vi. The Official Letter of Complaints Acknowledged and Explained
I wrote to acknowledge receipt of the official letter on September 9 thus:
TO: ‘The 7 Leaders and their 7 Churches’
Dear brethren,
Thanks for your letter dated Sep. 1, 2004. You have raised some interesting points being disputed. Do you all have the same conviction on those 7 points? You have put your signature to them. Please read ‘The Order of Salvation As Summarized in the 1689 CoF’ that follows and let me know where you disagree with me or with the Confession. If you and your church members are not familiar with your own church doctrinal standard, it is a good time to do so.
Tell me if you still have the seven points of dispute after you read the article below. Then I will answer to each of those seven points. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain to the SDC some inconsistent and deficient beliefs. All e-mail exchanges on these disputed issues shall be copied to all the members of SDC, as per your request. Kindly reciprocate in kind. Let us settle the disputed points on level ground – i.e., let all your members know what is erroneous and what is truth. So please inform us of your church Secretary for this purpose. The secretary of SDC is Brother CKL. Pastor Lau, SDC.
P/s the short article on the Order of Salvation follows.
vii. The Order of Salvation As Summarized in the 1689 CoF
Studying through chapters 10-14 of the 1689 CoF, I have concluded that justification applied is prior to, and therefore, without faith; and that faith is the sole instrument to evidence or manifest the justification that has taken place at the effectual call when faith was an impossibility. This is in stark contrast to the standard reformed view that insists that ‘faith is the sole instrument to secure justification.’ I believe there is a vast difference between the justification legally accomplished at the cross, and the justification vitally applied to individual elect personallyat effectual calling on the one hand (11.4) and the experiential and evidential justification by faith at conversion on the other. The former two are legal, and personally, the last is experiential and subjective.
Here are some reasons for the above conclusion:
1. No one can believe unless he is first regenerated. “Unless one is born again, he cannot…” New birth from above must precede ability to believe.
2. The Holy Spirit does not regenerate anyone who is still under condemnation of sin. The Holy Spirit does not regenerate an elect unless God has first justified him, i.e., unless God has first removed the just condemnation of death upon him and applied to him personallythe righteousness of Christ. The Confession declares this so plainly – justification applied personally precedes regeneration. The Father must first apply the justification of life before the Holy Spirit will impart eternal life in effectual calling.
3. The personal faith in Christ made possible through the regeneration and adoption is therefore the result of justification that logically preceded regeneration.
4. Faith is not alone in the person justified, i.e. faith is one of the effect of prior justification.
The Confession gives this plain Order in the application of salvation. Please note the tight order in the sequence. Don’t despise logic. God’s word has a beautiful logic and harmony of its own. God always speaks logically to rational man made in His own image. God does not expect rational man made in His image to believe irrational and inconsistent propositions.
1689.10.1: “Those whom God hath predestined unto life, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ…” Here is the beginning of the application of salvation, the effectual calling of each elect unto eternal life at God’s appointed and approved time. There is no exception. Every elect is effectually called out of sin and death to righteousness and life at God’s appointed and accepted time in exactly the manner, even those elect mentioned in 10.2-3.
1689.11.1: “Those whom God effectually calleth He also free justifieth…”
Here is justification applied – when the Holy Spirit, in God’s appointed and accepted time, actually applies Christ to each elect at effectual calling (1689.11.4). Legal justification secured for all His elect by Christ at the cross is applied personally at effectual calling to life. Justification is the first gracious act of God in His effectually calling an elect to grace and salvation. Justification is the removal of the condemnation upon an elect and declaring him righteous. Removal of condemnation prepares an elect for regeneration and adoption – spiritual birth to become a child of God.
1689.12.1: “All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth… to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privilege of the children of God…”
Here is adoption through regeneration; born to be children of God. Regeneration follows after the justification applied, before faith, the act of believing, is possible. Please take careful note of this plain fact. Don’t overlook this simple fact.
All those whom God has predestinated to eternal life, He freely justifies in time; when they are ungodly, dead in sin and were children of wrath; by removing the just condemnation, and imputing freely the justification of life. These He also made partakers of the grace of adoption… i.e., regenerated by His Spirit and adopted to become His children. These adopted children are given the gifts of faith and repentance. These gifts are graces worked within them by the indwelling Holy Spirit. God bestows gifts to His justified living children, not to condemned dead children of wrath.
1689.13.1: “They who are effectually called, [justified] and regenerated [and adopted] are further sanctified really and personally…” Here is the definitive sanctification (effectually called to eternal life) making possible the further sanctification through the ministry of the word (really and personally sanctified further.) The phrase ‘are further sanctified’ presupposes the definitive once-for-all sanctification already accomplished through the effectual call. The once-for-all unrepeatable sanctification happened when an elect is separated from spiritual death to eternal life at effectual calling. Those who are definitively sanctified are further sanctified subjectively and experientially in the life-long further sanctification through the appointed means of grace. Please note that effectual call and regeneration are recognized as distinct gracious divine acts.
1689.14.1: “The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls… is ordinarily brought into being by the ministry of the Word.” This is the beginning of the process when the effectually called elect are further sanctified in a very real and personal way. This process of being further sanctified is initiated and maintained by the ministry of the word. This further sanctification begins at initial conversion to Christ through the gospel call, and continues throughout life. Faith is a saving grace, a fruit of salvation bestowed at effectual call, worked within them by the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.
Faith in Jesus Christ is only possible after regeneration. It is the effectual call unto life that enables an elect to answer to the gospel call unto faith. But justification (whether secured and imputed at the cross, or applied personally at effectual calling) clearly precedes regeneration – applying personally the justification to life must precede the actual imparting of life. Therefore faith clearly follows after the application of justification to each elect, as the Confession plainly declares. Therefore justification applied is prior to, and therefore without faith. However, experiential and/or evidential justification is by faith alone. Believing in Christ makes manifest that God has justified the person, as well as enabling the justified to experience the blessedness of having been justified by God's free grace.
Faith as “the sole instrument of justification” must then mean that faith is the sole instrument to evidence; to demonstrate the justification that has taken place by God’s free and sovereign grace at effectual calling. It certainly cannot mean that faith is the sole instrument to secure one’s justification – that’s the ‘standard reformed view’ that is an inconsistent and deficient expression of biblical teaching. Faith justifies in the sense that it declares, demonstrates, evidences, proves and vindicates a person to be one of God’s elect, redeemed and justified for Christ’s sake, regenerated by the Holy Spirit and bestowed with the gift of faith to believe.
Please consider 1Tim 3:16 where we read, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” Christ was justified in the Spirit! Did Christ need to be ‘made just’? Of course not! It means He was ‘declared to be, demonstrated to be, proved to be, and vindicated to be’ the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead Romans 1:4. The resurrection demonstrated and evidenced that Jesus Christ is indeed the very Son of God. It didn’t make Him to be the Son of God. He was already the Son of God, and the resurrection evidences and proves that fact. So also faith evidences the justified state of the person. It does not secure his justification.
1689.20.4: “Although the gospel be the only outward means of revealing Christ and saving grace, and is, as such, abundantly sufficient thereunto; yet that men who are dead in trespasses may be born again, quickened or regenerated, there is moreover necessary an effectual insuperable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul, for the producing in them a new spiritual life;(8) without which no other means will effect their conversion unto God. (9)" (8) Ps 110:3; 1Co 2:14; Eph 1:19-20. (9) Jn 6:44; 2Co. 4:4,6.
Living by faith in Jesus Christ – beginning at initial conversion at gospel call – is the only instrument appointed by God to evidence the effectual calling – i.e., justification, regeneration and adoption – of a person. Anything else is excluded. Faith in Christ and His righteousness is the sole instrument by which a man can consciously experience and enjoy the grace of righteousness before God, which is based on the legal justification at the cross, and applied to him at effectual call. Faith is the sole instrument through which God bestows the blessing of the grace of righteousness to a justified elect, Rom 4:1-8. [This is not the same as the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the elect! Christ’s righteousness for justification was legally imputed to all the elect at the cross; and personally applied at God’s appointed and accepted time when the elect was still ungodly and in enmity against God. See Section VIII on Justification & Faith for more on this.]
Justification by faith is the experiential aspect of justification, which is the fruit and consequence of the legal justification applied at effectual calling by free grace. Justification by faith belongs to the experimental aspect of justification… i.e., faith in Christ declares to our own conscience that, God, by His free grace, has indeed forgiven us of all our sins and declared us righteous for the sake of Christ our Redeemer. The just condemnation has been removed, justification to life declared and applied, and life has been given. Therefore we believe and experience the peace with God. Objective reconciliation through the legal justification at the cross and applied justification at effectual calling must precede any possibility of the personal and conscious experience of peace with God in the inner man through faith.
When God justifies the ungodly, God declares something about the ungodly. The question is: what does God declare about the person who is UNGODLY and in enmity against God at justification? When God justified us while we were still enemies, what did God declare about us when we were in a state of enmity against him? When faith justifies, faith declares something about the believing person. Question is: what does faith declare about the person who believes? Justification by God and justification by faith are obviously two very different and distinct matters, even though they are related. Distinction is the essence of sound theology.
Without justification, there is no regeneration. Is it not so plainly inconsistent and injurious to the character of the Triune God to say that the Holy Spirit will regenerate an elect upon whom the just condemnation of death still rests, whom the Father has not justified based upon the finished work of Christ, i.e., when the Father has not removed the condemnation of death and applied the justification of life secured by Christ? Without regeneration, there can be no faith. Therefore our justification applied to us personally must be prior to and without faith. Faith that follows regeneration and brought forth by the gospel call evidences and demonstrates the prior justification by pure and sovereign grace alone at effectual call. Only the adopted sons in whom the Holy Spirit has worked the grace of faith at effectual calling is able to exercise faith. None else can exercise saving faith!
I believe some careful distinction here is absolutely necessary to rightly divide the word of God. The objective and vital justification at effectual calling prior to faith is distinct from, and the prerequisite to, and the basis of, the experimental and subjective aspect of justification by faith in Christ. Distinguishing the two is necessary to rightly divide the Biblical teaching on justification. Do I make any sense at all? Am I spouting heresies – as charged by some? If I am, I would be profoundly grateful if someone can show me where I have erred with the teaching of Scriptures as summarized in the 1689 Confession of Faith?
Seeking and learning, Sing
Postscript: 1689.11.2 summarized “Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification;(6) yet it is not alone in the person justified, [it is not the only evidence of salvation] but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.”(7) (6) Ro 3:28. (7) Gal 5:6; Jas 2:17,22,26.
The words within […] are Dr. Masters’ commentary in the 1689 CoF that he republished in 1981. Please note the following observations from his statement that ‘faith is not the only evidence.’ If faith is not the only evidence in the person justified, then faith is necessarily one of the evidences in the person justified. If faith is not the only evidence of salvation, then it is an evidence of salvation. Salvation is applied at effectual calling to eternal life, which is accompanied by justification, regeneration and adoption – in that logical order and number. Therefore justification applied clearly precedes faith, which is then the sole instrument to evidence justification already applied. Since justification clearly precedes faith, it is irrational and inconsistent to say that faith is needed to secure justification. If justification clearly precedes faith, then it is obvious that faith is indeed the instrument to evidence the justified state and not the means to secure justification. Faith is the means to experience the blessedness of the justified state by free grace, certainly not the means to secure justification.
If faith ‘is ever accompanied with all other saving graces’ then faith is a saving grace among others. Saving grace is a product of salvation bestowed at the effectual calling unto eternal life. A product of salvation declares or evidences the possession of salvation already bestowed when God effectually called to eternal life. How can a product of salvation be the means to secure the same salvation? This is like saying that breath, a product of life, is the means to secure life. It is irrational and logically fallacious at best, and anti-biblical at worst.
Faith that is ‘ordinarily brought into being by the ministry of the Word’ would necessarily be the evidence of effectual call to eternal salvation, i.e., evidence of justification, regeneration and adoption. The effectual call to eternal life is the necessary prerequisite to enable an elect to answer to the gospel call. 1689.10.2 summarizes: “Man is dead in sins and trespasses until quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit. By this [i.e., the regeneration at effectual call] he is enabled to answer the call [the gospel call to faith in Christ and repentance towards God], and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by it.” Only an elect effectually called to life – i.e. justified, regenerated and adopted - has life to answer and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by the gospel call. Dead men have no life to answer or embrace anything!
I have heard of the irrational notion that the effectual call is to enable an elect to answer to the same effectual call. The simple and most obvious truth is that the effectual call unto life is to enable an elect to answer to the gospel call – for in the gospel call alone is grace declared and conveyed to the elect already effectually called unto life. Only such will receive the gospel – the good news is already true of them!
What confusion and obfuscation are produced when theologians confound the divine effectual call of the spiritually dead elect to eternal life and salvation with the human gospel call made effectual (divinely blessed) to the conversion of the regenerated elect! We will look at this more later.
In 1647, William Kiffin, one of the principal movers and signers of both the First (1644) and the Second (1689) London Baptist Confession of Faith stated in black and white these words:
“Justification By Christ Alone Sets Forth the True Place of Faith in Salvation As An Evidence of Interest In Christ … That the Scripture holds forth justification by faith in a sense is very clear, but yet under no other consideration, but by way of evidence…” [End quote. From Kiffin’s introduction to the long article on ‘Justification by Christ Alone.’] I believe this Particular Baptist forefather has stated the exact truth summarized in the 1689 CoF.
I wrote to acknowledge receipt of the official letter on September 9 thus:
TO: ‘The 7 Leaders and their 7 Churches’
Dear brethren,
Thanks for your letter dated Sep. 1, 2004. You have raised some interesting points being disputed. Do you all have the same conviction on those 7 points? You have put your signature to them. Please read ‘The Order of Salvation As Summarized in the 1689 CoF’ that follows and let me know where you disagree with me or with the Confession. If you and your church members are not familiar with your own church doctrinal standard, it is a good time to do so.
Tell me if you still have the seven points of dispute after you read the article below. Then I will answer to each of those seven points. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain to the SDC some inconsistent and deficient beliefs. All e-mail exchanges on these disputed issues shall be copied to all the members of SDC, as per your request. Kindly reciprocate in kind. Let us settle the disputed points on level ground – i.e., let all your members know what is erroneous and what is truth. So please inform us of your church Secretary for this purpose. The secretary of SDC is Brother CKL. Pastor Lau, SDC.
P/s the short article on the Order of Salvation follows.
vii. The Order of Salvation As Summarized in the 1689 CoF
Studying through chapters 10-14 of the 1689 CoF, I have concluded that justification applied is prior to, and therefore, without faith; and that faith is the sole instrument to evidence or manifest the justification that has taken place at the effectual call when faith was an impossibility. This is in stark contrast to the standard reformed view that insists that ‘faith is the sole instrument to secure justification.’ I believe there is a vast difference between the justification legally accomplished at the cross, and the justification vitally applied to individual elect personallyat effectual calling on the one hand (11.4) and the experiential and evidential justification by faith at conversion on the other. The former two are legal, and personally, the last is experiential and subjective.
Here are some reasons for the above conclusion:
1. No one can believe unless he is first regenerated. “Unless one is born again, he cannot…” New birth from above must precede ability to believe.
2. The Holy Spirit does not regenerate anyone who is still under condemnation of sin. The Holy Spirit does not regenerate an elect unless God has first justified him, i.e., unless God has first removed the just condemnation of death upon him and applied to him personallythe righteousness of Christ. The Confession declares this so plainly – justification applied personally precedes regeneration. The Father must first apply the justification of life before the Holy Spirit will impart eternal life in effectual calling.
3. The personal faith in Christ made possible through the regeneration and adoption is therefore the result of justification that logically preceded regeneration.
4. Faith is not alone in the person justified, i.e. faith is one of the effect of prior justification.
The Confession gives this plain Order in the application of salvation. Please note the tight order in the sequence. Don’t despise logic. God’s word has a beautiful logic and harmony of its own. God always speaks logically to rational man made in His own image. God does not expect rational man made in His image to believe irrational and inconsistent propositions.
1689.10.1: “Those whom God hath predestined unto life, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ…” Here is the beginning of the application of salvation, the effectual calling of each elect unto eternal life at God’s appointed and approved time. There is no exception. Every elect is effectually called out of sin and death to righteousness and life at God’s appointed and accepted time in exactly the manner, even those elect mentioned in 10.2-3.
1689.11.1: “Those whom God effectually calleth He also free justifieth…”
Here is justification applied – when the Holy Spirit, in God’s appointed and accepted time, actually applies Christ to each elect at effectual calling (1689.11.4). Legal justification secured for all His elect by Christ at the cross is applied personally at effectual calling to life. Justification is the first gracious act of God in His effectually calling an elect to grace and salvation. Justification is the removal of the condemnation upon an elect and declaring him righteous. Removal of condemnation prepares an elect for regeneration and adoption – spiritual birth to become a child of God.
1689.12.1: “All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth… to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privilege of the children of God…”
Here is adoption through regeneration; born to be children of God. Regeneration follows after the justification applied, before faith, the act of believing, is possible. Please take careful note of this plain fact. Don’t overlook this simple fact.
All those whom God has predestinated to eternal life, He freely justifies in time; when they are ungodly, dead in sin and were children of wrath; by removing the just condemnation, and imputing freely the justification of life. These He also made partakers of the grace of adoption… i.e., regenerated by His Spirit and adopted to become His children. These adopted children are given the gifts of faith and repentance. These gifts are graces worked within them by the indwelling Holy Spirit. God bestows gifts to His justified living children, not to condemned dead children of wrath.
1689.13.1: “They who are effectually called, [justified] and regenerated [and adopted] are further sanctified really and personally…” Here is the definitive sanctification (effectually called to eternal life) making possible the further sanctification through the ministry of the word (really and personally sanctified further.) The phrase ‘are further sanctified’ presupposes the definitive once-for-all sanctification already accomplished through the effectual call. The once-for-all unrepeatable sanctification happened when an elect is separated from spiritual death to eternal life at effectual calling. Those who are definitively sanctified are further sanctified subjectively and experientially in the life-long further sanctification through the appointed means of grace. Please note that effectual call and regeneration are recognized as distinct gracious divine acts.
1689.14.1: “The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls… is ordinarily brought into being by the ministry of the Word.” This is the beginning of the process when the effectually called elect are further sanctified in a very real and personal way. This process of being further sanctified is initiated and maintained by the ministry of the word. This further sanctification begins at initial conversion to Christ through the gospel call, and continues throughout life. Faith is a saving grace, a fruit of salvation bestowed at effectual call, worked within them by the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.
Faith in Jesus Christ is only possible after regeneration. It is the effectual call unto life that enables an elect to answer to the gospel call unto faith. But justification (whether secured and imputed at the cross, or applied personally at effectual calling) clearly precedes regeneration – applying personally the justification to life must precede the actual imparting of life. Therefore faith clearly follows after the application of justification to each elect, as the Confession plainly declares. Therefore justification applied is prior to, and therefore without faith. However, experiential and/or evidential justification is by faith alone. Believing in Christ makes manifest that God has justified the person, as well as enabling the justified to experience the blessedness of having been justified by God's free grace.
Faith as “the sole instrument of justification” must then mean that faith is the sole instrument to evidence; to demonstrate the justification that has taken place by God’s free and sovereign grace at effectual calling. It certainly cannot mean that faith is the sole instrument to secure one’s justification – that’s the ‘standard reformed view’ that is an inconsistent and deficient expression of biblical teaching. Faith justifies in the sense that it declares, demonstrates, evidences, proves and vindicates a person to be one of God’s elect, redeemed and justified for Christ’s sake, regenerated by the Holy Spirit and bestowed with the gift of faith to believe.
Please consider 1Tim 3:16 where we read, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” Christ was justified in the Spirit! Did Christ need to be ‘made just’? Of course not! It means He was ‘declared to be, demonstrated to be, proved to be, and vindicated to be’ the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead Romans 1:4. The resurrection demonstrated and evidenced that Jesus Christ is indeed the very Son of God. It didn’t make Him to be the Son of God. He was already the Son of God, and the resurrection evidences and proves that fact. So also faith evidences the justified state of the person. It does not secure his justification.
1689.20.4: “Although the gospel be the only outward means of revealing Christ and saving grace, and is, as such, abundantly sufficient thereunto; yet that men who are dead in trespasses may be born again, quickened or regenerated, there is moreover necessary an effectual insuperable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul, for the producing in them a new spiritual life;(8) without which no other means will effect their conversion unto God. (9)" (8) Ps 110:3; 1Co 2:14; Eph 1:19-20. (9) Jn 6:44; 2Co. 4:4,6.
Living by faith in Jesus Christ – beginning at initial conversion at gospel call – is the only instrument appointed by God to evidence the effectual calling – i.e., justification, regeneration and adoption – of a person. Anything else is excluded. Faith in Christ and His righteousness is the sole instrument by which a man can consciously experience and enjoy the grace of righteousness before God, which is based on the legal justification at the cross, and applied to him at effectual call. Faith is the sole instrument through which God bestows the blessing of the grace of righteousness to a justified elect, Rom 4:1-8. [This is not the same as the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the elect! Christ’s righteousness for justification was legally imputed to all the elect at the cross; and personally applied at God’s appointed and accepted time when the elect was still ungodly and in enmity against God. See Section VIII on Justification & Faith for more on this.]
Justification by faith is the experiential aspect of justification, which is the fruit and consequence of the legal justification applied at effectual calling by free grace. Justification by faith belongs to the experimental aspect of justification… i.e., faith in Christ declares to our own conscience that, God, by His free grace, has indeed forgiven us of all our sins and declared us righteous for the sake of Christ our Redeemer. The just condemnation has been removed, justification to life declared and applied, and life has been given. Therefore we believe and experience the peace with God. Objective reconciliation through the legal justification at the cross and applied justification at effectual calling must precede any possibility of the personal and conscious experience of peace with God in the inner man through faith.
When God justifies the ungodly, God declares something about the ungodly. The question is: what does God declare about the person who is UNGODLY and in enmity against God at justification? When God justified us while we were still enemies, what did God declare about us when we were in a state of enmity against him? When faith justifies, faith declares something about the believing person. Question is: what does faith declare about the person who believes? Justification by God and justification by faith are obviously two very different and distinct matters, even though they are related. Distinction is the essence of sound theology.
Without justification, there is no regeneration. Is it not so plainly inconsistent and injurious to the character of the Triune God to say that the Holy Spirit will regenerate an elect upon whom the just condemnation of death still rests, whom the Father has not justified based upon the finished work of Christ, i.e., when the Father has not removed the condemnation of death and applied the justification of life secured by Christ? Without regeneration, there can be no faith. Therefore our justification applied to us personally must be prior to and without faith. Faith that follows regeneration and brought forth by the gospel call evidences and demonstrates the prior justification by pure and sovereign grace alone at effectual call. Only the adopted sons in whom the Holy Spirit has worked the grace of faith at effectual calling is able to exercise faith. None else can exercise saving faith!
I believe some careful distinction here is absolutely necessary to rightly divide the word of God. The objective and vital justification at effectual calling prior to faith is distinct from, and the prerequisite to, and the basis of, the experimental and subjective aspect of justification by faith in Christ. Distinguishing the two is necessary to rightly divide the Biblical teaching on justification. Do I make any sense at all? Am I spouting heresies – as charged by some? If I am, I would be profoundly grateful if someone can show me where I have erred with the teaching of Scriptures as summarized in the 1689 Confession of Faith?
Seeking and learning, Sing
Postscript: 1689.11.2 summarized “Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification;(6) yet it is not alone in the person justified, [it is not the only evidence of salvation] but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.”(7) (6) Ro 3:28. (7) Gal 5:6; Jas 2:17,22,26.
The words within […] are Dr. Masters’ commentary in the 1689 CoF that he republished in 1981. Please note the following observations from his statement that ‘faith is not the only evidence.’ If faith is not the only evidence in the person justified, then faith is necessarily one of the evidences in the person justified. If faith is not the only evidence of salvation, then it is an evidence of salvation. Salvation is applied at effectual calling to eternal life, which is accompanied by justification, regeneration and adoption – in that logical order and number. Therefore justification applied clearly precedes faith, which is then the sole instrument to evidence justification already applied. Since justification clearly precedes faith, it is irrational and inconsistent to say that faith is needed to secure justification. If justification clearly precedes faith, then it is obvious that faith is indeed the instrument to evidence the justified state and not the means to secure justification. Faith is the means to experience the blessedness of the justified state by free grace, certainly not the means to secure justification.
If faith ‘is ever accompanied with all other saving graces’ then faith is a saving grace among others. Saving grace is a product of salvation bestowed at the effectual calling unto eternal life. A product of salvation declares or evidences the possession of salvation already bestowed when God effectually called to eternal life. How can a product of salvation be the means to secure the same salvation? This is like saying that breath, a product of life, is the means to secure life. It is irrational and logically fallacious at best, and anti-biblical at worst.
Faith that is ‘ordinarily brought into being by the ministry of the Word’ would necessarily be the evidence of effectual call to eternal salvation, i.e., evidence of justification, regeneration and adoption. The effectual call to eternal life is the necessary prerequisite to enable an elect to answer to the gospel call. 1689.10.2 summarizes: “Man is dead in sins and trespasses until quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit. By this [i.e., the regeneration at effectual call] he is enabled to answer the call [the gospel call to faith in Christ and repentance towards God], and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by it.” Only an elect effectually called to life – i.e. justified, regenerated and adopted - has life to answer and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by the gospel call. Dead men have no life to answer or embrace anything!
I have heard of the irrational notion that the effectual call is to enable an elect to answer to the same effectual call. The simple and most obvious truth is that the effectual call unto life is to enable an elect to answer to the gospel call – for in the gospel call alone is grace declared and conveyed to the elect already effectually called unto life. Only such will receive the gospel – the good news is already true of them!
What confusion and obfuscation are produced when theologians confound the divine effectual call of the spiritually dead elect to eternal life and salvation with the human gospel call made effectual (divinely blessed) to the conversion of the regenerated elect! We will look at this more later.
In 1647, William Kiffin, one of the principal movers and signers of both the First (1644) and the Second (1689) London Baptist Confession of Faith stated in black and white these words:
“Justification By Christ Alone Sets Forth the True Place of Faith in Salvation As An Evidence of Interest In Christ … That the Scripture holds forth justification by faith in a sense is very clear, but yet under no other consideration, but by way of evidence…” [End quote. From Kiffin’s introduction to the long article on ‘Justification by Christ Alone.’] I believe this Particular Baptist forefather has stated the exact truth summarized in the 1689 CoF.
