Beloved,
In my sermon this past Sunday, I quoted the definition of true theology given by Fransiscus Junius: “the knowledge or wisdom concerning divine things, divinely revealed, for the glory of God and the salvation of rational creatures.” This is helpful for us to keep in mind as we continue to think about our first core principle as a congregation: God-centered theology. Junius stresses that such Godward knowledge is “divinely revealed” which is why, as we saw in last week’s email, we must be a church devoted to God’s self-revelation in the Bible.
We don’t think our way up to God; He speaks His way down to us. Nothing is more fundamental and foundational to our life as the church than His speak preserved in the Scriptures. Without it, we could not have a true knowledge of God, His worship, His will, or His salvation. The Bible, as the God-breathed word (2 Tim. 3:16) is our primary standard for faith and life. It has absolute, uncontested authority over us as the speech of our absolute, uncontested God.
But the constitution of our congregation and denomination does not merely consist of a primary standard. We also have secondary standards – the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. As we think about being a church devoted to God-centered theology, we would be remise if we failed to mention this. We are a self-consciously confessional church that delights in and declares the God-exalting truths codified in the Westminster Standards.
To be clear, the Westminster Standards are secondary standards. They are subordinate to our primary standard, the Old and New Testaments. The Confession itself reckons with this in its first chapter on Holy Scripture setting forth the Bible as “the rule of faith and life” to which “in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them.” The Confession and Catechisms are not the Bible. They are only authoritative to the extend they faithfully express the teaching of the Bible. In historical theology, our forefathers made a helpful distinction between the Scriptures as “the norming norm” and our confession as “the normed norm.” God’s word is the norm (i.e., standard) that norms every other norm. It is ultimate. The Westminster Confession is normed by the ultimate, independent norm of God’s word. Hence, it is secondary and derivative, and yet still authoritative in the life of our church, being regarded as a faithful witness to our primary standard.
This Sunday, we have the privilege of publicly receiving new members. They will make vows before God and His people as they come into formal fellowship with us. But you won’t hear them answer this question: “Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this Church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures?” That was a question I was required to affirm at my ordination as a minister of the gospel. That was a question the officers (both elders and deacons) in our church were required to affirm at their ordination. But it is not a question that must be affirmed in order to be received as a member of Cornerstone or a member of the OPC. That is because, while we are an unabashedly confessional church, we do not believe that being added to the visible church should be any more difficult than being added to the invisible church. You can have a credible profession of faith and disagree with the Westminster Standards at certain points. But you can’t have a credible profession of faith without a whole-souled submission to the Bible as your ultimate authority which is why the first membership vow asks, “Do you believe the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, to be the Word of God?” The leaders of the church, on the other hand, must subscribe to the secondary standards “as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.” That is because it is the leaders of the church who are set apart to teach and preach, and it is vital that they be men of uncompromising conviction concerning the whole of God’s truth (which the OPC believes is faithful summarized in the secondary standards), lest our congregation and denomination be inundated with false teaching.
Wherever you might be in your theological pilgrimage, I want to encourage you to familiarize yourself with our secondary standards. One of the best ways to do this is to take 2-3 minutes before or after your Bible reading each day to read a chapter in the Confession. A chapter a day will get you through the Confession roughly once a month (there are 33 chapters). Do that for an entire year, and you will have worked through the Confession 11-12 times! I promise you that is time well spent, and if done rightly will serve to expand your knowledge and enjoyment of God.
It would be a shame to have such a rich doctrinal heritage and to be entirely oblivious to it. It would be a shame to be a congregation that embraces the Westminster Standards on paper but is by-and-large ignorant of what they actually teach. It is zeal for our primary standard (i.e., the Bible) that ought to fuel a zeal for our secondary standards which so faithfully and clearly explain the Bible’s teaching. So as we cultivate an expanding devotion to the Scriptures, let us also cultivate an expanding devotion to the Confession and Catechisms! This is one excellent way of pressing on to know the Lord (Hos. 6:3).
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick
