Learning to Speak Christianese, Part 3

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”~Hebrews 10:23

Last week we said our church stands in the stream of the Reformed Tradition. This means we are an historic, orthodox, confessional, and covenantal church whose system of belief emphasizes the sovereignty and grace of God in salvation, the authority of Scripture, and the place of the Church in the Redemptive-Historical plan of God. We then unpacked the terms historic and orthodox. Today we will ask what it means to be confessional and covenantal.

Being confessional means we subscribe to an historic Confession of Faith as a succinct codification of biblical doctrine. While we admit there are many good, Reformed confessions, we adhere to the seventeenth century Westminster Confession of Faith and its attending documents (e.g., the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, etc.). This standard (confession) is an articulate, comprehensive, and pastorally presented explication of the Bible’s teaching on matters of faith and life.

In addition to holding to an historic confession, we are also a church that confesses—that is, we sincerely and publicly declare what we believe. If you’ve worshipped with us before, you’ll recall that in each service of worship we join our voices to declare our faith (to confess). This typically takes the form of direct quotes from Scripture (usually Psalms) or from our Westminster Standards. Sometimes we also use historic creeds, such as the Apostles’ or Nicene Creeds. (You should look these up and read them if they’re unfamiliar to you.) So, being confessional means we hold to an historic Confession of Faith (Westminster) and we confess our faith publicly for all to hear.

Being covenantal means we understand the Bible to be principally governed and structured by the concept of the covenant. A covenant, according to one Reformed theologian, is a blood-bound oath, sovereignly administered. This rich definition simply means that God (the sovereign) initiates relationship with His people (He’s the administrator), and He seals the promises of the relationship in blood (signifying the weightiness and permanence to the covenants).

Throughout the Bible we find two primary covenants—the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. The Covenant of Works requires personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience to God’s Law. In the Garden of Eden, Adam failed to keep this covenant, and when he did, sin entered the world. Because of this, the Covenant of Works can no longer serve as a means for attaining eternal life. However, mankind is still obligated to that same level of obedience. Of course, if this is the way to life, we are all doomed! So God immediately instituted another covenant, the Covenant of Grace, in which He graciously promised to send His Son to meet the personal, perfect, and perpetual requirement of obedience to God’s Law, so that by faith we might receive the benefits of His righteousness. These two covenants are the foundation of every promise, narrative, and prophecy in Scripture. They structure and govern all the Bible teaches about Redemptive History. We are covenantal, therefore, because the Bible is a covenantal book.

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor of Teaching & Spiritual Formation