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
GOD gave Adam a law, written in his heart, that required his
full obedience; also one command in particular, namely, that he
must not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Thereby Adam and all his posterity were bound to personal,
complete, exact and perpetual obedience. God promised life
upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of the
law, and endued Adam with power and ability to keep His law.
Gen. 2:16,17; Eccles. 7:29; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:10,12.
The same law that was first written in man's heart continued
to be a perfect rule of righteousness after Adam fell into sin, and
was given by God upon Mount Sinai in the form of ten commandments,
written in two tables. The first four commandments
constitute our duty towards God and the remaining six our duty
to man. The ten are known as the moral law.
Deut. 10:4; Rom. 2:14,15.
Besides the moral law God also gave to the people of Israel
ceremonial laws which served as types of things to come. They
fell into two main groups. In one group were rites, partly
relating to worship, which pre-figured Christ, His graces, actions,
sufferings, and the blessings He procured for us. The other group
contained a variety of instructions about moral duties. By divine
appointment all these ceremonial laws were to be observed, but
only until they were abrogated in New Testament days by Jesus
Christ, the true Messiah and only law-giver who was empowered
by the Father to terminate them.
1 Cor. 5:7; Eph. 2:14,16; Col. 2:14,16,17; Heb. 10:1.
To the people of Israel God also gave sundry judicial laws
which applied as long as they remained a nation. The principles
of equity which appear in them are still valid, not because they
are found in Moses' laws but in virtue of their unchanging
character.
1 Cor. 9:8-10.
Obedience to the moral law remains for ever binding upon
both justified persons and all others, and that in respect of the
actual content of the law, and also of the authority of God, the
creator, who is its author. In the gospel Christ in no way
cancels the necessity for this obedience; on the contrary He greatly
stresses our obligation to obey the moral law.
Mat. 5:17-19; Rom. 3:31; 13:8-10; Jas. 2:8,10-12.
So far as the law is a covenant of works under which justification or condemnation is awarded,
it has no application to true believers. Yet in certain other ways it is of great use to them as
well as to others, for as a rule of life it informs them of the will
of God and instructs them in their duty. This done, it directs
and binds them to obey it. It also reveals to them the sinful
defilement of their natures, their hearts and their lives, so that as
they examine themselves by the light of the law, they may be
convicted more deeply of sin, and caused to humble themselves
on account of it and to hate it the more. At the same time the
law also gives them a clearer sight of their need of Christ, and the
perfection of Christ's own obedience to the law. Similarly, as
the law forbids sin, it causes the regenerate to fight against the
evil inclinations to sin that they find in themselves. Furthermore,
the threatenings of the law are of value in showing the regenerate
what their sins deserve, and what afflictions their own disobedience may cause them in this life, even while they stand delivered from the curse and the unrestricted rigor of the law.
In similar manner the promises attached to the law intimate God's
approbation of obedience and set forth the blessings which flow
from the fulfillment of the law, but with the proviso that those
blessings do not accrue to men from the law viewed as a covenant
of works. The fact that a man does good and refrains from evil
because the law encourages the former and deters from the latter,
is no evidence that the man is under the law and not under grace.
Rom. 3:20; 6:12-14; 7:7; 8:1; 10:4; Gal. 2:16; 1 Pet. 3:8-13.
The aforementioned uses of the law of God do not run
contrary to the grace of the gospel, but are most happily in line
with it, for the Spirit of Christ subdues the will of man and
enables it to do freely and with cheerfulness that which the will
of God, as revealed in the law, requires to be done.
Ezek. 36:27; Gal. 3:21.
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