LORD’S DAY 35

96. What does God require in the second commandment?

That we in no way make any image of God,¹ nor worship Him in any other way than He has commanded us in His Word.²

[1] Deut. 4:15–19; Isa. 40:18, 25. Rom. 1:22–24; Acts 17:29. [2] 1 Sam. 15:23; Deut. 12:30–32; Matt. 15:9; *Deut. 4:23–24; *Jn. 4:24. 

97. May we not make any image at all?

God may not and cannot be imaged in any way; as for creatures, though they may indeed be imaged, yet God forbids the making or keeping of any likeness of them, either to worship them or to serve God by them.¹

[1] Ex. 23:24–25; 34:13–14; Deut. 7:5; 12:3; 16:22; 2 Kgs. 18:4; *Jn. 1:18. 

98. But may not pictures be tolerated in churches as books for the people?

No, for we should not be wiser than God, who will not have His people taught by dumb idols,¹ but by the lively preaching of His Word.²

[1] Jer. 10:8; Hab. 2:18–19. [2] 2 Pet. 1:19; 2 Tim. 3:16–17; Rom. 10:17.

 

Dumb Idols

The second commandment is all about how we worship God.  It is very closely related to the first, for if we place our trust purely and fully in God alone, then obedience to the second naturally follows.  We will submit ourselves entirely to Him in our relationship with Him.  Idolatry ultimately is about worshiping and trusting myself instead of God, and this will express itself in my worship as I try to take control of my relationship with God, shaping God to fit my own lusts and imagination and dictating how and on what terms God blesses me.

When the idol worshiper makes a statue or a picture of God, he puts himself in charge of the relationship.  It is his own mind which creates the image.  Now, rather than God being a mighty and powerful, and above all sovereign being, the idolater has fixed God into a controllable form.

The classic example of this dynamic at work is seen with the Israelites at Mount Sinai.  They were confronted with the awesome, terrifying, powerful God, who was death to look on.  As time wore on and Moses did not return from the mountain, the Israelites demanded that Aaron make them gods, meaning idols, to follow (Exodus 32).  They wanted to control the relationship.  So Aaron made them a golden calf, and the worshiped it and celebrated.

The issue here was not abandoning the worship of Jehovah to worship some other god.  Aaron said, “This is the God that brought you out of Egypt,” and then declared a feast to Jehovah, the name of Israel’s God (verse 5).  The problem was their refusal to submit to God’s sovereignty; they demanded they be in control of the relationship rather than accepting that God was.  This is the heart of idolatry, the elevation of the self to the throne instead of God.  In worship it expresses itself in the demand that I decide how I will worship, a demand that I be in control of how the relationship between me and God will work.

The making of a picture of God, or the use of a picture of anything in order to worship God, always falls into this category, perhaps more directly than anything else.  This is because we have no description of God in Scriptures, and any picture we make therefore comes out of one’s own head instead of as revealed truth from God.

The Catechism says that God will have His people taught by the lively preaching of the Word, and not by dumb idols.  “Dumb” here means “mute” or “wordless,” not “stupid,” so the idol is contrasted to the word most explicitly; the idol does not speak, but God does, through the Word.  But all worship and teaching will be according to a truth system, so the dumb idol doesn’t remain mute.  Its mouths are filled with ideas from some man.  The human worshiper puts himself on the throne, worshiping his own conception of who God is instead of who God reveals Himself to be.

One need not look for golden images of bulls to see this at work all around us.  Constantly people worship the work of their own hands rather than God.  People decide for themselves what formal worship will look like instead of being guided by the Scriptures.  People invent their own doctrine of what God is like instead of learning who God is from the Scriptures.  They invent a god that acts the way they want him to, and refuse to accept what the Scriptures say about God.  So they worship their own conceptions; essentially, they worship themselves.  Their worship services are all about their feelings and personal ideas about God rather than about God Himself.  And it is no accident that their worship services are often full of pictures, pictures which root their worship in their emotional responses to their own conceptions of God rather than rooted in God’s own self-revelation, which is always in words, and never in visual images.

In a less mature time in the church’s history, God did indeed use visual representations of different things to illustrate various truths about Himself, such as the furniture in the temple or the sign-acts of Ezekiel.  But in this last age He has revealed Himself fully and perfectly in the person and work of Jesus Christ, to whom every knee will bow and whom every tongue will confess.  He is the Word of God, and of Him we have no physical description.  Indeed we need none, since the revelation of Jesus was never in how He looked (totally unremarkable) but in His words, words that are Spirit and Life, words which changed the world, words which gave meaning to His great act of self-sacrifice on behalf of His people.  It is faith in Him, and in His words, that give us life.  God has chosen to deliver His revelation to us His people in the form of these words, and in submission to God we will accept His provision for us as sufficient, and not try to supplement or replace it with dumb idols of our own invention.

LORD’S DAY 34

93. How are these commandments divided?

Into two tables:¹ the first of which teaches, in four commandments, what duties we owe to God; the second, in six, what duties we owe to our neighbor.²

[1] Ex. 34:28; Deut. 4:13. [ 2] Matt. 22:37–40. [1] Ex. 34:28; Deut. 4:13. [ 2] Matt. 22:37–40

94. What does God require in the first commandment?

That, on peril of my soul’s salvation, I avoid and flee all idolatry,¹ sorcery, enchantments,² invocation of saints or of other creatures;³ and that I rightly acknowledge the only true God,⁴ trust in Him alone,⁵ with all humility⁶ and patience⁷ expect all good from Him only,⁸ and love,⁹ fear,¹⁰ and honor¹¹ Him with my whole heart; so as rather to renounce all creatures than to do the least thing against His will.¹²

[1] 1 Cor. 10:7, 14. [2] Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:10–12. [3] Matt. 4:10; Rev. 19:10; 22:8–9.[4] Jn. 17:3. [5] Jer. 17:5. [6] 1 Pet. 5:5–6. [7] Heb. 10:36; Col. 1:10b–11; Rom. 5:3–4;1 Cor. 10:10. [8] Ps. 104:27–30; Isa. 45:6b–7; Jas. 1:17. [9] Deut. 6:5. [10] Deut. 6:2; Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10; Matt. 10:28. [11] Deut. 10:20. [12] Matt. 5:29–30; 10:37; Acts 5:29.

95. What is idolatry?

Idolatry is to conceive or have something else in which to place our trust instead of, or besides, the one true God who has revealed Himself in His Word.¹

[1] Eph. 5:5; Phil. 3:19; Eph. 2:12; Jn. 2:23; 2 Jn. 1:9; Jn. 5:23; *Ps. 81:8–9; *Matt. 6:24; Ps. 62:5–7 *Ps. 73:25–26.

 

Looking to God for All our Welfare
Lord’s Day 34, telling us about our obligation to pursue good works, defines good works as those which comply with the Law of God, and the Law was defined as the Ten Commandments. This is not the place for a detailed discussion of whether the Ten Commandments continues as relevant for the New Testament believer, despite being given in the Old Testament. In brief, the curse of the Law no longer holds, for Christ has completely satisfied the demands of the Law. Yet the requirements of the Law were not arbitrary, but reflected God’s creational design for man and humanity’s relationship to God, to creation and to one another. Therefore, even though we know that the Law has been completely satisfied by Christ’s perfect obedience, yet in our saved state, the Law still has a very important role to play in teaching us what a redeemed saint looks like. It shows us the goal of our salvation. It teaches us what it means to be Christlike, like the One who perfectly kept that Law. Question 93 recounts the Ten Commandments, and questions 94-115 will examine the Ten Commandments and teach us what they mean.

The First Commandment is the basis of them all. All violations of God’s Law are a violation of this first commandment, for all sin springs from the same root, the root of pride. If I trusted God completely and put all my hope in Him, I would never look to anything else for any blessing in my life, separate from God. When the commandment tells us not to have any other gods before God, that does not mean “before God” as in “higher in priority than God”, but rather “before God” in the sense of “in His face, where He can see them,” meaning, anywhere. It means we are to put our trust entirely and only in God, and not in anything else. If I trust God 99% of the time for my welfare and prosperity, and anything else 1% of the time, then I am an idolater. So we are all idolaters, for we all fail to trust God for everything we need. If we trusted God completely, we would never sin.

This is not to say I wouldn’t have any need for food or human companionship or sunlight, or any of the many other things that we as human beings need. But God is good and always gives us what we need. Idolatry is the attempt to take control of my welfare for myself. In Romans 1:17-25, Paul says that people “did not glorify [God] as God, nor were thankful… but worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Glorifying God and being thankful is contrasted to idolatry, the worship of the created thing instead of the One who created the thing.

Worship need not look like bowing down, offering incense or some other specifically “religious” looking activity. It is not the activity of the body but the posture of the heart which is of concern here. Ephesians 5:5 says that a covetous man is an idolater. Jesus says in Matthew 6:24 that we cannot serve two masters, God and mammon, but must ultimately choose (mammon being the material things of this world generally).

To illustrate, if I trust God and expect all good things from Him, then when I have plenty of money I will be thankful and use it the way He has taught me to. I will enjoy the blessings He gave me, giving Him the glory always, and I will not seek a life of luxury, but will share with the poor and support the church. But if I believe that money itself is the source of happiness, then that is to deny that the money comes from God, and then I will seek to accumulate more and more money and I will use it entirely for my own benefit regardless of what God says about it. I will neglect other duties, such as to family, to the poor, and to the church, and spend all my time in the accumulation and enjoyment of wealth. Idolatry is not about whether I think money is good or not. It’s about where I think the money comes from, and consequently, who governs how I get it and how I use it- God or me.

This exercise can be repeated with any good thing that we desire or need. When we trust God as the only source of our good, then we will trust that He is giving us what we need and what is best for us in the moment, and not be covetous for what we don’t have. And therefore, we will not try to seize things we haven’t been given or try to make things more than they really are. Thus the root of all sin is the prideful belief that I can advance my own welfare by using the things of God’s creation or the people in my life the way I think they should be used rather than the way God tells us through His law to use them. It is worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator, and the cure for it is trust and thankfulness to God for all things.

The government cannot keep us safe or provide prosperity. Food will not keep me alive. Pleasure will not satisfy me. Friends and family will not fulfill me. God does all of these things for me. God may use these things as secondary means to accomplish His purpose, but as long as I remember that it is God using those things, rather than the things themselves, then I will keep all things in perspective, and keep God as God, as the only source of all good things in my life.

Whenever we look at the Law of God and wrestle with our inevitable failure, let us remember that we have a Savior who kept this law perfectly, and has already paid the debt for our failure to do so. We need not fall into despair, therefore, at how far short of the mark we fall, but rather thank God for our redemption in Christ, and labor, in that peace and confidence, to draw closer to the mark that the Law of God sets out for us.

 

All are welcome at Christ Reformed Church!  We worship at 10 AM Sunday morning at 600 W. 21st St, in College Heights Baptist’s old sanctuary.

LORD’S DAY 33

88. In how many things does true repentance or conversion consist?

In two things: the dying of the old man,¹ and the making alive of the new.

[1] Rom. 6:4–6; Eph. 4:22–24; Col. 3:5–10; 1 Cor. 5:7.

 

89. What is the dying of the old man?

Heartfelt sorrow for sin, causing us to hate and turn from it always more and more.¹

[1] Rom. 8:13; Joel 2:13.

 

90. What is the making alive of the new man?

Heartfelt joy in God through Christ,¹ causing us to take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works.²

[1] Rom. 5:1; 14:17; Isa. 57:15. [2] Rom. 8:10–11; Gal. 2:20; *Rom. 7:22.

 

91. What are good works?

Those only which proceed from true faith,¹ and are done according to the law of God,² unto His glory,³ and not such as rest on our own opinion⁴ or the commandments of men.⁵

[1] Rom. 14:23. [2] 1 Sam. 15:22; Eph. 2:10. [3] 1 Cor. 10:31. [4] Deut. 12:32; Ezek. 20:18, 20; Isa. 29:13. [5] Matt. 15:9; *Num. 15:39.

 

Change of Heart

On the subject of good works, the Christian is often caught in a dilemma.  This is the tension between forgiveness and the call to righteous living.  This is an uncomfortable tension, as tensions usually are, the Scripture makes clear and repeated calls for us to repent and turn away from our sin, combined with the fact that no sinner ever completely succeeds in doing so in this life.  The Scriptures also unambiguously teach that we are forgiven our sins without any merit of our own, solely because of the righteousness of Christ, for all those who believe.  The great temptation is to try to reduce this tension in one of two ways.  The first way is the way of legalism, of reducing the true requirements of God’s law to something we can actually do, so that we can think of ourselves as having successfully completed the obligation to fulfill the law, usually by focusing on ceremonies or outward moral behavior.  The second way is the way of antinomianism (anti-law), meaning a downplaying or denying the law’s call to change which resolves the tension by focusing entirely on the fact of our forgiveness and neglecting the call to repentance.

It is vital, however, that we not try to remove the tension between forgiveness and the obligation to repent, that we simply live with it.  Not only is this true because these attempts to resolve this tension inevitably leads to grave error, but also because this tension is the driving force in our sanctification.  Both elements have to be present, the sure conviction of our forgiveness and the need to strive for righteousness.  The knowledge of my complete forgiveness combined with the urging of the law to change, not out of fear or guilt but out of love and thankfulness, provides the impetus for a godly striving against sin that does not compromise either the purity of God’s law or the free grace of the gospel.  The fabric of my salvation is woven on this loom, with the threads stretched between these two principles.

The Catechism instructs us in this week’s reading in what this repentance looks like.  There are two elements, the dying of the old man and the making alive of the new (q. 88).  This reflects the common Biblical pattern when discussing repentance, which is “putting off and putting on”.  “Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor” (Eph. 4:28) is one very simple and representative example.  The evil behavior is rebuked, and the corresponding righteous behavior is enjoined.  This is necessary, for man must live by a principle.  The principle of self-worship and self-indulgence drives the sinful behavior of the flesh.  So I must put that away.  But a man cannot live without a principle, and therefore it is never sufficient merely to tell someone not to sin in some particular way any more.  Instead, there must be a substitute of righteous behavior in the place of the sinful.  The thief is a parasite, taking from the community whatever he wishes and giving nothing back.  The opposite of that is man as a producer, laboring for sufficient wealth to take care of his own family and having enough left over to help the poor.  The Catechism describes this same process as the “dying of the old man”, meaning the progressive rejection of false and sinful patterns of thought which lead to sinful behavior, and the “making alive of the new”, which is the gradual adoption of the way of thinking and behavior we are taught in Scriptures instead.

In both cases this is “heartfelt”, meaning that this is primarily not about changes in behavior, but changes in our values.  People are ultimately going to do what they want to do, what they value, so the solution to the problem of sin is never simply to stop doing something, because you will fail.  If you want to sin more than you want to please God, then you will sin.  Consequences for sin might hold you back to some degree, but people find a way around them, or try to minimize those consequences, but people ultimately are going to do what they want to do.  So if we simply focus on behavior, we will always fail to produce any real change.  Instead we must learn to identify what is going on in our hearts, what it is about our values, that is driving us to behave the way we do.  Ultimately the answer to that is always the same, that we think we are the gods of our own lives and should please ourselves with the things of this world, which always results in sinful behavior.

So becoming a Christian is all about changing values, coming to recognize that every desire is satisfied in Jesus Christ, and that therefore the best thing for us, the thing that will ultimately make us the happiest, is to stop focusing on what will please us and make us happy and to start focusing on pleasing God and doing His will instead.

The change that is needed is on the level of our heart, the most fundamental level of our being, and therefore requires an outside agent to accomplish it, further proof of our utter dependence on God’s power for our salvation.  As we are engaged in this process, we must be in prayer to ask God to do this work, to change our values, to teach us that everything we need and desire is in Christ, and therefore to stop chasing the foolish lies of this world and our own flesh to make us happy.
All are welcome at Christ Reformed Church!  We worship at 10 AM Sunday morning at 600 W. 21st St, in College Heights Baptist’s old sanctuary.

LORD’S DAY 32
86. Since, then, we are redeemed from our misery by grace through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we do good works?
Because Christ, having redeemed us by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit after His own image, that with our whole life we show ourselves thankful to God for His blessing,¹ and that He be glorified through us;² then also, that we ourselves may be assured of our faith by the fruits thereof;³ and by our godly walk win also others to Christ.⁴

[1] Rom. 6:13; 12:1–2; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9–10; 1 Cor. 6:20. [2] Matt. 5:16; 1 Pet. 2:12. [3] Matt.7:17–18; Gal. 5:6, 22–23. [4] Rom. 14:19; 1 Pet. 3:1–2; *2 Pet. 1:10.
87. Can they, then, not be saved who do not turn to God from their unthankful, unrepentant life?
By no means, for, as Scripture says, no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like shall inherit the kingdom of God.¹

[1] 1 Cor. 6:9–10; Eph. 5:5–6; 1 Jn. 3:14–15.

Where do Good Works Fit In?

“Be of sin the double-cure; cleanse us from its guilt and power.”  Augustus Toplady, “Rock of Ages”

In question 2 of the Catechism we discussed what we need to know in order to understand the gospel accurately.  We were told we have to know the nature of our sin and misery, the way God has redeemed us from that state, and how we respond in thankfulness.  Question 2 is the outline of the whole Catechism.  This week’s selection takes up the final element of that triple knowledge.  This is not just an appendix or something tacked on at the end.  The issues taken up by this final third are vital to our salvation, just as the other topics we have discussed.

One indication of the importance of this topic is the danger of getting it wrong.  On the one hand, legalism is the result when you view your salvation as dependent or caused in any way by your good works.  But antinomianism (the error of lawlessness) ensues when you think good works are irrelevant to your salvation.  Both of these errors are ultimately destructive to salvation.

Question 86 tells us first of all that sanctification (the process of being conformed to the image of Christ) is a necessary result of being justified.  The redemption of Christ’s blood never comes alone.  With it comes the Spirit of God who leads us in righteousness.  Not only are these two processes joined by the will and intention of God who decreed that it would be so, but they are joined in the very nature of the thing, for the faith which reaches out in trust to Christ for salvation is also going to believe what Christ says.  True faith can’t trust Christ when He says that He died on the cross for sins without also trusting Christ when He says we should love our neighbor.  So the faith which justifies also becomes the engine of our sanctification.  This shows us the goal of Christ’s death for us- not merely that our sins are forgiven, but that we ourselves are made Christlike so that we will be worthy inhabitants of the eternal kingdom.  Question 87 reminds us that no sinner will occupy the kingdom; thus, if we are not on the way to being free of sin, we are not on the way to that kingdom.  But it is always the grace of God which motivates and empowers this process.

Our good works are then motivated by an impulse toward God, toward our fellow man, and toward ourselves.

With regard to God, the desire of the one redeemed by Christ is to glorify Him.  This is the highest purpose of all, for the glory of God is the reason why all of creation exists.  To glorify God is to reveal Him to others and to ourselves as being glorious, which is His nature.  In the cross of Christ we see God revealed more clearly than anywhere else—we see His righteousness, His holiness, His love and His mercy.  We see His absolute rock-solid commitment to truth.  Our desire as Christians is to display His attributes to the world, and we do so by striving to live our lives in a way that accords with that truth.  Though we hope that glorifying God will lead to the desire of others to commit themselves to Christ as well, that is not the primary motive.  The highest motive of all is to glorify and praise God simply because He deserves it.  This is thankfulness—the acknowledgement that God has done us a great turn and that we should do what little we can to show our tremendous gratitude to Him for that.  What He has called on us to do in thankfulness is to be conformed to the truth of His law, living our lives in love and faithfulness (Romans 12:1, Ephesians 4:1).

Toward others, we do desire that others know Christ.  It is always Christ who draws people to Himself, and Christ promised to abide in His disciples (John 14:23).  As we repent of sin and do good works, people see Christ being formed in us.Seeing Christ in the lives of His people has always been one primary motivator to people believing the gospel (John 13:35, 1 Peter 3:15).  Christians are far from perfect, and there are many hypocrites, but compared to the darkness of the world without Christ, even a small candle is a bright light and makes a tremendous difference.

For ourselves, the process of sanctification confirms and strengthens our faith.  Our faith is never based on anything within ourselves, but as we see Christ at work in us, the truth of what He said is reaffirmed.  Ephesians 1:13-14 speaks of the Spirit of God as the “earnest” or downpayment on our salvation.  As we begin to experience the joy of being freed from the misery of sin by the power of the Spirit in our lives, it confirms what the Bible says about sin is true and that the promise of the gospel is true as well.  It also gives us a little taste of what eternity will be like when we are at last completely freed from the curse of sin, and all of this strengthens our commitment to the gospel.

So while we must remember that our salvation is always grounded on Christ’s perfect lawkeeping and not our own, we must also remember that being conformed to God’s law is the whole point of our salvation.  The process of being so conformed is one that carries great benefits for us.  How rich the grace of God that He not only forgave us our sins, but also is saving us from the power of sin!  This is the “double-cure” the hymn talks about, being cleansed from both the guilt and power of sin, to the glory of God.

 

All are welcome at Christ Reformed Church!  We worship at 10 AM Sunday morning at 600 W. 21st St, in College Heights Baptist’s old sanctuary.

LORD’S DAY 31

83. What is the Office of the Keys?

The preaching of the Holy Gospel and Christian discipline; by these two the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers and shut against unbelievers.¹

[1] Matt. 16:18–19; 18:18; *Jn. 20:23; *Lk. 24:46–47; *1 Cor. 1:23–24.

84. How is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by the preaching of the Holy Gospel?

In this way: that, according to the command of Christ, it is proclaimed and openly witnessed to believers, one and all, that as often as they accept with true faith the promise of the Gospel, all their sins are really forgiven them of God for the sake of Christ’s merits; and on the contrary, to all unbelievers and hypocrites, that the wrath of God and eternal condemnation abide on them so long as they are not converted.¹ According to this testimony of the Gospel, God will judge men both in this life and in that which is to come.

[1] Jn. 20:21–23; *Acts 10:43; *Isa. 58:1; *2 Cor. 2:15–16; *Jn. 8:24.

85. How is the kingdom of heaven shut and opened by Christian discipline?

In this way: that, according to the command of Christ, if any under the Christian name show themselves unsound either in doctrine or in life, and after several brotherly admonitions do not turn from their errors or evil ways, they are complained of to the Church or to its proper officers; and, if they neglect to hear them also, are by them denied the holy sacraments and thereby excluded from the Christian communion, and by God Himself from the kingdom of Christ; and if they promise and show real amendment, they are again received as members of Christ and His Church.¹

[1] Matt. 18:15–18; 1 Cor. 5:3–5, 11; 2 Thess. 3:14–15; 2 Jn. 1:10–11.

Lord’s Day 31

The Church’s Duty to Use the Keys of the Kingdom

This Lord’s Day reading answers a question that would have naturally arisen at the end of the last Lord’s Day, where the Catechism tells us that those who are unbelieving and ungodly must be excluded from the Lord’s Supper by the Office of the Keys.  So what is the Office of the Keys?

The expression refers to Jesus’ statement that He would give the keys of the kingdom to the Apostles in Matthew 16:18-19.  The Roman Catholic Church believes the keys were given to Peter specifically as the first pope, but similar passages like Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23 are addressed to the apostles as a whole, not just to Peter.  The apostles were instructed to found the church.  The keys belong to the church as a whole.  In many passages the Scriptures command the church as a whole to exercise these functions (1 Cor. 5; 1 Tim. 2:4; Titus 2:15).

Christ gave to the church the function of declaring on what basis people can be part of the kingdom of God.  The church does not make someone elect or not elect and cannot discern someone’s heart.  But the church, nonetheless, has an important function to perform.  First, in its preaching, the church declares the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Faith in the Gospel is the basis by which people can be part of the kingdom of God.  God gives this duty to the church, to proclaim this Gospel message, and by doing so declares the criteria by which people can consider themselves in the kingdom of God or not.

The church is not given this declaration as just words.  It is to back up the words with action, accepting or excluding people as members on the basis of whether they profess faith in these things and show a life that reflects that faith.  This is Christian discipline.  Discipline starts with the training of the church in how we as Christians are to repent of our sins and strive to conform our lives to God’s law in thankfulness for our salvation.  It continues in personal exhortations, by members or by church leaders, calling one another to put away sin and live godly lives.  If necessary, it can go as far as official action by the church to exclude individuals from the Lord’s Supper and ultimately from membership when, over a period of time and much patient work by the church, they refuse to hear the church’s corrections and persist in unrepentant sin.  The church never excommunicates people for being sinners, since then there would be nobody in the church.  The church excommunicates people for being rebellious and stubborn in their sin, for refusing to even acknowledge that they need to change.  This should never be done hastily, yet there are always cases when it must be done if we are to be faithful to our Lord’s commands.

When it is done right, then the church in its membership and discipline practices will be a visible declaration to the world of how it is that people enter the kingdom of God, by repentance and faith.  That’s why it is so important that the church do this- not because we will ever be able to discern the true state of men’s souls or because we can make someone saved or not saved solely by an act of the church, but because when the church is being faithful to this calling, it visibly declares to the world the way of salvation.  If we do not do so, and preach peace with God to the world on some other basis than repentance and faith in Christ, then the blood of condemned sinners will be on our hands.  If we knowingly admit people to membership in the church who do not believe the gospel or who have no commitment to repentance, then we have obscured the way of salvation and will earn the wrath of God as a result.

Being faithful to these Scriptural requirements is guaranteed to make us enemies.  We are naturally rebellious and do not like to hear bad things about ourselves.  People will resent being told that they have to conform themselves to a particular standard of belief and behavior in order to be members of the church.  In our pride, we want to believe that we can dictate the terms of our relationship with God.  There is a reason why the false prophets of the Old Testament got rich saying “peace, peace” to the people, while men like Jeremiah who called them to repentance got thrown in a pit.  But the Scriptures so clearly require this on page after page that it is impossible to miss it.  Churches that desire the approval of the world will flatter people’s claim to have the right to believe what they want and will make people comfortable in their sin.  But churches that desire the approval of their Master and Founder will do what He told us, to preach repentance from sin and faith in Christ to the world, and to clearly hold that out as the only way to salvation.  The use of the Keys of the Kingdom, of the preaching of the Gospel of Christ and the exercise of Christian discipline, is a high and dangerous calling that the Lord has given His church, and He will reward those who are faithful to that calling regardless of the seductions and threatenings of the world.

LORD’S DAY 30

80. What difference is there between the Lord’s Supper and the Pope’s Mass?

The Lord’s Supper testifies to us that we have full forgiveness of all our sins by the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which He Himself once accomplished on the cross;¹ and that by the Holy Spirit we are engrafted into Christ,² who, with His true body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father,³ and is there to be worshiped.⁴ But the Mass teaches that the living and the dead do not have forgiveness of sins through the sufferings of Christ, unless Christ is still daily offered for them by the priests, and that Christ is bodily under the form of bread and wine, and is therefore to be worshiped in them. And thus the Mass at bottom is nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ,⁵ and an accursed idolatry.

[1] Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 25–28; 10:10, 12, 14; Jn. 19:30. [2] 1 Cor. 6:17. [3] Heb. 1:3; 8:1. [4] Jn. 4:21–24; 20:17; Lk. 24:52; Acts 7:55; Col. 3:1; Phil. 3:20–21; 1 Thess. 1:9–10. [5] See Hebrews chapters 9 and 10; *Matt. 4:10.

 

81. Who are to come to the table of the Lord?

Those who are displeased with themselves for their sins, yet trust that these are forgiven them, and that their remaining infirmity is covered by the suffering and death of Christ; who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and to amend their life. But the unrepentant and hypocrites eat and drink judgment to themselves.¹

[1] 1 Cor. 10:19–22; 11:28–29; *Ps. 51:3; *Jn. 7:37–38; Ps. 103:1–4; *Matt. 5:6.

 

82. Are they, then, also to be admitted to this Supper who show themselves by their confession and life to be unbelieving and ungodly?

No, for thereby the covenant of God is profaned and His wrath provoked against the whole congregation;¹ therefore, the Christian Church is bound, according to the order of Christ and His Apostles, to exclude such persons by the Office of the Keys until they amend their lives.

[1] 1 Cor. 11:20, 34a; Isa. 1:11–15; 66:3; Jer. 7:21–23; Ps. 50:16–17; *Matt. 7:6; *1 Cor. 11:30–32; *Tit. 3:10–11; *2 Thess. 3:6.

The sacraments were the occasion of a great deal of controversy in the sixteenth century at the time the Heidelberg Catechism was written. The Reformed obviously contended with the Roman Catholics, but also with Lutherans and Anabaptists over different aspects of the meaning of the sacraments. These controversies are clearly reflected throughout the Catechism, but nowhere more clearly than in question 80, which directly confronts and rejects the Roman Catholic view of the sacrament.

Over the years, this question has often been viewed as overly harsh and unfair. But these are the views of the Roman church. They do in fact view the Mass as a resacrificing of Christ, and they do in fact adore and venerate the bread of the sacrament. This is only natural, since Roman Catholics teach that Jesus is present in body, blood, soul, and divinity in the bread and wine. One can simply observe the way the Catholic Mass is performed, being very careful not to let any wine be left over, or any bread crumb be spilled, lifting the elements up high and bowing and genuflecting to them, and carrying the elements in procession where people bow to them, to see that this is true. Whether or not this constitutes an “accursed idolatry” or not will depend on one’s theological framework, but the description of the Roman Mass is simply factual.

Having discussed what the Lord’s Supper does and does not do, the Catechism then discusses one final issue, who the proper observants of the Supper are, again a matter of no small controversy. If you believe the Supper is a mere memorial, only a statement I make, there is little reason to restrict who may participate. But the Reformed teach that the Sacrament is a real means of grace, and further that it is an important symbol of our fellowship with Christ and one another. Therefore we restrict participation in the Supper to those with whom we can have a confident belief that they do in fact share that fellowship, so as to not destroy the symbolism of the supper and the fellowship that it presents to us. A meal is a great symbol of that fellowship.

We cannot know people’s hearts to know whether they are true believers. Membership in the invisible church is God’s business and is not discernible by us mere mortals. But we can see who is a member of the visible church, and this is the normal way the Reformed have discerned who it is that passes this test. The one who is part of the outward body, who is under the discipline of the church, is presumed, as far as we can know, to be a true member of this fellowship. God will not hold us responsible for what we cannot know, only for what we can. So we in the Reformed church customarily invite those who are members in good standing of orthodox churches to share in the celebration of the Supper with us, whether or not those churches are themselves Reformed, since we believe that the visible church extends farther than the Reformed church.

There are those that believe that this should include the small children and even infants of believing parents. But this has never been the common practice of the Reformed church. We recognize the Supper to be a symbol of our active participation in the fellowship of the church. Paul teaches the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:27-29) that the one who partakes of the supper without examination and without discerning the body eats in an unworthy manner. Therefore we exclude children until they have undergone a period of instruction and have reached an age of a certain maturity, when they can better understand the nature of the fellowship of the church, founded on the sacrifice of Christ. This is what a “communion in the body and blood of Christ” is (1 Cor. 10:16), and a self-examination requires knowledge and maturity. This is a serious issue, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 that members of the congregation have become sick and even died as a result of God’s judgment on them for their abuse of the Lord’s Supper. Further, if we recognize that God’s grace works through faith and not through physical means, then we can know that God’s grace extends to small children and those who are in training perfectly well, even if they do not physically participate in the supper. They can, and should, still participate in faith.

God is not restricted by the means of grace, and can and does work faith and salvation in people, including small children, without the aid of the sacraments at all. But we are bound by God’s ordination, and do not have liberty to administer the sacraments any way we see fit. We must restrict ourselves to what God has taught us in His Word, and can trust that God will work grace in the lives of His people through the means He has appointed.

LORD’S DAY 29

78. Do, then, the bread and the wine become the real body and blood of Christ?

No, but as the water in Baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ, nor becomes the washing away of sins itself, being only the divine token and assurance thereof,¹ so also in the Lord’s Supper the sacred bread² does not become the body of Christ itself, though agreeably to the nature and usage of sacraments it is called the body of Christ.3

[1] Matt. 26:29. [2] 1 Cor. 11:26–28. [3] Ex. 12:26–27, 43, 48; 1 Cor. 10:1–4.

 

79. Why then does Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the new testament in His blood; and the Apostle Paul, the communion of the body and the blood of Christ?

Christ speaks thus with great cause, namely, not only to teach us thereby, that like as the bread and wine sustain this temporal life, so also His crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink of our souls unto life eternal;¹ but much more, by this visible sign and pledge to assure us that we are as really partakers of His true body and blood by the working of the Holy Spirit, as we receive by the mouth of the body these holy tokens in remembrance of Him;² and that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly our own, as if we ourselves had suffered and done all in our own person.

[1] Jn. 6:51–55 (See Question 76). [2] 1 Cor. 10:16–17 (See Question 78).

 

Lord’s Day 29

Eating the Words of Life

The question of whether or not the bread and wine of the supper actually become the physical body of Christ was a hot one in the days when the Catechism was written, and remains a major point of disagreement between various Christian bodies today.  The Roman Catholics of course hold that by the priest’s words of consecration, the bread actually is changed, by a miracle, into the flesh of Christ, though it retains the appearance of bread, and likewise the wine actually becomes His blood.  This belief is supported Biblically by Jesus’ words in the institution of the Supper, “this is My body,” and in John 6 when Jesus repeatedly asserts that eating His flesh is necessary for eternal life.

The Lutherans also assert the physical presence of Christ in the elements of the supper, though they differ with the Roman Catholics in asserting that the flesh of Christ does not replace the bread, but exists “in, with and under” the bread, so that the bread remains and the flesh is there as well.

The Reformed rejected both of these schemes as bad readings of the texts in question, as logically inconsistent and as denying or undermining the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  A great deal has been written on the subject of the real presence of Christ examining the views of these other groups in detail, and it would be impossible to do them justice here.  It suffices us here to note that if the physical eating of Christ is necessary to forgiveness of sins, then justification by faith alone cannot be true.  The sacrament is, as question 79 says, a “visible sign and pledge.”  Thus the sacrament well agrees with the requirement of faith; rather than by muddying the waters with some other obligation for justification in addition to faith, the sacrament functions to even more emphatically push us toward faith in Christ, and to strengthen that faith when we have it.

Jesus said in John 6:53, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”  If partaking of the Lord’s Supper is physically eating the flesh of the Son of Man, then this passage and the others like it in John 6 are clearly making this physical act necessary to salvation.  But in many other places in John, and indeed throughout the Scriptures, Jesus advances belief in Him as the one and only requirement for salvation.  In John 11:25-26, Jesus tells Martha at the grave of Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”  He mentions no other conditions.  And Paul tells the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” (Acts 16:31)  Did Paul leave something out?

It’s not difficult to reconcile these passages to John 6, if we understand Jesus’ statement about eating His flesh in a figurative sense.  Right in John 6, Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” (v. 47)  And in verse 63 He says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”  Either Jesus gives conflicting requirements for salvation in different places, or else His statement regarding eating His flesh should be taken in a figurative sense, and there is plenty of indication right in John 6 that this is the correct way to read it.

The Lord’s Supper is a powerful statement of faith in Christ.  When you bite into something and take it into your mouth, you are committed, all-in.  Either good or bad, you are going to experience the quality of whatever you have just eaten.  What a powerful illustration of what it means to believe in Jesus!  Faith is a full commitment.  We take the truth of Jesus deep into ourselves when we truly believe.  We imbibe His words and His teaching, which become part of us and shape us.  Above all, the truth of His broken body and shed blood, broken and shed for us, is food and drink to our souls, giving us life and raising us from the dead.

Jesus says that the words He gives us are spirit and life.  Words are not taken into a person or become part of that person by physically chewing them, but by believing them.  Faith alone unites us to Christ and all His benefits, a truth powerfully and visually taught by the Lord’s Supper.

 

LORD’S DAY 28

75. How is it signified and sealed to you in the Holy Supper that you partake of the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross and all His benefits?

Thus: that Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of this broken bread and to drink of this cup in remembrance of Him, and has joined therewith these promises:¹ first, that His body was offered and broken on the cross for me and His blood shed for me, as certainly as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup communicated to me; and further, that with His crucified body and shed blood He Himself feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life, as certainly as I receive from the hand of the minister and taste with my mouth the bread and cup of the Lord, which are given me as certain tokens of the body and blood of Christ.

[1] Matt. 26:26–28; Mk. 14:22–24; Lk. 22:19–20; 1 Cor. 10:16–17; 11:23–25; 12:13.

76. What does it mean to eat the crucified body and drink the shed blood of Christ?

It means not only to embrace with a believing heart all the sufferings and death of Christ, and thereby to obtain the forgiveness of sins and life eternal;¹ but moreover, also, to be so united more and more to His sacred body by the Holy Spirit,² who dwells both in Christ and in us, that, although He is in heaven³            and we on earth, we are nevertheless flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone,⁴ and live and are governed forever by one Spirit, as members of the same body are governed by one soul.⁵

[1] Jn. 6:35, 40, 47–48, 50–54. [2] Jn. 6:55–56. [3] Acts 3:21; 1 Cor. 11:26. [4] Eph. 3:16–19; 5:29–30, 32; 1 Cor. 6:15, 17, 19; 1 Jn. 4:13. [5] Jn.14:23; Jn. 6:56–58; Jn. 15:1–6; Eph. 4:15–16; Jn. 6:63.

77. Where has Christ promised that He will thus feed and nourish believers with His body and blood as certainly as they eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup?

In the institution of the Supper, which says: “The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”¹And this promise is also repeated by the Apostle Paul, where he says, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion

of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, so we being many are one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.”²

[1] 1 Cor. 11:23-26. [2]1 Cor. 10:16–17.

Lord’s Day 28

How the Father Feeds His Children

The Catechism’s approach to the Lord’s Supper is similar in structure to its approach to baptism.  It emphasizes the spiritual promises that lie behind the physical form of the Supper, and teaches us that the Supper exhibits or presents those promises to us when we partake.  What are those benefits?  The Supper is just what it is called, a supper.  It is a symbolic meal.  We eat in order to have life, nourishment and refreshment, and God has not only provided for our physical life (with food and drink) but also for our spiritual life, and that life is nourished by the life of Christ, by the vital force of His resurrected and glorified humanity, communicated to me by the Holy Spirit and received by faith.  Eating the bread itself is not the way this life is communicated to me, but it is the sign God has given us of that feeding.

Question 76 of the Catechism uses a similar pattern as in question 70, which asks about the meaning of the symbol.  There, first the role of Jesus’ death is emphasized, the forgiveness of sins in His blood which is held out to us in baptism.  But also, the work of the Spirit is added in.  Baptism also holds out to me the renewal and consecration by the Spirit which is exhibited in baptism.  Likewise, question 76 first relates the benefits I receive from Christ’s death and resurrection as they are pictured to me in the bread and wine.  I eat the body and drink the blood of Christ by embracing, by faith, the death of the Lord on my behalf, to the forgiveness of my sins.  In addition to this forgiveness, the sacrament points me to the ongoing work of the Spirit in my life, who strengthens and enlivens my spirit with the power of the risen Lord, uniting me to His body, working His life in mine, so that I become more and more like Him.
The Lord’s Supper, like Baptism, teaches me these promises, but also seals them to me.  That means that I am being given a confirmation that if I truly believe the promise, then I can be confident that its benefits are mine.  It’s like a stamp of approval.  The Lord Himself commanded us to remember this ceremony, as the Catechism reminds us in question 77, and we can thus have a reminder and a confirmation that the promise of the gospel comes from the Lord.  Jesus did not give us these two sacraments in vain.  They will achieve what He seeks to accomplish through them. The Supper promises us that the Lord will sustain and nourish us throughout our wilderness journey, and make us always more like Himself, and whenever we partake of the supper, see it observed or contemplate it throughout our lives, we can have confidence that the Lord will keep His promise.

The Lord’s Supper is a great demonstration of what the psalmist says in Psalm 103, that He is merciful to us, and pities us like a father pities His children.  I know that if I were to tell my children on Thursday night that they need to remember Sunday morning not to run out of the church service when it’s over, that there’s no way they’re going to remember it come Sunday morning.  I need to tell them right at the time, and if I want them to remember it, I need to repeat it a lot.  Likewise, the Lord knows our weakness, and He mercifully reminds us over and over, and in different ways, of the content of the gospel and the confidence we can have in that promise.

God gave us two sacraments for a reason.  They emphasize different things.  Baptism occurs once only at the beginning of our lives as Christians, and the recipient is entirely passive, while the Supper is observed continuously in the Christian life and is something the participant actively cooperates in, taking the bread and cup from the hand of the minister and eating.  This points us also to a difference in the standards for admitting one to the two different sacraments, and begins to help us understand why the historic doctrine of the church has been to baptize infants but not to admit them to the Table of the Lord until a time of instruction is completed.  We will talk more about who is to be admitted to the Table in two weeks.

We ought not set aside or disregard what the Lord has instituted.  The Lord’s Supper is a wonderful tool to confirm and strengthen our faith, and God’s people should diligently and gratefully make use of it.  If the Lord thought we needed it, we should not second-guess His provision for us.  He knows we are weak and inconstant; by ourselves we would not last a day in the faith, just as we would not expect our children to be able to feed and care for themselves.  So God’s people must not despise the means He has given us to keep us secure in the faith.

LORD’S DAY 27

72. Is, then, the outward washing with water itself the washing away of sins?

No,¹ for only the blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sin.²

[1] 1 Pet. 3:21; Eph. 5:26. [2] 1 Jn. 1:7; 1 Cor. 6:11.

 

73. Why then does the Holy Spirit call Baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins?

God speaks thus with great cause, namely, not only to teach us thereby that just as the filthiness of the body is taken away by water, so our sins are taken away by the blood and Spirit of Christ;¹ but much more, that by this divine pledge and token He may assure us that we are as really washed from our sins spiritually as our bodies are washed with water.²

[1] Rev. 7:14. [2] Mk. 16:16; *Acts 2:38.

 

74. Are infants also to be baptized?

Yes, for since they, as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God,¹ and through the blood of Christ² both redemption from sin and the Holy Spirit, who works faith, are promised to them no less than to their parents,³ they are also by Baptism, as a sign of the covenant, to be engrafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of unbelievers,⁴ as was done in the Old Testament by circumcision,⁵ in place of which in the New Testament Baptism is appointed.⁶

[1] Gen. 17:7. [2] Matt. 19:14. [3] Lk. 1:14–15; Ps. 22:10; Acts 2:39. [4] Acts 10:47 [5] Gen. 17:14. [6] Col. 2:11–13.

God’s Wisdom in the Use of Appointed Means

Lord’s Day 27 at first appears to take up two different questions regarding baptism, but they are closely related.  The second question, of the baptism of infants, cannot be properly understood until the first question is answered.  That first question is whether the waters of baptism remove sins of themselves.

They do not.  If they did, then justification by faith alone would be a lie.  Forgiveness of sins and justification are two expressions for the same thing, and if we are justified by baptism, then we are not justified by faith alone.  Faith is the sole instrument of our justification, meaning faith is the means God uses to unite us to Christ and to His saving work, so that our sins are forgiven us.  Baptism is not the way we are united to Christ, else it would be possible for one who is baptized but does not believe in the gospel (and the Scriptures and experience tell us there are many) to be either saved without faith or to be united to Christ and still sent to hell.

But this is a long way from saying baptism is an empty ceremony without any purpose.  Just because some make too much of it does not mean we should make too little.  God does not tell us to do things for no reason, just for the enjoyment of watching us jump through hoops.   Baptism is a visual demonstration to us of our salvation, that our sins are thoroughly washed away from us, so that we who were red like crimson will be white as snow.  Beyond that, it is a promise, a “seal” from God.  If we believe the promise of the gospel, the benefits held out to us in baptism, the forgiveness of sins and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit will certainly be given to us.   Baptism is therefore primarily a message from God to us rather than, as is often believed, something we are saying to God.  God uses that physical message to call His elect to Himself in faith.

It’s in this light that we can understand why infants are baptized.  It is not because we think baptizing them removes their sin in any sense.  When a child is born into the church, he is given the promise of the gospel through the sacrament of baptism, which identifies him as a member of the church and holds out the promise to him every day of his life.  The message of baptism, though it is delivered one time, is not a one-time message.  It is a constant truth and reality, one which is sometimes apprehended and believed immediately, and sometimes not for many years.  Sometimes, sadly, those who receive the message never believe it at all.  But the child of the believer is a part of the church just as the child in the Old Testament was a part of Israel and received the sign of membership.  It is not an empty promise, either.  Though we have no promise about every baptized child coming to faith, it is an undeniable fact that the most common way that God has always preserved and propagated His church is through believing families, through mothers and fathers raising their children to faith.  Baptism is the beginning of the process.

Those who believe in the baptism only of adults often (and consistently) view their children as pagans to be evangelized.  But the Reformed treat their children as Christians to be discipled.  God did not place them in our homes by accident, and until they declare themselves by word or deed to be unbelievers, we will treat them as believers.  Among many other passages, Paul’s instruction to children to obey their parents “in the Lord” supports our contention that children should be treated as members of the church, and the several examples in the New Testament of household baptisms provide further evidence.  Jesus famously declared the kingdom of God to include little children, and we have no right to exclude those whom Christ includes.

In the sacraments we see how the external instrument mirrors the internal work, how the physical points to the spiritual.  What is happening with the physical elements points to the work the Spirit of God is doing internally.  Not in all cases, of course; many, lacking faith, will receive the sign but not the Spirit the sign points to.  That in no way undermines the true effectiveness of the signs that God has appointed, since they are not intended for the reprobate, but for God’s elect.

God is calling to Himself a people, and He is cleansing and purifying that people to be fit to be in His presence.  Though the internal work of the Spirit of God is the crucial element of the process, God created us physical beings, with physical senses, and He places us in families, communities, and nations.  Being a wise and powerful God, He uses everything He has created to achieve His ends with those He has chosen for salvation, for He did not make a mistake in making us as He did.  When He desires to save a person from wrath, He will prepare the circumstances by which that person will hear the gospel of Christ; perhaps He will bring them missionaries, or Christian friends, or very commonly, place them in families where they will hear that gospel.  And He will call them to faith through their whole person- their intellect, their emotions, their physical senses.  In all this He shows Himself to be a good and glorious God, making use of all He has created to accomplish His intentions toward His people.

 

LORD’S DAY 26

69. How is it signified and sealed to you in Holy Baptism that you have part in the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross?

Thus: that Christ instituted this outward washing with water¹ and joined to it this promise,² that I am washed with His blood and Spirit from the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as certainly as I am washed outwardly with water, whereby commonly the filthiness of the body is taken away.³

[1] Matt. 28:19–20; Acts 2:38. [2] Matt. 3:11; Mk. 16:16; Rom. 6:3–4. [3] Mk. 1:4.

70. What is it to be washed with the blood and Spirit of Christ?

It is to have the forgiveness of sins from God through grace, for the sake of Christ’s blood, which He shed for us in His sacrifice on the cross;¹ and also to be renewed by the Holy Spirit and sanctified to be members of Christ, so that we may more and more die unto sin and lead holy and blameless lives.²

[1] Heb. 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 1:5; Zech. 13:1; Ezek. 36:25–27. [2] Jn. 1:33; 3:3; 1 Cor. 6:11; 12:13; *Heb. 9:14.

71. Where has Christ promised that we are as certainly washed with His blood and Spirit as with the water of Baptism?

In the institution of Baptism, which says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”¹ “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”² Th is promise is also repeated where Scripture calls Baptism the washing of regeneration³ and the washing away of sins.⁴

[1] Matt. 28:19 [2] Mk. 16:16. [3] Tit. 3:5. [4] Acts 22:16.

 

The Holy Calling of Baptism

Both of the sacraments which our Lord instituted have a relationship between the ceremony which is performed and the thing which the ceremony teaches.  The ceremony itself is not chosen arbitrarily.  Baptism is a symbolic washing.  What it symbolizes is the washing away of my sin by the blood of Christ.

The place that the ritual of baptism holds in the life of the Christian says a lot about how fundamental the doctrine of justification by faith alone is to Christian doctrine and life.  It is the initiatory rite; a person is made a member of the Christian community by baptism.  He begins his life in the covenant people of God with a symbol of being washed of his sin, and that symbol is a promise to him, that God will certainly forgive his sins if he believes the promise contained in baptism.  Since that promise, and the call to faith in it, is the way one enters and becomes a part of the Christian community, the Christian is constantly reminded throughout his life that God’s forgiveness of his sins because of Christ’s shed blood is the foundation of his whole identity as a Christian.  Everything about our lives as Christians must start with that truth.

People have often accused the doctrine of justification by faith alone as antinomian; this was a common accusation against the Reformed by their Roman Catholic opponents.  There is of course real antinomianism, and all Christians should reject it.  The Catechism deals with that more in the third section.  In Romans 6, when defending this doctrine against this very charge or misunderstanding, Paul uses baptism to show the believer that his identity is now in Christ, and that therefore his behavior must more and more come to reflect that identity.  The doctrine of forgiveness of sins is only antinomian if fear of punishment is the only reason you can think of to repent and do good works, while the Bible and the Catechism gives us many more.

As question 70 says, being washed with the blood and spirit of Christ means forgiveness of sins, but more.  Being forgiven means being united with Christ and infused with the power of the Spirit of God, so that the life of Christ works in me.  The washing of baptism symbolizes, in addition to forgiveness, the idea of being “set apart” to God’s service, like a pot or vessel was washed ritually before being taken out of common use and dedicated to the service of God in the Old Testament temple.  A priest, likewise, when he was to begin his service, was sprinkled with water to symbolize being set apart for holy service.  But these two ideas, being forgiven and being dedicated to service, aren’t really two separate things, because the service of God is what we are created for, and our sin is what prevents us from fulfilling this service.  So if we are forgiven of our sins, it is so that we can return to that service for which we were created.

Whenever we struggle with our sin, we should always remember our baptism, for both of these intimately connected messages.  We are forgiven of sin, and thus there is no condemnation for us, as Paul says in Romans 8, for all those who believe the promise of the gospel.  Guilt and terror of the wrath of God only drives us away from God, so the believer must put it away.  But God forgave us for the purpose of consecrating us to His service, so we should repent of sin and struggle against it every day of our lives, with all the tools that God gives us to do so.  Whenever we see someone brought into the church through baptism, it should likewise remind us of our own holy calling, and re-commit ourselves to that calling with all our strength and faith.