LBCF 1689 Reflections. Part 172

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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Chapter 19. “Of the Law of God.” Paragraph 6c: “…and the threatenings of it serve to shew what even their sins deserve, and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse and unallayed rigour thereof.”

Sin brings death. The Law reminds us what sin is. John says, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:4. God has said, both from before Adam’s Fall and after it that man would die as a result of sin. Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23, etc. That threat is why Jesus says to us: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28. No one issues more severe threats than God. God says, “Now consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.” Psalm 50:22. The Apostles echo this in many ways saying, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:31. Our sin deserves God’s wrath. We deserve it. His warnings against it show us this.

The following two parts here illustrate the state the believer is in being now already forgiven for the ultimate penalty for their sin in Christ, Romans 5:1-2, etc., but perhaps not what’s known as the temporal penalty of it. Now, by the grace of God, many get delivered from both. But, for example, someone may have contracted a sexually transmitted disease in sin (hint: no virgin couples suffer these because of sin). Christ may regenerate them, but that doesn’t mean the disease is gone. They may die from it. Their sins may carry penalties in this life. It’s a “temporal” punishment that remains, temporal meaning in this life. Prisoners may rightly serve entire life sentences answering for their crimes against man yet die free from the eternal sentence of their crimes by God in Christ. In any case, the Law all along would show them what they should not have done and what grace has delivered them from.