THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH
– A Commentary – By Dr. Chuck Baynard
The Belgic Confession of Faith, Article XV
Original Sin
We believe that through the disobedience of Adam original sin is extended
to all mankind; which is a corruption of the whole nature and a hereditary
disease, wherewith even infants in their mother's womb are infected, and which
produces in man all sorts of sin, being in him as a root thereof, and therefore
is so vile and abominable in the sight of God that it is sufficient to condemn
all mankind. Nor is it altogether abolished or wholly eradicated even by
regeneration;[1] since sin always issues forth from this woeful source, as water
from a fountain; notwithstanding it is not imputed to the children of God unto
condemnation, but by His grace and mercy is forgiven them. Not that they should
rest securely in sin, but that a sense of this corruption should make believers
often to sigh, desiring to be delivered from this body of death.
Wherefore we reject the error of the Pelagians, who assert that sin
proceeds only from imitation.
1. "Baptism"
has been changed to "regeneration".
John in the book of Revelation prays for Christ to come quickly. I doubt
many men actually ever pray for God to end the world today, right this minute.
Yet this is the position all saints should ever be in before the God of grace
who called His own from darkness to light.
God says that He does not punish the children for
the sins of the father, yet this appears to be happening when we call for
original sin to come from natural generation alone. It also becomes more complex
to explain how Christ who was made of a woman did not have the taint of original
sin also.
It can be
claimed that since the line of inheritance within the Hebrews as the first
chosen of God as His people was only through the male, that Christ not having a
human father was exempted from the natural generation of the original sin. Or we
can use the so-called federal theory whereby Adam as the representative of all
men who followed by natural generation and his sin was imputed to all of his
posterity. Christ as the second Adam and not being in the generation of Adam
because of the virgin birth being sinless had His righteousness imputed to all
of the elect. Since God decided the whole in eternity and even the Old Testament
saints were saved by faith, God having made the covenant of grace with Christ on
behalf of the elect before the foundation of the earth all saints have been
saved by the same method. Christ did not begin at His incarnation, but God was
made manifest in the incarnation whereby Christ said those who had seen Him had
seen God. The correct terminology here is that of federal representation and
imputation. The Psalmist declares
blessed is the man to whom God does not impute his sins. Imputation means
placing in the account of so that God doesn’t account the elect sinful, but
imputes to the elect the righteousness of Christ, not the sin of Adam.
I prefer
imputation as the most consistent way to explain how all are sinful in Adam, yet
from the beginning the elect though sinners have not been seen by God as
sinners, but righteous. The Westminster Confession says that the Covenant of
Grace was made with Christ in behalf of the elect. I see this as the best
understanding and it would transcend the dispensation of Old and New Testaments
whereas other formulations will fail at one place or another. Thus all mankind
as represented in Adam except Christ, who was the new or second Adam, are
sinners by natural generation and imputation of their own sins. Thus the Bible
declares that man is conceived and born in sin, condemned already.
This returns
all to the grace of God, as God in grace does not impute the sins of the elect
to the elect, but rather imputes to the elect the righteousness of Christ, which
is not theirs by any right and cannot be earned by the performance of any duty
whatsoever.
