Racheal

The presupposition of Christian ethics is that God has revealed His will to mankind which is to be the standard and rule of man's moral actions and thoughts. This verbal revelation or declaration of the will of God is God's moral law written in the Bible....The point is that Biblical Law is Gods Law; it is God's revealed will in words and sentences which God spoke to Moses (ad the prophets and apostles) and which Moses (and the prophets and apostles) recorded under the inspiration of the H0ly Spirit, so that Biblical Law is the revealed will of God for mankind. (538)

We have learned in our study of the Catechism dealing with God's perfections that God is His perfections. Evert Divine perfection is identical with God's Being...Whatever God is, He is completely, simultaneously, consistently, perfectly and eternally...Therefore God's Will is one with God's Being. (539-540)

It is for these reasons that the law of God is called the testimony of the LORD (Ps. 19:7), because it testified to God's character of which it is a written description. Being "the transcript" of God's holy character and will for mankind, it is a perfect guide for all thought and behavior:  "The law of the LORD is perfect" (Ps. 19:7).... (540)

"We are not autonomous. That is, we may not live according to tour own law. The moral condition of humankind is that of heteronomy: we live under the law of another. The specific form of heteronomy under which we live is theonomy, or the law of God." 38. Sproul,Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, 17-18. (541)

Because God our Creator, Sovereign and Redeemer DIRECTS all His image-bearers to live according to His revealed will, it is humankind's BINDING DUTY to submit to and obey that divinely revealed will. (541)

Therefore, obedience to Biblical La must begin with saving faith in Jesus Christ, for our obedience to the Las is not accepted with God outside of Christ (Rom. 8:1-4). Even after we become Christians, our obedience is not accepted by God because of any inherent qualities in it, but solely because of the merits of Jesus Christ in whose grace we stand before God (Rom. 5:10). (543)

(1) Our believing obedience to God's Law must be personal. That obedience God requires of us must be preformed by us. It cannot be done by another in our name or on our behalf....Furthermore, the obedience which Christ has performed for us, does not exempt us from our obligation to yield sincere obedience to God's law. (543)

(2) Our believing obedience must be perfect. The same obligation Adam had in the beginning--to yield perfect obedience to God, remains in force today, although we are not able in this life to perfectly obey God's Law. This is not to imply that we obey the Law as a Covenant of Works; rather, we obey it as the rule of obedience for our lives motivated by love for Christ for saving us from our sins. (544)

To be perfect our obedience must be from the heart and not merely external...Furthermore, perfect obedience is universal obedience, i.e., it does not pick and choose which moral laws of God it will obey...And, as we have seen it must be evangelical obedience, arising from faith in Christ, performed not to merit God's favor, but rendered out of gratitude and the desire to please God. We must not attempt to perform i in our own strength, but in the power of the Spirit and all our obedience must be rendered with a proper sense of our imperfections. (544-545)

(3) Our believing obedience must be perpetual, "without backsliding from God, or the least remissness in our duty to Him..."

(4) Our believing obedience must be in conformity and obedience to the revealed will of God in the Bible. Obedience to God is obedience to specific commands given by God in the Bible. (545)

Obedience to God's Law is obedience of the whole person, soul and body, External obedience in the behavior of the persons body without the involvement of a sincere heart is condemned by Christ... (547)

"God is not satisfied with outward forms of religion. He has not only ordered man's material existence but as also created his inner life and soul. He is therefore the rightful Lord of man's spiritual life, and for this reason man must serve Him in an inward and spiritual manner through purity of heart, devotion, love and holiness." 51. Norval Geldenhuys, New International Commentary on the New Testament: Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans [1951] 1966), 341  (547-548)

However, although obedience to God must originate with the heart, it nevertheless will include the body and physical behavior. (549) 

Carefulness and strictness in our outward behavior is the manifestation of carefulness and strictness in our inward, spiritual and mental frame of mind and disposition. In other words, obedience must be obedience of the whole person, otherwise obedience is hypocrisy.  (550)

Catechism Q. 93 makes the point that the Law of God binds everyone, and especially Christians, to obedience in the performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he owes to God and man. Holiness describes the nature o our relationship and duties to God, and righteousness describes the nature of our relationship and duties to other human beings. (551)

We are righteous when our actions and dispositions toward other human beings, in the various relationships we have with each other in human society, are in careful conformity to what God commands us regarding how are to relate to one another in love and justice. (551)

The Magnificat and the Benedictus make clear that the salvation Jesus brings is COMPREHENSIVE. Because the effects of sin are comprehensive, salvation from sin is comprehensive. (552)

Question 93 concludes by saying that the Law of God promises life upon the fulfilling of it and threatens death upon the breach of it. (556)

This promise of life upon obedience and threat of death upon disobedience are generally referred to as the sanctions of the Law...Sanctions are the Law's teeth, without them laws are mere suggestions...As Puritan Anthony Burgess picturesquely states it: "The tame horse needth a spur, as well as the broken colt." 67. KEvan, The Grace of Law, 187. (556)

The reasons for these curses and blessings annexed to God's demands is that even in the believer much sins remains, and he needs many "goads" to keep him on the straight and narrows...And "[i]f we have respect to all the commandments, and labour faithfully to keepe them...then shall wee constantly enjoy all those blessing and graces which God hath promised to his righteous servants." 71. John Dod, quoted in Kevan, The Grace of Law, 189. (557)

God's promised rewards for faithfulness to His Law are all of grace, far more than we deserve...."The reward is bestowed 'for the faithfulnesse of the Promiser, not for the desert of the worke,' and thus it is that 'the Lord will richly of His free grace reward these workes with glory and happinesse in His Kingdome' although 'the strength of our title stand upon God's free gift [John Downame]." 72. Kevan, The Grace of Law, 190 (557-558)

After having said that God promises certain blessing to those who obey His Law, it must be understood that the true believer, while he enjoys God's blessings at heart, obeys God's Law because He loves God.  (558)

At the same time the believer does not dismiss all love of divine and gracious rewards as if such love was evidence of a "mercenary spirit". There is nothing unchristian about hoping for a promised reward from God. (558)

A] Before Adam's fall into sin, the Law of God was the means by which Adman would obtain unloseable life and indefectible holiness... (559)

B] Since the fall of the human race into sin, human beings cannot attain to unloseable eternal life and indefectible holiness by means of obedience to God's Law--a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus. The reasons that eternal life is through faith in Christ and not by obedience to Law is explained in Romans 8:3: "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son." The Law of God commands and condemns but it cannot forgive justify, remove the condemnation of sin nor destroy the tyrannical power of sin over the sinner. It can promote and guard life once given to the believer by grace; but the Law cannot give life. It is impotent to justify or  regenerate or liberate from sin because of the depravity of spiritual deadness of fallen man's sinful nature. (560)

C] Although life and righteousness cannot be attained by the Law of God since the Fall, yet there is great use thereof to all human beings without exception. ...
First, it is possible to apply the Law of God unlawfully.
"[T]he law becomes anything but good to those who misuse it. It becomes a burden too heavy to bear....Christ delivers the sinner, not from the spiritual obligations of God's holy Law, but from the evil that he has brought upon himself by his misuses of the Law. Man's fundamental abuse of the Law is to put it into opposition to Christ for justification, and to regard Law-keeping as an alternative ground  of acceptance before God. 77. Ernest F. Kevan, The Moral Law (God's Law) (Pennsylvania: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 1963), 16. 
Second, when the Law of God is applied lawfully it is of great use to everybody. ...
Third, the Law of God and the Gospel of Christ are in full agreement. Disobedience to the Law of God and the unlawful use of God's Law are both contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God....
In fact the Law of God has a variety of functions in the life of the human race. It offers abundant blessings and has a wide range of practical uses. This multi-functional nature of God's Law is important to bear in mind when we consider that "the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ....But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor," i.e. God's Law (Gal. 3:24-25). This verse, often used wrongly to show that the Christian is no longer under Biblical Law, speaks of only one of the many functions of God's Law. (561-564)

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Behind the Law stands God, the source of that Law, whose character is reflected in that Law....because God is God He has the right to command whatever He will of His creatures. (515-516)

"The moral Law in man is a copy of the Divine nature, and what God wills in the moral Law is so “consonant to that eternall justice and goodness in Himself,” that any supposed abrogation of that Law would mean that God would “deny
His own justice and goodnesse” [Burgess]. “To find fault with the Law, were to find fault with God” [Venning], for “the original draft is in God himself” [Manton]." 
4. Kevan, The Grace of Law, 63, partially in quotation of Burgess, Venning, and Manton. (516)

Our obligation to obey God is rooted in our creaturehood before our Creator: “O come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Ps. 95:6). However, our obligation is intensified, not lessened, by virtue of our redemption in Christ by grace, because “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required” (Lk. 12:48). Having been bought with the price of Christ’s precious blood, we are not our own, therefore we are now to glorify God in the entirety of our lives (1 Cor. 6:20). (517)

The will of God is one, and yet the Bible teaches us to distinguish between the secret things in that will and the things revealed, therefore we speak of the secret will of God and the revealed will of God, always conscious of the fact that we are not speaking of two wills, but of revealed distinctions in God’s will. God’s “revealed
will” is that which prescribes WHAT WE SHOULD DO (Matt. 7:21; 12:50; John 4:34; 7:17; Rom. 12:2); and God’s “secret will” is that which declares WHAT GOD WILL DO, or WHAT GOD HAS DECREED (Ps. 115:3; Dan. 4:17, 25, 32, 35; Rom. 9:18, 19; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11; Rev. 4:11)....This “expressed will” is the moral law of God which is to be our rule of life forever. (517-518)

In no way are God’s secret will and His revealed will working against each other or in opposition to each other. They are two harmonious aspects of the will of God. (518)

Those who are recipients of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ are urged to present [their] bodies a living and holy sacrifice to God. Obedience in behavior means nothing without this presentation of our bodies to God, i.e., everything we are inside and out—the whole person—must be devoted to the God of mercy and to His service. (520)

“It is a body alive from the dead that the believer is to present, alive from the dead because the body of sin has been destroyed.… It is possible that the word “living” also reflects on the permanence of this offering, that it must be a constant dedication.” 8. Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, 2:111. (521)

Our devotion an obedience do not begin with behavior, but with the very center of
our consciousness. (522)

"He has told you, O man, what is good,” i.e., what the Lord requires of you, [Micah] 6:8. (524)

The central point here is that man knows for certain what God requires of Him, he knows the good he is to do and the evil he is to avoid, because God has told him, i.e., He has revealed in His written Word what He requires of man, what is good, and what His will is for us to follow. What has God told us to do?
First, He has told us to “do justice.” The Hebrew word here is mishpat, “to judge.” To judge, or to do justice is an activity of discrimination and vindication. It is the process of discerning between right and wrong, condemning what is wrong and obeying and vindicating what is right. More specifically, since the judgment is God’s
(Deut. 1:17), the standard by which we distinguish between good and evil and identify what is required of us is in what He has revealed, i.e., in the Biblical revelation. ...

Second, He has told us to “love kindness.”...We are not only to be kind, show mercy, and be faithful, but we are to love to be kind, to show mercy and be faithful, so as to take pleasure and delight in it. And it is kindness (chesed) that we are to love. ...

The Hebrew word chesed is one of the most important words in the Old Testament, translated a variety of ways into English: kindness, mercy, love, lovingkindness, loyalty, righteousness, faithfulness, devotion. It denotes “loving covenant-bond loyalty and faithfulness.” ....
Third, He has told us to “walk humbly with [our] God.”...We walk with Him not so that He might be our God, but we walk with Him because He is our God by grace through faith....To walk with God humbly is to walk with Him submissively and obediently, recognizing His glorious majesty and beautiful holiness, and our depravity and wretchedness and need of His Son as our Savior. (524-527)

God-honoring moral conduct is more than correct ceremonial form. It is futile to attempt to rely on rituals and sacrifices when what God requires of us is obedience to His revealed will. (528)

Because the Law of God originates with a rational God, that Law is rational and reasonable, although fallen man, unaided by revelation, cannot discover or submit to it—because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for “it does not subject itself to the Law of God, for it is not even able to do so” (Rom. 8:7). (531)

Human beings not only stand in accountability before God’s Law, they have an inner moral awareness that they so stand before that Law. This is saying more than the fact that human beings are created self-conscious beings. In addition to self-consciousness and rationality, human beings were created as recipients of the revelation of the moral relation in which they stood. They were given a
conscience.....That Law was “engraved,” “imprinted,” “written,” as an “inscription” on their hearts. (531)

All human beings since Adam possess a conscience that condemns them when they go against it and defends them when they follow it, because the work of the Law [is] written in their hearts. “Man’s inherent sense of right and wrong, [although blurred by sin and suppressed by him in unrighteousness], is due to the fact that
he cannot escape the claims of the Law of God [written in his conscience].” 27. G. I. Williamson, The Westminster Confession of Faith For Study Classes (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1964), 138. (532)

"There is therefore a two-fold writing in the hearts of men; the first, of knowledge and judgment, whereby they apprehend what is good and bad: the second is in will and affections, by giving a propensity and delight, with some measure of strength, to do this upon good grounds."  29. Anthony Burgess, quoted in Kevan, The Grace of Law, 59. (532)

God revealed His Law to Adam. He spoke the creation mandates to him, and He inscribed His Law on his conscience. If, as Romans 2:14–15 teaches, human beings after the fall have the work of God’s Law written on their consciences, how much more clearly and perfectly would unfallen Adam have that Law written on his
heart. (532-533)

...according to the Confession, the Law God gave Adam was the Law of the Ten Commandments, later published in stone. (533)

This Law given to Adam, in its moral demands, has never been abrogated and stands for all people everywhere as summarized in the Ten Commandments. (534)

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The point Paul emphasizes here is that belief in a physical resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked is a part of Old Testament orthodoxy which most Jews of his day believed, and which all believers in the divine authority of the Old Testament should believe. This resurrection for which Paul hopes is one, general, singular resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. Paul could have quoted Daniel 12:2: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt”—to make his case. (413-414)

Jesus made this point about a single and general judgment of all people—both of the just and the unjust, on the last day in John 5:28–29: “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds, to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”...The point is that at a specific time, all those who are dead, whether Christians or non-Christians,
will hear the voice of Christ and be raised from the dead. No indication is given that this “resurrection of life” is separated by time from the “resurrection of judgment.” (414)

Those who are alive at the time of the Second Coming shall in a moment be changed. (416)

No one, not even those who are alive at Christ’s Second Coming, can in this present body, enter the perfection of heavenly life in the consummate kingdom of God—“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Cor. 15:50). (417)

At the sound of “the last trumpet” announcing the coming of Christ and the end of the world, the dead will be raised imperishable and those alive at the time will be transformed completely into the spiritual, Heavenly image of the resurrected and
glorified Christ, along with the total transformation of the rest of the universe. (418)

In physical resurrection the self-same bodies of the dead which were laid in the grave [are] then again united to their souls forever. Our resurrection bodies will be the bodies we have now, only glorified, perfected and “eternalized.” (418)

This doctrine of the resurrection of our present bodies is a terror to the unbelieving and ungodly 
"for the very body, which they now cherish so much, and for which they slave so much to satisfy and beautify it, will eternally bear unbearable pain in hell. Those eyes which you now misuse so greatly to stir up filthy lust… will behold with terror
the Lord Jesus, the righteous Judge, and will never see light any more. Those ears which are now ready to receive vanities… immoral language, foolishness, and backbiting will hear with terror the sentence of the Judge: “Depart from Me, you cursed,” and to all eternity your ears will be filled with the howling of those who are damned together with you… That mouth and tongue which you now misuse to
curse, lie… carouse, [and] drink… will then howl and scream, and in grief you will chew on that tongue.… Those hands which…you now misuse in unrighteousness.., you will then wring in pain. Yes, all those members [of your body] which you are now using as weapons of unrighteousness…will eternally be in the flames.… May the terror of the Lord persuade you to believe!" 115. Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 4:336. (421)

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer is a pledge from God that the believer’s body will be raised from the dead, “because it would be unseemly
that any thing thus honored by the Spirit should remain under the dominion of death.”118 Hodge, A Commentary on Romans (London: The Banner of Truth Trust,
[1835] 1972), 260. (423)

Not only does the Catechism bring out the role of the Spirit of Christ in our physical resurrection, but it also emphasizes the relation of Christ’s resurrection and the resurrection of believers. The bodies of believers shall be raised from the dead by virtue of His resurrection as their Head. (424)

Because of the believer’s union with Christ in His life, death and resurrection, whatever happened to Christ happens to him, whatever was true of Christ is true of him, whatever Christ did, he experiences the consequences of. (425)

On the last day the bodies of believers will be raised in power, spiritual, incorruptible, and made like to his glorious body. (426)

The bodies of the wicked raised from the dead on the last day will be raised up in dishonor. Their “dust… will awake… to disgrace and everlasting contempt, [i.e., eternal abhorrence by God]” (Dan. 12:2). (428)

The Larger Catechism makes the point with reference to the wicked reprobate that they shall be raised up in dishonour BY HIM, [Christ], as an offended Judge (emphasis added)....By resurrection Christ summons them to His tribunal that He may render to everyone of them what their evil lives deserve. (429)

Christ commands the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, but in different relations and for different purposes. The righteous are raised in Christ by Christ; and the wicked are raised by Christ but not in Christ. (429-430_

Judgment Day immediately follows the general resurrection of all people. (431)

The exact time of the Day of Judgment and the Coming of Christ is so secret that neither the angels in the very presence of God, nor the Son of God incarnate, i.e., in His humanity, know the time. (432)

Immediately after the resurrection shall follow the general and final judgment of angels and men. It is called general because all fallen angels (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6, 7), along with all human beings without exception (Jude 14, 15), will stand before that judgment bar of Christ.   ....
It is called final judgment because Judgment Day is the day of final judgment after a history of the human race full of interventions of God to judge sinners with temporal judgments. Judgment Day is not the beginning of judgment it is the completion and consummation of judgment. (4343-434)

With these words [Matt. 15:32,33] the stage is set for the final Judgment Day,
and the first act of the Judge on that Day will be the final and complete separation of the goats from the sheep and the tares from the wheat (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43)....After that day the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, will never mix or intermingle again in all of eternity. (437)

The reprobate on Christ’s left hand on Judgment Day will be sentenced by Him to leave His favorable presence and to go to hell forever, having been cursed by Him for their sins. (438)

The standard by which all people will be judged on that day will be the will of God revealed to them in Biblical Law, the gospel, and in the human conscience (Rom. 2:12; John 12:48; Luke 12:47; John 15:22). (439)

 The consciences of the wicked will fully, completely and inescapably condemn them and convict them of the evil of their sins and the justice of God in condemning them, although they will continue to try to suppress this truth in unrighteousness. (440)

The Larger Catechism says that upon sentence of condemnation pronounced against them by Christ, they thereupon shall be cast out from the favourable presence of God, and the glorious fellowship with Christ, his saints, and all his holy angels, into hell… (441)

First, Christ casts out the wicked reprobate from His presence and from fellowship with Him, and in being cast out of His presence they are totally cast out of God’s favor, goodness, mercy, common grace, longsuffering, and kindness; and are excluded from the glorious fellowship of perfected believers and all the holy angels. (442)

“The solemnity of this thought should not be minimized. Those who oppose
the things of God here and now are not engaged in some minor error which can easily be put right in the hereafter. They are engaging in that defiance of the will of God which has eternal consequences.”146 Morris, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, 206. (442-443)

"A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, “Hell is a symbol for separation from God.” To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the impenitent person. The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated
from God. Their problem in hell will not be separation from God, it will be the presence of God that will torment them. In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath. He will be there to exercise His just punishment of the damned.
They will know Him as an all-consuming fire." 148. R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.), 286. (443)

Second, they are designated and treated as those “accursed” by God, for “cursed is every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them” (Gal. 3:10). (445)

Third, Christ casts them into the eternal fires of hell with Satan and the demons from which there is no escape forever.  (446)

Since the torments of hell involve the body and the soul, Jesus is presupposing the resurrection of the body. “Destroy” does not mean annihilate; rather it means ruin. (447)

“[T]he moral character of sinners will in itself, and in its effects, constitute much of their misery in the future world. It ought to be observed, that the text, literally rendered is They shall be utterly corrupted in their own corruption.”164 How so?
First, sinful desires in those in hell will be exceedingly powerful, wholly unrestrained and completely ungovernable. ...
Second, sinful desires in those in hell will be forever ungratified and unfulfilled. ...
Third, sin in hell will be seen for what it really is. Their consciences will pronounce them guilty more sharply than ever before, but that pronouncement in the damned is an odious thing to them, they hate it and suppress it and harden themselves in their impenitency. ...
Fourth, the impenitent in hell will be the subjects of extreme and eternal remorse of conscience. ...
Fifth, the impenitent in hell become the instruments of extreme suffering to each other. In this present world sinners often care for each other. ...
Sixth, there can be no security in hell. The wretched inhabitants of hell will be surrounded by only enemies and deceivers out to do them harm. In the multitude of the damned not a single individual will be found who possesses a shred of natural affection, benevolence or sincerity.
164. Timothy Dwight, Theology: Explained and Defended in a Series of Sermons, 5 vols. (Middletown, CT: Clark & Lyman, 1819), 5:493.
(454-456)

From these comments two exhortations must be drawn. (1) See how great an evil sin is!...(2) Since these things are true, everyone who reads these words should immediately flee from the wrath to come and lay hold on eternal life through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. (457)

Its [Hell's] torments are without intermission and its punishments are without relaxation forever: “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever” (Rev. 14:11). The wicked reprobate will “go away into eternal punishment,” just as the righteous will go “into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). (458)

Those who deny the endlessness of the torments of hell can be divided into three groups: Annihilationists, Restorationists, and Universalists. (1) Annihilationists, as we have seen, believe that the punishment of the wicked is simple annihilation, while only the redeemed are raised from the dead to eternal life....(2) Restorationists believe that there are future punishments in the hereafter in some measure, according to what people deserve, but these punishments are meritorious and when they lead to repentance, even after a long interval, the sufferer will be delivered from his punishment. Some who hold this view believe
that even Satan and the demons will someday be saved....(3) Universalists believe that the only “hell” a person experiences are the sufferings of this life, which satisfy all the essential demands of God’s justice. Therefore, there are no
punishments and no hell after death. At death every human being will be saved and enter the bliss of heaven. (458-459)

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At death, the soul of the believer is then made perfect in holiness, when the life-long process of sanctification is completed. When the soul of the believer leaves this world, it arrives at perfection immediately. (382)

The believer’s physical body is glorified with the resurrection of the body at the Return of Christ (Rom. 8:18, 23). His soul is glorified with his physical death and entrance into the glory of Heaven, where he will be “present with the Lord.” (382-383)

Since the believer is perfected in holiness at death, several applications follow.
First, the believer should shake off any spiritual sluggishness knowing that “he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules” (2 Tim. 2:5)....The completion of the work of sanctification implies that sanctification has begun and is
gradually progressing. If nothing is begun, it is absurd to speak of a finishing stroke. ....
Second, the believer should be encouraged in his race and warfare in this life by remembering that he is not destined to run or to fight forever. ...
Third, knowing that God will eventually complete and perfect the work of sanctification, the believer ought never be discouraged or despairing about the final outcome of his life. (386-387)

Free access to the presence of God and to the Heaven of God is now open to all believers because of the reconciling death of Jesus Christ in our behalf. Believers’ prayers and worship enter the very Throne room of God. At death their spirits enter that Holy of Holies; and at the resurrection, with their renewed physical bodies reunited with their perfected spirits, they will live in the Holy of Holies with God
throughout all eternity, when Heaven and earth will be one (Rev. 21:1–3). (388)

The very moment a believer dies he enters the Holy of Holies, Paradise, the heavenly Home of God, the third heaven, the highest heavens, the immediate and glorious presence of God, for “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). (390)

At death the souls of believers, when they enter the highest heavens, will behold the face of God in light and glory, and after their resurrection on Judgment Day, when they, body and soul, shall be received into heaven, where they shall be… especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity (WLC, Q. 90). (392)

"One does not theorize about this from the sidelines: the beatific vision affects our life in the here and now every day.” 73. Berkouwer, The Return of Christ, 368. (394)

God’s face is seen by faith in the Word of God in this life and by perfected vision
in the next. (397)

Although the spirits of the believers go to be “at home with the Lord” upon death in perfect bliss beholding God, nevertheless, as the Catechism says, they are waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. (398)

In 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul tells us that death is not the consummation and goal of salvation; rather it is resurrection and life. Even after death and before resurrection, believers, although perfected spiritually in holiness, still long for the goal and completion of the salvation Christ purchased for them and the Holy Spirit
began in them in regeneration. He says that as wonderful as life after death will be for the believer, it is still incomplete, and being without a resurrected physical body, it is a condition of “nakedness.” The human spirit without the body is unnatural. (401)

The whole person of the believer—body and soul—is united to Christ. Death itself cannot break that union with Christ either of the soul or the dead physical body. (402)

Believers will be raised from the dead because they are united to Christ, body and soul; and because He arose, so will they. (403)

Paul makes this case as follows:
First, Paul is rejoicing in the complete victory over sin and death Jesus Christ has won in history for His people. Christ’s resurrection from the dead was the great historical event that demonstrated that death was really conquered. It is the basis of the believer’s hope in his own resurrection and victory over the grave (1 Cor. 15:17–19). 
Second, it is “through Jesus,” which is a more accurate translation than “in Jesus” in 1 Thess. 4:14, that is, through what Jesus has done, that Christians have peace and rest (“sleep” used metaphorically) in death and do not undergo the horrors of death.
Third, those who have died in Jesus before His Second Coming will have their share in the events of that great day. ...
Fourth, the one coming back on the Last day is none other than “the Lord Himself.”
Fifth, the Lord’s Second Coming will be one of majesty and glory.
Sixth, those dead bodies of believers will be raised from the dead before those who will be living on earth at the time of the Second Coming of Christ. (404)

The bodies of believers rest in their graves as in their beds, but the bodies of unbelievers are kept in their graves, as in their prisons, till the resurrection
and judgment of the great day (WLC, Q. 86). (405)

However at various times in history the false doctrine of “soulsleeping” has made an appearance. It is the viewpoint, based on a literal interpretation of verses like those above, that after death the soul sleeps in unconsciousness until the resurrection. However, the verses we have mentioned, along with many others, do not teach that the soul falls asleep at death, but that the person who dies physically
falls asleep. Death can be described metaphorically in these words because of the similarity between a dead body “resting” in a grave and a living body asleep on a bed. Death for the believer is a break with this evil world around us, and therefore is a rest in peace from it. This language describing death as restful sleep could also
be used to remind us of the comforting hope of physical resurrection. (405-406)

On the last day, when Jesus returns and believers experience physical resurrection, the physical bodies of believers will be again united to their souls. (407)

Immediately upon death the souls of the wicked are cast into hell in continued conscious existence. (408)

According to the false doctrine of Annihilationism, there is no existence at all after death, conscious or unconscious....However, when the Bible speaks of the wicked dead being “destroyed” or as “perishing,” these words do not imply a reduction to nonexistence. (408)

Furthermore, (1) the Bible teaches that the wicked as well as the righteous continue to exist forever (Eccl. 12:7; Matt. 25:46; Rom. 2:8–10; Rev. 14:11; 20:10); (2) the wicked will suffer eternal punishment, which involves eternal consciousness of eternal pain which they receive as the just wage for their rebellion against God;
and (3) there will be degrees of punishment in hell for the wicked, while extinction of being or consciousness admits of no degrees (Luke 12:47, 48; Rom. 2:12). (409)

First, God does not annihilate anything He has created, howeverHe may change its form. ...

Second, wicked people often consider the extinction of being and consciousness a very desirable thing, when they grow weary of life. (409)



Immediately upon death the souls of the impenitently wicked are cast into hell fully conscious and alive, where they remain in torments and utter darkness. (409)

     Racheal

In discussing the basis of assurance of salvation, we are speaking of the ways in which the true believer in Jesus comes to this assurance of his salvation, not the basis of his eternal security....our assurance of our possession of this eternal salvation rests on and grows out of: (1) The Divine authority of the promises of God in the Bible and our faith in them; (2) The inward evidence of a sanctified life, i.e., the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made; and (3) The testimony of the Holy Spirit witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God (WCF, XVIII, ii). (276-277)

If a person is to attain infallible assurance of salvation, he must believe the gospel promises of God revealed in the Bible; and it is by faith in these promises of salvation that assurance of the possession of eternal salvation is attained. (277-278)

The Old Testament believers looked in faith beyond their deaths to fulfillment of the promises of God, assured that the Word of God was true and would not fail.
"So real were God’s promises to him [Abraham] that their fulfillment, though not yet, was as certain to him as something already and inalienably possessed. Thus the existential power of faith made the distant hope a present reality, and these
believers of the ancient world “saw” and “greeted” the promised consummation, even, and indeed especially, in the hour of death, as though already face to face with it." 31. Philip E. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1977), 478. (279)

Such graces—faith, repentance, love, submission, obedience, hope, hunger after righteousness—are gifts of the Spirit in the life of the believer, and therefore are signs of His presence and work in the believer’s life, as well as evidences that the promises do in fact belong to him. (281)

According to the texts listed above, the witness of the Spirit has two aspects: (1) A work of the Spirit upon the heart enabling the believer to cry “Abba! Father!” to God in Christ; and (2) The testimony and certification of the Spirit in the believer concerning His work in his heart. (283-284)

Because of the work of the Spirit on the heart, regenerating it, and placing the gift of faith in it, the believer is brought by the Spirit to the consciousness of that intimacy of relationship between himself and God the Father so that the believer spontaneously gives expression to it in the words, “Abba! Father!” (284)

Along with the work enabling the believer to know and bear witness to his intimate sonship to God, “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16). (284)

Two things should be noticed in this statement: (1) The Spirit’s witness is a joint-testimony; and (2) It is a witness to our spirit. (285)

Keeping the commandments of God is proof that the believer makes his home in God and God makes His home in him. We can have certain knowledge that we are thus related to God because of the Holy Spirit which God gave to us in the moment of our regeneration by that Spirit. He is the source of our sure knowledge of
salvation because He is the source of our ability to obey the commandments of God from the heart. (287)

Jesus “came by water and blood… not with water only, but with the water and with the blood” (1 John 5:6)....it appears that it is referring to the two decisive events in the life of Christ defining His person and ministry: His Baptism in the Jordan River and His death on Calvary.....At Christ’s baptism, God Himself spoke out of Heaven declaring Him to be His Son: “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). And with that declaration God poured out His Holy Spirit on Him. This is not only the beginning of Christ’s ministry, it is the explanation of His ministry as well as the Divine certification of all His claims. Christ’s bloody death on the cross of Calvary is not merely the close of His earthly ministry, it is the explanation of His suffering by which He obtained our eternal redemption, reconciling us to God. (289)

“It is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth” (1 Jn. 5:7). Every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God (vs. 10). And it is that indwelling Spirit that continually brings the truth of the Incarnation and of the Atonement home to the souls of men. (290)

The two historical, objective witnesses to Christ—His baptism and crucifixion, and the subjective witness to Christ—the indwelling Holy Spirit “are in agreement.” Together in perfect harmony they accomplish one object: establishing the truth of Christ in the heart of the believer. (290)

If we trust the apostolic witness of men who accompanied Christ in His days on the earth (1 Jn.1:1–3), the witness of the Spirit of God to Christ in the heart is an even greater witness....John does not say that God witnesses verbally and audibly, but that every believer is convinced that Christ is true and that his faith in Christ is real, because God is its author; and being its author He will without doubt be its finisher. (290)

The person who receives Christ as He is presented in the Bible, and rests upon Him alone for salvation has the witness of God to the truth of Christ in himself as an abiding possession. (291)

The witness of God in the believer not only convinces the believer of the truthfulness of Christ’s claims, it also convinces the believer that having accepted the objective witness of God to Christ in the Bible by faith, eternal life is now his present and eternal possession (John 3:16, 36). (292)

The Holy Spirit gives the regenerate heart the spiritual gifts, graces, virtues, and “fruit,” and excites them to lively activity. He then illuminates them so as to give a joyful assurance of a true sonship to the believer in Jesus. (293)

This testimony of the Holy Spirit to the believer’s sonship is always in concurrence with the witness of the believer’s own spirit to his sonship with God. It is NOT, as Wesleyanism teaches, “an independent revelation by which the Holy Ghost reveals immediately to the convert’s mind, without a mediate process of self-examination
and comparison that he is now reconciled.” 50. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 711.  (294)

Presumption, or taking one’s salvation for granted, is a dangerous sin. Self-deception about one’s standing with God is possible and frequent. (297)

"In the meantime, the faithful are taught to examine themselves with solicitude and humility, lest carnal security insinuate itself instead of the assurance of faith." 54. Calvin, quoted in Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 709. (297)

First, self-examination and soul-searching must be done with a due regard for the presence and assistance of God. ...
Second, self-examination must be done deliberately. It cannot be done effectively and reliably in a hurry. ...
Third, self-examination must be done frequently, and not just occasionally or haphazardly.
Fourth, self-examination must be done diligently. Arriving at a true knowledge of ourselves requires diligence, care and honesty of heart.   ....
Fifth, self-examination is to be done with the greatest impartiality.  ....
Sixth, self-examination must be done with the determined resolve that by the grace of God we will “make a right improvement of that judgment which we are bound to pass on ourselves.”58    ....
Seventh, self-examination must be done with judgment.
58. Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 2:204.
(298-299)

What are some of those marks or evidences of God’s gracious work in us by which we may discern that we are truly and eternally saved from sin?
First, a strong impression of feeling that we are saved is not to be considered a mark of grace....Intense emotions are like iron heated in the fire. When it is taken out of the flames it grows cold again.
Second, a profession of faith in Christ, and the correct performance of external rites of worship are no certain marks of grace. Many have had the form of godliness but have denied the power thereof. ...
Third, the mere performance of external moral actions are not certain marks of grace in the heart. A person may obey God’s demands externally only out of self-interest rather than for the glory of God. ...
Fourth, the true and genuine effects of faith and all the godly virtues that accompany or flow from faith are sure marks of God’s saving grace within us....Faith tends to “purify the heart” (Acts 15:9), enabling us to abhor, flee from, strive against, guard our hearts against everything and anything that tends to corrupt and defile the heart and life. (300)

It increases spiritual joy....
How could an infallible assurance of infallible salvation keep from bringing to the believer a deep sense of joy and peace? ...
It promotes usefulness in God’s work and stimulates us to the work of evangelism. Knowing for certain that we belong to God and joint-heirs with Christ has the effect on us of stimulating us to more diligent service to God. Knowing that we have victory over sin and death in Christ we will be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:55–58). ...
It opens the heart to love and praise to God...
It lifts us above the seductions of this world and assists us in resisting sin, enabling us to beat back temptations and to triumph over them. ....
It will make us contented with the certainty, eternity and all-sufficiency of God’s grace regardless of how much or how little material things we possess in this life....It enables the believer to persevere with patience and joy in the midst of sufferings. ...
Assurance of salvation strengthens us in the face of death. ...
It does NOT, however, raise the believer above conflict with sin nor does it encourage self-righteousness. ....
Some have considered such assurance of salvation to be an arrogant boast producing pride. If we expected to save ourselves, it would be arrogant boasting and pride. “To be in suspense whether Christ is able, and willing, and faithful, surely is no mark of our humility; but on the contrary, it is a dishonor to Him.”71 ...
"The facts are that the more intelligent, the deeper and the more unwavering the assurance of salvation is, the humbler, the more stable and the more circumspect will be the life, walk and conduct."72
71. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 712.
72. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 712-13.
(300-305)

Saving faith is not the belief that we are saved; it is an act of entrusting ourselves to Christ and resting upon Him alone for salvation as He is freely offered to us in the gospel, IN ORDER THAT WE MIGHT BE SAVED FROM OUR SINS....The assurance of faith proceeds from the assurance that we are saved by faith, while faith proceeds from the conviction that we are lost and in need of a Savior. And, although the two may be distinguished, and some believers may wait long before they obtain assurance, that does not mean that assurance must always be separated in time from the primary act of faith. (306)

At the same time, while a measure of assurance is implicit in saving faith: “now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1), a full and infallible assurance of faith doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it (WCF, XVIII, iii). (307)

This failure to attain to a full and infallible assurance even when faith in Christ is present in the heart is due to several things. (1) Immaturity in knowledge of the nature and effect of the grace of God. (2) A lack of reflection or spiritual development because of inexcusable misconceptions and misapplications of the truths of the gospel and the nature of salvation in Christ. (3) A weakness of faith arising from negligence in the cultivation of the fruit of the Spirit. (4) Disobedience
to the commandments of God. (5) Backsliding. (6) A failure to be on guard against Satan’s assaults and to guard one’s own heart. (7) The excessive care for material and social things. (8) A serious lack of prayer. (9) A love for this evil world. (10) Manifold distempers, sins, temptations, and desertions. (307)

...it must be made clear that, although full assurance does not always accompany true faith in Christ, nevertheless true faith has no lack of certainty regarding the Object of that faith. Every true believer is most certainly assured of God’s reality,
of the truth of the Gospel and the claims of Christ, of the Divine authority of the Bible. (308)

Be diligent and constant in your use of the means of grace instituted by God: the reading and preaching of the Word of God, the Sacraments, prayer and worship, Christian fellowship and obedience to God. ...
Meditate every day on the spiritual and eternal privileges and blessing that belong to all believers in Jesus: regeneration, effectual calling, justification, reconciliation, adoption, sanctification, glorification (1 Pet. 2:9). You will find that concentrated and frequent meditation on the things of Christ will tend to strengthen and maintain your assurance.
Make sure that “your hearts run more out to Christ than to assurance; to the sun than to the beams, to the fountain than to the stream, to the root than to the branch, to the cause than to the effect.”92 Assurance of salvation is precious; but Christ is more precious. No assurance can be compared to Christ. ....
Make sure that your heart is more taken up with Christ than with the evidences of the Spirit’s work in your own life. ...
Make good use of your assurance of salvation. Let it fortify your heart and mind against temptations, increase your resolve to live like a Christian, inflame your affections for Christ, and improve your daily walk as a Christian. ...
Walk humbly with your God. ....
Be on guard against the particular sins by which others have had their assurance diminished. Beware of presumption and the neglect of self-examination. (See Psalm 30:6, 7.) Beware of the neglect of the means of grace. Beware of spiritual carelessness, sluggishness and stubbornness. ...
Consider the sorrow and misery that accompany the loss of an infallible assurance of salvation.
92. Brooks, Heaven on Earth, 307.
(315-317)

Strive to find out what sin or sinful habit or sinful pattern robbed you of your infallible and full assurance.
Mourn over those sins that have turned your day into night and your rejoicing into weeping (Ps. 51). ...
Do not sit paralyzed by despair. Get up, do what it takes to recover infallible assurance. “Repent and do your first works” (Rev. 2:4, 5). ...
Wait patiently on the Lord with persevering faithfulness to Him. (317)

God never has failed those who wait on Him, nor will He ever fail them. (318)

John makes a sharp distinction between “they” who left and “us” who remain. Their defection gave clear evidence of their true character. Their apostasy was proof, not that they were believers who had lost their faith (which is impossible), but that they were never regenerate believers at all. (320)

So then, here we have the two safeguards against being deceived by heresy: the preaching of the Word of God and the anointing of the Spirit of God. John says “you heard” the Word (v. 24), and “you received” the Spirit (v. 27). The Word came from the inspired Apostles (1:2–5); and the Spirit came directly from God (2:20, 27). (322)

First, we learn from 1 John 2:18–20 that perseverance in faithfulness to Christ and His Word is the hallmark of those who are eternally saved and secure in Christ. They will not apostatize, nor will they “totally and finally” fall away from faith and salvation. ....
"He, in short, means that they who fall away had never been thoroughly imbued with the knowledge of Christ, but had only a light and a transient taste of it." 108. Calvin, Commentaries on the First Epistle of John, 192. (323)

Second, how does it happen that many who seemed to have faith in Christ often fall away into apostasy and heresy? John Calvin answers:
"there are three sorts of those who profess the Gospel: there are those who feign piety, while a bad conscience reproves them within; the hypocrisy of others is more deceptive, who not only seek to disguise themselves before men, but also dazzle their own eyes, so that they seem to themselves to worship God aright; the third are those who have the living root of faith, and carry a testimony of their own adoption
firmly fixed in their hearts. 109. Calvin, Commentaries on the First Epistle of John, 192. (323-324)

Third, such trials are useful and necessary for Christ’s Church. (324)

Fourth, our text gives us Biblical warrant for distinguishing between true and counterfeit believers in the institutional (visible) church. John knew well that not everyone in the church is of the church, not everyone in the church is a true believer in Jesus, not everyone in the church is elected and saved. (324)

Here is the argument: a person can be genuinely in union with Christ, through baptism be in possession of the blessings of salvation in Him, and yet bear no fruit for Him and eventually wither up and die and be cast into hell. He or she, once abiding in Christ, have ceased doing so, and so are cut off from the union with Christ they once enjoyed; and although they were once truly in union with
Christ, having fallen from that position, they are sentenced to hell.  (326)

Another approach to John 15:2, 6 and other admonitions in the Bible (as in Hebrews 6:4–6), is this: (1) Since the Bible exhorts us to persevere in faithfulness to God, it must be that such perseverance depends upon our will and exertion. (2) Admonition presupposes not only responsibility for that to which we are admonished; but
this responsibility presupposes that we are able to perform what we are admonished to do. (3) Such verses teach that the final salvation of Christians is dependent upon our diligent obedience to these admonitions. All this means that the preservation and perseverance of the saints depends upon the will of man, so that it is possible for some to stop abiding in Christ and are sentenced to hell. (326-327)

These very arguments and interpretations have been ably refuted time and again throughout the past hundred years of Reformed Protestantism. The problems with these views are exegetical, theological and covenantal. They simply do not fit the Biblical facts.
First of all, let us consider some of them theologically and practically. The Scriptural admonitions to believers to be persevering and steadfast and not to apostasize from the faith in no way contradict the truth of the preservation and perseverance of the saints.  (327)

"Not that it ever happens that any one of the elect is dried up, but because there are many hypocrites who, in outward appearance, flourish and are green for a time, but who afterwards, when they ought to yield fruit, show the very opposite
of that which the Lord expects and demands of His people." 114. Calvin, Commentaries on the Gospel According to John, 110. (328)

Although no real believer in Christ can totally and finally fall away and perish, the elect need to have the danger of apostasy and the dreadful wrath of God that comes with it kept before their eyes to make them afraid of defection and to press them to their duty, even though it is only the fruitless, non-elect branches that will be cut  off. (328)

"We are dealing with figures and pictures, mercifully used in order to meet our weak capacities; and we must take care we do not draw doctrinal conclusions from them, which contradict other plain passages of Scripture." 117. Bishop J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, (John, Vol. 3) 4 vols. (New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1873), 98. (329)

{The Point}
The parable has three principal parts: (1) We have not power to do good except what comes from Christ; (2) We, being rooted in Christ, are pruned by the Father to bear more fruit; (3) Unfruitful branches are cut away and burned in the fire.
The one central point is this: The vital sap—that is, all life and strength—proceeds from Christ alone; therefore we can bear no fruit for God apart from Him....We
must be in union and communion with Jesus Christ to do good; and once His life-giving “sap” flows into our lives we WILL produce fruit. (330)

{The "Problem"}
Now, the problem for some in this parable is that Jesus says: “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away… and they are burned” (John 15:2, 6). (331)

{The Answer}
In John 15, Jesus describes metaphorically two kinds of people who come into close contact with Christ and who are members of His church on earth: branches that bear fruit (15:2b, 5, 8), and branches that do not bear fruit (15:2a, 6). (331)

Furthermore, we see in verse 8 that abiding in Christ and bearing much fruit for Him is proof of true discipleship. Hence, the fruitless branches were not true disciples, although they may possibly have been disciples only by profession. (332)

These two groups of people have one thing in common: they both were in close contact with Christ and the Gospel in the visible church. Both groups of branches were in the vine, but not at all in the same sense. (334)

In what sense, then, are the fruitless branches to be said to be in the vine: “every branch in Me?” In their own opinion and in the opinion of others, because they have joined the church by baptism, they are actually and vitally in Christ in a saving sense.  (334)

{Conclusion}
Therefore, this parable of the vine and the branches in John 15 does NOT teach that a person can be genuinely, spiritually and vitally in union with Jesus Christ and fail to bear fruit. Baptized unbelievers, who profess to be disciples of Christ, and who are members of the visible church, are NOT as attached to Christ as the fruit-bearing believers are. Both groups do NOT partake of the vital sap of the vine....Those who are in vital union with Christ will never be cut off from the vine. (335)

{Application}
First, a true Christian is always becoming a Christian, in that his life is one of continuing growth. The true disciple is always becoming more fully a disciple. ...
Second, when Jesus declares: “I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser,” He is saying that He is our life and the source of our strength to live for Him; and that God the Father is involved in our lives as the One judging our fruitfulness. ...
Third, the purpose of our lives is not our salvation, but our productivity
in Christ’s kingdom.
Fourth, whatever the imperfections of those who are in true
union and communion with Christ, those imperfections will not
cause them to be cast aside by Him, rather those imperfections and
frailties will endear them to the Lord’s care, for such branches shall
not be cut off, but lovingly and tenderly pruned.
Fifth, fruit is proof of being in the vine.
Sixth, Jesus says to you, dear believer,
"Abide in Me. Cling to Me. Stick fast to Me. Live the life of close and intimate communion with Me. Get nearer and nearer to me. Roll every burden on Me. Cast your whole weight on Me. Never let go your hold on Me for a moment. Be as it were rooted and planted in Me. Do this, and I will never fail you. I will ever abide in you… Severed from Me, separated from Me, you have no strength, and can do nothing. You are as lifeless as a branch cut off from the parent stem."130
Seventh, here is how to be a useful and happy servant of Christ:
(1) [v. 7] “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” This is “a distinct promise of power and success in prayer.”
(2) [v. 8] “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” The meaning of this promise is that “ fruitfulness in Christian practice will not only bring glory to God, but will supply the best evidence to our own hearts that we are real disciples of Christ.”132  ...
(3) [v. 10] “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” The person who conscientiously and diligently obeys Christ’s commandments is the person who will continually enjoy a sense of Christ’s love for him in his heart and soul.
130. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (John, Vol. 3), 101–02.
132. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (John, Vol. 3), 105.
(335-337)

     Racheal

     Racheal

Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle--face it; 'tis God's gift.

Be strong!
Say not, "The days are evil. Who's to blame?"
And fold the hands and acquiesce--oh shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name.

Be strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not--fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.
~~Maltbie D. Babcock

     Racheal

Illinois farmland...

     Racheal

The point of the Catechism here is to impress us with the fact that the justification of believing sinners by God is an act of free and sheer grace....God freely forgives the
sins of believers without regard to anything done by us to procure that forgiveness; and on the other hand, God insists on and receives the full satisfaction of His justice and Law, as the meritorious, procuring cause of that forgiveness. (811)

First, justification is by sheer grace because God accepted the satisfaction of His justice from a Surety, which He might have demanded justly of every sinner without exception, if He had chosen to do so. (811)

He is the substitute of sinners, taking upon Himself the full debt which was due to God’s justice from sinners. He was ready to engage in this task voluntarily (Heb.
10:9). Whatever He suffered for us did not infer the least injustice in God who inflicted it. (812)

Second, God Himself provided this Surety in the person of His own only Son, imputing His righteousness to believing sinners. (813)

Furthermore, the grace of God is manifested in the Son of God’s willingness to become incarnate and engage Himself as our Surety to satisfy in full God’s justice....

"Without his consent the justice of God could not have exacted the debt of him. He being perfectly innocent, could not be obliged to suffer punishment; and it would have been unjust in God to have inflicted it, had he not been willing to be charged with our guilt, and to stand in our room and stead." 141 Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 2:95. (814)


Third, God requires of sinners nothing of them for their justification; but faith in Christ alone, which faith is His gift....The fact that justification is by faith alone and not by the works of the Law is proof that justification is by God’s grace alone. (814)


God was under no obligation to give anybody the gift of faith; but out of grace, He mercifully and sovereignly chose to do so to the praise and glory of His matchless
grace. Justification, then, is by the sheer grace of God, because the one instrument which God requires of us to be justified, He Himself provides: “For TO YOU IT HAS BEEN GRANTED for Christ’s sake, NOT ONLY TO BELIEVE IN HIM, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29; emphasis added). In this verse, God reveals that He has given to us, His people, as a gift of His grace: (1) The ability to believe, and (2) The privilege of suffering and enduring hardship for Christ’s sake. (815)

The synonyms for faith in the Old Testament are many. Thus we read much of trusting in, on, to God, or in His Word, His name, His mercy, His salvation, of seeking and finding refuge in God or in the shadow of His wings, of committing ourselves to God, setting confidence in Him, looking to Him, relying upon Him, staying upon Him, setting or fixing the heart upon Him, binding our love on Him, cleaving to Him. (816)

The Greek word for “believe” in the Septuagint and the New Testament is pisteuein. ...
In the New Testament, “faith” and “believing” are joined to various prepositions and cases that confirm and intensify the Old Testament’s conception of faith—To believe in God the Redeemer, to assent to His word, and with firm and unwavering confidence to rest in security and trustfulness upon Him alone for salvation. (817-818)

Justifying faith "consists neither in assent nor in obedience, but in a reliant trust in the invisible Author of all good (Heb. xi:27), in which the mind is set upon the things that are above and not on the things that are upon the earth (Col. iii:2; 2 Cor. 4:16–18, Mt. 6:25).…" 149. Warfield, Biblical and Theological Studies, 422–23. (819)

The first element of justifying faith is KNOWLEDGE, or UNDERSTANDING. ...
The knowledge of faith has to do with the content of faith, what faith believes, the Biblical information to be received, understood and embraced. To be saved a person must believe certain basic, divinely-revealed information from the Bible.
...
"I cannot have faith in nothing. My faith must have content or an object. Before I
can have a personal relationship with God or anyone else, I must first be aware of them to some degree. I must have some intelligible understanding of what or whom I am believing. I cannot have God in my heart if he is not in my head....To be saved we may not require an exhaustive or comprehensive knowledge of God, for none of us possesses such comprehensive knowledge, but we must have some knowledge and we must have some right knowledge about God."151 Sproul, Faith Alone, 77. 
(820-821)

We learn that knowledge is essential to justifying faith in several places in the Bible. (1) “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17)....(2) “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me”
(in faith), said Jesus (John 6:45). Learning implies understanding of the Word of God as essential to coming in faith to Christ. (3)...It should be obvious that the Word of God can be of no benefit to us, and that no one can obtain faith by the hearing of that Word, unless that person has some understanding of it. “The task of proclaiming the gospel includes more than an imparting of information, but not
less. It demands a constant clarification of the content of the gospel.”155 (4) “This is eternal life, that they might know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Personal knowledge of God of necessity includes knowledge about God drawn from the Bible by the help of the Spirit. (5)“Since every
believer is obligated to confess Christ (Matt. 10:32), to give an account of his faith (1 Pet. 3:15), it is therefore absolutely necessary that he have knowledge of those matters which he believes. He can neither confess nor give an account of that which he does not know.”156 (6) “By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11).
155. Sproul, Faith Alone, 78.
156. Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 2:272.
(821-822)

The second element of justifying faith is intellectual ASSENT, or BELIEF....In other words, faith is not a risky and blind “leap in the dark,” making ourselves believe something is true when we do not know it is true. “Telling a blind person to believe
he can see when he cannot see makes as much sense as telling a person to fly when he cannot fly. Saving faith involves assent to what is true, not what is false.” 162
Sproul, Faith Alone, 79. (823)

Faith is and, indeed, must be a steadfastness of the heart, which does not waver, wobble, shake, tremble, or doubt, but stands firm and is sure of its case.… When this Word enters the heart by true faith, it makes the heart as firm, sure, and certain as it is itself, so that the heart is unmoved, stubborn, and hard in the face of every
temptation, the devil, death, and anything whatever, boldly and proudly despising and mocking everything that spells doubt, fear, evil, and wrath. For it knows that God’s Word cannot lie. (824)

The Bible teaches that ASSENT is an essential element of justifying faith. (1) In Hebrews 11:1 faith is described as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is the confident assurance that God is faithful and true, that He will do what He has promised in His Word....(2) Hebrews 10:22 calls upon us to draw near to God “with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith,”...(3) “He
who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true” (John 3:33)....(4) If we “receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe
God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has given concerning His Son” (1 John 5:9–10)....(5) “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). It is the considered judgment of Paul, the believer, that the gospel of Christ is fully reliable and “trustworthy.” (825)

The third element of justifying faith is TRUST. To appreciate this element, we must consider the case of Satan and his response to Christ. Satan had “knowledge” of Christ. He was clearly aware of who He was. He “assented” to the truth of the identity of Christ.
"But Satan personally places no… trust in Christ. He resists Christ. He does will to oppose Christ. He has no affection for Christ. In fact he despises Christ. His unmitigated hatred for Christ displays itself in an enmity that knows no bounds.…
Satan has no affection for Christ because he sees nothing lovable about Christ." 169. Sproul, Faith Alone, 85. (826)

In faith the believer ENTRUSTS himself and his eternal salvation to Jesus Christ. He relies upon Him, rests and leans upon Him. (826)

Our Catechism Q. 72 on justifying faith assumes that faith is comprised of these three elements: understanding (knowledge), assent (belief), and trust. (828)

The Bible speaks of different “kinds” of faith, three of which are produced by man, and therefore not justifying faith; and the fourth is produced by God in the heart of man, and is therefore justifying faith. (834)

[Historical Faith]: This is a purely intellectual apprehension of the truth and history
of the Bible, without any moral or spiritual purpose....This kind of faith may be the result of tradition, education, public opinion, or insight. It may be very orthodox and Biblical, but it is not rooted in the heart, and therefore not justifying faith. (834)

["Miraculous" Faith]: This kind of faith is a persuasion in the mind of a person that a
miracle will be performed by him or in his behalf, which is not rooted in the heart. This is “a heartfelt conviction generated by the immediate operation of God, that a given supernatural act will either occur due to a command given by us, or will be wrought upon us.”190 Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 2:264. (835)

[Temporary Faith]: This faith, produced by man is a persuasion of the truths of the
Bible which is "accompanied with some promptings of the conscience, and a stirring of the affections, but is not rooted in a regenerate heart.… It is called a temporary faith, because it is not permanent and fails to maintain itself in days of trial and persecution. This does not mean that it may not last as long as life lasts. It is quite possible that it will perish only at death, but then it surely ceases.…" 191. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 502. (835)

[Justifying Faith]: Saving faith is a gift of God’s grace (Eph. 2:8, 9) rooted in the
regenerate heart. It is “a certain conviction, wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, as to the truth of the gospel, and a hearty reliance (trust) on the promises of God in Christ.”192 Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 503. (836)

First, there would be no saving faith at all in the entire human race, if God had left sinners to themselves, for the Bible says that unbelievers are “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1); that “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7, 8). (841-842)

Second, “God has made faith a gift so that (1). He will get credit for our salvation and (2) we will not get the credit.”199 Tom Wells, Faith: The Gift of God (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1983), 137 (842)

The Apostle Paul tells us that sinners believe in Jesus because of God’s mighty exertion of His omnipotence into their lives enabling them to do what they could not do in their own strength‑believe in Jesus....It is nothing less than the almighty work of God in the human heart that produces faith in Christ. Our faith is due to the same Divine omnipotence that raised Christ from the dead. (842-843)

The Holy Spirit of God works faith in the heart in the new birth, or regeneration....Without the regenerating work of the Spirit of God from heaven, no one is able to understand, appreciate, or give assent to the reality and saving power
of the kingdom of God, because of the blindness and death of the sinner’s condition....Without the purifying, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in
the heart, no one is able to enter the kingdom of God, which is salvation, which entrance is made by repentance and faith. (843-844)

The point John is making is this: believing in Jesus is the consequence, not the cause of the new birth. Faith in Jesus Christ is the effect of regeneration. (844)

What does the Holy Spirit do in the work of regeneration enabling a person to believe in Jesus?...God works faith in the sinner by changing his heart, by removing the hard heart full of hostility and rebellion toward God, replacing it with a heart that is soft and responsive to God, full of love for Him and the desire to please
Him, and by filling that new heart with His own Holy Spirit who is in the regenerate a constant source of divine power enabling and motivating him to do whatever pleases God. (845)

In creating faith in the heart the Holy Spirit of God uses the Word of God....It is Christ’s powerful voice heard in the preached Word that produces faith. Faith is born hearing the voice of the resurrected Christ in His written Word preached. (847)

(1) The Bible is full of commands and invitations encouraging sinners to come to Him for salvation. ...
(2) Faith is a giving up, or an entrusting, of ourselves to Christ to be entirely and eternally His. The Word of God sets forth Christ as having a right to our total commitment, having purchased us for Himself with His own blood. ...
(3) Faith looks to Christ alone for forgiveness of sins. The Word of God presents Christ to us as having made full satisfaction for our sins in His own obedience and death, as the propitiation for our sins, turning away God’s anger, satisfying God’s justice and reconciling us to God, by being our substitute, bearing the curse of our
sins in Himself for us. ...
(4) Faith is a trusting in and resting on Christ alone for salvation. The Word of God presents Him to us as an all-sufficient Savior, “able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him” (Heb. 7:25). Faith trusts Him to fulfill all His promises, because the Word tells us that He has engaged Himself to make good all the
promises of God to all who believe, because “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” (2 Cor. 1:20). 
(847-848)

The Catechism tells us that justifying faith receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness (LC, Q. 72). The Bible is unequivocal: the One on whom faith rests for salvation is the God of Grace, God our Redeemer in the Lord Jesus Christ. “This one object of saving faith never varies from the beginning to the end of the scriptural
revelation.”209. Warfield, Biblical and Theological Studies, 423. (849)

The point is that justifying faith is a faith that BELIEVES IN GOD, and therefore BELIEVES GOD. Faith in God in Christ and faith in the Word of God are inseparable in justifying faith. (851)

      Racheal