Good Morning!
As we continue in our Confession help on Thursday mornings I wanted to take a moment and answer a question this week about why we have a Confession at all. What is the purpose of it? How does it help me in my day-to-day life? Why would reading the Westminster Confession of Faith myself help me to come to know more about Jesus and find comfort in His gospel message?
These are all great questions.
Let me start off by defining our terms. What does it mean to "confess" something? Confessing is usually used in the context of being forced to tell the truth by the police in an interrogation room. To be sure that is not what we are talking about. No one should feel like they are under compulsion to confess the Westminster Standards. :) No, what we understand by confessing is more akin to what the apostle Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 3:15. It is a defense for the hope that lies within us. In other words, when we say the answer to the first question of the Shorter Catechism, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" we are showing the world that we believe that nothing gets in the way of our desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, that this is what Jehovah has made us for, to glorify and enjoy Him. Here is what we are talking about when we say "confess". As Christians it defines who we are and what we are about. Our Confession of Faith and Catechisms are a summary of what we believe the Bible to teach concerning salvation and the Christian life. If someone was to ask us what it means to be a Presbyterian we could gladly hand them a copy of the Standards and be satisfied that this is an expression of who we are at Bethany, or any other confessionally grounded Presbyterian church. There is great peace in knowing that in every ARP church we have brothers and sisters who believe what we believe about what God teaches His people and that our fellow brothers in the Church have spent time to help us in this way, even if it was written 350 years ago. If we believe that the Scriptures are unchangeable, and that men are saved in the same way, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then having this common bond with the men who wrote the documents helps us in a way to understand that while time separates our days, the idea we are one in Christ Jesus has real meat and encourages us as we strive to know more about the Lord of glory.
Let's take a step back. Where do we see this whole idea, that it is a good idea for men to collate into a document a synopsis of their faith in the Bible? Well, there are a couple of places where we see this in the Old and New Testament. First of all in the 8th chapter of the Book of Isaiah the prophet is dealing with false teachers who are calling the people to consult Mediums and Wizards. In challenging this idolatrous wickedness we see him say, "...to the law and the testimony." Here is a reference to the revealed word of God and to the examples found of what men had said concerning these evil things. In much the same way our Westminster Confession of Faith fulfills this "testimony". To go back to the legal image this is what a witness does in the box, testifies to what he/she knows. If you are being challenged by the fleshly world in regards to the 2nd Commandment and are not sure whether or not this action will be in keeping with the Bible, well then go to the Shorter and Larger Catechism questions that cover it and you can trust that the Church has thought through this before, that you are not alone in this concern, and has come to an understanding of Scripture's position on a subject.
Likewise in the New Testament we have a similar example in Romans 10:9. There Paul is calling upon men to "...confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord..." and this also is accomplished in the blessing of having a Confession like the WCF. We know that our faith is rich and deep and this is another place where it helps us to know at least where to look in the Standards to find help for answering inquiries we might have about what it means to be a Christian.
The Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms shouldn't be a dusty relic that only the pastor needs to know about. As Presbyterians they should be loved by all of us. As persecution grows and the world around us becomes less and less soaked in the ethos of Christianity it is going to become even more important that we know what we believe and why we believe it. That it means something to say, "I am an Associate Reformed Presbyterian" and the Confession helps us in this way so much. Let us take seriously our common confession and see its richness as a blessing to our daily life.
For this week's reading is a word from Todd Pruitt on why Confessionalism means so much:
https://www.reformation21.org/mos/1517/why-i-ran-to-confessionalism
If you need a hard copy of the Confession/Catechisms don't hesitate to let me know. :)
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church
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