Theology Matters

Lesson 42: Questions 102, 103, and 104

In our previous lessons, we considered baptism as Christ’s appointed sign of a believer’s identification with Him and entrance into His visible, gathered people. But entrance is not the whole Christian life. How does Christ nourish those whom He has brought into fellowship with Himself?

The Lord’s Supper answers that question. Baptism marks our public beginning; the Supper repeatedly strengthens our continuing communion with Christ and His church. Here we remember His finished sacrifice, proclaim His death, and genuinely receive spiritual nourishment through faith.

Questions 102-104 explain what this ordinance is, who should receive it, and how we must come.

Question 102: What is the Lord’s supper?

Q. What is the Lord’s supper?

A. The Lord’s supper is an ordinance of the New Testament, instituted by Jesus Christ; wherein by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to his appointment, his death is shown forth, and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.

FIRST, the Supper belongs to Christ. An ordinance is a practice He has commanded His church to observe. On the night of His betrayal, Jesus appointed bread and wine to signify His body given and His blood shed for His people. Matthew connects the cup with covenant blood and forgiveness: Christ’s death establishes the New Covenant and secures its blessings (Matthew 26:26-28). Paul’s account preserves Christ’s institution for the church.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26, ESV)

Christ determines what His ordinance means and how we administer it. We receive bread and wine according to His appointment, remembering Him and proclaiming His death until He returns. The Supper looks backward to His sacrifice, upward to our risen Lord, outward to His people, and forward to His return. His sacrifice is never repeated or supplemented here. Its perfection makes repetition unnecessary (Hebrews 10:10-14; 2LBCF §30.2).

SECOND, remembrance does not exhaust the Supper’s meaning. Paul describes the cup and bread as participation in Christ’s blood and body.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17, ESV)

This is the foundation of the Reformed doctrine of Christ’s Real Spiritual Presence. Believers do not merely recall an absent benefactor. Through the Holy Spirit, they truly commune with their living Savior and receive the benefits of His finished sacrifice. Christ remains bodily in heaven, yet distance does not prevent the Spirit from uniting us to Him and nourishing us through faith.

The catechism excludes a “corporal and carnal manner”; we do not consume Christ’s human flesh with our mouths. We receive bread and wine bodily while feeding upon Christ spiritually. Faith rests upon Him as crucified for us, receiving anew the comfort, assurance, and strength supplied by His accomplished redemption. This is not another sacrifice or another justification, but nourishment from the Savior Who has already secured our acceptance.

The confession makes the same distinction. The elements remain bread and wine, although their appointed relationship to Christ’s body and blood gives them sacred significance. Worthy receivers nevertheless truly feed upon Christ spiritually through faith (2LBCF §30.5, 30.7). “Spiritual” identifies the manner of communion, not a lesser degree of reality.

Roman Catholic transubstantiation teaches that the substance of bread and wine becomes Christ’s body and blood while their appearances remain. Lutheran sacramental union teaches that Christ’s body and blood are received bodily with the bread and wine. We reject both substantial change and bodily reception, but we also reject strict memorialism, which reduces the Supper to remembrance without genuine spiritual participation. The bread and wine remain unchanged, yet through the Holy Spirit believers truly feed upon Christ by faith. Our communion with Him is spiritual, not imaginary: the risen Savior genuinely nourishes His people with the benefits of His finished sacrifice.

THIRD, the Supper is a means of grace — an appointed instrument through which Christ strengthens His people. The Holy Spirit uses these visible signs to confirm the gospel’s promises, strengthen faith, deepen communion, and encourage holiness. The confession places this nourishment among the purposes of the ordinance and identifies the Supper as a means by which faith is strengthened (2LBCF §30.1, 14.1).

The elements have no independent power. They are not magical. Neither regeneration nor justification follows automatically from eating and drinking. Spiritual benefit comes through the Spirit’s work as believers receive Christ by faith. Nor does benefit depend upon unusual feelings. A believer may feel weak or distracted and nevertheless receive genuine nourishment. Its foundation is Christ’s institution and promise, not emotional intensity.

This communion is also corporate. Paul connects participation in the one bread with our being

one body (1 Corinthians 10:17). We do not gather for separate private encounters with Jesus. Christ nourishes a people whom He has joined to Himself and one another.

Because the Supper is such a provision, I believe we should ordinarily celebrate it every Lord’s Day. Acts 2:42 places breaking bread among the church’s continuing devotions. Acts 20:7 describes a first-day gathering for breaking bread, while 1 Corinthians 11:17-26 repeatedly connects the Supper with the assembled church. These passages support its integral place in worship, although they do not establish an unambiguous universal command specifying weekly frequency.

Early Christian writings also bear witness to this pattern. The Didache instructs believers, “But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving.” (Didache 14) Justin Martyr, describing Christian worship in the middle of the second century, writes, “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place.” His account proceeds from Scripture reading, instruction, and prayer to the Supper: “bread and wine and water are brought”, followed by thanksgiving and distribution to those present (First Apology 67).

These witnesses do not carry Scripture’s authority, nor do they prove that every early church observed the Supper weekly. They do, however, provide clear evidence that gathering on the Lord’s Day to celebrate the Supper was an established early Christian practice. Taken together with the New Testament’s pattern of gathered worship and the Supper’s purpose as spiritual nourishment, they strengthen my conviction that weekly observance should ordinarily be our practice. This is a pattern I would like us to continue, receiving Christ’s provision every Lord’s Day with gratitude and faith.

Would weekly observance make it less special? Familiarity can become carelessness, but we do not therefore reduce preaching, Scripture reading, singing, or prayer. These belong to the church’s regular worship, alongside the ordinances (2LBCF §22.5). The remedy is attentive participation, not withholding nourishment. Frequent communion should deepen grateful dependence upon Christ.

Question 103: Who are the proper subjects of this ordinance?

Q. Who are the proper subjects of this ordinance?

A. They who have been baptized upon a personal profession of their faith in Jesus Christ, and repentance from dead works.

If Christ nourishes His gathered people here, whom has He authorized to participate? Acts presents the foundational pattern.

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:41-42, ESV)

Those who received the gospel were baptized, added to the church, and continued in apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer. Baptism precedes continuing participation in the church’s fellowship. The Supper is not detached from that visible, accountable community.

The visible church is Christ’s people publicly identified through their profession and gathered life. Baptism is the initiatory ordinance marking identification with Christ and entrance into that community; the Supper is its continuing ordinance of nourishment. As we established in Lessons 40 and 41, the baptism required is baptism upon a credible personal profession of faith and repentance, not merely any ceremony called baptism.

The catechism explicitly names baptism. Our membership requirement applies the broader biblical teaching that the Supper belongs to an identifiable church under spiritual oversight. Members publicly commit themselves to a congregation’s worship, mutual care, and discipline (2LBCF §26.6, 26.12). In 1 Corinthians 5:11-13, Paul requires the church to distinguish those inside from those outside and remove an unrepentant professing brother from its fellowship. Admission cannot therefore rest entirely upon individual self-determination.

This explains fencing the Table: stating and maintaining the biblical boundaries of participation in the Lord’s Supper. Our practice is to welcome those baptized upon a credible profession of faith who are members in good standing of a gospel-preaching church. Good standing means recognized fellowship under the church’s oversight, not simply attendance or a private claim to spiritual maturity. Qualified visitors are welcome; they need not belong to this particular congregation.

These qualifications do not earn Christ’s favor or contribute to justification. Nor do we conclude that every Christian lacking believer’s baptism is unconverted. We distinguish someone’s standing before God from the church’s responsibility to administer Christ’s ordinance according to His revealed order.

Question 104: What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper?

Q. What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper?

A. It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’s supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience, lest coming unworthily they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

Paul’s warning must be heard within his entire correction of Corinthian worship (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). Their gatherings displayed divisions rather than communion. Some consumed their own food selfishly; some became drunk while others remained hungry. They humiliated those who had little and treated God’s church with contempt. Their behavior contradicted the meal they claimed to celebrate.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:27-32, ESV)

Discerning the body therefore cannot mean merely thinking seriously about the crucifixion while disregarding fellow believers. Christ’s sacrificed body gives the meal its meaning, while the immediate context places particular weight upon His gathered people. The precise reference of “body” is debated, but Paul’s argument joins reverence for Christ with recognition of those united to Him. Participation in His body and blood entails responsibility toward His one body, the church (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

The catechism directs examination toward five connected concerns. Knowledge asks whether we understand Christ’s sacrifice and recognize the meal’s sacred and congregational significance. Faith asks whether we trust Christ rather than our own righteousness. 2 Corinthians 13:5 calls professing Christians to test their profession; its application here concerns the genuine faith necessary for feeding upon Him.

Repentance means acknowledging and turning from known sin rather than defending it. Paul calls for honest self-judgment instead of waiting for divine correction (1 Corinthians 11:31). Love asks whether our conduct honors the fellowship expressed by the one bread. New obedience means sincerely pursuing a life consistent with Christ’s saving work. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 connects Christ’s Passover sacrifice with putting away evil and living in sincerity and truth, not merely performing religious observances.

Examination must therefore include our relationships. Am I nurturing resentment, encouraging division, neglecting a suffering member, or treating poorer believers as beneath my concern? Am I refusing to pursue reconciliation? An imperfect relationship or unsettled emotion does not automatically disqualify someone. The question is whether we submit to Christ and sincerely seek peace, or stubbornly defend conduct that contradicts His communion.

Paul warns against an unworthy manner, not against every sinner approaching. No believer deserves this meal through personal righteousness. Worthy reception is not sinlessness or an exhaustive recollection of every offense. It is dependent faith, genuine repentance, love, and a sincere desire to obey.

Nevertheless, judgment is real. Paul identifies weakness, sickness, and deaths among the Corinthians as divine judgment. Verse 32 distinguishes the Lord’s corrective discipline from condemnation with the world. This is not the loss of a regenerate believer’s salvation. Neither may we diagnose illness or hardship today as punishment for improper communion; Paul gives an inspired explanation of that particular situation.

His instruction is to examine oneself and then eat, not discover weakness and remain away indefinitely. Struggling against sin differs from refusing repentance. Stubborn disobedience requires repentance, not reassurance that participation is harmless. But the humble believer should come to Christ for nourishment. Paul’s practical conclusion, that they receive one another considerately and stop using the gathering to satisfy selfish appetites, shows that examination must produce changed conduct (1 Corinthians 11:33-34).

Christ’s Table is neither a reward for the spiritually accomplished nor permission to remain unchanged. It is nourishment for repentant believers.

Conclusion

Questions 102, 103, and 104 have answered three connected questions related to the Lord’s Supper.

102. What is it? Christ’s appointed ordinance in which believers remember and proclaim His death and truly feed upon Him spiritually through faith.

103. Who is it for? Those baptized upon a credible profession of faith and repentance, living as members in good standing of a gospel-preaching church.

104. How is it observed? With self-examination, discerning the Lord’s body and coming in faith, repentance, love, and new obedience.

Take this with you in three ways.

• FIRST, come expecting Christ to nourish you. The Supper is not merely something we do to demonstrate our devotion. It is something Christ has given for our good. Through the Holy Spirit, He strengthens faith and deepens our communion with Himself. Do not measure its value by the intensity of your feelings or assume that frequent participation must make it ordinary in your affections. Receive His appointed provision gratefully. Weak faith needs nourishment, not distance from the Savior.

• SECOND, come according to Christ’s order. The Table belongs to Him, not to us. Baptism, church membership, and accountable fellowship are not achievements that purchase admission; they belong to the order He has established for His gathered people. And outward qualification does not remove the need for inward examination. Ask whether you are trusting Christ, turning from known sin, and sincerely seeking to obey Him. Do not confuse remaining sin with a refusal to repent. The question is not whether you need grace, but whether you are coming to Christ for it.

• THIRD, come loving Christ’s people. We cannot honor the communion this meal expresses while deliberately nurturing contempt for those who share it. Pursue reconciliation. Notice the member who is suffering. Refuse to encourage division. The people beside you are not incidental to your communion with Christ; they are fellow members of His body.

Come, then, neither carelessly nor fearfully, but reverently and gladly.

Christ does not invite you to display your sufficiency.

He calls you to depend upon His.

Examine yourself, repent, and receive His provision with faith and love.

At His Table:

• Remember His death

• Feed upon Him by faith

• Love the people He has made His own

Lesson 41: Questions 99, 100, and 101

Last lesson introduced baptism as Christ’s ordinance for those professing repentance and faith. Questions 99-101 now ask:

• What about believers’ children?

• How should baptism be administered?

• What obligations follow it?

Christ determines baptism’s subjects and administration.

He calls the baptized into committed fellowship with His people.

Question 99: Are Believers’ Infants to Be Baptized?

Q. Are the infants of such as are professing believers to be baptized?

A. The infants of such as are professing believers are not to be baptized, because there is neither command or example in the holy scriptures, or certain consequence from them to baptize such.

The catechism asks whether infant baptism is authorized by command, example, or necessary inference. Both confessions recognize that Scripture teaches through necessary conclusions as well as explicit statements (WCF §1.6; 2LBCF §1.6). But a possible inference is not a necessary one. Consider the governing principle:

Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6, ESV)

This does not directly settle baptism’s subjects. It establishes that the church must receive biblical authorization rather than supply it. The question is whether covenant continuity necessarily authorizes infant baptism. This warns against adding to God’s words. The Reformed Baptist position is that infant baptism is adding to God’s Word by misinterpreting (primarily) the Abrahamic covenants and drawing too close a connection between 2 things:

1. “Mixed multitude” in OT Israel → “Mixed multitude” in NT Church

2. Circumcision in OT Israel → Baptism in NT Church

FIRST, consider Christ’s commission:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV)

At Pentecost, that commission takes visible form:

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:37-41, ESV)

Those receiving Peter’s message are baptized and added to the church. The same relationship appears in Samaria:

But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. (Acts 8:12, ESV)

At Corinth also, hearing, believing, and baptism belong together.

Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. (Acts 18:8, ESV)

These accounts do more than omit infants; they positively identify baptism’s subjects. The church baptizes upon a credible profession of repentance and faith, not certain knowledge of regeneration, God’s work of giving spiritual life. We cannot see the heart. The confession accordingly identifies professed repentance, faith, and obedience as baptism’s qualifications (2LBCF §29.2).

SECOND, consider the New Covenant’s constitution. A covenant is a relationship established by God with promises and obligations. Jeremiah announces a covenant distinguished from the covenant made when God brought Israel out of Egypt:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, ESV)

Hebrews identifies this as the covenant mediated by Christ (Hebrews 8:8-12). Its members know the Lord, receive forgiveness, and have His law written within them.

The Mosaic covenant governed a nation containing believers and unbelievers. The earlier Abrahamic covenant included promises fulfilled in Christ and arrangements for Abraham’s physical descendants. We must distinguish these covenants without denying their relationship. Abraham’s saving blessing reaches the nations through Christ and is received by faith (Galatians 3:7-9, 14, 16).

Neither covenant therefore establishes physical descent as the basis of New Covenant membership. In its saving reality, this covenant comprises those who know God. Believer’s baptism, or credobaptism, follows that constitution. The visible church receives professing believers imperfectly; false professions do not change the covenant’s nature.

THIRD, consider the Presbyterian case for paedobaptism, infant baptism. Presbyterians affirm salvation by grace through faith and distinguish the outward sign from regeneration. Their argument concerns covenant inclusion, not salvation guaranteed by ancestry.

1. God commanded circumcision for Abraham’s male descendants, including infants (Genesis 17:7-14). Presbyterians reason that believers’ children retain covenant standing and should receive the New Covenant sign. Baptists affirm continuity in God’s saving promise but deny that circumcision’s recipients transfer automatically to baptism. Circumcision marked Abraham’s household and subsequently Israel’s national life, but neither of those guaranteed admission into the Covenant of Grace, for which baptism is the covenant sign.

2. Peter’s promise to his hearers and their children is therefore significant, not irrelevant. Yet Acts 2:39 also extends the promise to those far off and identifies its recipients by the Lord’s calling. The passage offers hope for succeeding generations without commanding their baptism apart from faith. Verse 41 identifies the baptized as those receiving the message.

3. Colossians 2:11-12 connects baptism with spiritual circumcision and union with Christ. Its emphasis is the inward work accomplished in Christ and resurrection with Him through faith, not an explicit one-for-one replacement of infant circumcision by infant baptism. Old Testament physical circumcision marked admission of a male child into the Mosaic Covenant. New Testament baptism represents spiritual circumcision and admission of a believer into the Covenant of Grace. They do have similar meanings, but circumcision is the shadow that points to baptism; they are not simply equivalent.

4. The holiness of believers’ children likewise indicates a special relationship and privilege within a Christian household (1 Corinthians 7:14). It does not establish baptismal eligibility. Remember that the unbelieving spouse is also described as sanctified without thereby becoming a professing believer (and most Presbyterians won’t baptize an unbelieving spouse, which I believe is an inconsistency in their theology of baptism).

5. Household baptisms deserve consideration, but their accounts do not establish everyone’s age. Lydia’s household and Stephanas’s household supply no necessary inference of infant baptism (Acts 16:14-15; 1 Corinthians 1:16). In the jailer’s household, the apostolic word is addressed to everyone present before baptism (Acts 16:30-34). We should neither invent infants nor assert their absence.

Believers’ children enjoy Scripture, prayer, Christian example, and gospel instruction. We should nurture them toward personal faith. These privileges do not authorize baptism apart from a credible profession.

Question 100: How Is Baptism Rightly Administered?

Q. How is Baptism rightly administered?

A. Baptism is rightly administered by immersion, or dipping the whole body of the party in water, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, according to Christ's institution, and the practice of the apostles, and not by sprinkling or pouring of water, or dipping some part of the body, after the tradition of men.

Christ determines not only who receives baptism but how it is administered. The confession likewise identifies immersion as necessary to its proper administration (2LBCF §29.4). This conviction rests upon a cumulative argument from language, narrative, and theological significance.

FIRST, βαπτίζω (baptizō) ordinarily means to dip or immerse, though context must govern its interpretation. The narratives fit this meaning. Jesus comes up from the water, and John baptizes where water is plentiful (Matthew 3:16; John 3:23). These describe John’s preparatory baptism, not the risen Christ’s full institution. John 4:1-2 also records baptism administered by Jesus’ disciples during His ministry.

In Christian baptism, Philip and the eunuch enter and leave the water (Acts 8:38-39). This alone does not prove immersion: both enter, but only one is baptized. Together, however, the language and narrative details support immersion.

SECOND, immersion fittingly portrays the saving realities baptism signifies. Paul’s central concern in Romans 6 is why those united to Christ must no longer live under sin’s dominion:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4, ESV)

Immersion fittingly portrays the believer’s burial and resurrection with Him.

Colossians develops the same relationship:

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12, ESV)

Spiritual circumcision, burial with Christ, and resurrection through faith belong together. These passages primarily explain saving realities, but their imagery also reinforces immersion.

Water does not produce these blessings. Baptism neither regenerates nor justifies; salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Nevertheless, Christ appointed baptism to identify His disciples publicly and signify their fellowship with Him (2LBCF §29.1).

THIRD, Christ commands baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as we read earlier (Matthew 28:19-20). The one divine name and three Persons confess the Triune God: the Father purposes salvation, the Son accomplishes it, and the Spirit applies it.

The church may not redesign Christ’s ordinance. We can recognize other Christians’ sincere faith while maintaining that immersion, not sprinkling or pouring, is its appointed administration.

Question 101: What Is the Duty of Those Rightly Baptized?

Q. What is the duty of such who are rightly baptized?

A. It is the duty of such who are rightly baptized to give up themselves to some particular and orderly church of Jesus Christ, that they may walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Baptism is a public profession of discipleship. At Pentecost, those baptized were added to the church. Luke immediately describes their continuing life together:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42, ESV)

Baptism leads into shared devotion to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer. Belonging to Christ’s universal church does not remove our obligation to an identifiable congregation ordered by His Word (2LBCF §26.5-6, 12). Acts also distinguishes those who remained outside from believers being added to the Lord, showing a recognizable community rather than an undefined religious association (Acts 5:13-14). Paul likewise sought to join the disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26).

Membership means more than registering a name. We commit ourselves to gather for worship, receive biblical instruction, participate in Christ’s ordinances, pray, and care for one another. We contribute to the congregation’s spiritual health through service, generosity, encouragement, and loving correction. As living stones built together into a spiritual house, believers offer worship through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).

We also accept legitimate biblical oversight and accountability. Elders must lead under Christ’s Word, not exercise unlimited personal authority (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:2-3). Membership obliges neither blind obedience nor passive attendance. It calls for active, discerning faithfulness to Christ alongside His people.

“Blameless” means sincere, persevering obedience, not sinlessness. Zechariah and Elizabeth illustrate such faithfulness in their Old Covenant setting (Luke 1:6); the passage does not directly establish church membership. Membership itself neither regenerates nor justifies. It is an obligation flowing from grace: Christ’s people should share His household’s worship, responsibilities, and care.

Conclusion

Baptism publicly identifies professing believers with Christ and His people. We receive it by immersion in the Triune name and follow it with committed participation in a particular church.

99. Baptism belongs to those professing repentance and faith; believers’ infants lack the biblical authorization required to receive it.

100. Baptism is administered by immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

101. The baptized should commit themselves to a particular, orderly church and walk faithfully in Christ’s commands.

So take these three considerations with you this week:

• Examine your obedience. If you profess faith but have not received baptism as Christ instituted it, speak with the elders.

• Nurture your children toward faith. Teach Scripture, pray with them, and direct them to Christ rather than resting in family privilege.

• Practice your membership. Gather faithfully, receive instruction, and seek one concrete way to serve or encourage another member.

Baptism declares our allegiance; it does not accomplish our redemption.

Christ is our all-sufficient salvation.

Lesson 40: Question 96, 97, and 98

Last week, Questions 94-95 taught us how the Spirit makes the reading and preaching of God’s Word effectual to salvation, and how we should receive that Word with preparation, prayer, faith, love, and obedience. Today we turn from the Word to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. How does Christ make these outward ordinances spiritually beneficial to His people?

Questions 96-98 explain how these ordinances become effectual, then turn specifically to baptism: what it signifies and who should receive it.

Question 96: The Two New Testament Ordinances

Q. How do baptism and the Lord’s supper become effectual means of salvation?

A. Baptism and the Lord’s supper become effectual means of salvation, not for any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them, but only by the blessing of Christ,⁠⁠ and the working of the Spirit in those that by faith receive them.⁠

An ordinance is a practice established by Christ for His church to observe. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the two enduring ordinances given to the New Testament church. Their authority does not rest upon their antiquity, emotional significance, or usefulness as teaching illustrations. Christ Himself appointed them.

[18] And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, ESV)

[19] And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” [20] And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:19-20, ESV)

Some Christians call these ordinances sacraments, i.e., “a Christian rite (such as baptism or the Eucharist) that is believed to have been ordained by Christ and that is held to be a means of divine grace or to be a sign or symbol of a spiritual reality.”1 Historically, Reformed Christians have used that word without teaching that the outward rite automatically imparts grace. The decisive question is not which term we use, but what we believe the ordinance does. Christ appoints visible signs of His saving work; water, bread, and wine do not possess inherent power to impart grace.

1. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “sacrament,” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sacrament (accessed October 11, 2026).

But Question 96 says more than that the ordinances cannot impart grace by their own power. (Salvation here is used holistically and includes justification and sanctification.) Christ blesses their faithful use, and His Spirit works through them to strengthen faith in the salvation they proclaim. “Means of salvation” does not mean that the ceremony regenerates or justifies. It means that Christ uses His appointed ordinances for the spiritual good of those who receive them by faith. Their efficacy depends neither upon the elements nor upon the minister, but upon Christ and His Spirit.

We will consider the Lord’s Supper more fully in Questions 102-104. In this lesson (Q96-98) and the next one (Q99-101), the topic is about baptism:

 • What it signifies

• Who should receive it

• Who shouldn’t receive it

• How it should be done

• How it should change our lives

Question 97: What Baptism Is

Q. What is baptism?

A. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament instituted by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death, burial, and resurrection; of his being ingrafted into him;⁠⁠ of remission of sins;⁠⁠ and of his giving up himself unto God through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life.⁠

FIRST, baptism is an ordinance instituted by Jesus Christ. It is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The church administers it under Christ’s authority, according to His command, rather than as a human religious custom.

Because Christ commands baptism, a believer should not regard it as unnecessary. We are justified by faith alone, not by faith plus baptism. Nevertheless, the faith that receives Christ also receives Him as Lord. Obedience does not purchase His favor; it responds to grace already given.

SECOND, baptism visibly signifies fellowship with Christ in His death and resurrection. This is the theological heart of the ordinance. Baptism does not direct us chiefly to our decision or sincerity, but to Christ and what it means to belong to Him.

[3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4, ESV)

Paul writes to answer the suggestion that grace gives Christians permission to continue in sin. His response is that believers have died to sin through their union with Christ. Their baptism points to this decisive change: they belong to the Savior Who died, was buried, and rose again.

Union with Christ means that, by the Spirit and through faith, believers share in the saving benefits of His work. His death deals with their guilt; His resurrection grounds their new life. Baptism portrays this fellowship. Going beneath the water and emerging from it visibly depicts burial and resurrection with Him.

Baptism also signifies forgiveness and cleansing. Water provides a fitting visible sign of purification, but the cleansing we need reaches beyond the body. Our guilt requires pardon, and our hearts require renewal. These blessings come through Christ’s blood and the Spirit’s work, not through the physical properties of water.

Consider also Galatians 3:26-27. Paul connects baptism with putting on Christ, while identifying believers as God’s children through faith. Baptism publicly marks the believer’s identification with Him. It is not an independent route into salvation alongside faith; it is the appointed sign of belonging to the Savior received through faith.

THIRD, we must distinguish the sign from the saving reality without separating them in our teaching. Scripture sometimes speaks of baptism in strikingly strong terms because Christ has appointed it to represent salvation. We should explain this language carefully, not weaken it until baptism means almost nothing.

[11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12, ESV)

Here burial and resurrection with Christ are connected with baptism, but Paul expressly locates participation in His resurrection through faith in God’s working. The passage points beyond the outward action to the divine power that makes sinners alive. Baptism represents that work; it does not accomplish it mechanically.

Likewise, 1 Peter 3:21 connects baptism with salvation while explicitly distinguishing it from removing dirt from the body and grounding salvation in Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Peter does not direct our trust toward water. The saving significance of baptism rests upon the risen Christ and the spiritual reality to which the ordinance points.

We can therefore speak warmly and confidently about baptism without teaching baptismal regeneration, the belief that baptism itself brings about the new birth. Water does not regenerate. Baptism does not justify, and its administration does not mechanically unite someone to Christ. The blessings signified belong to those who possess Christ through faith.

The mode of baptism should correspond to its meaning. Immersion means placing the person beneath the water and bringing the person out again. The ordinary sense of the Greek verb βαπτίζω (baptizō) supports immersion, and the burial-and-resurrection imagery of Romans 6:3-4 gives this practice particular theological fittingness.

The accounts of entering and leaving the water, such as Acts 8:38-39, are consistent with immersion, though that detail alone does not settle every question about mode. Our case rests on the converging force of the word, the practice, and the ordinance’s meaning. Chapter 29 of the LBCF accordingly identifies immersion as necessary to baptism’s proper administration.

Question 98: The Subjects of Baptism

Q. To whom is baptism to be administered?

A. Baptism is to be administered to all those who actually profess repentance towards God,⁠ faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to none other.⁠

The proper recipients of baptism are those who personally profess repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance is turning from sin to God; faith is receiving and resting upon Christ for salvation. These are not independent human contributions that persuade God to regenerate us. They are responses produced by His saving grace.

The church cannot see the heart infallibly. It therefore baptizes on the basis of a credible profession, a confession of faith that gives reasonable grounds for recognizing someone as a disciple. Baptism does not certify that the church possesses perfect knowledge of that person’s regeneration.

[37] Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” [38] And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. [39] For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” [40] And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” [41] So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:37-41, ESV)

At Pentecost, the Gospel is proclaimed, the hearers are confronted with their sin, and Peter calls them to repent and be baptized. Those who receive the apostolic word are baptized. The promise reaches beyond the immediate hearers, but the passage identifies its recipients by the Lord’s calling; it does not make physical descent — whether from Israel or from a believing parent — sufficient for receiving baptism.

Notice the relationship between baptism and forgiveness here. Peter does not offer two separate saviors, Christ and water. He calls his hearers to turn to Christ, with baptism as the commanded public expression of that response. The forgiveness proclaimed belongs to the salvation Christ gives, not to an outward washing considered apart from repentance and faith.

Read also Acts 8:12 and Acts 16:30-34. In Samaria, men and women believe the good news and are baptized. In Philippi, Paul and Silas announce salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus, speak the Lord’s word to the jailer and his household, and administer baptism. Household inclusion does not erase the passage’s emphasis on hearing the Gospel and believing.

The recurring movement is Gospel proclamation, repentance and faith, baptism, and continuing discipleship. This is why we speak of believer’s baptism, or credobaptism: baptism administered to those who profess belief. The Great Commission joins baptism with making disciples and teaching obedience, not with an isolated ceremony detached from Christian life.

Baptism also identifies the believer with Christ’s people. It belongs within the gathered church’s life, where Christians receive teaching, fellowship, correction, and encouragement. Baptism is not a private spiritual achievement. At the same time, the ordinance does not automatically settle every question of membership or remove the church’s responsibility to discern a profession.

Why, then, do we not baptize infants? Our objection is deeper than the absence of an explicit command. The positive biblical pattern connects baptism with receiving the Word, repentance, faith, and discipleship. The ordinance signifies blessings possessed in Christ through faith, and its recipients should profess that faith.

We should represent other Christians fairly. Reformed advocates of infant baptism ordinarily argue that believers’ children should receive the covenant sign; they do not simply assume that every baptized infant is regenerate. Our disagreement concerns whom God has authorized the church to recognize as proper recipients of the New Covenant sign.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews 8:8-12 help explain the Baptist conclusion. The New Covenant is characterized by God’s law written upon the heart, saving knowledge of Him, and forgiveness of sins. These blessings are not inherited by physical descent. They belong to those whom God brings into saving fellowship with Himself through Christ. We therefore welcome children, teach them Scripture, pray for their conversion, and urge them to trust Christ. But Christian parentage is not a substitute for personal faith.

Conclusion

Take this with you in three ways.

• FIRST, rest in Christ, not in the sign. Baptism directs us to the Savior.

It does not supply what His saving work lacks.

It does not substitute for personal faith in Him.

If you have not believed, your first need is not water but Christ.

Turn from your sin and trust Him.

If you have believed, remember your assurance rests upon Christ, not baptism.

We are justified through faith alone.

• SECOND, receive baptism as Christ’s command.

If you trust Him but remain unbaptized, this is an obedience to pursue.

Speak with the elders about professing your faith and receiving baptism.

You do not need to finish growing before you obey.

Baptism confesses that you belong to the Lord under Whose teaching you will grow.

• THIRD, walk in the newness of life baptism declares.

The catechism speaks of giving ourselves up to God through Jesus Christ.

That allegiance reaches into our homes, our work, our speech, our lives.

If you have been baptized, ask whether your conduct agrees with your confession.

When you sin, neither hide behind the ceremony nor despair of Christ’s grace.

Repent, return to Him, and seek the help of His people.

Baptism is Christ’s appointed public confession of identification with the crucified and risen Lord.

It is not the cause of salvation, but a God-given sign of salvation received through faith.

Trust the Savior, gladly obey His command, and live out the allegiance your baptism declares.

Lesson 39: Questions 94 and 95

The preceding lessons have established that faith and repentance are saving graces and that God ordinarily communicates the benefits of redemption through appointed outward means. Yet an important question remains. If many people read the Bible, hear preaching, or participate outwardly in Christian worship without being saved, how can these outward means be called means of salvation?

These outward means possess no saving power in themselves, nor does their effectiveness depend upon the minister’s skill, office, or personal holiness. They become effectual only as Christ blesses them and the Holy Spirit works through them. Thus, two people may hear the same Word: one dismisses it, while in the other the Spirit uses it to convict and convert the sinner, or to strengthen and comfort the believer.

Question 94: How is the Word made effectual to salvation?

Q. How is the Word made effectual to salvation?

A. The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.

The catechism begins with the decisive cause of the Word’s effectiveness: “The Spirit of God” makes it effectual. Scripture is always true, authoritative, and worthy of belief because it is God’s Word. Yet fallen sinners do not naturally welcome its truth. Sin darkens the understanding, hardens the heart, and inclines us to suppress the truth. The Spirit must work through the Word if sinners are to be brought from unbelief to faith.

This is not because the Scripture is defective, but because sin twists and warps our minds and our very nature. Scripture is the pure and sufficient Word of God, but apart from the Spirit’s gracious work, sinners resist what it reveals. In overcoming that resistance, the Spirit does not lead people away from the written Word into a private religious experience. He opens the mind and heart to understand, believe, and embrace the Word He inspired.

FIRST, the Spirit makes both the reading and the preaching of the Word effectual. Nehemiah 8:8 presents God’s Word being read clearly and its meaning being explained so that the people understand. Reading and exposition belong together. One can be a lifelong reader of the Bible and still miss its teachings, even with a sincere heart and a true faith. We must seek to understand, harmonize, and systematize our understanding of the Scriptures!

Public preaching is especially emphasized because Christ has appointed the preached Word as an ordinary means by which His voice is heard and His church is gathered and nourished. Nevertheless, the catechism does not diminish personal, family, or public reading. Timothy had known the sacred writings(in his case, the Old Testament; in our case, both the Old and New Testaments) from childhood, and those writings were able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ.

[14] But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it [15] and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. [16] All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, [17] that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17, ESV)

This passage describes both the saving and the sanctifying usefulness of Scripture. The sacred writings make a person “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”, and all God-breathed Scripture equips the man of God for every good work. The Word is not merely the entrance into the Christian life. It remains God’s instrument for shaping mature, obedient, and useful Christians.

Romans 10:13-17 explains why the catechism gives special prominence to preaching. Those who call upon the Lord must believe, those who believe must hear, and those who hear ordinarily require someone sent to preach. Paul concludes that faith comes from hearing through the Word of Christ. Preaching does not produce faith by its own power, but it is an appointed means through which Christ addresses sinners and the Spirit brings them to faith.

SECOND, the Spirit uses the Word for “convincing and converting sinners”. In older theological usage, “convincing” includes convicting (see 1 Corinthians 14:24 in the KJV and ESV, where the KJV’s “convinced” corresponds with the ESV’s “convicted”). The Word exposes the sinner’s guilt, reveals the secrets of the heart, and leaves him accountable before God. In 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, intelligible prophetic speech brings an unbeliever under conviction so that the secrets of his heart are disclosed and he falls down to worship God. The power is not in obscure religious excitement but in divine truth brought home to the conscience.

In Acts 26:18, Christ sends Paul to open the eyes of the Gentiles, turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, and call them to receive forgiveness and an inheritance through faith in Christ. Paul’s ministry is a genuine instrument in that conversion, but only Christ can accomplish what the commission requires. The preacher speaks the Word; the Spirit gives sight, repentance, and faith.

Psalm 19:8 likewise says that the Lord’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. God uses His truth to dispel moral and spiritual darkness. The Spirit’s illumination is not new revelation added to Scripture. It is His gracious work enabling sinners to see the truth and glory already revealed in Scripture, supremely the glory of Christ.

Thus Paul calls the gospel “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” in Romans 1:16. The gospel is not merely advice about how sinners might improve themselves. It announces the saving work of God in Christ, and God works through that message to create and sustain faith. Its effectiveness is divine, while its saving benefits are received through faith.

THIRD, the Spirit uses the Word for “building [believers] up in holiness and comfort”. Paul commends the Ephesian elders to God and to “the word of his grace” (Acts 20:32), which is able to build them up and give them the inheritance among all who are sanctified. The Word that converts also strengthens. It corrects error, exposes remaining sin, renews the mind, supplies promises for faith, and directs believers in grateful obedience.

Romans 15:4 particularly explains how the Word builds believers up in comfort. The Scriptures were written for our instruction so that, through their encouragement and the endurance they cultivate, we might have hope. Biblical comfort is therefore grounded in God’s revealed truth and promises. It strengthens believers to persevere rather than merely relieving present distress.

Holiness and comfort must remain together. Biblical comfort is not reassurance detached from repentance, and biblical holiness is not anxious moral striving detached from grace. Through the Word, the Spirit shows us both the seriousness of sin and the sufficiency of Christ. He teaches us to put sin to death, to trust the promises of God, and to persevere in hope.

The 1689 Confession similarly teaches that saving faith is ordinarily brought about by the ministry of the Word and is then strengthened through the Word, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, and the other means appointed by God (2LBCF §14.1). Faith does not rest upon the eloquence of a preacher or the emotional force of a meeting. It rests upon Christ as He is offered in the gospel.

We should therefore reject two opposite errors.

• The first treats preaching as if right methods, personality, or atmosphere produce conversion.

• The second treats preaching and reading as unnecessary because only the Spirit can save.

Scripture permits neither conclusion. The means cannot save without the Spirit, but the Spirit does not save apart from the means Christ has appointed.

Question 95: How is the Word to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation?

Q. How is the Word to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation?

A. That the Word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.

Question 95 turns from the Spirit’s sovereign efficacy to the hearer’s responsibility. These are not competing explanations. Because God works through His appointed means, we should use those means earnestly. Dependence upon the Spirit does not encourage passivity; it produces prayerful diligence.

FIRST, we must attend to the Word with diligence. Wisdom pronounces the person blessed who listens daily and waits attentively at her gates (Proverbs 8:34). Applied to the reception of God’s Word, this excludes careless and merely occasional attention. We should place ourselves regularly under faithful preaching, read Scripture consistently, listen carefully, and resist mental drift.

Diligence does not mean that every reading or sermon will feel equally memorable. Fruitfulness is often gradual. No one yells at an apple tree for taking a season to produce fruit. The question is whether we honor God’s Word by sustained attention or treat it as background noise that must compete with every distraction. You may not remember every point — or even every sermon — but attentive listening is, slowly but surely, shaping you according to the Scriptures.

SECOND, we must attend with preparation and prayer. 1 Peter 2:1-2 connects longing for the pure spiritual milk of the Word with putting away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. We do not prepare for the Word by making ourselves worthy of grace. We prepare by recognizing and rejecting the sins that obstruct humble reception.

Prayer is equally necessary. The psalmist asks God to open his eyes so that he may behold wondrous things out of His law (Psalm 119:18). This prayer confesses both the objective excellence of Scripture and our dependence upon divine illumination. Before reading Scripture or hearing it preached, we should ask the Spirit for understanding, conviction, faith, and obedience.

Preparation may be simple and practical: praying before the Lord’s Day, reading the sermon passage beforehand when possible, arriving ready to listen, and refusing to nourish distraction. These practices cannot force God’s blessing, but they are fitting expressions of hunger for His Word.

THIRD, we must receive the Word with faith and love. The wilderness generation heard good news, but the message did not help them:

[1] Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. [2] For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. (Hebrews 4:1-2, ESV)

Hearing sounds is not the same as receiving God’s testimony. Faith accepts His promises as true and rests upon Christ as sufficient. It also receives His warnings, commands, and corrections as the words of the One Who is perfectly wise and good.

The Word must also be received with love. 2 Thessalonians 2:10 describes those who perish as refusing to love the truth and so be saved. Saving faith does not merely admit that Christian claims are factually correct. It welcomes the truth because it reveals the God Who saves. A person may admire biblical language, enjoy theological argument, or appreciate a preacher’s ability while resisting the truth itself.

FOURTH, we must lay up the Word in our hearts and practice it in our lives. The psalmist says that he has stored up God’s Word in his heart so that he might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). To lay up the Word is to retain, treasure, and recall it. This may include memorization, meditation, notes, discussion, and repeated reading, but the goal is more than information. It is transformation. The Word is stored in the heart so that it governs desire and conduct.

In the parable of the soils, the good soil represents those who hear the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience (Luke 8:15). The evidence of genuine reception is enduring fruit, not a brief emotional response. James 1:25 makes the same point from another direction: the blessed hearer looks into the perfect law, perseveres, and becomes a doer rather than a forgetful hearer.

These duties must not be turned into a technique for controlling the Spirit. Diligence, preparation, prayer, faith, love, remembrance, and obedience do not give Scripture a power it otherwise lacks. Nor do they merit saving grace. They describe the humble posture of one who recognizes that God addresses us through His Word and that His truth must not be received casually.

At the same time, the doctrine of divine efficacy must never become an excuse for unbelief or neglect. Scripture does not permit the careless hearer to blame God for his refusal to listen. We are commanded to hear, believe, keep, and obey.

When the Word bears saving fruit, all praise belongs to God.

When the Word is rejected, the guilt belongs to the hearer.

Conclusion

Questions 94 and 95 teach us that the saving effectiveness of the Word depends upon the sovereign work of God, yet its hearers remain responsible for how they receive it. We must neither treat Scripture as though it works automatically nor use our dependence upon the Spirit as an excuse for careless hearing. God has joined His powerful work to His appointed means, and we should therefore receive His Word with humble expectation.

94. The Spirit makes the Word effectual: He uses its reading — and especially its preaching — to convince and convert sinners and to build believers up in holiness and comfort.

95. We must receive the Word rightly: We attend to it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love; treasure it in our hearts; and practice it in our lives.

Take this with you in three ways:

• FIRST, pray for the Spirit’s work whenever you come to the Word.

Ask Him to open your eyes, expose your sin, and strengthen your faith.

Do not assume that familiarity with Scripture removes your need for divine illumination.

• SECOND, give the Word your deliberate attention.

Prepare to hear it preached. Read it consistently.

Resist the distractions that encourage careless reception.

We carefully attend to many voices that cannot give us life.

How much more should we attend to the Word of God?

• THIRD, receive the Word with the intention of keeping it.

Treasure what you hear, meditate upon it, and put it into practice.

The goal is not merely to finish a reading or remember a sermon.

The goal is to know and believe what God has said, then to obey it.

Come, then, with an open Bible, a praying heart, and a life ready to obey.

The Spirit Who inspired the Word is able to make it fruitful unto salvation.

Lesson 38: Questions 92 and 93

In Lesson 37, we saw that faith in Jesus Christ is the saving grace by which we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation. Which raises an immediate question: what happens when a sinner truly comes to Christ? Salvation is by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone. Those who receive Christ also turn from sin unto God.

This turning is repentance unto life. Faith and repentance are distinct but inseparable graces. Faith receives Christ and rests upon His righteousness; repentance turns from sin because the sinner has begun to see both the evil of sin and the mercy of God in Christ. Repentance does not purchase forgiveness or prepare us to deserve Christ. It is part of God’s gracious work in those whom He brings to Christ.

Question 92: What is repentance unto life?

Q. What is repentance unto life?

A. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of and endeavour after new obedience.

FIRST, repentance unto life is a saving grace. It belongs to God’s saving work and is itself His gracious gift. When the Jewish believers heard how God had brought Gentiles to faith in Christ, they glorified God because He had granted them repentance leading to life (Acts 11:18). They did not praise the Gentiles for choosing God. They praised God for granting repentance.

Calling repentance a saving grace does not mean that repentance pays for sin. Christ alone has made satisfaction for sin, and His righteousness alone is the ground of our acceptance with God. Repentance is saving because it belongs to the salvation God gives in Christ. It is the Spirit-wrought turning that accompanies faith and leads in the way of life.

This protects us from two opposite errors.

1. We must not make repentance a work by which we earn pardon.

2. But neither may we separate repentance from salvation.

God does not forgive His people because their repentance is sufficiently intense or complete. He forgives them for Christ’s sake, and the grace that unites them to Christ also begins to turn them from the sins for which Christ died.

Peter’s preaching at Pentecost demonstrates this relationship. His hearers were confronted with their guilt concerning Jesus and asked what they should do. Peter did not direct them toward despair, self-punishment, or an attempt to compensate for their sin. He called them to repent in relation to Jesus Christ and to identify publicly with Him.

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:37-39, ESV)

Their conviction was not the end of repentance, but it was an essential beginning. They could no longer regard their actions, or Jesus Himself, as they had before. Yet Peter’s answer also directed them toward the promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Biblical repentance arises where guilt is exposed and mercy in Christ is proclaimed.

SECOND, repentance begins when a believer receives “a true sense of his sin”. A “true sense” of sin is more than embarrassment, fear of consequences, or disappointment in ourselves. It is a recognition that sin is rebellion against God, opposition to His holy character, and a violation of His righteous law. It sees particular sins honestly rather than hiding them beneath vague admissions that everyone makes mistakes.

God promised that when He cleansed and renewed His people, they would remember their evil ways and loathe themselves for their sins:

Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. (Ezekiel 36:31, ESV)

This recognition does not arise because grace has failed, but because grace has succeeded and opened their eyes. The renewed heart begins to judge sin according to God’s judgment rather than excusing it according to personal desire.

At the same time, repentance includes an “apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ”. Here, “apprehension” means a believing perception or grasp. The repentant sinner begins to understand that the God against Whom he has sinned is merciful to sinners through Christ. Repentance therefore looks honestly at sin without looking away from the Savior.

This is why repentance is neither presumption nor despair. Presumption wants mercy without turning from sin. Despair sees sin but refuses to believe that God receives sinners through Christ. Repentance rejects both errors. It confesses the evil of sin while approaching God on the ground of His mercy. The prophets repeatedly joined God’s call to return with His gracious promise to receive and restore.

“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”

“Behold, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God.” (Jeremiah 3:22, ESV)

I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the LORD my God. For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’ (Jeremiah 31:18-19, ESV)

God’s gracious initiative does not eliminate the sinner’s repentance. It produces it. The sinner truly turns, mourns, and seeks God because God has begun His restoring work.

THIRD, repentance includes “grief and hatred of his sin”. Christian grief is not measured merely by tears, temperament, or outward intensity. Some people express sorrow readily, while others do so quietly. The essential issue is whether we are grieved by sin as sin and increasingly hate what dishonors God.

Paul distinguishes godly grief from the sorrow of the world. Godly grief produces repentance and bears fruit in earnestness, a desire to address the wrong, and a serious response to sin:

For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. (2 Corinthians 7:11, ESV)

Worldly grief may hate exposure, damaged reputation, broken relationships, or painful consequences while still loving the sin itself. Godly grief wants deliverance not only from sin’s consequences but also from sin’s guilt, corruption, and mastery.

Hatred for sin must not become hatred for ourselves as though God’s grace offered no hope. The believer’s hatred is directed toward the sin that contradicts God’s holiness and harms communion with Him. That hatred sends us back to Christ for cleansing and into renewed obedience by the Spirit. The clearer our apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ becomes, the less reason we have to defend, conceal, or cherish our sin.

FOURTH, repentance includes a “turn from [sin] unto God”. Repentance is more than feeling differently about the past. It involves a change of direction. The sinner turns away from rebellion and returns to the God against Whom he has rebelled.

Through Joel, God calls His people to return to Him with all their heart:

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;” (Joel 2:12, ESV)

The accompanying fasting, weeping, and mourning are meaningful only as expressions of a heart returning to God. Repentance is not satisfied with outward displays. It seeks God Himself.

This turning also means that repentance cannot be reduced to self-improvement. A person may abandon one destructive habit because it has become inconvenient, replace a socially unacceptable sin with a respectable one, or adopt better discipline without returning to God. Biblical repentance turns from sin unto God. Its aim is restored fellowship with Him, submission to His authority, and glad obedience to His will.

FIFTH, repentance proceeds “with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.” The catechism does not say that the repentant sinner immediately attains perfect obedience. We discussed last week how we cannot and should not expect sinless perfection in this life. A “full purpose” is a sincere resolve to obey God without protecting a favored category of sin. “Endeavor” describes the real effort that follows that resolve. Grace does not make effort unnecessary; grace changes its source, direction, and purpose.

Isaiah gives concrete expression to this new obedience.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. (Isaiah 1:16-17, ESV)

This new obedience is not the root but the fruit of restoration with God. Nor is it limited to dramatic moments of conversion. The Christian life includes continuing repentance because believers still contend with remaining sin. We do not repeatedly lay a new foundation for our justification; we repeatedly return to the God Who has received us in Christ.

Question 93: What are the ordinary means of grace?

Q. What are the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption?

A. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption are His ordinances, especially the word, baptism, the Lord’s supper, and prayer; all which means are made effectual to the elect for salvation.

Repentance directs us toward God, but God has not told us to seek Him through methods of our own invention. Christ has given His church ordinances through which He ordinarily nourishes faith, deepens repentance, strengthens assurance, and preserves His people in the way of salvation.

An ordinance is a practice instituted and commanded (ordained) by Christ for His people. These means belong to Him. Their authority and usefulness do not arise from church tradition, human creativity, emotional power, or personal preference. Because Christ appointed them, the church must neither neglect them nor replace them with supposedly more impressive alternatives.

They are also ordinary means. This does not mean that they are dull, powerless, or merely customary. It means that they are the regular means Christ has appointed for the life of His church. We should not despise God’s ordinary provision while waiting for an extraordinary experience. Christ ordinarily forms mature Christians through repeated exposure to His Word, participation in the worship of His church, remembrance of His promises, and dependence upon Him in prayer.

The catechism says that Christ “communicateth to us the benefits of redemption”. To communicate here means to impart, convey, or bring into our experience what Christ has purchased. Christ alone accomplished redemption through His obedient life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection. His ordinances do not add to that finished work. Through them, Christ applies the benefits of His redemption to His people, confirms His promises to them, and nourishes their faith.

FIRST, Christ has appointed these means by His own authority. In the Great Commission, the risen Lord sends His church to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to observe all that He commanded. He joins these responsibilities to the promise of His abiding presence.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV)

SECOND, the first church received these means with steadfast regularity.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42, ESV)

The apostles’ teaching gave the church the authoritative Word concerning Christ. The breaking of bread included the shared life of the church and, in this context, its remembrance of Christ at His table. The prayers expressed the congregation’s dependence upon God. These practices were not occasional supplements for unusually devoted Christians. The believers devoted themselves to them. Each of these will be addressed in depth in future lessons, but the essential point here is that baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and prayer belonged to the apostolic pattern and continue throughout the life of the Church in This Age.

THIRD, Christ makes these means effectual by His Spirit. The ordinances are neither empty rituals nor automatic mechanisms. Their power does not reside in water, bread, a cup, the physical sound of preaching, or the mere act of speaking a prayer. Their effectiveness rests upon Christ, Who works through His Spirit according to His Word.

Yet we must not respond by treating the ordinances as bare symbols or unnecessary forms. Christ truly uses what He has appointed. Through the Word, He calls sinners and nourishes believers in the truth. Through baptism and the Lord’s Supper, He presents and confirms the gospel through visible signs. Through prayer, He draws His people into conscious dependence upon God and grants what accords with His will. The catechism says that these means are made effectual “to the elect for salvation.” That wording places our confidence in God’s sovereign grace rather than in human performance. The ordinances do not create God’s electing purpose, and ministers do not control the Spirit. Christ faithfully applies His redemption to those whom the Father has given Him.

“Salvation” here should not be restricted to the first moment of conversion. Rather, it is a holistic use of the term, which includes God’s continuing work of sanctifying, preserving, assuring, and maturing His people until they enter glory. The Word that first brings the message of Christ continues to correct and feed us. Prayer that expresses our first cry for mercy continues throughout the Christian life. Baptism marks the believer’s entrance into the visible community of disciples. The Lord’s Supper continues to nourish the church’s faith and hope.

The life of the Jerusalem church illustrates this continuing pattern.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47, ESV)

These verses portray a glad, worshiping, shared life rather than isolated religious experiences. At the same time, the growth of the church is attributed to the Lord. Their devotion was real, but the saving effect did not arise from their religious efficiency. The Lord Himself added those who were being saved.

The word ordinary also guards against two practical errors.

FIRST: neglect. Because the means do not operate mechanically, we might wrongly conclude that regular participation does not matter. But Christ commands and uses these means. Deliberately neglecting the Word, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, or the gathered church is not a mark of spiritual maturity.

SECOND: superstition. We may participate outwardly while trusting the act itself. Attendance does not replace faith. Baptism does not excuse unbelief. Receiving the Supper does not “compensate” for unrepentant sin. Repeating prayers does not place God in our debt. The ordinances direct us to Christ and benefit us only through His gracious working.

Conclusion

Questions 92 and 93 show how God graciously turns sinners unto Himself and ordinarily communicates to His people the benefits Christ has purchased.

92. THE GRACE OF REPENTANCE: Repentance unto life is not mere regret, self-improvement, or payment for sin. It is a saving grace by which a sinner, seeing both the evil of his sin and the mercy of God in Christ, turns from sin unto God and pursues new obedience.

93. THE MEANS OF GRACE: Christ ordinarily communicates the benefits of redemption through His appointed ordinances, especially the Word, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and prayer. These means are neither empty rituals nor automatic mechanisms. Christ makes them effectual to the elect for salvation by His Spirit.

Take this with you in three ways.

• FIRST, repent with hope.

Do not conceal your sin, excuse it, or despair because of it.

Look honestly at your sin while apprehending the mercy of God in Christ.

• SECOND, pursue concrete new obedience.

Do not merely cease evil; learn to do good in the specific duties God has set before you.

Your obedience will be imperfect in this life, but pursue it sincerely; make no peace with sin.

• THIRD, diligently receive the means Christ has appointed.

Hear His Word.

Obey Him in baptism.

Participate faithfully in the Lord’s Supper.

Call upon Him in prayer.

Receive these ordinances with faith, gratitude, expectancy, and regularity.

You do not repent to purchase mercy.

You repent because God is merciful in Christ.

You do not use the ordinances to manufacture grace.

You receive them because Christ has appointed them for your good.

Christ is the mercy apprehended through repentance.

Christ is the Lord Who appoints the ordinances.

Christ, by His Spirit, makes them effectual for salvation.

Turn from sin unto God.

Pursue new obedience.

Receive the gifts of Christ.

Lesson 37: Questions 90 and 91

Question 89 left every sinner under a verdict from which he cannot rescue himself: every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and in the life to come. This raises the urgent question answered here: How can guilty sinners escape what their sins deserve? I refer to this lesson as the “mechanics of the Gospel”. This is not an impersonal process or a technique by which sinners control God, but a real and intelligible way in which Christ’s accomplished redemption is applied to sinners. Questions 90 and 91 will show us in part how this works.

Question 90: How may we escape God’s wrath?

Q. What does God require of us, that we may escape His wrath and curse, due to us for sin?

A. To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requires of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.

Question 90 asks what God requires of us, but its answer must not be separated from what the catechism has already taught about redemption. Christ aloneaccomplished redemption. He obeyed where His people disobeyed, bore the curse they deserved, satisfied divine justice, and rose in victory. Forgiveness and acceptance with God rest entirely upon His righteousness and sacrifice.

Therefore, faith, repentance, and the outward means are not prices sinners pay, conditions that make them worthy, or additions to Christ’s saving work. The catechism is describing the graciously appointed way by which sinners come to Christ and receive the benefits He purchased. Christ alone is the ground of acceptance with God. Faith receives Him, repentance turns from sin to God, and the outward means are instruments through which Christ communicates His benefits.

 FIRST, God requires faith in Jesus Christ. Faith looks away from self and receives Christ. It does not present God with personal righteousness or spiritual achievement. It comes empty-handed to the Savior in Whom sinners possess the righteousness and salvation they lack. As with prior parts of the catechism, Question 90 introduces this concept and Question 91 will define it in greater detail.

 SECOND, God requires repentance unto life. Repentance is the sinner’s Spirit-worked turning from sin to God. The Greek noun μετανοία (metanoia), translated “repentance”, includes a change of mind that reorients the whole person toward God. In repentance, the mind that is hostile to God (Romans 8:7) turns with a heart attitude of submission and obedience.

Faith and repentance are distinct graces, but they belong together in conversion. Faith receives Christ, while repentance turns from sin to God. Think of faith and repentance as two sides of the same coin: how the sinner responds to the Gospel based on the Spirit’s regenerating work.

Paul summarized his apostolic ministry in these terms:

And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:18-21, ESV)

Paul did not preach faith to one class of sinners and repentance to another. Nor did he present repentance as a preliminary work by which sinners earn permission to believe. He proclaimed one gracious summons: turn toward God and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Repentance must never be treated as an additional ground of justification. Christ alone is the ground of our acceptance before God, and faith alone receives and rests upon Him for salvation. Yet the faith that receives Christ cannot make peace with the sin from which He saves us. Repentance will receive fuller treatment in the next catechism question.

 THIRD, God requires the diligent use of the outward means whereby Christ communicates the benefits of redemption. These means possess no saving power independently of Christ and His Spirit. They do not operate automatically, as though participation in a religious activity necessarily produces salvation. Nevertheless, we must not react against superstition by despising the instruments Christ has appointed.

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:1-5, ESV)

Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death. (Proverbs 8:33-36, ESV)

These passages do not teach that diligence earns grace. They teach that God’s life-giving truth must not be treated casually. When God speaks words of life, wisdom listens.

Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. (Isaiah 55:3, ESV)

This verse likewise joins the invitation to come with the command to hear. The LORD summons needy sinners to incline their ears and come to Him, promising life and covenant mercy. The sinner does not create life by hearing. God grants life through His gracious Word.

Sinners should therefore place themselves attentively under the proclamation of the Gospel, and Christians should continue steadfastly in the means Christ has appointed. The Word, prayer, and the ordinances are not substitutes for Christ. They are outward means through which Christ, by His Spirit, makes Himself and His benefits known to His people. Diligence in using them is not payment for grace but dependence upon grace. Their nature and use will receive fuller treatment in future catechism questions.

Question 91: What is faith in Jesus Christ?

Q. What is faith in Jesus Christ?

A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the Gospel.

Question 91 gives a compact but rich definition. Each part matters:

• Faith is a saving grace

• Faith receives Christ

• Faith rests upon Christ alone for salvation

• Faith receives Him as He is offered in the Gospel

 FIRST, faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace. It is not an achievement of autonomous human will or a moral quality that earns God’s approval. God works faith in the sinner through the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Gospel. He does not merely make salvation possible and then wait for spiritually dead sinners to produce faith from their own resources. He graciously awakens and draws His people to Christ.

This does not mean that God believes for us. The sinner truly believes. Faith is a real and personal act of the heart, but the sinner believes because God has graciously enabled and drawn him. Faith therefore supplies no ground for boasting. Its whole character is receptive.

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. (Hebrews 10:39, ESV)

This contrasts shrinking back under judgment with persevering faith that preserves the soul. Saving faith is not a passing opinion about Christ or a temporary religious response. It continues to look to Him because God preserves His people through faith. Its perseverance does not merit salvation; it displays the sustaining grace of the Savior upon Whom faith rests.

 SECOND, saving faith receives Christ.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13, ESV)

The Gospel contains truths that must be known and believed, but saving faith is more than agreement that those truths are factually correct. Faith receivesJesus Christ Himself as He is presented in the Gospel.

To receive Christ is not to select the benefits we prefer while refusing His person and authority. We receive the whole Christ: the Prophet Who reveals God, the Priest Who makes atonement and intercedes, and the King Who rules and protects His people. We cannot receive forgiveness from Christ while reserving the right to remain our own masters. The Christ Who reveals God is also the One Who pardons sinners and reigns over His people.

Receiving Christ does not mean that faith contributes a portion of salvation. An empty hand does not purchase the gift placed within it. Faith receivesbecause Christ gives. Its value does not lie in merit contained within the act of believing, but in the sufficiency of the Christ Whom faith receives.

 THIRD, saving faith rests upon Christ. Resting emphasizes reliance, trust, and dependence. The believing sinner abandons every attempt to establish a personal claim upon God and entrusts himself entirely to Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8-11, ESV)

Paul renounced confidence in a righteousness of his own. His hope before God was the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. Saving faith does not stand before God displaying moral improvement, sincerity, suffering, religious heritage, or spiritual accomplishments. It rests in the righteousness God provides in Christ.

Resting upon Christ does not mean spiritual inactivity. Faith works through love, pursues holiness, prays, obeys, and perseveres. Yet it does none of these things to replace or supplement Christ’s righteousness. Christian obedience flows from acceptance with God; it does not purchase that acceptance.

Saving faith rests upon Christ alone. It does not rest partly upon Christ and partly upon personal worthiness, religious ceremonies, theological knowledge, emotional intensity, moral improvement, or spiritual achievement. Christ is not one contributor among several. He is the Savior.

For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us. (Isaiah 33:22, ESV)

This verse presents the Lord as Judge, Lawgiver, King, and Savior. The sinner does not escape God’s judgment by finding refuge from God somewhere else. His refuge is in God’s own saving provision. The One Who possesses the authority to judge is also the One Who saves. In the fullness of the Gospel, this salvation is accomplished by Christ, Who bears His people’s judgment and brings them under His gracious reign.

The word “alone” also protects Christian assurance. The strength of faith lies chiefly in its object, not in the believer’s emotional intensity. It may be that a trembling sinner possesses weak faith in a sufficient Christ. Assurance should not be sought by continually measuring the force of our believing, as though strong confidence were the ground of acceptance. Faith performs its proper office when it looks away from itself to Christ.

True faith is living, persevering, and fruitful. Its works demonstrate that it is alive, but those fruits remain evidences of grace rather than additions to Christ’s finished work. We must not turn even the fruit of faith into another ground of confidence before God.

FOURTH, saving faith receives and rests upon Christ “as He is offered to us in the Gospel”. The Gospel does not merely provide information about an inaccessible Savior. God freely and sincerely presents Christ to sinners as the sufficient and only Savior. He commands those who hear to repent and believe, and He promises to receive all who come to Christ.

The Gospel offer supplies the sinner’s warrant to believe. We do not need to discover some hidden qualification in ourselves before coming to Christ. We do not need to prove that we are sufficiently sorrowful, reformed, or worthy. Our lack of worthiness is precisely why we need Him. The warrant to believe is not a favorable discovery about ourselves but God’s gracious presentation of His Son in the Gospel.

Christ is offered as He truly is, not as sinners might redesign Him. He is offered as the crucified and risen Lord (Acts 2:32-36), the only Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), sufficient to save and worthy of unconditional trust (Hebrews 7:25; 2 Timothy 1:12). Saving faith does not invent its own Jesus. It receives the Christ proclaimed in the biblical Gospel.

The catechism’s definition therefore helps us distinguish saving faith from several counterfeits:

• Saving faith is not bare intellectual assent: Knowledge and assent are necessary, but even demons know truths about God and tremble before Him (James 2:19). Saving faith personally receives and rests upon Christ.

• Saving faith is not moral improvement: A sinner may reform his conduct while continuing to rely upon himself. Personal reformation may change habits, but it cannot earn salvation for the guilty sinner (Titus 3:5). That said, the Reformation maxim is true: “Salvation is by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.” A regenerated heart will show itself through sanctification (Ephesians 2:8-10). But we must keep the order right: faith produces obedience; obedience does not produce saving faith.

• Saving faith is not religious activity: Church attendance, baptism, prayer, Bible reading, and the Lord’s Supper are precious when used according to Christ’s appointment. Yet it is possible to participate in religious privileges without truly receiving Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). None of these activities is a substitute for Christ Himself.

• Saving faith is not emotional intensity: Strong emotion may and should accompany faith, but emotional intensity itself is not faith. Genuine faith may pass through seasons of fear and weakness while continuing to return to Christ (Mark 9:24; Psalm 42:5).

• Saving faith is not confidence in faith itself: We are not saved because our faith feels unusually strong or certain. Faith looks away from itself and rests upon Christ (Hebrews 12:2; 2 Timothy 1:12).

These distinctions are not intended to produce endless suspicion about whether we have believed well enough. They direct us to the proper question: Are we receiving and resting upon Jesus Christ alone, as He is offered in the Gospel?

Conclusion

Questions 90 and 91 begin to explain God’s graciously appointed way of bringing guilty sinners into the benefits of Christ’s redemption.

90. THE WAY OF ESCAPE: God requires faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, and the diligent use of the outward means through which Christ communicates the benefits of redemption. These do not earn salvation or add to Christ’s work. They are God’s graciously appointed way of bringing sinners to Christ and His benefits.

91. THE NATURE OF FAITH: Saving faith is a grace by which sinners receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation, as He is offered in the Gospel. Faith saves because it receives the sufficient Savior, not because faith is itself meritorious or unusually strong.

 Take this with you in three ways.

 • FIRST, believe that Christ alone is sufficient to save you.

You are not saved because your faith is good enough.

Saving faith receives and rests upon a sufficient Christ.

 • SECOND, stop searching within yourself for a reason God should receive you.

Do not wait until you feel guilty enough, sorrowful enough, or worthy enough to come.

Receive and rest upon Christ as He is offered to you in the Gospel.

 • THIRD, diligently use the means Christ has appointed.

Hear His Word.

Call upon Him in prayer.

Participate faithfully in the life and ordinances of His church.

Do not treat these means as automatic mechanisms or payments for grace, but do not neglect the instruments through which Christ graciously communicates His benefits.

You do not need a better excuse.

You do not need a stronger claim.

You do not need a righteousness of your own.

You need Christ.

He is offered to the guilty.

He is sufficient for the helpless.

He is worthy of your whole trust.

Receive Him.

Rest upon Him.

Lesson 36: Questions 87, 88, and 89

In Lesson 34, we completed the Ten Commandments with the 10th commandment, which forbids coveting, requires contentment with our own condition, requires a charitable spirit toward our neighbor, and forbids discontentment, envy, and inordinate desire for another’s belongings.

In Lesson 35, Tadd reminded us that we are, in fact, to keep the 10 Commandments, showing that they form the summary of the moral law of God, which reiterates the point we saw in Question 46.

Questions 44 through 86 have told us what God's moral law requires.

The catechism now makes an important turn. Having heard what God requires, Question 87 asks the obvious and uncomfortable question: Can fallen man actually keep this law perfectly?

Question 87: Can anyone actually keep God’s Law?

Q. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?

A. No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, or deed.

FIRST, notice the qualifications built into the catechism's answer: “No mere man since the fall ... in this life”.

“No mere man” deliberately excludes Jesus Christ. Christ is truly man, but He is not a mere man. He is the eternal Son incarnate, and in His human obedience He perfectly fulfilled the law of God without sin, as we see here:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15, ESV)

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. (1 Peter 2:22, ESV)

The answer is not that humanity as such makes obedience impossible. Jesus obeyed perfectly.

“Since the fall” is another necessary distinction. Adam was created upright, with the ability to obey the God Who made him (Ecclesiastes 7:29). His inability after the fall is not the condition in which God originally created man.

And “in this life” prevents us from treating present imperfection as eternal. Believers will not spend eternity fighting the same battles against indwelling sin. In glory, the saints will be perfected in holiness. The catechism is speaking specifically about fallen human beings in our present earthly condition. This is our status in “This Age”, not in “The Age to Come” (to recall my Revelation series).

SECOND, no fallen man is able “perfectly to keep” the commandments.

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20, ESV)

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8, 10, ESV)

This does not mean that Christians cannot genuinely obey God. Scripture commands obedience because regeneration actually changes us. The Spirit produces real holiness. Believers really do love God, resist temptation, mortify sin, keep His commandments, and perform good works that are pleasing to Him through Christ. But real obedience is not the same as perfect obedience.

We need to keep several distinctions clear:

• Sincere holiness is not sinless holiness

• Sanctification is not glorification

• Sin remaining in the believer is not sin reigning over the believer

This is also why justification and sanctification must not be confused. The believer is perfectly righteous before God in Christ with respect to justification, while his sanctification remains incomplete.

The Christian is no longer under sin's dominion (Romans 6:14), but neither has he become personally perfect. Galatians 5 describes this precisely:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:17, ESV)

That conflict does not mean regeneration accomplished nothing; it shows the Spirit at war with remaining corruption. The Christian fights because the Spirit is at work in him, and by that same Spirit he increasingly overcomes. But the battle continues in this life.

For that reason, doctrines of sinless perfection or entire sanctification in this life cannot survive the language of Scripture. John does not say, “If we said we used to have sin…” He says that claiming present sinlessness deceives us (1 John 1:8), while Galatians 5:17 describes an ongoing conflict in the regenerate.

THIRD, the catechism says that we “daily break them in thought, word, or deed.”

Genesis 6:5 and 8:21 locate sin in the heart and its intentions. Romans 3:9-21 establishes the universal guilt of mankind under sin. James 3:2-13 gives a painfully concrete example: even mature believers stumble in speech. The law we have studied for months does not examine only our hands. It examines our desires, motives, affections, words, omissions, and actions.

Our inability does not excuse our guilt. Fallen man is not a righteous person desperately trying to obey while God prevents him from doing so. We sin willingly from corrupt hearts. Moral inability is not external coercion. We are responsible because the evil we do proceeds from what we ourselves desire and choose.

Question 87 therefore does not give us permission to surrender. It gives us reason to reject self-righteousness, depend upon Christ, and pursue serious holiness without pretending that sanctification has already become glorification.

Question 88: Is All Sin the Same?

Q. Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?

A. Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.

No. Scripture does not teach that all sins are equally serious.

There is a truth people often intend when they say that “all sins are equal in God's sight.”

• Every sin is genuinely sin.

• Every sin violates the law of the same holy God.

• No sinner can justify himself by finding someone worse.

• Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse apart from Christ. (See Question 89 below)

But none of those truths means that every sin has the same degree of moral heinousness.

Scripture plainly teaches otherwise.

 FIRST, some sins “in themselves ... are more heinous”.

Ezekiel 8 is especially clear. As God exposes the idolatry and corruption in Jerusalem, He repeatedly tells Ezekiel that he will see “greater abominations”.

And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”

He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”

Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.” (Ezekiel 8:6, 13, 15, ESV)

The progression matters. God Himself distinguishes greater abominations from lesser ones. Jesus uses the same kind of moral language when He tells Pilate that the one who delivered Him over has “the greater sin” (John 19:11). He warns that judgment will be “more tolerable” for some than for others (Matthew 11:20-24). Scripture does not flatten moral evil into one undifferentiated category.

This also keeps us from misunderstanding Jesus’s teaching about the heart. In our study of the commandments, we have repeatedly seen that the sixth commandment reaches sinful anger and hatred, while the seventh reaches lust and unchaste desire. Those inward sins are real violations of God's law. But it does not follow that sinful anger, physical assault, and murder are identical in heinousness, injury, consequence, or appropriate temporal punishment. Neither does the fact that lust is adultery of the heart mean that inward lust and the outward act of adultery carry every identical aggravation.

The inward root is truly sinful. When that sin proceeds into words and actions, it may add further injury, scandal, violence, betrayal, or violation of additional commandments. Our broad-commandment hermeneutic should deepen our understanding of sin, not erase meaningful distinctions among sins.

Even biblical case law reflects this. God did not assign the same civil sanction to every transgression. Murder, bodily injury, theft, and property damage were distinguished and judged according to their differing character and harm (Exodus 21:12-27; 22:1-4). We should not turn those sanctions into a mathematical ranking of every sin, but the moral logic is obvious: biblical ethics recognizes differences of culpability and injury. Appropriate temporal consequences in the family, church, and civil society likewise need not be identical for every offense.

 SECOND, sins become more heinous “by reason of several aggravations”.

The same basic action may carry greater guilt because of who commits it, against whom it is committed, how it is committed, and the circumstances surrounding it.

1. The person committing the sin may aggravate it. Greater knowledge brings greater responsibility. Jesus distinguishes the servant who knew his master's will from the one who did not (Luke 12:47-48). Teachers receive a stricter judgment because of their office and influence (James 3:1). Maturity, knowledge, authority, profession, and influence can make the same outward act more scandalous and culpable.

2. The person sinned against may aggravate it. Sin against someone specially entrusted to our care carries dimensions of betrayal and neglected duty that may not be present in the same act toward a stranger. Sin that harms the weak, corrupts another person's soul, betrays covenant obligations, or injures many people may compound the offense.

3. The nature and circumstances of the offense may aggravate it. Deliberate, presumptuous rebellion is more heinous than sin committed through ignorance or sudden weakness. Repetition after warning, mercy, correction, or professed repentance adds guilt. Leading others into sin compounds our own offense. Public sin may scandalize many. A single act may violate several commandments at once. Psalm 78 is a vivid example. Israel's rebellion was not occurring in a vacuum. They sinned after seeing God's mighty works, receiving His provision, experiencing His correction, and repeatedly being shown mercy. Yet “they sinned still” and continued testing and rebelling against Him (Psalm 78:17, 32, 56). Their history and privileges aggravated their rebellion.

4. Time and place can also matter. A sin committed publicly, during worship, in the exercise of a sacred trust, or in circumstances where others are especially likely to be harmed or encouraged to sin may carry aggravations that the same act would not carry in another setting.

This explains why knowledge, responsibility, intent, repetition, harm, influence, scandal, and abused privilege all matter when Scripture evaluates sin. God judges perfectly because He sees not merely the outward act but the whole moral reality of it.

The catechism also cites 1 John 5:16. Christians disagree over the precise identity of the “sin that leads to death”, so we should not make that disputed phrase carry more weight than it can bear. It is consistent with meaningful distinctions among sins, but the doctrine does not depend upon this difficult text. Ezekiel's “greater abominations”, Jesus’s “greater sin”, and His differing measures of judgment establish the point clearly.

James 2:10 does not contradict this. James teaches the unity of God's law: the one who transgresses becomes a lawbreaker before the one Lawgiver. He is not teaching that murder, adultery, a sinful thought, and genocide are morally equivalent acts.

So hold both truths together. Every sin is a genuine violation of God's law, and some sins are more heinous than others. Equal need of Christ does not mean equal seriousness of every offense. Forgiveness is available for every kind of sin in Christ, but forgiveness does not make every sin morally identical. There is no category of genuine sin that does not need forgiveness and atonement.

Question 89: What does my sin deserve?

Q. What doth every sin deserve?

A. Every sin deserveth God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come.

Question 88 emphasized difference. Question 89 emphasizes universality.

Some sins are worse than others, but there is no morally innocent category of sin.

FIRST, notice the word “deserveth”. Sin does not merely happen to produce unpleasant consequences. It incurs judicial guilt before the holy God Whose law has been violated.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 5:6, ESV)

God's wrath is not an irrational outburst or a loss of divine self-control. It is His holy, righteous, settled opposition to evil. Because God is perfectly good, He must judge sin rightly.

The catechism also speaks of God's “curse”.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (Galatians 3:10, ESV)

“Curse” is judicial language. The law pronounces its sentence upon the lawbreaker.

Sin places us under a condemnation that we have earned.

SECOND, this is true of “every sin”.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23, ESV)

Wages are earned. Death is not presented as an arbitrary penalty disconnected from sin; it is what sin deserves. A comparatively lesser sin may still deserve condemnation.

The fact that murder is worse than sinful anger does not make sinful anger righteous.

The fact that perjury is worse than a “white lie” does not make the lesser lie morally neutral.

Questions 88 and 89 therefore guard one another.

Question 88 prevents us from pretending every offense is equally heinous.

Question 89 prevents us from using those differences to excuse the sins we regard as small.

THIRD, sin deserves God's wrath and curse “both in this life and that which is to come.”

Lamentations 3:39 teaches that sinful people have no ground to charge God with injustice when He judges sin. Ephesians 5:6 warns of God's wrath upon the sons of disobedience, and Matthew 25:41 speaks unmistakably of final judgment. God may also visit sin with temporal consequences and judgments in this life. For believers, His chastening is fatherly discipline; for unbelievers, temporal judgment serves as a warning of judgment to come.

But we need an important qualification. Scripture does not authorize us to see every consequence as God's direct punishment for one particular personal sin (John 9:1-3). We live in a fallen world under the broad temporal consequences of sin, and God does sometimes judge particular sins in history, but we must not claim knowledge He has not given us.

We must also distinguish punitive wrath from fatherly discipline. For the Christian united to Christ, “there is therefore now no condemnation” (Romans 8:1). A believer's remaining sins, considered in themselves, genuinely deserve wrath. But Christ has borne the curse due to His people.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— (Galatians 3:13, ESV)

God may discipline His children for their good (Hebrews 12:5-11), but He is not collecting a penal debt that Christ failed to pay. The law's curse does not disappear; Christ satisfies it.

That brings us to the edge of Question 90. We cannot perfectly obey. Our sins carry real guilt and differing degrees of heinousness. Every one of them deserves wrath and curse. The wages we earned are death, while eternal life is the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). So how can sinners like us escape what our sin deserves?

Conclusion

Questions 87-89 move us from the law God commands to the condition of sinners under that law.

87. THE IMPACT OF SIN: No fallen man or woman renders perfect obedience in this life. Even genuine believers, while truly sanctified and increasingly obedient, still fall short in thought, word, and deed.

88. THE WEIGHT OF SIN: All sins are real sins, but all sins are not equally heinous. Some are more grievous in themselves, and knowledge, responsibility, intent, repetition, harm, scandal, abused privilege, and other circumstances may further aggravate their guilt.

89. THE WAGES OF SIN: Despite those differences, every sin deserves God's wrath and curse.

Take this with you in three ways.

• FIRST, do not excuse your sin by finding someone who has sinned worse.

Someone else's greater guilt cannot make you innocent.

• SECOND, do not flatten grave wickedness by repeating the false slogan that “all sins are equal”.

Let God's Word, rather than our culture's outrage or respectability, teach us how seriously to evaluate sin.

• THIRD, do not despair over remaining sin if you belong to Christ.

Fight it.

Mortify it.

Confess it.

Grow in obedience.

But do so as someone being sanctified, a process which continues our entire life in This Age.

Christ alone rendered the perfect obedience Question 87 tells us we have failed to render.

Christ alone committed neither the greater nor the lesser sins described in Question 88.

Christ alone has borne the wrath and curse deserved by the sins of His people in Question 89.

Lesson 35: Keep the 10 Commandments 

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been walking through the Catechism and how the Christian is to view the 10 commandments. Hopefully by now you’ve seen that the 10 commandments’ applications are often broader than most people think and reach the heart of what it means to:

However, there are many Christians today who believe that they no longer apply for various reasons. There are a handful of objections raised, but the overarching claim is that the 10 commandments are not binding for the believer.

My hope is that you would not claim to believe this. My hope is that everyone in this room believes in the enduring nature of God’s moral law established in the commandments, but there is still a movement even within Christianity to disregard the 10 commandments.

In this lesson, I want to present the primary objection used to argue the commandments are not binding and respond to it from a Biblical worldview so that if you run into it in “the wild”, you are prepared to answer those who might seek to undermine God’s Word.

Objection: “The 10 Commandments applied only to those under the Mosaic Covenant”

The Mosaic Covenant is the covenant God established with national Israel through Moses at Mt. Sinai after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt. Deuteronomy 28 summarizes the covenant: 

In verses 1-13, God explains to Israel exactly what they will gain if they are fully obedient:

If they fail in their part of the covenant (and they will), the opposite of the above blessings will be true about them. Every aspect of their life will be filled with agony. They will be cursed wherever they go (v. 16), they will hunger (v. 17), they will struggle with infertility, disease (v. 22), and their nation will turn to ruin as the Lord turns them over to their enemies (v. 25).

It is worth noting that God says throughout the chapter that He will be the one inflicting the suffering. It will not be a happenstance that their suffering will occur, it will be directly caused by the Lord they have rejected through their disobedience. If you want to know how seriously God takes sin, read Deuteronomy 28. The punishments for their disobedience are graphic and stomach-turning — and completely just!

What those who do not believe the 10 commandments are binding will say is that they only apply to this specific covenant with the Israelites. Well-known megachurch pastor Andy Stanley is famous for having said we need to “unhitch” from the Old Testament entirely, but I’m not going to pick on Stanley today because I view him as low-hanging fruit. Instead, listen to this from Thomas Schreiner, a professor of NT Interpretation for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:

“When we consider the Ten Commandments, we have to situate them in their covenantal context. After all, they’re part of the Mosaic covenant, and Christians aren’t under that covenant. For instance, the sabbath is the sign of the Mosaic covenant, of Yahweh’s covenant with Israel (Ex. 31:13, 17), but believers in Christ are no longer under the sabbath command, since it’s a shadow that points to Christ (Col. 2:16; cf. Rom. 14:5). The sabbath points to our rest in Christ (Heb. 4:1–11), and I make this case in a book on progressive covenantalism. Since the sabbath is no longer required for believers today, it’s too simplistic to say that believers must obey the Ten Commandments.”

Schreiner does his best to distance himself from Stanley in the rest of the article because he understands how this sounds. It sounds like he’s saying people don’t have to obey the commandments, leaving morality up to the individual. He knows Stanley has invented his own unbiblical set of morality.

Instead, Schreiner refers to “moral norms”, a set of universally understood morals, which he claims we can know because of different New Testament passages. Weirdly enough, all of the moral norms he points to sound a lot like the 10 commandments!

The problem both Schreiner and Stanley have is that without leaning on the 10 commandments as their base for the moral law, they have to pull from all kinds of places to prove what is and is not God’s moral standard. I’m going to the opposite approach: 

God’s universal moral law is summarily comprehended in the 10 commandments (see Q46).

The 10 Commandments are Unique from the Other Laws given in the Mosaic Covenant:

Schreiner’s assumption that the Sabbath command is not binding on the believer is more common than you might think. If you didn’t get to listen to it, lessons 27 and 28 from Mike several weeks ago, which are available online, explain in detail why you should keep the Sabbath. I don’t want to rehash his lessons. Had Mike not already taught those lessons, I would have explained why the Sabbath is key to believing in the binding nature of the 10 commandments. Since it’s already been covered in this class…

Here are 5 reasons why the 10 commandments are unique from the rest of the law:

1) The 10 commandments are clearly broken and punished for prior to the Mosaic

Covenant:

All of these stories happened before Moses and it was understood that they had broken God’s moral law.

Just because the 10 commandments were not written on the stone tablets until much later does not mean that God had not already written on the heart of man what His expectations for them were. It is clear that every person prior to Moses knew what was right and what was wrong, even if it was not written on tablets or in the KJV.

2) They were separated from the rest of the law. 

They were put onto stone tablets and given a special place in the ark of the covenant (Exodus  25:16). No other laws were placed in it.

3) They were the only laws written by the hand of God. 

After the first tablets are broken and Moses returns to Sinai:

The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ~ Exodus 34:1

The 10 commandments are unique, in part, because God wrote them. The rest are dictated by God to Moses who writes them down in the rest of the Torah (Exodus 34:27). This is not to say the rest of the law is unimportant, but rather to speak to the importance of the commandments that summarize the entirety of the others. For instance, in Mark 12:28-34, Jesus summarizes the Law by summarizing the 10 commandments. Mike has said before that the rest of the law is ‘case law’ to exemplify the 10 commandments for Israel.

4) The Apostle Paul also hinges many of his arguments in his letters on the continuing application of the 10 commandments to the New Testament believer:

For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. ~ Romans 13:9-10

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. ~ Ephesians 6:1-3

I use these because they are direct quotes to the decalogue, but all of Paul’s letters are filled with affirmations of the commands of the 10 commandments. He may not use the exact language, but the commands are the same. While Paul rejects the moral law as means of justification, he consistently upholds it as a universally binding law and a measure of sanctification in the life of a believer. When Jesus speaks of the Christian bearing fruit, He ultimately means the Christians obedience to His word. Our growing more like Christ is to learn and obey the commands to love God and neighbor.

5) Just because the 10 commandments were given during the Mosaic covenant, it does not mean they have expired or lapsed. 

They were codified at Sinai, but they precede and outlast Moses:

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ~ Matthew 5:17-19

If the 10 commandments no longer applied, somebody should probably tell Jesus that! In the sermon on the mount, Jesus is not establishing new laws, he’s explaining what the 10 commandments mean and how they still apply to them by showing the people how they regularly break them. If the 10 commandments were only binding to national Israel under the Mosaic covenant, why would He quote them to a group of people who would soon belong to the New Testament Church?

I think the answer is simple–the 10 commandments still apply because Jesus says they still apply. These commandments are not merely “moral norms.” It is the desire and revealed will of God that we should obey them.

What I am Not Saying:

When the arguments above are presented, somebody who holds to the view that the commandments are no longer binding will usually respond with something like “We aren’t under the law anymore. We are under the law of Christ!” In the article I quote above, Thomas Schreiner says “The law of Christ functions as a norm for believers (Rom. 13:8–10; Gal. 5:14; 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:20–21), the heart and soul of which is love for neighbor. And this love was exemplified supremely in Christ’s self-giving on the cross.” 

He’s not wrong on this: we are under the law of Christ. Where Schreiner diverts is when he claims that the law of Christ is a replacement for the Mosaic law and 10 commandments. If he had stopped at the Mosaic law, we’d probably be in agreement, but including the 10 commandments in the replacement is replacing laws that are enduring.

The book of Galatians is clear. The law does not have power to save and we are not “under” the law as a covenantal administration or in the sense that we still stand condemned underneath it. In Christ, we know we do not find salvation in the law. The question in all of this is not whether or not the 10 commandments have the power to save, but whether the law should still be obeyed. The Christian is not saved by the law. I am not saying that all of the Mosaic law applies to you. 

I am saying that God’s moral law summarized in the 10 commandments remains the standard for loving God and our neighbor. As it was for Adam, and Eve, Abraham, Jacob, Noah, Moses, and David, so it is for us. To say that the 10 commandments no longer apply to the believer is to undermine the foundation of morality God has built from the beginning of time.

If you no longer have the 10 commandments, you’re forced to do what Schreiner does for the rest of the article:

“Someone might say at this point, “You do hold the same view as Andy Stanley!” Not so fast. Romans 13:8–10 helps us unpack the nature of love, and Paul tells us that love keeps particular commands, which include commands that prohibit adultery, murder, stealing, and coveting. Paul tells us that other commands fall under this umbrella as well. In fact, when we read the New Testament, we discover that nine of the ten commandments are repeated in the New Testament (again, the exception is the sabbath). Such moral norms prevent us from sentimentality in defining what love is.

Instead of using one place to pull from and summarize God’s eternal moral law, he has to pick and choose various places that commandments are affirmed in scripture. In the very passage Schreiner quotes to support his argument in Romans 13, Paul is actually grounding his argument for Love of God and Brother in the 10 commandments!

The same passages I use above for OT characters disobeying various commandments, he has to use to prove that there are “moral norms” instead of relying on what God has plainly given us in His word.

Why should I care?

Understanding the 10 commandments and the ways we break them are crucial to seeing the ways we have transgressed against a holy and just God.

When His commands are not obeyed, death and calamity follow.

Only when we see our transgressions against God’s law can we see our need for Christ.

When we know what God requires of us through His law, the Holy Spirit helps us in obeying it.

God’s moral law is not some abstract concept that we have to piecemeal throughout the New Testament to find out what applies to us. 

We know what applies to us.

It is God’s eternal law summarized in the 10 commandments.

 Lesson 34: Questions 84, 85, and 86

In Lesson 33, we considered the ninth commandment. It requires us to maintain and promote truth between people and to preserve our own and our neighbor’s good name, especially in witness bearing. It forbids what harms truth or unjustly injures a reputation. The tenth commandment now carries us beneath outward speech and testimony to the desires, discontentments, envies, and affections from which so many outward sins proceed.

Question 84: What is the tenth commandment?

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:17, ESV)

The tenth commandment reaches the heart. It does not merely forbid the outward taking of what belongs to another person. Theft, adultery, false witness, and oppression are already forbidden elsewhere in the Decalogue. This commandment forbids the discontented, self-centered, or wrongful desire to possess what God has entrusted to someone else.

Notice the repeated language: “thou shalt not covet”. Then notice the comprehensive conclusion: “nor anything that is thy neighbour’s”. Houses, possessions, work, status, relationships, opportunities, recognition, influence, and every lawful good entrusted to another fall within its scope. The law is not content to ask whether our hands have taken; it asks what our hearts have wanted.

This follows the interpretive method we have seen in the sixth through ninth commandments. Each brief prohibition names an entire moral category. 

So the 10th exposes the heart as the fountain from which sinful conduct flows. 

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. (James 4:1-2, ESV)

This shows the progression: passions war within us and then break out into conflict and violence.

1 Kings 21:1-16 is a biblical narrative that shows this play out in a tragic way. 

Coveting was not a private weakness. It became manipulation, false witness, murder, and theft. It very quickly led to violations of the 2nd table of the Law: “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13:9)

We should, however, distinguish lawful desire from coveting. It is lawful to work, plan, seek provision, pursue a calling, desire marriage, grieve hardship, and pray for changed circumstances. The question is whether our desires are governed by faith, gratitude, love of neighbor, or by covetousness. 

Question 85: What does it require?

FIRST, the commandment requires “full contentment with our own condition”. Christian contentment is not apathy, laziness, fatalism, or pretending that genuine sorrow is pleasant. It is the settled grace of receiving God’s wise and fatherly providence while faithfully obeying Him in the circumstances He has assigned.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5, ESV)

This joins contentment directly to freedom from the love of money and grounds it in God’s promise of His abiding presence. The believer’s security is not ultimately determined by the size of his checking account or 401(k), the certainty of his employment, or the ease of his circumstances. 

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. (1 Timothy 6:6-7, ESV)

Paul is not praising poverty as inherently virtuous, nor condemning responsible provision. He is exposing the great error of measuring gain by what can be accumulated and kept in this world.

Paul’s testimony in Philippians 4:10-13 is particularly helpful:

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:10-13, ESV)

He learned contentment both in plenty and in need. That passage is not a promise that Christians can accomplish every personal ambition they desire. Athletes really need to stop ripping this verse out of its context. This verse is not about physical achievements. It is Christ’s strength for faithfulness amid changing conditions, whether abundance or want.

This applies to money, work, housing, health, marriage, singleness, children, opportunities, recognition, ministry influence, and the apparent ease of another person’s life. Sometimes the circumstances we encounter in these categories are truly grievous. Christians may pray earnestly, work diligently, seek help, pursue lawful change, and lament real loss. Contentment does not forbid faithful effort; it forbids resentful unbelief toward God. It receives present mercies as gifts rather than treating them as insufficient because another person has been given more.

SECOND, the commandment requires “a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor and all that is his.” We are not merely to refrain from taking our neighbor’s good. We are to receive it rightly and, where appropriate, rejoice in it. Another person’s lawful blessing is an occasion to thank God, not an accusation against His goodness to us.

Job gives a searching example: he refuses to rejoice at the ruin of one who hated him (Job 31:29). Love does not secretly delight when a rival falls. Paul identifies love as arising from “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). The commandment calls for a heart being progressively made sincere before God.

The description of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4, 7 gives us the positive disposition required here. 

Love does not envy or exalt itself over another. 

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things for the neighbor’s good. 

Thus it does not treat another person’s gifts, weakness, or lawful possession as material for our resentment, pride, or self-advancement. Rather, the success of others should gladden us.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15, ESV)

Our neighbor’s state of affairs should meaningfully affect us in lawful and appropriate ways. When he receives provision, recognition, restored health, a fruitful ministry, a godly marriage, children, useful gifts, or an opportunity for service, we ought to thank God for His kindness. When he suffers loss, disappointment, illness, injustice, or grief, we should not look away coldly or secretly rejoice in his pain. We should mourn with him, pray for him, and help as wisdom and calling permit.

We need not call sin good, excuse injustice, or assume that prosperity proves God’s approval. Nor does sympathy require us to approve every desire or judgment expressed in suffering. The concern is our neighbor’s lawful good and the posture of our own heart toward it.

So contentment and charitable love belong together. A person who receives God’s providence with gratitude is freer both to celebrate another’s blessing and to share another’s sorrow. The tenth commandment thus directs us away from coveting and toward gratitude, generosity, love, and holy joy.

Question 86: What does it forbid?

FIRST, the commandment forbids “all discontentment with our own estate”. Discontentment appears in grumbling, resentment, self-pity, comparison, ingratitude, and an inability to receive present mercies with thanks. It is not the same as acknowledging hardship, pursuing lawful change, or lamenting suffering. It is the heart’s sinful quarrel with God’s providence.

Ahab again illustrates this in 1 Kings 21:4. He has a kingdom, yet he lies down vexed because he cannot have Naboth’s vineyard. Haman provides an even more vivid example. Though he possesses great wealth, honor, royal access, and a large family, he says that it all avails him nothing while Mordecai remains at the king’s gate (Esther 5:9-13). Envy makes real blessings invisible.

Israel’s grumbling in the wilderness also warns us that dissatisfaction can become a complaint against God Himself (1 Corinthians 10:10). We should be careful here. The believer may cry to God in pain, ask Him hard questions, and mourn what has been lost. The Psalms teach us to do so. But lament brings sorrow to God in faith; grumbling puts God in the dock and demands answers.

SECOND, the commandment forbids “envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor”. Envy is:

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:26, ESV)

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. (James 3:14-16, ESV)

Envy does not remain private for long. It readily becomes harmful speech or conduct. It appears in church life, family life, work, ministry, reputation, health, relationships, possessions, and influence. We may envy someone’s platform, abilities, friends, marriage, children, income, or success. Envy can disguise itself as discernment, criticism, false humility, or concern for justice. It may notice genuine weaknesses in another person, but it uses those weaknesses to feed a secret resentment of his good.

A charitable spirit does not mean indifference to sin or injustice. The Christian must sometimes name wrong plainly and seek lawful redress. But another person’s lawful blessing must never become an excuse for bitterness. If we cannot give thanks for the good God has given our neighbor, we should bring that inability honestly before Him.

THIRD, the commandment forbids “all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.” In plain language, it forbids desires that are unlawful, excessive, wrongly directed, or allowed to rule the heart. Sinful desires often begin as inward movements before they become outward acts. 

“‘And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’ (Deuteronomy 5:21, ESV)

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. (Romans 7:7-8, ESV)

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13:9, ESV)

This reaches possessions and money, but it also reaches status, sexual desire, control, comfort, relationships, recognition, and influence. A good thing becomes an inordinate desire when we demand it from God, resent its presence in another’s life, or withhold obedience until we receive it.

Yet the purpose of the law is to expose sin honestly and drive us to Christ, not to make tender Christians despair. There is a real difference between temptation, an unwanted sinful thought, a desire entertained and embraced, and settled covetousness that is defended and cultivated. The first two call for watchfulness and prayer; the latter two call for repentance as well. We must not minimize sinful desire, but neither should we confuse temptation with deliberate rebellion. Christ knows the weakness of His people and supplies mercy and help in time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Conclusion

Questions 84 through 86 teach us that the tenth commandment reaches the desires of the heart.

Take this lesson with you in three ways.

Receive God’s providence with gratitude. 

Rejoice sincerely in your neighbor’s lawful good. 

And practice generosity as one who has received every true good from God.

 Lesson 33: Questions 81, 82, and 83

In our last lesson, we considered the eighth commandment: “Thou shalt not steal.” We saw that it requires the lawful procuring and furthering of our own and our neighbor’s wealth and outward estate, and forbids whatever unjustly hinders either. The eighth commandment therefore governs property, possessions, labor, and material well-being. The ninth commandment now turns from God’s protection of our neighbor’s material estate to His protection of truth, justice, and our neighbor’s good name.

Question 81: Which is the ninth commandment?

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16, ESV)

Like the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments, the ninth is remarkably brief. Yet we would misunderstand it badly if we restricted it to the most obvious outward violation. “Thou shalt not bear false witness” certainly forbids lying. God is the God of truth; He cannot lie, and falsehood is contrary to His character (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). But this commandment comprehends an entire moral category concerning truthfulness between people, especially where it affects judgment and justice.

The wording matters. It speaks of bearing witness “against thy neighbour”. Its immediate concern is false testimony that harms another person. A false witness can deprive an innocent man of property, liberty, livelihood, or even life. Thus God explicitly forbade His people from spreading a false report, joining a wicked man in false witness, or showing partiality in judgment:

“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

Accusations are serious, evidence matters, justice requires careful inquiry, and false testimony is destructive. A lie can become an instrument of theft, oppression, violence, or murder.

This is the same positive-law pattern we have observed throughout these commandments. 

A person may therefore violate the ninth commandment without ever entering a courtroom. He may do so through a variety of behaviors, such as slander, gossip, or exaggeration. He may tell technically accurate facts in such a distorted, selective, or cruel manner that he communicates a lie.

Question 82: What is required in the ninth commandment?

The catechism begins with “the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man”. God commands: “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.” (Zechariah 8:16-17)

FIRST, we must speak truthfully. Christians should be known as people whose words may be trusted. We should speak plainly, avoid exaggeration, keep lawful promises, and refuse to use vague or carefully calculated language in order to mislead. We should not make claims beyond what we know, present speculation as certainty, or conceal a material fact when justice requires us to disclose it.

This matters especially in witness bearing. Proverbs teaches that a faithful witness does not lie and that a truthful witness saves lives (Proverbs 14:5, 25). Truthful testimony may protect an innocent person from punishment, vindicate a falsely accused neighbor, expose genuine wrongdoing, or establish justice where confusion and falsehood have clouded the matter.

A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (Deuteronomy 19:15-21, ESV)

A single witness was not ordinarily enough to establish a charge; the matter required confirming testimony. If someone maliciously brought a false charge, he was to receive the penalty he intended for his neighbor, up to the death penalty. The general equity of this law is clear: accusations are serious, evidence matters, justice requires careful inquiry, and false testimony is destructive.

SECOND, the ninth commandment requires us to preserve and promote our neighbor’s good name. A good name is not a shallow concern. Scripture recognizes that a person’s reputation affects his relationships, usefulness, livelihood, and ability to serve. We should therefore receive credible good reports gladly and receive evil reports reluctantly.

This does not mean we become naïve. Charitable judgment is not refusing to believe clear evidence. Nor does protecting a good name mean concealing sin, crime, abuse, or injustice. There are times when love requires a private conversation, a church discipline process, a report to proper authorities, or truthful testimony in a lawful investigation. But our goal must be truth and restoration, not entertainment, retaliation, or the pleasure of exposing another person’s weakness.

We should listen carefully before forming a judgment. We should ask whether we have heard both sides. We should interpret another person’s words and actions fairly where the evidence permits. We should refuse the easy pleasure of gossip. We should not become a receptacle for every tale-bearer, and neither should we spread a report simply because someone else gave it to us.

Love covers many offenses in the sense that it does not needlessly expose every fault (Proverbs 17:9; 1 Peter 4:8). Keeping confidences can be an act of faithfulness. Yet confidentiality may never become a shelter for abuse, criminal conduct, or continuing injustice. A confidence is not ours to preserve when preserving it means abandoning the vulnerable or obstructing lawful justice.

The catechism also requires care for our own good name. That is not vanity. 

Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. (3 John 12, ESV)

Notice a few things here:

Scripture commends a reputation of integrity, and a Christian may defend his character when false accusations threaten his calling or the peace of Christ’s church (Job 27:5-6). But our name must actually be good. We may not defend a reputation through denial, image management, retaliation, or concealment of actual sin. Where we have sinned, repentance begins with truth.

Question 83: What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?

The negative side is deliberately broad. The ninth commandment forbids “whatsoever is prejudicial to the truth, or injurious to our own or our neighbour’s good name.” False witness is much broader than perjury. Scripture places these sins together with remarkable seriousness.

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

FIRST, it forbids falsehood in all its forms. Lying, false testimony, forged evidence, false accusation, dishonest promises, and deliberate misrepresentation all attack truth. A lie told in court may be especially serious because it corrupts public justice, but a lie told in a home, church, workplace, classroom, or conversation remains sin against God and neighbor.

The commandment also forbids deceptive silence where truth is owed. We must not withhold necessary testimony when an innocent person needs defense or when justice depends upon truthful disclosure. Silence can be cowardice. If we know a report is false and have a proper opportunity and responsibility to correct it, refusing to speak may make us participants in the injury.

At the same time, speaking truth unseasonably or maliciously can violate the commandment. Not every true fact needs public circulation. A person may repeat an accurate report with the purpose of humiliating another, damaging his ministry, harming his employment, or enjoying his disgrace. Truth is not a weapon placed in our hands for revenge.

The ninth commandment does not, however, require us to disclose every fact to every person in every circumstance. Prudence, confidentiality, and lawful discretion are not deception. Neither does it require us to pretend that sin is righteousness, that abuse is harmless, or that credible evidence does not exist. But it does require us to be people whose speech corresponds to reality, whose witness serves justice, and whose words seek our neighbor’s true good.

A difficult question belongs here: is every lie or deception necessarily sinful? 

Christians have differed on this. We should be very slow to make exceptions to the ordinary obligation of truthfulness. Usually, our duty is clear: speak truth, keep promises, and refuse lies.

Some Christian theologians, including Wayne Grudem, maintain that lying is never lawful, even to protect innocent life. R.C. Sproul argued instead, “We should always tell the truth where righteousness and justice require it.” Therefore, deceiving murderous aggressors in order to protect the innocent may become not merely permissible but obligatory. I side with R.C. Sproul on this one, because I see Scripture distinguishing truthfulness from providing information intended for evil use:

In such cases, wicked aggressors had no rightful claim to information by which they intended to murder the innocent. Therefore, I believe a lie may be justified in the extraordinary circumstance of protecting another person from imminent, unjust violence, as when Christians deceived Nazi authorities in order to shelter Jews. This is not permission for convenience, embarrassment, profit, social pressure, or ordinary self-protection. Most of us will never face such a circumstance. 

The ordinary rule remains: Christians speak the truth. 

SECOND, the commandment forbids injuring our neighbor’s good name. Leviticus says plainly, “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people” (Leviticus 19:16). Psalm 15 describes the godly man as one who does not slander with his tongue or do evil to his neighbor (Psalm 15:2-3).

Eliab’s treatment of David provides a useful example. When David arrived at the battlefield, Eliab assumed the worst, falsely charged him with pride and wicked motives, and spoke harshly against him (1 Samuel 17:28). Eliab did not know David’s heart. He interpreted David’s actions in the least charitable way possible.

We commit the same sin when we assume motives without evidence:

Mature Christians learn to distinguish what they know from what they infer.

The ninth commandment therefore forbids gossip, tale-bearing, backbiting, slander, and the careless repetition of rumors. “I am just telling you so that you can pray” does not transform a harmful report into a godly one. Necessary warnings must sometimes be given, but they should go to the proper people, contain only what is needed, distinguish evidence from suspicion, and aim at protection and justice rather than circulation.

It also forbids exaggeration, selective reporting, and presenting technically true details so as to create a false impression. Modern communication makes this especially easy. A clipped quotation, anonymous post, forwarded screenshot, or reckless online accusation can injure a person’s reputation, relationships, and livelihood in a few moments. 

Before we repeat an allegation, we should ask: 

THIRD, the commandment forbids falsehood about ourselves. Flattery, hypocrisy, vainglorious boasting, and misrepresenting our intentions all damage truth. We may tell lies about ourselves in order to appear more spiritual, more successful, more knowledgeable, or more injured than we actually are. We may also speak too harshly about ourselves in a way that invites praise and manipulates sympathy.

A damaged reputation caused by our own sin is not the same thing as unjust injury to our reputation. If a man has acted dishonestly, telling the truth about his dishonesty is not slander. If someone commits abuse or crime, responsible reporting does not violate the ninth commandment. The commandment does not protect a false public image. It protects truth and rightful honor.

Nor may Christians use the ninth commandment to silence lawful concerns. Churches must not confuse gossip with a responsible report, confidentiality with concealment, or charity with refusal to investigate credible allegations. The same commandment that forbids false accusation also requires faithful witness and the defense of the innocent.

Yet we must never use another person’s actual fault as an excuse for cruelty. Love does not delight in wrongdoing. It grieves over sin, seeks repentance, protects those harmed, and speaks truth in the proper place with humility and restraint.

Conclusion

Questions 81 through 83 teach us that God governs our testimony, judgments, and reputations.

Take this lesson with you in three ways.

Christ was the faithful and true witness. Yet He was slandered, falsely accused, and condemned through perjured testimony. He did not answer sin with deceit. 

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:22-24, ESV)

He bore the shame of guilty liars, and by His grace He forgives them and transforms them into people who love the truth.

Let us therefore steward our words faithfully: speak truth, correct falsehood where we have spread it, seek reconciliation where we have injured another, and love our neighbor in gratitude to the God of truth.