Reflections on the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
23 Aug 14 began a perhaps unbroken, orderly, and personal journey through my favorite written confession of faith. These are my personal reflections on this beloved historic Particular Baptist confession of the Christian Faith.
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Section 17, “Of the Perseverance of the Saints.” 17.2: “…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…”
How arrogant to ever profess that salvation in Jesus is something you could lose but haven’t. Pastor John MacArthur once said this.
Here’s what they’re saying here: “God saves from start to finish.” What they’re on about is given even better by Paul under inspiration. Here’s a big summation of a vast Gospel: “Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” Romans 8:29-31. Reader, is God “for you?” If you were “foreknown” by him, you will be “glorified!” Period. Done. End of story. If you were not, you will not be, and you wouldn’t care anyway. How do we, any of us, know we were so foreknown? Well, we cannot know the secret will of God. No one can. How then might we know that God is “for us?” How could we ever grow in the knowledge of such a thing as we’re exhorted to by Jesus and his Apostles. Ask yourself this: Are you called? That means have you been “born again?” Have you obeyed the oft-repeated command of God to repent of your sin and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Do you at this moment love the triune God of the Bible above even your own life? And has such an abiding passion been yours for any observable period of time by those in your life? If so, then rejoice in what God has revealed in you. If not, then do the first thing, repent and come to Jesus for his grace.
We are not saved *cuz we keep ourselves such.* We’re saved by God. Anything other than this being fought to be realized in someone’s life begins to synergistically crowd the Cross. Paul told some other fruit-bearers: “We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.” Ephesians 2:11.
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