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1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 10: Of Effectual Calling - Commentary

Simon Wartanian | 22,283 views | 14,049 words | 1:13:47 hours | 04 March 2015 21:42

...ods-Decree-Commentary/1022#Reprobation"Reprobation. That this is the case may be seen from the passages which describe, for example, what things keep us from heaven. Nowhere do we read of people being sent to hell because of Adam’s sin. Let us admit that the Bible is simply silent on whether there are children in hell/Hades. You may check all the references that Dr. MacArthur gives where things are described which keep us out of heaven, in no list is there anything other than willful disobedience to the Law of God. They are choices that we consciously make and sinful lifestyles that we live in. Furthermore, we are also judged according to our works. 2 Corinthians 5:10 declares, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” We are to answer for what we have done in our body. Notice that we do not have to answer for Adam’s sin. Adam’s sin makes us incapable of righteousness and faith apart from the sovereign Holy Spirit. But we will not answer for Adam’s sin, but our own. Romans 2:6 says, “He will render to each one according to his works”. The Son of Man “will repay each person according to what he has done” (Matt. 16:27; see also 1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 2:23; 20:12; 22:12; see also chapter 32). All this serves to demonstrate that we are not judged for Adam’s sin, but for our own personal sinning and that this judgment is according to what we have done in the body.

How Are They Saved?

It is certainly a special operation of the Spirit unlike the one we know wherein He regenerates them. The Confession in this paragraph states, “Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit; who worketh when, and where, and how he pleases; so also are all elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.” They are saved by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit and by the Lord Jesus Christ. They are saved from damnation. Had they been sinless or not subjects of damnation, there would be no need for them to be saved. This is also the case for all who are incapable of being outwardly called. For those who are capable of being outwardly called, the Confession in the first paragraph said that this happens “by his Word and Spirit”. But since these persons under consideration in paragraph 3 are not capable of being outwardly called, they are saved by the special operation of the Holy Spirit and by Jesus Christ, their Savior.

We don’t have many examples, therefore, we must be careful in this. But there is the example of John the Baptist who was saved from the womb. Luke 1:15 says that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. This language of being filled with the Holy Spirit is always associated with believers, never with unbelievers. See for example Luke 1:41, 67; 4:1; Acts 2:4; 4:8; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9, 52; Ephesians 5:18. In every instance, it speaks exclusively about believers, therefore we have the warrant to believe that John was indeed regenerated and given the Holy Spirit even from the womb—before he was born, he was already saved. Therefore, it is perhaps also the case with those who die in the womb or infancy. The important thing is that they are saved by the Spirit and through Christ’s blood, not because of their righteousness.

Conclusion

God is absolutely sovereign over life and death, salvation and damnation. It is not luck or fate whi...

1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 11: Of Justification - Commentary

Simon Wartanian | 25,015 views | 23,400 words | 2:03:21 hours | 04 March 2015 21:54

The 1689 Second Baptist Confession Of Faith Confession Commentary Reformed Baptist Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven Justification Justification By Faith Alone Sola Fide Sola Gratia Imputed Righteousness Infused Righteousness Roman Catholicism Protestantism

...s death, and his obedience is imputed to us for righteousness. For as the righteousness of faith consists in remission of sins and a gracious acceptance, we obtain both through Christ.”^[8]

Jeremiah speaks of a time when the LORD will become our righteousness (Jer. 23:6). It is He Who forms the basis of our right-standing before and with God. That which will enable us to stand before the throne of God and not be consumed in His wrath is the fact that we have the righteousness of Christ credited to us, which is able to make us stand before the “holy, holy, holy” God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is inescapable on this point:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

See our discussion of this passage in chapter 8 for the substitutionary atonement.

God was pleased (Isa. 53:10 KJV) to place our sins upon Christ and treat Him as though the Righteous and Sinless had done every sin we have done. There was a purpose for this (“so that”). The purpose is that we should become righteous and this righteousness would be the righteousness of God, not of our own in accordance with the promise of Jeremiah 23:6. Barnes comments on the above passage, saying:

That we might be made the righteousness of God - This is a Hebraism, meaning the same as divinely righteous. It means that we are made righteous in the sight of God; that is, that we are accepted as righteous, and treated as righteous by God on account of what the Lord Jesus has done. There is here an evident and beautiful contrast between what is said of Christ, and what is said of us. He was made sin; we are made righteousness; that is, he was treated as if he were a sinner, though he was perfectly holy and pure; we are treated as if we were righteous, though we are defiled and depraved. The idea is, that on account of what the Lord Jesus has endured in our behalf we are treated as if we had ourselves entirely fulfilled the Law of God, and bad never become exposed to its penalty. In the phrase “righteousness of God,” there is a reference to the fact that this is his plan of making people righteous, or of justifying them.^[9]

How amazing is the grace of God that He should give His Son for our pardon and cleansing?! I can stand before the thrice-holy God without being consumed because I am legally pardoned because of what Christ did for me! I, the sinner, am treated like the sinless Son of God!

In Romans 4, Paul largely argues for justification by faith alone by taking the example of David and Abraham. The thesis which he is trying to establish is that justification by faith has always been the way people were saved. Concerning Abraham, he says:

Rom. 4:22-24 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,

This refers to the episode in Genesis 15 where the Lord promises Abram descendants as many as the stars of heaven and Abram believes the promise and then the words which Paul is referring to are declared:

Gen. 15:6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

In this connection, it is good to take a look at some Greek words which are important for our discussion.

Logizomai and Dikaioo

The Lord counted Abram’s faith as righteousness, not any deed he had done (we will discuss the details of thi...

1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 27: Of the Communion of Saints

Simon Wartanian | 12,208 views | 4,813 words | 0:25:13 hours | 06 March 2015 23:08

The 1689 Second Baptist Confession Of Faith Confession Commentary Reformed Baptist Chapter 27 Of The Communion Of Saints Fellowship Christian Love Union With Christ

...the heavenly reign of Christ (Eph. 2:6). Furthermore, Scripture encourages to live as Christ currently lives His resurrection life (Rom. 6:2-11).

Our Lives

The elect were not only united with Christ in His life, death, and resurrection in the past, but they are also, in the present, intimately united with Him through faith. The Scriptures teach that our regeneration and new life is the result of our union with Christ. Paul writes that “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5). A few verses later he also says that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph. 2:10). In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the apostle says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This great blessing of new life is a result of union with Christ.

Our justification by faith has its source in our union with Christ. Paul says that our justification was in Him (Rom. 3:24; Gal. 2:16-17) and that our righteousness is likewise because we are united with Him (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:8-9). Not only justification, but sanctification is likewise a blessing from union with Christ. The apostle Paul writes that “because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Because we are in Him, we have sanctification which comes from Him. Sanctification is the new life given to us in Jesus Christ. Thus the apostle Paul tells us that “our “walk[ing] in newness of life” is because of our union with Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5). He also says:

Rom. 6:6-11 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

We see here that Paul says the reason for our union with Christ in His death was so that we would die to sin and sin might lose its power over us. Since we have died with Christ, we will also now live with Him. Christ lives His resurrection life in His people through the Spirit Whom He poured on us. Just as the Lord Christ died and was raised to life, so likewise we should die to sin and live to God in Christ. Our Christian life is to be lived in, with, and because of Christ. To die to sin is an essential part of Christian sanctification, therefore we see that even our sanctification is because of our union with Christ. In Christ, we have everything we need for the Christian life. We are even living with Him (Rom. 6:8, 11). Dr. Wayne Grudem writes:

John writes, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11), and Paul speaks of “the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:1). We read that “in Christ” are “faith and love” (1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Tim. 1:13), “grace” (2 Tim. 2:1), “salvation” (2 Tim. 2:10), “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3) and God’s “riches in glory” (Phil. 4:19). Paul says that it is because of God’s work that Christians are “in Christ Jesus, whom God made our ...