Jay@Wipf 
The Three Uses of the Law There has been much confusion over the relationship of the Law of God (the Ten Commandments) to the believer throughout church history and especially in our day. There are antinomians who, in one way or another, deny the Law of God, whether it is by crossing out the4 th … Read more
The Law as a Covenant of Works versus a Rule of Life – Part II In my last post I discussed the relationship of the Law of God to the believer. While the Law is the standard for how believers are to live, it is no longer in the form of a covenant of works … Read more
The Law as a Covenant of Works vs. a Rule of Life – Part I I believe much of the confusion over the law stems from not understanding how it is a covenant of works. The late Meredith Kline once said that those who reject or do not understand the covenant of works are the … Read more
What does it mean to be under the law? There seems to be a fair amount of confusion today about what it means to be “under the law.” And there’s confusion about what it doesn’t mean. Some suggest that all of the members of the Old Covenant were “under the law.” Others say that for … Read more
The Distinction Between Law And Gospel Emerged From Augustine’s Struggle With Pelagius When many Christians think about the Reformation, they do not think about the distinction between law and gospel. Indeed, it is a truism for not a few modern Reformed folk that the distinction between law and gospel is solely a Lutheran conviction. Of … Read more
Bibliography Abendroth, Patrick. The London Baptist Confession of 1689. Omaha NE: Well Publications; 2017. Clark, Scott. Recovering the Reformed Confession; Our Theology, Piety, and Practice. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R; 2008. Fesko, J.V. The Theology of the Westminster Standards. Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2014. Gonzales, Robert. “Validity and Value of Creeds.” Accessed September 10, 2020, https://rbs.populiweb.com/router/courseofferings/9894403/folders/index. 2014. … Read more
Conclusion A church in having a historic confession has a great commonality within the immediate body and with believers all over the world past and present. Confessions are a useful tool for the church in training up its members and defending the faith once for all handed down. Confessions are biblical and necessary. May our … Read more
Dangers There are objections or dangers to confessions. Three are common. 1) The main objection is that Confessions undermine the authority of Scripture. The LBC of 1689 explicitly and at the beginning denies this, giving an excellent statement as to the authority of Scripture. The problem here is the attitude given to the confession. The … Read more
Proper Use The value of a confession has already touched on its proper use. It is used to promote and defend the truth of Scripture. More specifically in the local church it can be used to evaluate teachers and pastors as well as provide boundaries for ministry. Churches use, for example, the LBC of 1689 … Read more
Why have they gone away? If confessions are so biblical and valuable, why have confessions gone away? A couple of ideas to mention would be: 1) With the rise of rationalism and skepticism the Bible itself has been down played. If the Bible isn’t the Word of God than I certainly don’t need a confession … Read more