THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH
– A Commentary – By Dr. Chuck Baynard
The Belgic Confession of Faith, Article XXVIII
Every One Is Bound to Join Himself to the True Church
We believe, since this holy congregation is an assembly of those who are
saved, and outside of it there is no salvation, that no person of whatsoever
state or condition he may be, ought to withdraw from it, content to be by
himself; but that all men are in duty bound to join and unite themselves with
it; maintaining the unity of the Church; submitting themselves to the doctrine
and discipline thereof; bowing their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ; and
as mutual members of the same body, serving to the edification of the brethren,
according to the talents God has given them.
And that this may be the more effectually observed, it is the
duty of all believers, according to the Word of God, to separate themselves from
all those who do not belong to the Church, and to join themselves to this
congregation, where so ever God has established it, even though the magistrates
and edicts of princes were against it, yea, though they should suffer death or
any other corporal punishment. Therefore all those who separate themselves from
the same or do not join themselves to it act contrary to the ordinance of God.
Matthew 16:18 says that Christ
builds the church. To deny the necessity of the church is tantamount to saying
that Jesus Christ made an error in founding the church. The foundation of
Christian discipline found in Matthew 18 is pure vanity apart from the necessity
of the church. This was a problem
in the reformation of the sixteenth century but no new comer to the church scene
as such. We find in Hebrews 10:25 that there were those even at this early date
who forsake the sacred assembly of the church
The so called house church
movement of today holds the “institutionalized” or formal church in total
disdain and declares it no church. They have no professional clergy and abhor
paid staff. Not to be, for outside the church there is no salvation. This
doesn’t limit God as it might first appear, but appeals to the covenant nature
of God and that the body of Christ is one body even as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit are one God. Thus the understanding that in regeneration a true believer
will find his place in the church of Christ.
While the proliferation of
denominations and churches today seems to be unbiblical and many divisions seem
to be over things indifferent, it stands that god has allowed this diversity of
churches to come into existence and in most God’s love and grace can be seen
as proof of God’s presence. Into this diversity of churches there is no reason
for any believer to remain outside the body and to attempt to walk and worship
alone.
Christ founded the church, the
Holy Spirit made it manifest at Pentecost, and God has preserved the church
through the centuries by the power of His word alone, that all might be
partakers of the same body and indwelled by the same Spirit and enabled to
accomplish all of God’s holy will despite all opposition of the devil in this
temporal world.
