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1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 13: Of Sanctification - Commentary

Simon Wartanian | 16,139 views | 16,934 words | 1:29:010 hours | 05 March 2015 18:23

... is called God’s “holy servant” (Acts 4:27; cf. 3:14). Here reference to “holy” means belonging to and authorized by God and thus, resisting Jesus is equivalent to resisting God.

Second, the proper sphere of the holy in the NT is not priestly or ritual but the prophetic. The sacred no longer belongs to things, places, or rites, but to manifestations of life produced by the Spirit. In Paul’s letters those who name Jesus as their Lord are called hagoi, “saints.” This is not primarily an ethical expression but is parallel to being “called” (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2), “chosen” (Rom. 8:33; Col. 3:12), and “Faithful” (Col. 1:2). It implies association with the Holy Spirit. Christ is the one in whom believers become holy to the true God (see 1 Cor. 6:11). The power to do so comes from the risen Christ, who operates according to the Spirit of holiness (Rom. 1:4). In these cases holiness refers to a relationship with God that is not mediated through ritual (ceremonial) observance but through the leading of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14). Spiritual worship is the offering of oneself as a living, holy sacrifice, acceptable to God (Rom. 12:1).^[8]

This word is also used all over the LXX. This is the word used in the name the Holy Spirit; this is the word which is used of the “saints”; this is the word which is used of that which is separated for religious use. Louis Berkhof observes that hagios is “The really characteristic word of the New Testament” and ”Its primary meaning is that of separation in consecration and devotion to the service of God. With this, is connected the idea that what is set aside from the world for God, should also separate itself from the world’s defilement and share in God’s purity. This explains the fact that hagios speedily acquired an ethical signification.”

Next up is the noun ἁγιασμός (hagiasmos, G38). This word is used 10 times in the New Testament and it could basically be translated as “holiness” or “sanctification.” Mounce explains that hagiasmos '(“holiness, sanctification, consecration”) is generally used in the NT in the moral sense, referring to the process (or the final result of that process) of making pure or holy.”^[8] So, Paul says that we should no longer present our bodily members as “slaves to impurity and to lawlessness”, but as “slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” or holiness (Rom. 6:19). While we are now ahead of ourselves, here we see that sanctification does not merely affect us internally, but externally also in what we do with our bodily members for example. In Romans 6:22, we are set free from sin and the fruit from that “leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” 1 Corinthians 1:30 teaches that Christ has even become “sanctification” to us, which He does by His Holy Spirit, the Agent of sanctification. God’s will and calling are for our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3, 7) and the purpose is that we “[may] know how to control [our] own body in holiness and honor” (1 Thess. 4:4). Our salvation was “through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” according to 2 Thessalonians 2:13. There is a kind or degree of holiness which we must possess “without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14), which the Lord works in us through discipline (Heb. 12:10, a different word is used here than hagiasmos). According to 1 Peter 1:2, our election “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” was “in the sanctification of the Spirit”. Then there is the use in 1 Timo...

1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 2: Of God and of the Holy Trinity - Commentary

Simon Wartanian | 23,723 views | 28,880 words | 2:33:55 hours | 04 March 2015 20:55

The Second Baptist Confession Of Faith Confession Commentary Chapter 2 God Trinity Attributes Of God Immutability Repentance Of God Love Of God Justice Of God Spirituality Of God Monotheism

...I AM WHO I AM.” It is a basic and most fundamental observation that in the Bible names represent the nature and character of the people who bear them. Names are not merely nice-sounding, but they say something about the name-bearer. The name of God, YHWH, represents all the perfections of God and God explains it as “I AM WHO I AM.” In essence and at the most minimal level, this name teaches the absolute independence of God. He is what He is because of Himself. John Gill notes on this passage saying that “This signifies the real being of God, his self-existence, and that he is the Being of beings; as also it denotes his eternity and immutability, and his constancy and Faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, for it includes all time, past, present, and to come; and the sense is, not only I am what I am at present, but I am what I have been, and I am what I shall be, and shall be what I am.”^[4]

The Bible over and over again declares the independence of God from the created world. Paul on the Areopagus declares that the true God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything,” but in contrast, “he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). This is the scriptural proof for our assertion that God is the Independent Being on Whom all creation depends. Scriptures teaches that God owns all things (Deut. 10:14; Job 41:11; Ps. 24:1; 50:10-12; 80:11). He is called “the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:22). 1 Chronicles 29:11 majestically declares, “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.” All that we have comes from His hand. John the Baptist says that “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven” (John 3:27; cf. Jas 1:17). Amazingly, in 1 Chronicles 29, King David acknowledges that when we give things to God, we are giving Him things which He has given us. For all the offerings which the people brought for the Temple, David thanks the Lord and says, “For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you” (1 Chron. 29:14). Job 41:11 (see also Rom. 11:35-36) says, “Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.” Nobody has given to God anything which was not His in the first place. That’s what the Lord Jesus said in Luke 17:10, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

Even before the creation—before the eyes of men and angels could gaze at the glory of God, the Lord Jesus speaks of His glory. In John 17:5 we read, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” God—both Father and Son, existed and had glory before the world existed. This implies that the glory of God is underived and independent from the world. In creation, the glory of God is manifested to creatures, but it is not increased as if God was less glorious before He created. God was love even before the creation (John 17:24) because love was there between the three Persons of the Trinity. The glory and love of God are independent of the created world but have their basis in Himself alone.

We sound the praise of God along with Paul, saying, ‘“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be...

1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 6: Of the Fall of Man, Of Sin, And of the Punishment Thereof - Commentary

Simon Wartanian | 18,139 views | 7,955 words | 0:42:14 hours | 04 March 2015 21:18

The 1689 Second Baptist Confession Of Faith Confession Commentary Reformed Baptist Chapter 6 Fall Of Man Sin Condemnation Total Depravity Total Inability Original Sin Federal Headship

...ability better expresses the point of the doctrine in saying that we are totally unable to do anything that is pleasing to God. Let’s define Total Depravity.

Because of the Fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt. His will is not free; it is in bondage to his evil nature. Therefore, he will not –indeed, he cannot—choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently, takes much more than the Spirit’s assistance to bring a sinner to Christ. Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not salvation, but itself a part of God’s gift of salvation. It is God’s gift to the sinner, not the sinner’s gift to God.^[6]

This is a pretty good definition of what Calvinists believe about the state of the unregenerate man. Now let us see what the Bible says. Here is a list of verses on Total Depravity.

Man’s Intentions Are Evil

Gen. 8:21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.

Even from the beginning of our lives our motives are evil. This, the Lord God, said after the Flood, after cleansing the earth from wickedness. The Flood did not change human nature, but it demonstrated God’s hatred and abhorrence of sin and what has become of His good creation. The same was said before the Flood (Gen. 6:5). Here it is said that our intentions–our motives, goals, purposes, ends, aims are evil from our youth. From the very beginning of our lives we are evil and what we do is evil. John Gill notes the following in Genesis 8:21–

for the imagination of man’s heart [is] evil from his youth; his nature is depraved, his heart is corrupt, the thoughts of it evil, yea, the imagination of it, and of them, is sinful, and that originally, even from his birth; from the time he is shook out of his mother’s womb, as Jarchi interprets the phrase: man is conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity, and is a transgressor from the womb, and so a child of wrath, and deserving of the curse of the law upon himself, and all that belong to him; and yet this is given as a reason why God will not any more curse the ground for his sake: that which was a reason for destroying the earth, is now one against it, see Ge 6:5 which may be reconciled thus, God for this reason destroyed the earth once, for an example, and to display his justice; but such is his clemency and mercy, that he will do it no more to the end of the world; considering that man has brought himself into such a condition, that he cannot but sin, it is natural to him from his birth; his nature is tainted with it, his heart is full of it, and all his thoughts and imaginations are wicked and sinful, from whence continually flow a train of actual sins and transgressions; so that if God was to curse and drown the world as often as man sins, he must be continually doing it; for the words may be rendered, “though the imagination of man’s heart is evil“, c. {h} yet I will not do it; and so they are expressive of the super abounding grace of God over abounding sin:^[7]

Charles Ellicott comments on the Genesis 6:5, saying, “More exactly, form, shape. Thus every idea or embodied thought, which presented itself to the mind through the working of the ...

Limited Atonement, Definite Redemption - Scripture List & Case

Simon Wartanian | 7,245 views | 6,400 words | 0:32:47 hours | 23 March 2014 20:51

Calvinism Election Predestination Mercy Sovereignty Verse List God Is In Control Unconditional Election Sovereign Grace

... their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The intention of Christ in His cross-work was to save His people specifically. Therefore, Christ’s sacrifice is perfect and complete, for it actually accomplishes perfect redemption.[1]

Christ’s redeeming work was intended to save the elect only and actually secured salvation for them. His death was a substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners. In addition to putting away the sins of His people, Christ’s redemption secured everything necessary for their salvation, including Faith, which unites them to Him. The gift of Faith is infallibly applied by the Spirit to all for whom Christ died, thereby guaranteeing their salvation.[2]

For a defense of this doctrine see here.

The Atonement of the Lord Jesus was Penal Substitutionary/Vicarious

Penal substitutionary atonement refers to the doctrine that Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinners. God imputed the guilt of our sins to Christ, and he, in our place, bore the punishment that we deserve. This was a full payment for sins, which satisfied both the wrath and the righteousness of God, so that He could forgive sinners without compromising His own holy standard.[3]

Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isa 53:12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Rom 3:21-25 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through Faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by Faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

2Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Gal 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through Faith.

Heb 9:25-28 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Heb 13:11-12 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

1Pet 2:24...

1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 27: Of the Communion of Saints

Simon Wartanian | 11,313 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

...marker-13-1">^ William D. Mounce. ὀφειλω. ...

1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 32: Of the Last Judgment - Commentary

Simon Wartanian | 15,789 views | 16,377 words | 1:25:50 hours | 06 March 2015 23:30

The 1689 Second Baptist Confession Of Faith Confession Commentary Reformed Baptist Chapter 32 Last Judgment Eternal Hell Eternal Suffering Lake Of Fire

...proves because God has spoken in Holy Writ. On the other hand, the Gentiles do not have a special revelation of God, but they only have the general revelation of God in the created world. This does not excuse them because the apostle says very clearly that they knew God and that’s why their without an excuse (Rom 1:20). Yet Scripture makes clear that their final condition will be a bit different than those who had a wider knowledge of God’s will. This does not mean that they will not go to Hell, but rather, their torment will be “lighter” than those who receive a “severe beating” (Matt. 11:21-24). A person who has gone to church for a long time, heard the Faithful preaching of God’s Word, heard the gospel proclaimed and he denied it, will receive a severe beating, while a man living in the jungles of Africa will likewise be condemned, but his condition will be “lighter” in comparison to that rejector of the gospel. This is no basis to ignore foreign missions or ignore sharing the gospel with people who are un-churched or do not know much about God and the Bible. They will be judged and they will be in torment, it does not matter if their condition will be “lighter” in comparison to others. They still need saving. They need the gospel to escape the righteous judgment of God.

According To Works

The most difficult aspect of the judgment is the fact that we are judged by our works. That this is the case is evident from several biblical passages in both testaments, such as: Job 34:11; Psalm 62:12; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Jeremiah 17:10; 32:19; Matthew 16:27; 25:34-46; John 5:28-29; Romans 2:6; 14:10-12; 1 Corinthians 3:8; 4:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians 3:25; 2 Timothy 4:14; 1 Peter 1:17; Revelation 2:23; 20:12; 22:12. Does this mean that we are justified by our works? Not at all. Scripture is clear that salvation and justification are by grace through Faith (e.g., Eph. 2:8-9, see also here). Not only that, but our works are explicitly excluded from any part in salvation and justification (Rom. 3:28; 4:6; Gal. 2:16).

Therefore, how should we understand these two biblical truths? For those who believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, the option cannot be that Paul or the other authors of Scripture are contradicting themselves, rather, it is what it is. The Bible teaches that we are justified by Faith apart from our works, yet in the future, at the Last Judgment, we will be judged according to our works. Our works done in the body will determine either our eternal rewards or our eternal misery. The Lord Jesus teaches us that we will have to give an account even for our words (Matt. 12:36-37). Thoughts are also included. All wickedness gets born in the heart and starts from there until it gives birth to the deeds. Lust, which is something mental (i.e., not an external act as adultery is), is declared by our Lord to be a violation of the Law (Matt. 5:27-29). By this, we learn that not only our works and words but our thoughts also will be liable to judgment. Oh sinner, flee to Christ!

We saw above that God will judge us according to the light of the knowledge of His will which we possessed. We noted that Scripture speaks of “light” and “severe” beating to describe the degrees of punishment (Luke 12:47-48; 20:47; Matt. 11:21-24). There are also rewards for the righteous. In the Parable of the Ten Minas, the Lord Jesus gives the one servant who had made “ten minas more...authority over ten cities” (Luke 19...

Unconditional Election, Sovereign Grace - Scripture List

Simon Wartanian | 15,351 views | 2,788 words | 0:14:20 hours | 23 March 2014 20:23

Calvinism Election Predestination Mercy Sovereignty Verse List God Is In Control Unconditional Election Sovereign Grace

...

[8] Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved..

...

.../strong[1]

Some prefer saying “the preservation of the saints” to emphasize that this is the work of God: others use the phrase “eternal security” to emphasize the impossibility of God’s perfect work of salvation being undone. But whatever one calls it, it is the belief that when Christ save one of His elect, he will not fail to keep that saved person throughout life and bring them safely in to His presence. It is, in short, the belief that Christ is able to save perfectly.[2]

All who are chosen by God, redeemed by Christ, and given Faith by the Spirit, are eternally saved. They are kept in Faith by the power of almighty God, and thus persevere to the end.[3]

For a biblical defense and an exegetical case for this doctrine, also containing answers to passages supposedly refuting the doctrine of Perseverance see here.

If God brings you to it, He will get you through it

Ps 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Ecc 3:14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.

Isa 46:3-4 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; 4 even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

1Cor 1:4-9 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸ who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is Faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Col 3:3-4 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Phil 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

2Tim 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

1Pet 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through Faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

None of Christ’s sheep will be lost—ever!

Jn 6:39-40 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Jn 10:27-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out o...