins with how God reveals himself generally in creation and in our own hearts. But then it moves to the question of whether that's adequate for us. Can we find our way to God with that knowledge? We can find out that there is a God, but it doesn't help us as sinful people understand the way of salvation.

So, this first chapter turns quickly to the scriptures and to God's revelation of himself. It outlines the authority of the scriptures, and it ends by saying that only the scripture doesn't err. Councils and synods can err and have erred. Even in the first chapter, there's a statement that helps those reading this confession to reflect on the place of a confession in comparison with scripture itself. After helping us to understand the way in which we can know God, the confession next turns to God himself. Many of the reformed confessions flip this order. Calvin discusses this tension at the beginning of his famous Institutes. These are the two usual subjects with which to lead a confession or a system of theology.

Having introduced the way we know God and then God himself, the next chapter captures the way in which God interacts with his world. Everything that God does is something that's an expression of his will. The next chapter is therefore on God's decrees. What God decides to do can basically be lumped into two main categories: God's decree to create and then everything else that concerns us, which falls under the category of providence. Creation and providence capture everything that God does in this world.

The most remarkable part of God's providence is the fact that God in his wisdom, for his glory, while remaining good and wise and never diminishing in his power, permits and indeed decrees the fall of man into sin. After the chapter on providence, the very next thing that's discussed is the fall of man, of sin, and of the punishment thereof. This sets up the next chapter, which reminds us that God did not leave us where we were. He made a covenant with us that's a covenant of grace. Chapter seven of God's covenant with man discusses two covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.

The covenant that God has set up, his promise that after our failure to keep the covenant of works, he would make a covenant of grace, introduces us to the one who will in fact fulfill the conditions of the covenant of grace on our behalf. We deserve the penalty of the covenant of works, but God has sent one who has taken the punishment. Chapter seven is the plan of redemption, and chapter eight is the story of redemption centering around Jesus Christ the mediator. It's here that we're told about the application of redemption and how the Holy Spirit was poured out on Christ in a measure like no one else has ever seen before or will ever see again.

That's the accomplishment of redemption. Is that enough? No. As long as Christ remains outside of us, as long as we are not in some way savingly connected to Christ, what good does any of that do for you? You need to get to the application of redemption. How do we benefit from what Christ has done? That story picks up in chapter ten. If chapter nine is about the application of the fall, then chapter ten explains how God needs to call us in such a way that is effective in spite of who we are. His call needs to make us alive, or we'll never respond.

If you are called, then you're also justified. If you're justified, then you're also adopted. And if you're adopted, then you're also being sanctified. There's a whole package of benefits and blessings that come from having Christ as our savior. It all comes together, and these chapters are the central chapters about what happens to people who are united to Christ. Along the way, faith and repentance are mentioned. Rather than trying to say everything that needs to be said about faith when they're talking about justification, the assembly just holds off a little bit on these topics.

You have a chapter on saving faith. Arminians take faith to be that little tiny contribution that you offer because you failed to keep the covenant of works. But that's not how it works. Christ is obeying in our place; God's standards don't drop because of the fall. Faith is finally realizing that you can stop pretending that your own imagined holiness is enough. Faith is recognizing that you need to give up on yourself and cling to the Savior. Faith is explained in this passage, and we're told how essential it is that every minister preach it. And then repentance must also be preached.

Indeed, you haven't really believed unless you see you need to repent. You're not really ever going to be able to repent unless you have the faith to see who Christ is and what he's done. Repentance involves turning from something to something. Repentance isn't really repentance in the abstract. If all your repentance is a general repentance, you're never really turning from anything in particular. Someone whose sin is sin in the abstract never has any specific sins they leave behind. Repentance involves putting off the sin, but it's putting on something else, and it's putting on a new way of life.

Repentance involves a thoughtful discussion of what that looks like, but it also requires us to understand what are the good works we're trying to put on. Good works don't make you a Christian, but if you are in Christ, then your attempts to please the Lord and to honor him are all viewed by our Father in heaven with love and affection and generosity. He looks at what you do, and he's pleased. As a pastor, this helps me. I'd sometimes preach a sermon and think that went alright, and then five minutes later, I'd think that was a great sermon. And then I remember the only reason all that you do is acceptable is because of Christ.

Sometimes the pastor says that was a great passage, and that sermon did it dishonor. I just want to go to the men's room and put garbage on my head. I think that's the modern equivalent of sackcloth and ashes. But then I remember chapter 16 of the Confession: if I'm accepted in Christ, even my worst sermons are too. The Lord is not only pleased with me; he's also accepting, generous, and kind towards what I try to do in his Son. So, of course, they have to talk about good works because repentance is turning to something, and so they define it.

One of the things that troubles us is our inconsistency in our sanctification, repentance, and good works. There's a question raised by our own experience that says if good works characterize a child of God, and my life is so inconsistent, am I really going to be able to keep honoring the Lord in this way to the end? Am I going to be able to persevere in the Christian life? God doesn't just preserve his people; he works in his people. He saved them because he has good works for them to do. He saved them so that they would become more like his Son. Questions of good works raise questions about perseverance and assurance.

What are the two main things that make people wonder if they really are God's children? Their sin and their suffering. Picking up on the themes already raised in chapter 17, the Westminster divines have this very pastoral chapter 18, in which they talk about the assurance that Christians really can have. The Westminster Assembly says this is one of the blessings of the Christian life. But by the way, people who doubt can still be Christians. Just because you sometimes wonder if you're a Christian doesn't mean you're not a Christian. If you're wondering if all this can be so good and still be true, the doubts we have and the struggles we have don't mean you're not a Christian either.

The Lord can encourage us in different ways. He can encourage us principally by saying, "Look again at my Son." Is he sufficient? Did I send him? Is he for you? This chapter also reminds us that sometimes we can be encouraged by seeing what the Holy Spirit's doing in our lives. I used to make compromises with that sin, and now I'm trying to run from it. I think that's the Holy Spirit at work. The Holy Spirit helps us to cry out to God as our Father, and we are given a fresh assurance through the word of who we are and who our Father is.

At some point, we need to talk about the law of God, and that's chapter 19. How are we to think through God's law? This chapter is both designed to help people read the Bible better and to help the Christian read those statements that say the law is not of faith. How do we think about the law? Are there different senses in which we need to think about the law? How does the law relate to the gospel? In this chapter, we're reminded that there's three different kinds of law: ceremonial and sacrificial, judicial, and then the moral law. The confession says the moral law never expires.

It also says there are different purposes to that moral law. But when you talk about the law, it also raises questions about liberty. Christ is the law-giver and also a liberty-giver; he has purchased freedoms for us. Any time we talk about the law, we want to eventually talk about the liberties that have been purchased for us at the cost of Christ's own life. This chapter helps us think not just about the law but about legalism. It helps us think about freedom of conscience. We're really talking about things like the freedom from the curse of the law, the freedom from the bondage of Old Testament rules, and the freedom from the everlasting penalty of death and hell. These are grand freedoms, priceless freedoms.

Moving on from here, the Westminster divines thought it would be useful to talk about religious worship and the Sabbath day. One of the conversations that happens around worship is whether those leading in worship are doing so in a way that reflects the teaching of scripture. Are we ever asking people to do things in worship that could actually be violating their consciences? If you're asking people to do stuff in worship that God's word doesn't call God's people to do, then you're really coercing the consciences of the people in your church. There's a conscience-worship connection.

In discussing worship, we are reminded that there is freedom to be sensible, to choose times of worship and places of worship that are going to be most loving. There are things about worship which we have the freedom to order, and there are things we don't have the freedom to order. We do not have the freedom to not read God's word, to not preach God's word, and to not sing God's praises. God's revelation in his created world and in your created heart is not enough to give you the way of salvation. It's also the case that God's revelation in his created world is not enough to tell you how God wishes to be worshiped. Special revelation is needed for your salvation, and it's also essential to know how to worship God.

There's one unusual kind of worship that doesn't usually take place in church, and that is making of a vow or an oath. A vow is a promise made to God, and an oath is a promise made where you call God as a witness. This chapter on oaths and vows is the bridge between worship on the Lord's Day and this worshipful act that we often do in the presence of a civil magistrate. Most of us should try and stay out of the court, but the civil magistrate is the next chapter. God has ordained a government, a fact of government independent of that of the church.

Chapter 24 follows the chapter on the civil magistrate because the Westminster divines are mindful of the fact that marriage is not just for Christians; marriage is for God's created people. Marriage as a creation institution ought to have relevance not just for the church but for the civil magistrate, and the civil magistrate ought to take order that marriages are done properly. So, marriage and divorce fall in order after the civil magistrate.

The assembly finally turns to the church. The church, too, has an interest in marriage; there's a reason why this chapter fits between these two chapters. What's also striking here is we have a chapter on the communion of saints. We need to have a good doctrine of the church; it matters. We should all be members of churches, and we need to submit ourselves to the authority of elders whom God has put over us in churches. At the same time, I want to recognize that there are wonderful Christians who are not part of my denomination. We have a church family that is dear to us. We have a communion of saints that's broader than our individual churches.

Then there's a chapter on the sacraments because, of course, the sacraments are not to be administered in some para-church organization or a gathering of buddies on a Sunday night. The sacraments are given to Christ's church. They include baptism and the Lord's Supper. Sometimes members of churches and officers in churches do not act like good Christians, in which case they need church discipline. The context in which church discipline takes place is the Lord's Supper. That's why the chapter on censures or discipline comes after the chapter on the Lord's Supper.

Not only do Christians not behave as they should, sometimes governments and elders don't govern as they should. It was the conviction of the authors of the assembly that when someone is concerned that a brother or sister has been treated badly, they ought to be able to complain to their elders about that. If their elders don't listen, they ought to be able to appeal to a wider gathering of elders to hear the case. So, synods and councils which hear those appeals follow after church censures. We end with the two topics that confessions and systematic theologies always end on, and that is the state of man after death, the resurrection, and the last judgment. This is my quick attempt to give you a sense of how the Confession holds together and offers us a system of doctrine.

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc: You've been listening to a message delivered at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. This conference is a ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. For more messages from the PCRT, visit ReformedResources.org, a trustworthy source of books, audio, video, and other resources to help you grow your Christian faith. That's ReformedResources.org.