THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH
– A Commentary – By Dr. Chuck Baynard
The Belgic Confession of Faith,
Article XVII
The Recovery of Fallen Man
We believe that our most gracious God, in His admirable wisdom and
goodness, seeing that man had thus thrown himself into physical and spiritual
death and made himself wholly miserable, was pleased to seek and comfort him,
when he trembling fled from His presence, promising him that He would give His
Son (who would be born of a woman) to bruise the head of the serpent and to make
him blessed.
This statement
founded firmly on Genesis 3:15 has a very distinct infra-lapsarian inference to
it. Thus a non-key theory keeps popping to the surface in the creation, fall,
and salvation of man. The problem is because man thinks in a linear fashion,
which is one thought at a time in a distinct progression of thought. Whereas,
God is outside history or time and all things are before God at all times.
God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. We need to use care that we do not cause
God to change His mind as we formulate our theology at this loci. The
immutability of God must not be violated; God cannot change.
The problem is
that both infra and supra are references to the eternal counsel of God, before
creation. Man cannot go there and it is left in the mystery of God and it is
sinful for man to transgress beyond what god has clearly by revealed word or
clear inference revealed about Himself. Yet,
we must humbly tread here to hold the truth in all of its integrity as revealed
by God. It is not sinful therefore to say god elected before the fall in the
eternal counsel because all things being before God at all times means God did
not and does not have to think in a linear fashion as the created must do. God
decided to create knowing that man would fall even as the angels before the
creation of man would. God protected the holy angels from sin and saved some
sinful men from their own folly by eternal decree before the first word of
creation was uttered. This is the key, when did God make the election, in the
eternal counsel, not in history. Both
infra and supra are in the eternal counsel and not after creation and fall as
many understand this controversy. Thus this is not an issue to divide the church
and is not a measure of orthodoxy. To place the salvation of the elect after
creation and the fall is heresy in that it creates a changeable God.
God knew before
the first word of creation some angels and all mankind would sin. God preserved
some angels in holiness and saved some in Christ before even the angels were
created. Sin entered then by the will of the creature, not of God’s decree.
The irrefutable record of the will of all created, both angels and men to obey
their own will over God’s will should settle the issue of man being autonomous
with the ability to choose God. The
will of man is always evil according to Paul who said that because of the
always-present evil of the will he did things he hated and did not do what he
wanted to do.
Could God have
stopped sin from happening in angels and men? That is a silly question, God
foreordained all that is or will be. The reason God created all things was His
own glory. To stop the development of sin would have removed all glory from God
in the creation. Free agents choosing God and voluntarily obeying God instead of
their own will is the glory of God. The election then stands firm, and God
through the election and the gift of faith in time, saves some for His own
glory. The fact God must overtly act on and in the elect doesn’t violate free
will, it reveals to the fallen man his foul condition and inability to save
himself. So while some find it offensive to use the term choose, the elect do
choose God, but it does require the gift of grace in election to turn man toward
God. Grace to grace is accurate in that the first grace of election is brought
to fruit in the gift of faith by grace.
