A Faith to Confess: The Baptist Confession
of Faith of 1689
Rewritten in Modern English
©1975, Carey Publications, Ltd.,
75 Woodhill Road, Leeds, U.K., LS16 7BZ
ONLY the works that God has commanded in His holy Word
are to be accounted good works. Such works, as men have
invented out of blind zeal or upon the mere pretense of good
intentions, are not good, for they lack the sanction of Holy
Scripture.
Isa. 29:13; Mic. 6:8; Matt. 15:9; Heb. 13:21.
Works that are truly good, and which are done in obedience
to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true
and living faith. By means of them believers make known their
thankfulness, strengthen their assurance of salvation, edify their
brethren, adorn their Christian witness, and deprive their
opponents of arguments against the gospel. In sum, they glorify
God who has made them what they are, namely, new creatures
in Christ; and as such they yield fruit that evidences holiness,
eternal life being the outcome of all.
Ps. 116:12,13; Matt. 5:16; Rom. 6:22; Eph. 2:10; Phil. 1:11; 1 Tim. 6:1;
Jas. 2:18,22; 1 Pet. 2:15; 2 Pet. 1:5-11; 1 John 2:3,5.
The ability of believers to do good works does not spring in
any way from themselves, but is derived from the Spirit of Christ
alone. But besides the graces which they receive from Him in
the first instance, they need His further actual influence to give
them the will and ability to perform the works that please Him.
Yet this does not mean that, without that special influence, they
are at liberty to grow careless of duty, for they must be diligent
in stirring into activity the grace of God that is in them.
Isa. 64:7; John 15:4,5; 2 Cor. 3:5; Phil. 2:12,13; Heb. 6:11,12.
In rendering obedience to God, those believers who attain to the greatest height possible in this life are so far from performing works of supererogation (that is, beyond what God actually requires) that they fall short of much which, as their duty, they are bound to do.
Job. 9:2,3; Gal. 5:17. We cannot, even by our best works, merit either the pardon
of sin or the granting of eternal life at the hand of God, for those
works are out of all proportion to the glory to come. And
furthermore, there is infinite distance between us and God, and
no works of ours can yield Him profit or act as payment for the
debt of our former sins. Indeed, when we have done all that we
can, we have done but our duty and remain unprofitable servants.
We are also to remember that, so far as our works are good, they
are produced by His Spirit. As far as they are our work they are
marred, and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that
they fall utterly to meet the searching requirements of God's
standards.
Ps. 143:2; Isa. 64:6; Luke 17:10; Rom. 3:20; 4:6; Gal. 5:22,23; Eph. 2:8,9.
Nevertheless, since believers as to their persons are accepted
by God through Christ, their works also are accepted as being
wrought in Christ. Not as though they were, during this life,
beyond reproach and unreprovable in the sight of God, but that,
as He looks upon them in His Son, He is pleased to accept and
reward that which is sincere, even though it is accompanied by
many weaknesses and imperfections.
Matt. 25:21,23; Eph. 1:6; Heb. 6:10; 1 Pet. 2:5.
As for works done by unregenerate men, even though God
may have commanded them, and they may be highly useful both
to themselves and to others, yet they remain sinful works for the
following reasons: they do not originate in a heart purified by
faith; they are not done in the right manner prescribed in Scripture;
and they are not directed to the glory of God as the only
right end. Hence they cannot please God, nor can they make a
man fit for the reception of grace. Yet the neglect of such works
is more sinful and more displeasing to God than is the performance
of them.
Gen. 4:5; 1 Kings 21:27,29; 2 Kings 10:30; Job 21:14,15; Amos 5:21,22;
Matt. 6:2,5; 25:41-43; Rom. 9:16; 1 Cor. 13:1; Titus 3:5; Heb. 11:4,6.
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