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. This will be my personal reflections on this beloved written codification of the Christian Faith which is according to a Baptist flavor.
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Chapter 6.3: “…unless the Lord Jesus set them free.”
The freedom the Christian daily operates in is like a man with a parachute fixed on his back on a crashing plane. Christians live vibrantly under the banner of protection offered through the Cross. It is a complete freedom from the penalty of sin. From this foundation, the full restorative glories of the Cross begin to manifest in their lives. Fellowship with God, peace with others, joy in all things, sadness where appropriate, it all takes its place in their lives as part of the experience of freedom.
The freedom Christ brings into the lives of his sheep (intentional metaphor) is so liberating that Christians are warned several times about their freedom not becoming a snare to them by flaunting it. Cf. Romans 14, etc. Christians are to remember that freedom can seem inappropriate to those perhaps just coming to terms with how radical God’s love on the Cross truly is toward his children.
Christ sets men free in the scandal of the Cross. Self-righteousness abounds in every world religion except the only true one- Christianity. Buddhism is little more than a self-righteous atheism, Islam alleges that God’s justice for sin is distracted by righteous works, Romanism teaches that men must save themselves, Mormonism goes so far as to say that men can actually become God. Christ alone sets men free from the burden of foolishness. The gospel humbles men to love God and to love their neighbors reverently and without reproach. It is a freedom not possible anywhere else.
There is only one way to be free in this life. There aren’t two ways. “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” John 8:36. Amen. Sin is what has enslaved you. Just consider God’s justice. The Cross is a payment whereby you can be certain that even though this plane will crash; you are secured for the jump. What joy that produces in the hearts of those wearing the chute!
May God bless you with freedom! Not as the world promises but fails to deliver, but as Christ gives. We are not free from the presence of sin…yet. We are not free perhaps even from the what are called even here in the LBCF 6.3 the “temporal” penalties of sin (meaning those things we may suffer because of our sin in this life), but we are eternally, assuredly, and boldly able to rest assured that we have been (past tense) delivered from the judgment for our sins because of what Christ has done on the Cross. That’s a freedom rooted in heaven already where Christ himself sits. It is untouchable.
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