The Westminster Confession of Faith is one of the most precise and comprehensive statements of biblical Christianity, and it is treasured by believers around the world. Dr. R.C. Sproul has called it one of the most important confessions of faith ever penned, and it has helped generations of Christians understand and defend what they believe. In Truths We Confess, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. In his signature easy-to-understand style and with his conviction that everyone's a theologian, he provides valuable commentary that will serve churches and individual Christians as they strive to better understand the eternal truths of Scripture. As he walks through the confession line by line, Dr. Sproul shows how the doctrines of the Bible—from creation to covenant, sin to salvation—fit together to the glory of God. This accessible volume is designed to help you deepen your knowledge of God's Word and answer the question, What do you believe?

In the face of false doctrines and distortions of the truth, Christians must be prepared to boldly confess what they believe. Order your copy of Truths We Confess today.

The Westminster Confession of Faith is one of the most precise and comprehensive statements of biblical Christianity, and it is treasured by believers around the world. Dr. R.C. Sproul has called it one of the most important confessions of faith ever penned, and it has helped generations of Christians understand and defend what they believe.

In Truths We Confess, now thoroughly revised and available in a single, accessible volume, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. In his signature easy-to-understand style and with his conviction that everyone’s a theologian, he provides valuable commentary that will serve churches and individual Christians as they strive to better understand the eternal truths of Scripture. As he walks through the confession line by line, Dr. Sproul shows how the doctrines of the Bible—from creation to covenant, sin to salvation—fit together to the glory of God. This accessible volume is designed to help you deepen your knowledge of God’s Word and answer the question, What do you believe?

“...few things will do you more good or set you on a safer path than to sit now at R.C.’s feet and read through his exposition of the great doctrines of the Christian faith. I use the phrase “sit at his feet” deliberately, because you will soon realize that this is exactly what you feel you are doing. Indeed, if you ever had the privilege of hearing R.C. speak, I suspect that you, like me, will hear his voice virtually reading his own book to you.” —Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, Ligonier Ministries Teaching Fellow

Available now from ReformationTrust.com.

Dr. R.C. Sproul was founder of Ligonier Ministries, founding pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla., first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. His daily program, Renewing Your Mind, is still broadcast daily on hundreds of radio stations around the world and can also be heard online. He was author of more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God, Chosen by God, and Everyone’s a Theologian. He was recognized throughout the world for his articulate defense of the inerrancy of Scripture and the need for God’s people to stand with conviction upon His Word.

of Christian stewardship, we are referring to our responsibility to manage the resources that God has entrusted to us.

The Scriptures teach that God gives to ministers the management or stewardship of the sacred mysteries. When Paul refers to “stewards of the mysteries of God,” the church understands that to include being “stewards of the sacraments.” Though we must not make an identity between the New Testament use of the word mystery and our word sacrament, there remains a historic link between the words as the Latin sacramentum was used by the church to translate the Greek mystērion. One of the pastor’s responsibilities in the life of the church is to oversee the sacraments.

Though the biblical evidence is not overwhelming, it seems best to conclude that only ordained people have the authority to administer the sacraments. In addition to biblical references and the biblical concept of what it means to be a bishop, and the responsibilities of eldership as set forth in the New Testament, the church, in her own development, rightly came to the conclusion that the sacraments are so holy that they must be guarded from frivolous or cavalier usage. That becomes particularly clear when we consider the warning not to partake of the Lord’s Supper unworthily.

Paul warns about eating and drinking unworthily in 1 Corinthians 11:30: “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” The New Testament scholar Oscar Cullmann observed that this is one of the most neglected verses in the entire New Testament. He suggested that Paul was saying to the Corinthians, “Some of you people have fallen ill, even unto death, directly as a result of your failure to discern the Lord’s body in this most holy event.” This need for discernment, along with other concerns, lay behind the church’s decision to protect the people from the negative effects of mishandling the sacraments. Therefore, the sacraments must be administered by those who have been set apart for the task of ministry in the church. Not just anyone can administer the sacraments. The responsibility to guard the sacraments is put into the hands of the clergy. That is no guarantee that there will not be abuses, but the situation could otherwise be much worse.

Luther was paralyzed by fear when he sought to administer the Lord’s Supper for the first time. Baptism is too important to do at a party in someone’s swimming pool. It belongs under the rule and supervision of the church. The confession, following the church practice through the ages, says that the sacraments are to be administered by those who are in positions of ordained authority, the lawfully ordained ministers of the Word.[2]

[1] Westminster Confession of Faith 27.4

[2] This excerpt is taken from R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess (pp. 584–587).

not return to Him void because it contains His power (Isa . 55:11) . We stand in awe that our Creator formed the entire vast universe out of nothing by the sheer command of His voice.

Some profound philosophical questions flow from the concept of creation ex nihilo. Although there was no preexistent material out of which God ordered the universe, it is not as if there was absolutely nothing. Ex nihilo means that there was no substantive or physical reality, but obviously there was always God Himself and His spiritual reality. We learn in Scripture never to identify the universe or any part of it with God Himself. To confuse the Creator and the creature is to fall into pantheism, which obscures the clear distinction between creature and Creator. Yet we hear from the Apostle Paul, citing Greek poets, that “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). For our very existence we are utterly dependent on the sustaining power of God. That which He creates, God holds in existence. We depend on Him not only for the original act of creation but also for existence from moment to moment. There is no life apart from Him.

When we say that our being is in God, we raise the question of whether the stuff of the universe is an extension of God’s being, somehow a part of Him. This gives rise to forms of pantheism. It is difficult to understand how God, who is infinite in His being, can permeate everything and yet allow something to exist that is completely distinct from His own being. We do, in some sense, owe our existence to His very being, but that does not deify us in any way. There is a distinction between self-existence and creaturely existence, and we are never to think of ourselves as little gods or sparks of the infinite. We do not exist on our own power but depend every second on the being of God for our existence. We are not God, and how we exist under the influence of His creative power is something that no one can explain. Of this we can be certain: unless that power of being is over us and prior to us, nothing could possibly be.

This excerpt is adapted from Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul. In Truths We Confess, now thoroughly revised and available in a single, accessible volume, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. Order the hardcover book today.

Truths We Confess

Himself must have one as well. But if God has an antecedent cause, then He is a creature like everyone else. When he read this in his late teens, Russell decided that the classical argument for God’s existence is fallacious. Russell maintained that position until his death, failing to realize that it was built on a faulty definition of the law of causality.

The law of causality teaches that every effect must have a cause, not that everything must have a cause. Effects, by definition, are caused by something outside of themselves. However, we need not assume that everything is an effect—temporal, finite, dependent, and derived. There is nothing irrational about the idea of a self-existent, eternal being who has the power of being within Himself. In fact, such a concept is not only logically possible but (as Thomas Aquinas demonstrated) logically necessary. For anything to exist, something somewhere, somehow, must have the power of being, for without the power of being, nothing could possibly be. That which has the power of being in and of itself, and is not dependent on anything outside of itself, must have the power of being from all eternity. This is what distinguishes God from us. We recall the first sentence of the Old Testament: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Everything in the cosmos, apart from God, is creaturely. Everything in creation—in the universe—has a beginning in time. God alone is from everlasting to everlasting and possesses the attribute of eternality. That majestic aspect of God’s nature so far transcends anything that we have ever conceived of in this world that it alone should be enough to move our souls to praise and adore Him. He alone has the power of being in and of Himself. We do not think about these things often enough. If we reflect on a being who is eternal, who generates the power for everything else that exists, including ourselves, we should be moved to worship Him.

This excerpt is adapted from Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul. In Truths We Confess, now thoroughly revised and available in a single, accessible volume, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. Order the hardcover book today.

Truths We Confess

Reformers gave, based on the teaching of the Apostle Paul, was “in and through, or by and through, faith alone.” But it is not faith alone that saves us. When we say that justification is by faith alone, we are saying that justification is by and through our faith in Christ alone.

The instrumental cause of justification, according to Rome, is baptism and penance. Rome defines these sacraments as the instruments by and through which a person is justified. The difference is between salvation that is accomplished sacerdotally (that is, through the church’s administration of the sacraments) and salvation that is experienced through faith in Christ alone. This is all the difference in the world. The confession says that faith is the only instrument of justification because it is through faith alone that we rest on and receive the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ, the benefits of His atonement, the objective merit or grounds of our justification, are freely offered to anyone who believes. “The righteous shall live by faith” (Rom.1:17). We are justified not by faith plus works but by faith alone. All that is needed to enter the kingdom of God is faith or trust in the work of Christ alone.

Faith is not the grounds of our justification. The grounds of our justification is the righteousness of Christ, His merit. The Reformers said that the meritorious cause of our justification is the righteousness of Christ alone. The instrumental cause of our justification is faith, but when we say that we are justified by faith alone, we do not mean that faith is a meritorious work that adds anything to the ground of our justification.

What difference does that make practically? There are people who say they believe in justification by faith alone but who rely on their faith as if it were meritorious or a good work that will satisfy the demands of God’s justice. The fact that a person possesses faith adds no merit to his account. It adds infinite merit to his account by imputation, but it is the merit of Christ that is imputed to him. We can receive Christ’s merit only by faith, and there is no merit to that. The only One who can save us is Christ, and the only way we can get access to Him is through faith. We do not rest on anything else in our lives except Christ and His righteousness for our salvation.

This excerpt is adapted from Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul. In Truths We Confess, now thoroughly revised and available in a single, accessible volume, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. Order the hardcover book today.

Truths We Confess

against us ever again.

God’s forgiveness is not automatic and universal, but it is part of justification. When a person is guilty before a righteous God, there is nothing more important than to understand how that guilt can be removed and how God’s forgiveness can be attained. How can an unforgiven person become forgiven? How can an unjust person be justified or be considered just in the sight of God? There are not many issues in theology more serious than that. The controversy of the sixteenth century boiled down to this: How can we be saved? How can we, as unjust people, possibly be reconciled to a holy and righteous God? This is the greatest issue we face in our entire lives—the question of our personal redemption.

This excerpt is adapted from Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul. In Truths We Confess, now thoroughly revised and available in a single, accessible volume, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. Order the hardcover book today.

Truths We Confess

God is most free; that is, His freedom is unlimited. He is sovereign. The most frequent objection to His sovereignty is that if God is truly sovereign, then man cannot be free. Scripture uses the term freedom to describe our human condition in two distinct ways: freedom from coercion, whereby man is free to make choices without coercion, and moral freedom, which we lost in the fall, leaving us slaves to the evil impulses of our flesh. Humanists believe that man can make choices not only without coercion but also without any natural inclination toward evil. We Christians must be on guard against this humanist or pagan view of human freedom.

The Christian view is that God creates us with wills, with a capacity to choose. We are volitional beings. But the freedom given in creation is limited. What ultimately limits our freedom is God’s freedom. This is where we run into the conflict between divine sovereignty and human freedom. Some say that God’s sovereignty is limited by human freedom. If that is the case, then man is sovereign, not God. The Reformed faith teaches that human freedom is real but limited by God’s sovereignty. We cannot overrule the sovereign decisions of God with our freedom, because God’s freedom is greater than ours.

Human family relationships provide an analogy. Parents exercise authority over the child. The child has freedom, but the parents have more. The child’s freedom does not limit the parents’ freedom in the way that the parents’ freedom limits the child’s. When we come to the attributes of God, we must understand that God is most free.

When we say that God is sovereign, we are saying something about His freedom, although we tend to think that sovereignty means something quite different from freedom. God is a volitional being; He has a will and makes decisions. When making decisions and exercising His will, He does so sovereignly as the ultimate authority. His freedom is most free. He alone has supreme autonomy; He is a law unto Himself.

Humans seek autonomy, unlimited freedom, desiring to be accountable to no one. In a real sense, that is what happened in the fall. Satan enticed Adam and Eve to reach for autonomy, to become like God, to do whatever they wanted with impunity. Satan was introducing a liberation movement in the garden to free human beings from culpability, from accountability to God. But He alone has autonomy.

This excerpt is adapted from Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul. In Truths We Confess, now thoroughly revised and available in a single, accessible volume, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. Order the hardcover book today.

Truths We Confess

The best theologians, past and present, have been divided on the question of whether Jesus could have sinned. I believe that since Jesus was fully human, it was possible for him to sin. Obviously, the divine nature cannot sin. But if Christ's divine nature prevented him from sinning, in what sense did he obey the law of God as the second Adam? At his birth, Jesus' human nature was exactly the same as Adam's before the fall, with respect to his moral capabilities. Jesus had what Augustine called the posse peccare and the posse non peccare, that is, the ability to sin and the ability not to sin. Adam sinned; Jesus did not. Satan did everything in his power to corrupt Jesus and tempt him to sin. That would have been an exercise in futility had he been trying to tempt a divine person to sin. Satan was not trying to get God to sin. He was trying to get the human nature of Christ to sin, so that he would not be qualified to be the Savior. I think it is wrong to believe that Christ’s divine nature made it impossible for his human nature to sin. —R.C. Sproul

At the same time, Christ was uniquely sanctified and ministered to by the Holy Spirit. In order to sin, a person must have a desire for sin. But Jesus' human nature throughout his life was marked by a zeal for righteousness. "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 4:34), he said. As long as Jesus had no desire to sin, he would not sin. I may be wrong, but I think it is wrong to believe that Christ's divine nature made it impossible for his human nature to sin. If that were the case, the temptation, the tests, and his assuming of the responsibility of the first Adam would have all been charades. This position protects the integrity of the authenticity of the human nature because it was the human nature that carried out the mission of the second Adam on our behalf. It was the human nature uniquely anointed beyond measure by the Holy Spirit.

Excerpt from R.C. Sproul's, Truths We Confess

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Rom. 3:10-12)

Is it true that the natural man cannot do any good at all? Is this not something of an overstatement? The Westminster Confession of Faith, for example, reflects this point of view when it asserts: From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

Are there not occasions when unbelievers show acts of kindness and self-sacrifice? Imagine, for a moment, writing a letter to one of the national newspapers in which you say, "Non-Christians have never done anything good." It would not be difficult to imagine the opprobrium that would result from such a statement. What, then, do Paul and the Westminster Confession mean when they collectively assert such a position? Even the unbeliever's good acts are evil

The answer requires some finesse. Calvin, for example, taught that fallen human beings still have the capacity for what he called "civic virtue"—keeping laws and conventions of society, and interacting with others in a way that is not vicious or evil. In these relationships, human beings are capable of acts that are good, compassionate, laudable, and virtuous. Indeed, non-Christians often prove kinder than Christians in acts of mercy and compassion.

How is this admission, that there exist acts of human kindness that we may label "good," compatible with Paul's assertion: "None is righteous, no, not one. . . . No one does good, not even one" (Rom. 3:10–12; see Ps. 14:1–3)? R.C. Sproul writes: The answer is that what fallen man can do on the horizontal plane in his behavior toward other people he cannot do on the vertical plane in his behavior toward God. When Scripture records, "There is none who does good, no, not one," good is more narrowly defined than it usually is.

The "goodness" in view in Romans 3:12 (citing Ps. 14:3) is goodness as God sees it. The Bible is asserting that even acts of civic kindness done by an unbeliever fail to meet the requirement of God's law—namely, that all our actions must be done with a view to glorifying God. In that sense, even the unbeliever's good acts are evil. These actions "cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8). In the language of The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "there is no health in us." God alone can provide new life where there is inability and blindness

The unbeliever's moral inability to do good—good that may be credited to his account by way of righteousness—means that there is only one possible way of salvation: it must come from outside himself. God alone can provide new life where there is inability and blindness. We need a spiritual rebirth, one that God alone can provide.

In a consumer-driven society, we can be tempted to think that newer is always better or that older is irrelevant. The world tells us that diverging from biblical instruction is evidence of enlightenment and progress. Yet believers know the truth: Our God is unchanging in His character, His purposes, and His will. And because of that, we find comfort in His enduring Word and look back in history to learn from summations of biblical truth penned by faithful saints.

The following resources, curated by the Ligonier editorial team, can help today’s Christian learn about the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is one of the most well-written and enduring confessions of the Reformed tradition.

Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith by R.C. Sproul  In this book, Dr. R.C. Sproul walks through the Westminster Confession of Faith line by line, explaining what it means and applying it to modern life. Through this study, readers can deepen their knowledge of God’s Word and be better equipped to answer the question, “What do you believe?”

Confessing the Faith: A Reader’s Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith by Chad Van Dixhoorn Historical and practical in its focus, this book provides a guide to the confession, considers its original proof-texts, and seeks to deepen the reader’s understanding of the Westminster Confession. Both advanced and general audiences can benefit from this book and have their hearts and minds challenged.

Recovering the Reformed Confession: Our Theology, Piety, and Practice by R. Scott Clark This book seeks to retrieve the doctrine, piety, and practice of Reformed Christianity. After exploring crises in modern churches, Dr. Clark calls us to recover faithfulness to God’s Word by returning to historical creeds. He calls for a recovery of Reformed identity as well as historic Reformed worship rooted in the church’s historical understanding of Scripture.

The Westminster Confession of Faith: For Study Classes by G.I. Williamson This guide to the Westminster Confession has served churches and colleges throughout the world for more than fifty years. Each section includes an explanation of the confession, along with questions for personal or group study and discussion.

The Theology of the Westminster Standards: Historical Context and Theological Insights by J.V. Fesko In this volume, Dr. J.V. Fesko seeks to help readers understand the background and theology of the Westminster Confession, the Larger Catechism, and the Shorter Catechism. Arranged by the major categories of systematic theology, quotations from other key works from the same time period help shed light on the original context and significance of these influential documents.

This article is part of the Recommended Resources collection.

With countless resources on Reformed theology, it can be difficult to know where to begin. For those looking for a helpful introduction to Reformed theology and the doctrines of grace, the following resources can assist your own spiritual growth or serve as tools to help introduce others to Reformed theology.

What Is Reformed Theology? by R.C. Sproul

In this insightful book, Dr. Sproul walks through the foundations of Reformed doctrine and explains how it is centered on God, based on God’s Word, and committed to faith in Jesus Christ. He also explains the five points of TULIP and makes plain the reality of God’s amazing grace.

The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, and Documented by David N. Steele, Curtis C. Thomas, and S. Lance Quinn

This updated classic contains a brief exposition of each of the five points of Calvinism along with the biblical passages that teach each point. This helpful summary of the teachings of Reformed theology makes it a handy reference for studying the biblical teaching on man’s depravity and the sovereignty of God in salvation.

The Necessity of Reforming the Church by John Calvin

To restore the church to the teachings of Christ, the Reformers cried out for a return to God’s authoritative Word. In this classic treatise, John Calvin presents four areas of the church’s life and doctrine that must be carefully guarded and guided by Scripture.

Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul

In this book, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to the Westminster Confession of Faith, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. As he walks through the confession line by line, Dr. Sproul shows how the doctrines of the Bible—from creation to covenant, sin to salvation—fit together to the glory of God.

Welcome to a Reformed Church by Daniel Hyde

What do Reformed churches believe and why do they structure their life and worship as they do? This book sketches the historical roots of the Reformed churches, their scriptural and confessional basis, their key beliefs, and how those beliefs are put into practice. This is a valuable resource for those encountering the Reformed world for the first time and for those who want to know more about their Reformed heritage.

God has given us an inerrant revelation that is sufficient to direct us in how we are to please Him (2 Tim. 3:16–17). He expects us to apply our minds diligently to His Word so as to be transformed by it (Rom. 12:2). Yet while we can make great progress in unfolding the depths of Scripture, we eventually reach a point where we must be silent and simply worship the Lord for who He is and what He has done. We are finite, He is infinite, and we will always encounter biblical truths that we cannot fully explain, things that can only move us to praise our great God (Rom. 11:33–36).

As we continue our discussion of the Lord’s Supper, we must confess that this sacrament is, at least at the present, mysterious in a way that lends itself more to adoration than explanation. We are certainly not advocating the adoration of the host (bread) or any of the other idolatrous practices that have crept up around the Lord’s Supper in other traditions. We are simply saying that we do not fully know what happens in the Lord’s Supper. We know the bread and the wine do not literally become human flesh and blood (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 78). We also know that a true feeding of our souls takes place in the sacrament because of John 6:55 and other passages (Q&A 79). John Calvin writes: “Our souls are fed by the flesh and blood of Christ in the same way that bread and wine keep and sustain physical life. For the analogy of the sign applies only if souls find their nourishment in Christ” (Institutes 4.17.10). Still, at least at the present time, we cannot understand completely how this feeding occurs, even if we know it is a spiritual refreshment. Calvin also writes that “nothing remains but to break forth in wonder at this mystery, which plainly neither the mind is able to conceive nor the tongue to express” (4.17.7).

Jesus’ presence in the sacrament is somewhat mystical, but it is nonetheless real. We commune truly with Christ and the brethren when we eat the bread and drink the cup. Dr. R.C. Sproul comments: “We come to the Lord’s Supper to have communion with [Jesus] and with each other. That is the mystical element. When he is here and we enter into this relationship with him, there is a real communion with the real Jesus. . . . While I am communing with Christ, I am also communing with everyone in his body. This is what binds us together” (Truths We Confess, vol. 3, p. 141).

Once we acknowledge the bodily ascension of Christ (Acts 1:6–11), we are forced to deal with certain questions raised by passages such as the one chosen for today’s study. Since Jesus has ascended and no longer walks among us in the flesh, how can it also be true that He is with us, even “to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20)?

The Heidelberg Catechism deals with this issue in question and answer 47, turning to the hypostatic union to explain how our Savior can be present with His people in all places and in all times. According to the hypostatic union, Christ is both truly human and truly divine. Jesus is the Son of God, and He has a divine nature that possesses all of our Creator’s attributes, including omnipresence, omniscience, and so forth (John 1:1). But Jesus is also the son of Mary, and He has a human nature that possesses everything that makes human beings human, including a human mind, soul, and body (Luke 23:46; John 1:14). In the one person of Jesus, these two natures are perfectly united without mixture, confusion, separation, or division and each nature retains its own peculiar properties. For example, His physical body and His human mind and soul do not become omnipresent because they are united to His deity. Likewise, the divine Son of God does not cease to be omnipresent simply because He unites Himself to a true human nature with all its limitations.

Jesus’ divine nature makes Him always present with us. He is omnipresent in His deity as God’s Son. Thus, we can commune with Him wherever we are. We commune with the whole Christ, including His humanity, because the omnipresent Son of God closes the geographical gap between us and our Savior’s humanity, which, like ours, is in only one place at a time. Because Christ’s divine nature is united to His human nature, we meet with Jesus in His humanity and in His divinity when we fellowship with the Son of God. Dr. R.C. Sproul writes: “The person of Christ is still a perfect union of a divine nature and a human nature. The human nature is in heaven. The divine nature is not limited to the physical confines of the body of Jesus. . . . The divine nature retains its property of omnipresence. The person of Christ can be everywhere, but that ability is through the power of the divine nature, not the human nature” (Truths We Confess, vol. 1, pp. 246–247).

Throughout church history, the sacraments have been the subject of many heated debates because Christians have recognized that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not empty rites. Instead, they are signs of God’s promise and faithfulness and, as such, “there is a spiritual relationship between the sign and that which it signifies. That relationship is established by God, who himself attaches the significance to the sacrament” (R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess, vol. 3, p. 87). So, although the spiritual realities depicted in baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not caused by the performance of the sacraments themselves, the benefits signified and sealed in the sacraments are given in the sacraments to those who have true faith because of the promises of God.

First and foremost, the sacraments are signs of God’s faithfulness to His covenant. There is, of course, a sense in which we participate in the sacraments as a testimony to the watching world, but that is not the primary emphasis of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These sacraments, alongside the preached Word of God, are designed primarily to show forth God’s trustworthiness. His faithfulness does not depend on the faithfulness of those who serve in His name (2 Tim. 2:13), nor does it depend on the strength of our trust in Him (Luke 22:31–34). Our Creator always keeps His promises.

Consequently, God never fails to keep His promise in baptism that He will cleanse from sin all those who trust in Christ alone for salvation. The outward washing in water, as question and answer 72 of the Heidelberg Catechism remind us, does not in itself wash away our transgressions. That is accomplished only if we are washed by faith in the blood of Jesus and in His Spirit (1 John 1:7). Nevertheless, the promise given in baptism is a real promise, and the Lord has bound Himself to keep this promise when those who are baptized outwardly come to faith in Christ Jesus. At that point of conversion, the outward baptism is fulfilled in the spiritual baptism into Christ and His benefits that the Holy Spirit accomplishes (Gal. 3:27).

As with the Word of God preached, a sacrament performed according to the directions of Jesus our Lord will accomplish its purposes. It is a promise of God used to build up His elect, but it is also a promise of judgment on all those who reject the promise signified in the sacrament.

Modalistic monarchianism, the church determined early on, is heretical because modalism fails to take into account everything the Bible says about God. Scripture clearly distinguishes the Father from the Son from the Spirit (Luke 10:22; John 14:26; 15:26). Even though all three persons of the Trinity are fully equal in power, dignity, knowledge, and every other attribute that makes God who He is, each person possesses some properties that the others do not share. According to the ancient creeds, the Father is unbegotten, the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son. These distinctions do not render any one of the persons of the Trinity “less God” than any of the others, but they are real distinctions. The persons of the Trinity are more than masks, offices, activities, modes, or ways of appearing. God is both one and three, albeit in different senses (R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess, vol. 1, pp. 69–70).

Keeping the three persons properly distinct is essential, but at the same time we must not separate any of the persons from the one essence of our Creator. If we press the distinction too far, we can divide the Godhead into three gods or, like Arius, deny the deity of one of the persons. Arius provoked one of the greatest christological crises in the early church when he questioned the full deity of Christ in the early fourth century AD. Attempting to understand the sonship language of the New Testament, Arius relied too much on the human experience of sonship to illustrate the relation of the Son to the Father. Like human fathers, said Arius, God the Father existed before God the Son. Arius claimed that the Father begat the Son in His first act of creation: the Son was created before all other creatures and maintains an exalted status as the agent through whom everything else was created. Nevertheless, as worthy as He is, the Son is, in the final analysis, just a creature, according to Arius.

The early church rightly understood that if the Son is not fully God, He cannot truly mediate salvation to us. Turning to passages such as John 1:1–18, the early church affirmed the full deity of the second person of the Trinity, settling the question at the Council of Nicea in AD 325. Since that day, the orthodox, universal church has confessed that the Son is of the same essence (homoousios) as the Father.

Any study of God’s will must note that Scripture speaks of His will in two different, compatible ways (Deut. 29:29). First, the Bible refers to the hidden will of the Lord, or His will of decree. This will includes all that ever happens, good or evil. Originating in His sovereign decree by which He governs whatsoever comes to pass, God’s hidden will always prevails (Job 42:2).

Our Father’s hidden will is — not surprisingly — unknowable. It contains many mysteries, such as God’s sovereignty over evil despite His inability to do evil Himself. He is the Lord even over sin, though “the sinfulness thereof proceeds only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is, nor can be, the author or approver of sin” (WCF 5.4). God hates sin but allows it in order that He might overcome evil, judge transgression, and save from sin in glorious displays of His goodness and power (R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess, vol. 1, pp. 78–79). In a real sense, sin is a means to the end of revealing God’s glory — the ultimate good. Still, evil remains evil and God is never culpable for it, although a full explanation of this mystery is hidden to us.

We may never know God’s hidden will, even in eternity. Yet we can know His revealed will. The Lord’s will of precept, or revealed will, details the deeds and affections that are inherently pleasing to Him (see, for example, Ps. 143:10). Scripture contains God’s revealed will, which is routinely violated.

Knowing what pleases God comes through Bible study, and such knowledge guides how we discern our vocation. If we find something we like to do, are skilled to do, and is lawful according to Scripture, then we need not worry about whether it is our calling. Labor itself is not supposed to be a curse, since the Lord instituted it before the fall (Gen. 2:15–17). We need not think God rejoices to give us a day job we hate, although the fall’s effects are felt in every vocation.

True, God sometimes gives us duties that we would not have otherwise chosen. And if others depend on our support, we are not free to quit our jobs with nothing to fall back on (1 Tim. 4:8). But the Lord is kind and knows we work best when we like what we do; thus, we can and should pursue a calling we enjoy.

Once we fell in Adam, our Creator could have justly destroyed His creation for having the audacity to violate His holy statutes. However, God mercifully decided to save some from His wrath and to provide for them to be declared righteous — as those who have satisfied the covenant of works. Only if this original covenant is kept can we stand before the Father.

God redeems His people and counts them as those who have kept the covenant of works through the covenant of grace, which was first announced in His promise to crush the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The covenant of grace does not do away with works, it actually ensures that works of obedience are done, for eternal life is impossible without such works (Rom. 2:6–11). The covenant is gracious, Dr. R.C. Sproul explains, because Christ’s work — His obedience to God’s law — gives us abundant and eternal life (Truths We Confess, vol. 1, pp. 218–219).

The covenant of grace incorporates covenants made with other individuals, two of whom, Abraham and Moses, are important for our study. Paul has already mentioned the covenant with Abraham (Gal. 3:1–9), which defines forever how we are justified by faith alone in the Lord’s promises (vv. 15–18). Thus, God’s people were justified by faith alone under the Mosaic covenant even though some verses in the Law say the doing of its precepts brings righteousness and life. One of these is Leviticus 18:5, which Paul quotes in Galatians 3:12.

We might conclude from a superficial reading of the Mosaic law that old covenant people were saved by works, not faith. Some Christians have held this position. However, the Torah shows us that while it reveals God’s righteous standard, our Creator knew that sinners could never save themselves by doing the Law. For example, the inclusion of sacrifices to atone for sin presupposes that the people will fail and have to look for another way to be justified.

This other way, of course, is the way of faith. Galatians 3:11 quotes Habakkuk 2:4, which looks to the day when God will intervene to rescue His people from their enemies and give them life. Our Creator will rescue only those whom He finds to be righteous, and these righteous ones are those who live by faith.

national and international events, daily Renewing Your Mind broadcasts, podcasts, and many other growing outreaches, we are constantly working to serve our Lord and His church by proclaiming His truth to the ends of the earth.

Truths We Confess

When you support Ligonier this month with a gift of any amount, we will send you Truths We Confess, Dr. Sproul’s new, single-volume commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith. This thoroughly revised edition of Dr. Sproul’s work was one of the last projects he worked on before going home to be with the Lord. I trust that it will help you better understand and guard the truth of Scripture.

By supporting Ligonier, you are working with us as we strive together to proclaim and guard the truth for coming generations—until our Lord returns—all by His grace and all for His glory alone.

Donate Now

P.S. Dr. Sproul valued the Westminster Confession of Faith as a comprehensive statement of biblical Christianity. This month, you can receive his line-by-line exposition of the confession, Truths We Confess, as our thanks for your donation of any amount. Thank you for striving with us to guard and proclaim the truth of God’s Word.

2020 and in the years to come to even more people.

Just look at some of the ways your support of Ligonier’s gospel outreach has enabled expansion:

You have helped us activate ministry projects in forty languages now. In fact, the growth of the dedicated Arabic outreach we launched in the spring and the launch of a dedicated outreach in Farsi just a couple weeks ago is remarkable. This secures a strategic foothold to equip Christians in the Arab world and in Iran with key discipleship resources. The response is overwhelming. Iran is said to have “the fastest-growing evangelical church in the world.” Many new converts from Islam listen to Dr. Sproul regularly. You advanced the colossal translation project of a Spanish edition of the Reformation Study Bible. With this translation recently completed, we’re preparing to launch this key resource in one of the world’s most spoken languages in summer 2020. You enabled us to hold conferences and pastor training events not only in the United States but also in London and Toronto, bringing needed reinforcements to Christians in areas where many believers are under siege by aggressive secularism. You played a significant role in Reformation Bible College’s welcoming its largest incoming class of freshmen and opening its new building, including more classrooms and a large library, debt free. Dr. Sproul’s vision for the college continues to flourish as we raise up a generation of knowledgeable and articulate Christians. Your visionary support gave us the confidence to meet the recent explosive interest in podcasts by strategically expanding our team and resources. This year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Renewing Your Mind, an outreach used by God to reach millions of people with life-transforming truth. We also launched the Simply Put podcast to help Christians understand key theological terms and apply them to daily life, and we’re preparing to launch additional podcasts in the months and years to come. You bolstered the production of several new teaching series and the publication of many new books, including the new single-volume edition of Dr. Sproul’s Truths We Confess. Ligonier’s rich library of trusted teaching deepens every week, all thanks to your support.

That barely scratches the surface. I wish I could sit down with you over a cup of coffee and talk about all the doors that the Lord is opening for Ligonier around the world. We give thanks to God for you and for the way you enable this unique ministry to equip growing Christians with His answers to the most important questions people ask and to help churches continue to advance the Great Commission.

We need your support now to make the most of these opportunities to reach a dying world and to ground Christians in a view of God that is as massive as the Bible presents. Something else R.C. often said is that if someone donates $100, we can do $100 worth of ministry—but what we cannot do is $101

Many people dismiss the Reformation as a peculiar chapter of history with little relevance to contemporary life. But nothing could be further from the truth.

In this new video teaching series, Dr. Michael Reeves explains that the Reformation still matters because the gospel still matters. As he surveys the beliefs of Roman Catholics and Protestants, we see that these two traditions hold two very different views on salvation. One relies on our performance; the other rests on Jesus’ righteousness alone. Only one is the true gospel, and like the Reformers, we must proclaim it with clarity, boldness, and joy.

This teaching series is available now for purchase on DVD or CD, as a digital download, or as a Ligonier Connect course. A corresponding study guide is also available.

Dr. Michael Reeves is president and professor of theology at Union School of T_heology in Oxford, England. He is author of several books, including _Rejoicing in Christ. He is the featured teacher for the Ligonier teaching series The English Reformation and the Puritans.

Earlier this year, Ligonier released The Word Made Flesh: The Ligonier Statement on Christology. Since then, we have received questions and comments, and we have compiled these into a list of frequently asked questions. We hope the answers to these questions serve people as they continue to read the statement and seek to understand Scripture's teaching on the person and work of Christ.

What is The Word Made Flesh: The Ligonier Statement on Christology?

It is primarily a concise, 137-word statement on the person and work of Christ. The statement also includes twenty-five articles of affirmation and denial. Each article has Scripture proofs.

The booklet that contains the statement also includes an introductory letter written and signed by Dr. R.C. Sproul, as well as an explanatory essay written by Dr. Stephen J. Nichols. When we released the booklet, we also launched the website ChristologyStatement.com. This site has the documents mentioned above, as well as numerous translations.

How can copies be obtained?

The Ligonier Statement on Christology can be downloaded for free at ChristologyStatement.com/downloads. It is currently available in sixteen languages. We presently sell physical copies in English, at cost, in bundles of ten through our website at Ligonier.org.

Who worked on the Christology Statement?

The statement is a product of the Ligonier Teaching Fellows, under the leadership and supervision of Dr. R.C. Sproul. Contributions were also made by the Reformation Bible College faculty and the editorial department at Ligonier.

What is the hope for the use of this statement in the church?

Ligonier is not a church or an official ecclesiastical body. We are a ministry that seeks to serve the church by providing helpful resources that God's people can use as they grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. More than forty years ago, the Ligonier Statement on Inerrancy was a catalyst for conversation. Those conversations grew and led to the creation of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and the work of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. The Christology Statement represents the work of ministers of the gospel working to restate historic, orthodox Christology. What happens next is up to other organizations and ecclesiastical bodies. We desire to steward faithfully the resources we have to serve the church.

Do you want this statement to replace the creeds and confessions of the church?

Absolutely not. Ligonier has sought from the beginning of its ministry to point the church of today to the riches of the past. Dr. Sproul's first book was The Symbol, an exposition of the Apostles' Creed (it has recently been re-released as What We Believe: Understanding and Confessing the Apostles' Creed). He also wrote a three-volume exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith called Truths We Confess.

We hope this statement points people to the great riches of the Christian faith. Many churches and denominations have creeds, confessions, catechisms, and statements as part of their heritage. At the same time, many evangelicals in the United States and around the world do not possess these treasures. If this statement reaches them, it is our hope that it will point

the beginning chapters of Genesis are a mixture of historical narrative and poetry, with part of the poetic structure being the repeated refrain, “So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen 1:5), and so on. Ridderbos concluded that Genesis gives us not a historical narrative of the when or the how of divine creation, but a drama in seven acts. The first act ends with the statement, “So the evening and the morning were the first day.” The author of Genesis, then, is trying to show that God's work of creation took place in seven distinct stages, which incidentally fit remarkably well into the stages identified by the modern theories of cosmic evolution.

Therefore, the framework hypothesis allows one to step into a Big Bang cosmology while maintaining the credibility and inspiration of Genesis 1-2. This is not history, but drama. The days are simply artistic literary devices to create a framework for a lengthy period of development.

In America Ridderbos’s work was widely disseminated by Meredith Kline, who for many years taught Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, then at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and then at Westminster Seminary California. Because Kline endorsed the framework hypothesis, many people, particularly in the Reformed community, have embraced it, provoking a serious crisis in some circles. Some Reformed pastors today hold to a literal six-day creation, while others hold to the framework hypothesis, and yet they otherwise hold to the same system of orthodox theology. One must do a great deal of hermeneutical gymnastics to escape the plain meaning of Genesis 1-2.

Six-Day Creation

For most of my teaching career, I considered the framework hypothesis to be a possibility. But I have now changed my mind. I now hold to a literal six-day creation, the fourth alternative and the traditional one. Genesis says that God created the universe and everything in it in six twenty-four-hour periods. According to the Reformation hermeneutic, the first option is to follow the plain sense of the text. One must do a great deal of hermeneutical gymnastics to escape the plain meaning of Genesis 1-2. The confession makes it a point of faith that God created the world in the space of six days.

Excerpted from Truths We Confess: A Layman's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith (Volume 1). In other settings, Dr. Sproul has also made a point of highlighting Dr. Douglas Kelly's book, Creation and Change, as formative in his position on the subject of Creation.

Reformation Trust Publishing in one volume under the title Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

2005

The Reformation Study Bible (ESV). Orlando, FL: Ligonier Ministries. This first Reformed Study Bible since the original Geneva Bible of 1560 provides study aids including textual notes, chapter introductions, theological sidebars, and more. R.C. Sproul served as general editor of the project and wrote the notes for the book of James.

Scripture Alone. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishers. Every generation of Christians since the time of Jesus has had to face attacks upon Scripture from an unbelieving and hostile world. This book is a statement of the Protestant doctrine of Scripture consisting of Dr. Sproul’s most important articles on the subject as well as his commentary on the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.

2003

The Dark Side of Islam. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. R.C. Sproul interviews a former Muslim who explains little known aspects of this religion.

Defending Your Faith. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. R.C. Sproul provides an introduction to apologetics, the science of defending the Christian faith. Drawing from years of research and experience, he demonstrates that Christian belief is rational and equips believers to provide an effective defense of the faith.

Running the Race. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. A book designed for recent graduates to help them face the issues they will soon encounter. Currently out of print.

2002

Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow. Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group. Republished in 2008 by Reformation Trust Publishing. An explanation of five vital disciplines that every Christian needs to practice in order to mature in the faith.

Saved from What? Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. Republished in 2021 by Ligonier Ministries. Starting from the point of view of the wrath that all men are born under, R.C. Sproul proceeds to explain the great salvation provided through the life, death and resurrection of Christ for all who believe.

When Worlds Collide. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. While addressing the presence of God in the midst of tragedy, R.C. Sproul explores how God has providentially worked in history. When Worlds Collide endeavors to help with the issues of suffering, war, and peace.

2001

Loved by God. Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group. This book gives a study of the many aspects of God’s love for His people. Currently out of print.

What’s in the Bible: The Story of God through Time and Eternity. Nashville, TN: Word Publishing. This book shows how the stirring stories of the Bible fit together into a cohesive narrative, helping the layperson to read through the entire Bible with greater satisfaction.

2000

The Consequences of Ideas. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. The greatest thinkers of all time are impacting us still. From public-policy decisions and current laws to world events, theology, the arts, education, and even conversations between friends, history’s most influential philosophies have wrought massive consequences on nearly everything we see, think, and do. Thus it is critical for Christians to understand the ideas that are shaping them. Tracing the contours of Western philosophy