THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH
– A Commentary – By Dr. Chuck Baynard
The Belgic Confession of Faith,
Article XVI
Eternal Election
We believe that, all the posterity of Adam being thus fallen into
perdition and ruin by the sin of our first parents, God then did manifest
Himself such as He is; that is to say, merciful and just: merciful, since He
delivers and preserves from this perdition all whom He in His eternal and
unchangeable counsel of mere goodness has elected in Christ Jesus our Lord,
without any respect to their works; just, in leaving others in the fall and
perdition wherein they have involved themselves.
This is a good
statement concerning election in that it avoids the pitfall of a so-called
double pre-destination. It leaves the question of infra/supra-lapsarianism open,
but so does Scripture in many places.
If God had
elected any to reprobation before the foundation of the earth, then it could be
claimed that they were not guilty of sin in that God had predestined them to
sin. As a passive act of passing by in non-election the sin remains at the hand
of the created, not God. There is one eternal decree, the decree of election to
eternal salvation in Christ of those whom God in counsel with Himself and for
His own purpose of His glory alone elected.
There is a
difference in a decree and preordained or foreordained. A decree has a forensic
element, which demands justice and immutability from a sovereign concerning that
decree. If all things were foreordained by decree, men are but robots and there
is ultimately no glory to God. Angels glorify God but they are not the glory of
God because there is no free ability of the angels not to sin since the original
fall. God left with mankind the
ability to sin and yet saves some despite their sins. When creatures with the
ability to sin and deny God of their own free will worship God, they become
God’s glory.
The oldest and
continuing error in the church concerns the free will of mankind. There seems to
be within all of creation the desire for autonomy and the exercise of will.
Satan used this natural desire to tempt the first human beings in the garden.
There seems to be tremendous difficulty on the part of humankind to
understand how man is a free agent yet the elect cannot refuse grace or the
non-elect obtain grace, if grace is indeed offered to all.
The correct understanding comes from the fact that all mankind is dead in
sin and not one single person apart from Christ has ever first sought God. The
offer is indeed placed on the table so to speak for all of mankind to partake
of. Yet, not one will partake apart from the gift of grace in regeneration and
justification in Christ. The Bible
says that it is of God for man both to will and to do. This does not violate the
free will of man in that in the gift of regeneration man for the first time can
see his own fallen condition and imperfection in contrast to a perfect and holy
God. Thus the correct Reformed formulation is that God makes man willing to be
willing. The calling of man to God
through faith in Christ alone requires God to certainly and distinctly to give
the gift of faith needed to respond. Thus the free offer is not violated nor is
the eternal election and limited atonement negated.
This is a crucial
statement that all reformed must understand. Thus, this statement is well
worded, but does need the above understanding so it is properly held in its
place of importance in Reformed theology. What man does not understand man is
indifferent toward or ignores altogether. The Reformed faith cannot afford
either of these luxuries.
As explained
before the infra/supra controversy isn’t the key here, the result of a free
offer to free men, yet all cannot choose the free gift is the issue. Only the
Reformed hold this crucial doctrine in the correct bias where the love of God is
not in contradiction to the sovereignty and justice of God.
