Working out Salvation with Fear and Trembling

An Exposition of the Articles of Faith

There is but one living and true God,¹ immanent, transcendent, infinite in being and perfection, pure spirit,² invisible, immutable,³ eternal, almighty, all wise,⁴ most holy, most free, most loving, most gracious, most merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin,⁵ the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin. He will by no means clear the guilty.

• Immanent – He is near his creation. God is present in all of creation. There is no place where God is not.
• Transcendent – He is apart and above all of his creation. He is independent from all of his creation. All things are upheld by him and the whole universe exists to glorify him.
• Infinite – God is not bound by the laws of physics. He cannot be held in the created universe.
• Spirit – God has no body. He is not bound by our physical limitations.
• Invisible – Since he has no body, he is unable to be seen.
• Immutable – He never changes. His being and character and actions are completely and wholly and consistent from beginning to end.
• Eternal – He has existed from eternity past (before time began), and will exist until eternity’s end (which is never).
• Almighty – He is all-powerful. He can do anything within his character.
• All-Wise – He is the embodiment of wisdom and skillfully and perfectly exercises knowledge in good and moral ways.
• Most Holy – He is completely separate from anything that is sinful. God is absolutely perfect in his moral being.
• Most Free – God is not bound to do anything because of man. He does as he pleases.
• Most Loving – God’s love is boundless, to the point of his willingness to sacrifice his son for our redemption.
• Most Gracious – God eternally gives us far more in reward than we can possibly deserve.
• Most Merciful – God does not give us what we deserve as a manifestation of his benevolent character.
• Longsuffering – God is eternally patient with his sinful creatures.
• Abundant in Goodness and Truth – He is completely good and truth. There is no deviation in his character. He is always good and always true.
• Forgiving – Despite our continued sinful treason against this eternal King, he time and time again forgives us that sin.
• Rewarder – For those who seek after God, they will find the reward of his love, mercy, and grace.
• Just, Hating Sin, Not Clearing the Guilty – While God is gracious and merciful, he simply does not excuse sin and wickedness. He does not simply forget about our sin and look past it, but instead, Christ faces our punishment in our place. He hates sin and therefore will punish it. If we are outside of Christ, we will face the judgment, but if we are in Christ, He does.

Article 2 – The Trinity

There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son,1 and the Holy Spirit.2 These three are one God,3 the same in substance, eternally equal in power and glory.

1 – Matthew 3:16-17; John 20:28
2 – Acts 5:3-4
3 – Genesis 1:1, 26; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14

Exposition

Following our discussion of the Scriptures as God’s direct revelation of God to man, we know can begin to understand the content of that revelation. Scripture presents for us a unique doctrine regarding the person of God. Out of all of the religions of the world, you have two approaches to the nature of God:

1) Polytheism – Multiple Gods (Hinduism for example)
2) Monotheism – One God (Islam for example)

And, while Christianity is a monotheistic religion, the uniqueness of it is, our one God is made up of three persons. Known as the Trinity, or perhaps, better, the Tri-unity of God, this fundamental doctrine of the faith is necessary to believe in order to identify with biblical Christianity. This concept, while taught in Scripture, is difficult for our finite man to grasp, and there is no way we will ever fully grasp the nature of the Trinity.

Our statement here starts off telling us that the God we worship is made up of three distinct persons, namely, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. While we would defer to either one God or many Gods, historic Christianity reminds us that these three persons are one God. We don’t serve one God who at different times is different persons, or some other such heresy. We worship One God who has always and will always be Three Persons.

They are fundamentally the same in essence. One is not more God than the other. All three members are equally God. And not only are they equal in substance they are equal in power and glory. All of them possess the same power. The Father is not more powerful than the Son or the Son than the Spirit, etc.  They don’t always perform the same functions, but we will see how that plays out in the next three weeks.

Now, what bearing does this have upon how we live today? Let me recommend you read Kevin DeYoung’s helpful post, “The Doctrine of the Trinity: No Christianity Without it.” He does an excellent job of showing it’s importance!

January 27 marked the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Perhaps nothing in our most recent history is filled with such evil as the systematic destruction of some 1.1 million people in this and other Death Camps. The vileness of raising one people’s importance over another to the extent of putting to death in the most horrific ways those whom are different is such that to even think about it brings one to shudder.

Yet, being seventy years out from the event, and especially as survivors of the horrific camps quickly pass away, we are at a constant threat of forgetting this most heinous act. Roman Kent, who as a survivor, made his way to Auschwitz for the anniversary told the people, “We survivors do not want our past to be our children’s future.” The old adage of those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it, is something that may bear truth. We are always potentially at risk of seeing the same atrocities committed because we forget that they once occurred long ago. The commission of evil against one another isn’t new. It goes back to the very beginning (Genesis 4:8). So, we must remain ever vigilant against these things by making sure we remember them.

I haven’t had the opportunity to be exposed to many of the holocaust memorials. Something inside me finds them to be such unpleasant places. And rightly they should be. For they memorialize the effects of evil. Even today, there are those, through their folly, that would articulate that the systematic eradication of a people group isn’t bad but good (Isaiah 5:20). I have been to one holocaust memorial in Moscow, Russia. Sculptors portrayed the death of the people in the Death Camps by showing a group of naked, emaciated people, slowly falling backward into the ground, and becoming tombstones. It is heart-breaking as it includes both adults and children, and shows that all that remains of them, other than the tombstones are subtle reminders of their life. A shoe. A hat. Glasses. A doll. I weep now just to think about it and to consider the atrocities that were committed. It was certainly not subtle. It was a bold, in your face, reminder that men kill other men. It was a reminder that these people, made in the image of God, were robbed not only of life, but of decency, health, joy, and were forced not just to die, but to become death itself. The memorial is both haunting and beautiful and it reminds us of the capability of evil which exists in all men (Jeremiah 17:9).

Yet, pushing seventy years from the event makes it less real for us. Something for history books. One day, there will be no survivors from the camps. And we will begin to forget. And our forgetting will make us wonder at how nations kill their own like in North Korea and China and Sudan. We will wonder at how terrorists planted throughout the world cowardly detonate bombs in large urban areas to do the greatest damage. We will wonder at how even we, in the land of the free, kill innocents acting as they are collateral damage as we serve as world police. We will wonder at the extent of our lack of care, even in our own back yard, for the weak and the marginalized; the alien, the widow, and the orphan.

Yet, we have no excuse to wonder. We have the evidence staring us in the face regarding the depravity of mankind. While some continue to imply that man is basically good, it seems, that from the historical evidence, man is basically depraved, battling wickedness and evil in their hearts and in the hearts of others. The memorials to such depraved acts of evil are still there. And they should remain there. Not only physically, but in our hearts and in our minds and in our consciences. That way, when we see fresh and new acts of evil and violence, like the beheading of journalists, we won’t be surprised. Instead, we’ll remember the acts of violence committed by mankind for generations and start afresh on, instead, striving for goodness and righteousness. A change of heart will be required (Ezekiel 36:26). But perhaps, just perhaps, a reminder like the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, will prompt us all to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly (Micah 6:8).

Discovering Delight by Glenda Mathes (Reformation Heritage Books), is a needed book in a time of recent disparagement regarding the Law of God. Certainly there has always been debate about the Christian’s relationship to the Law, but recently there has been such an emphasis on grace that the concept of God’s Law has no relationship to the believer, and therefore is virtually considered negligible at the least, and morally evil at the worst. Mathes’ brief medications on God’s Law will rekindle your love for God’s law.

With a particular focus on Psalm 119 and other passages of Scripture regarding God’s Law, Mathes helps us to consider that the Christian need not fear the Law, but actually rejoice and love it. In a combination devotional/commentary, Mathes considers the context and provides exegesis for these passages and provides helpful application for the Christian today.

In particular, if you enjoy devotionals, but wish they went further in depth, this is the kind of volume for you. Mathes helpful analysis and application (with review questions), will provide for you a wonderful feast for you as you expound upon this beautiful Psalm and other related portions of God’s Word.

An Exposition of the Articles of Faith

Article 1 – The Holy Scriptures

1-1 The Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are the inspired,1 infallible Word of God,2  a divine revelation, the original writings of which were verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit.3 They are the supreme and final authority of faith and conduct.4

1-2 Inspiration is a special act of the Holy Spirit3 by which He guided the writers of the Scriptures so that their words would convey the thoughts He wished conveyed, would bear a proper relationship to the thoughts of the other inspired books, and would be kept free from error of fact, doctrine, and judgment.5

1-3 The Holy Scriptures, the written Word of God, are composed of all books of the Old Testament and New Testament, namely: