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 7, paragraph 3c: “…and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality…”
Saying that my salvation is by “grace alone”, as I most certainly love to proclaim, has massive implications that take my thoughts entirely into the triune God alone, and leave all of the rest of my thoughts behind…purposefully.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16. “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2. Above cited in the confession is what Scripture’s saying in all such passages. The Bible’s authors are saying that salvation was only made possible for all of the elect through one grace fully realized on the Cross whether you’re talking about those already redeemed in Christ in the first century, or of the one born of the Holy Spirit just today in 2017. He Jesus, on that Cross and only once for all (even for the elect before him incarnated) is the propitiation for the sins every one of the elect, for all of the whosoever(s). Cf. Acts 13:48.
Happy New Year by the way!
Here we see another facet of this paragraph’s strong emphasis on salvation as part of a planned, prophesied, built upon throughout history, and now fully revealed work of God in redemptive history. For many Christians, salvation was somehow a plan B in God’s mind for earth. This is hazardous. Scripture reveals that there is no such thing as plan B. The Molinist is perhaps even more wrong than the Arminian. Romans 5:8, I think, pulls together most if not all of the elements of God’s planned gospel well. It reads, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” There had to be sin and death for this plan to occur, and so enter us and the devil- the secondary causes.
It is the grace promised by God to the elect (cf. Romans 8:29-30; 11:2; Ephesians 1-2:10; Hebrews 2) from before history began that decrees, accomplishes progressively and then calls out to/brings the elect into the ark of salvation.
Grace is not a quid pro quo. God’s grace is the means by which we obtain the faith in which we now stand. We are all of fallen Adam. Everyone reading this, whether you like it or not, is either still a fallen descendent of Adam, or a now-redeemed former fallen son or daughter of Adam. Hence grace is only possible through mercy. And mercy only through the Cross of Jesus Christ.
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