BELIEF & DUTY

 

BELIEF & DUTY 

Westminster Shorter Catechism 3

Quest. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

Ans. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. 

Introduction

James in his Epistle wrote the following words, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble! But do you know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (Jas. 2:19-20). The Holy Spirit through these words is teaching us that it is all very well to claim that you believe in God.  He’s saying that belief in God is indeed a good thing, but of itself it counts for nothing with God.

The proof that it counts for nothing is that even the demons believe! And do you know anything more disobedient to God than a demon? Yet demons have profound knowledge of God and His being. So, the point that James makes is that in order for faith or belief in God to be worth anything, it needs to be expressed in works, good works. 

Obedience to God, i.e. any good works the Christian does, is the good fruit of the Holy Spirit working in the regenerated person’s life. It’s the Spirit Who produces produce or “bears fruit” in the Christian. This “good fruit” is expressed as good works. Even faith itself, i.e., true Biblical faith, is part of the Spirit’s produce. Faith is a “fruit of the Spirit’ (Gal. 5:22). Thus good works of obedience don’t produce faith, rather true faith produces good works. In other words, the evidence of a true and living faith is demonstrated by the believer’s obedience to God.  Therefore, faith or belief without the accompanying obedience to God is not true faith – as illustrated by demons. 

So, the Christian not only needs to know what he is to believe concerning God, he also needs to know what he is to do with that belief. And, according to Westminster Shorter Catechism #3 this is the Bible’s primary purpose.

As noted above, the Westminster Shorter Catechism is divvyed up into three main sections: viz., 1^st, Introduction, 2^nd What we are to believe, and 3^rd What we are to do. So, you might say it like this WSC Q & A’s 1-3 are introductory.  Q & A’s 4-38 deal with belief. And Q & A’s 39-107 deal with duty.

We have reached the third and last of the introductory Q & As of the WSC. The third introductory Q & A to the WSC is a concentration of all the rest of the Catechism. As already mentioned, Q & A 4-38 are to do with belief, and 39-107 are to do with duty.

Belief

The Bible primarily teaches us about God and about Man far more than it teaches us about anything else. E.g., the Scriptures teach us something about angels. But angels are not the principal subject of the Bible; God and Man’s duty to God is. The Word of God teaches us a great deal about creation. But creation is not the primary teaching of Scripture. Rather the Scriptures principally teach us about God, and Man’s relationship to God.

We’ve seen already that Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. We’ve seen also that the Scriptures of the Older and Newer Testaments are the only rule given by God to direct us how we may glorify Him and enjoy Him. So, if we would truly glorify God and enjoy Him, we would need to have infallible revelation of what we are to believe concerning God and what He requires of us.  For if the Bible is not really the Word of God, and the Older and Newer Testaments are not really the very Word of God, then how can we be sure that what we believe about God is correct?

If the Bible is not infallible, then our faith is founded upon shifting sand, sinking sand, quick sand! We will all sink down into the pit if the Bible is an unreliable account of God. Why? Well, because the Bible itself claims to be the revelation of God, the God who forgives, the God who does not lie, the God of all truth, etc. 

If the Bible is not infallible and inerrant, then how will we know for sure that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth? How will we know for sure that He is the God who forgives sinners such as us? How will we know anything for sure, if the Bible is not true revelation of God from God? 

If the Bible is inaccurate, then our beliefs about God will be inaccurate. Therefore, if God cares about His good name and holy character, if He cares about Himself, His glory, He will need to give us an infallible account of what we are to believe concerning Him. Otherwise, Man will manufacture his own beliefs about God from his own fertile but fallen imagination.

For example, the reason for the many religions in the world lies in the heart of man. The multitude of religions comprise of those either denying or distorting what the Bible teaches about God. The Word of God, the Scriptures of the Older and Newer Testaments, the Bible, is what separates believers from unbelievers. For the believer believes what the Bible teaches concerning what man is to believe about God and what duty God requires of man, whereas the unbeliever denies or distorts what God reveals about Himself in Scripture.

Think about it, if you know a man personally and he writes an autobiography, you might disagree with what he has written about himself. The reason you might disagree would need to be on account of any prior true knowledge you have of the man. But let’s say a man with whom you are not familiar writes his autobiography. You’d just have to take him at his word, wouldn’t you?  You might believe all of what he says about himself, or you might believe some of it. Or you might not believe any of what he says about himself, but on what grounds?

Think about it, here’s a man whom you don’t really know. He’s written a book about himself, where he lives, his upbringing, what he does for a living. He’s told you about the colour of his eyes, his hair, his height, his shoe-size, and his temperament. He’s told you his likes and his dislikes. So, why wouldn’t you believe all of what he had written? Then why is it that people are so picky and choosy as to what they believe about God? Why do they try to rewrite bits of the Bible? Why do they ignore many of the things God says about Himself?

Why are people so quick to slice and dice Scripture and mince what God has revealed about Himself in His Word? Well, it’s because if the Bible is telling us what we are to believe concerning God, then everything we believe about God that’s contrary to Scripture is wrong.

But let me ask you who knows more about God? You or God Himself? So, how would you know if what God says about Himself in Scripture is true or not?  Well, it’s all a question of belief, isn’t it? The believer believes what the Bible teaches concerning God. Whereas the unbeliever, depending how you look at it, at best or at worst, picks and chooses what he will believe or not believe. But either way the unbeliever does not believe what God is saying about Himself in Scripture. The unbeliever either adds to, or takes away from, the words of God in Scripture.

Now, the main difference between a man writing his autobiography and God revealing Himself in Scripture is of course the claims made by God. If a man has it written down that he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent you’d have good reason not to believe him. Why? Because these are not attributes which belong to any man, that’s why! But let’s say the same Person who claimed to create the heavens and the earth, claims He’s omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, would you have good reason not to believe Him? 

Why would you try to discredit, or disregard any of what God has revealed about Himself in the Older and Newer Testaments? On what grounds would you base your unbelief? Would it be because you believe that you know God better than God knows Himself?  Would it be because you believe that the Scriptures are unreliable?

So, surely the whole point of the existence of the Bible is that it has been given by God to teach us what we are to believe concerning God.  But it has also been given to teach us what duty God requires of us.

Duty

If a nation goes to war, its citizens are usually called upon to do their “duty”. They are called upon to serve their country by upholding and defending their nation’s ideals, i.e., those principles they as a nation believe and hold dear. So, any sense of duty a citizen may have, is inevitably engendered by belief, belief in the nation’s ideals and principles. In other words, a person would need to think hard about what his nation stands for before considering laying down his life in the line of duty. Well, so it is with God and His Kingdom. 

When a person is granted by the grace of God to see who God is and what His kingdom is about, immediately a sense of obligation wells up within his breast, which is to say that his faith, his belief, engenders a sense of thankful duty toward God. It’s as James says in his Epistle “I will show you may faith by my works” (Jas. 2: 18b). Now his desire to do works, good works, is the immediate response to his God-given faith. He who once was a sinner on the broad road to Hell, is now a recruit in the Lord’s army.

Now, when governing authorities on earth start drafting people into the army, there are inevitably those “draft dodgers” who try to flee any conflict. Well, according to the Scriptures, the preaching of the Gospel is God’s calling sinners to repentance, i.e., to stop warring against Him, and to serve Him, to serve under Him in a battle against sin and evil.

God in the Person of Jesus Christ has already won the war against evil upon Calvary’s cross. However, there are still many “clean-up” battles to be fought in your life and mine. However, there are many, many “draft dodgers” from God’s Gospel recruitment drive, aren’t there? They try to avoid their duty, the duty of all mankind, which is to glorify God and to enjoy Him. 

Now, the whole duty that God requires of man is found throughout all the Scriptures. However, this duty is summarized in the form of Ten Commandments, which in turn is summarized by the commandments to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself. This duty is required of all human beings because this is the reason why God created man in the first place.

God created Man in His own image and likeness. Man originally was a perfect imprint of God on the creaturely level. Man was the imprint of the very moral character of God, which is to say that Man was created with the Moral Law in his heart. However, as you know, Adam, as representative of the human race, declared war on God. He sided with the Devil in rebellion against God’s authoritative rule over us. That is what is called the Fall of Man.

And the indication, even today that Man is a fallen creature is in his resistance to have God rule over every aspect of his life. Some men may pay God lip-service in a church on a Sunday morning, while God is excluded from their family life, their life as a citizen, which is to say that God is given the cold shoulder in every sphere of their lives. However, WSC 3 is reminding us that the Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

And even a cursory reading of the Bible would reveal that God requires us to love Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and our neighbour as ourselves. Yet no human being since the fall of Adam is able to fulfil this duty. Indeed, since the rebellion of man in the Garden of Eden, man has done everything in his power to escape this duty. He had tried everything from blatantly ignoring his duty, like the so-called atheist, to attempting to make it much more easy to fulfil, like the scribes and Pharisees of old. But it all amounts to “draft-dodging” from where God sits. 

The duty He requires of us has always been the same from the very beginning. God has always required of man perfect obedience to His revealed will. Today God’s will is revealed to us in all the Scriptures. The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is that the believer believes what the Scriptures teach concerning God and man, whereas the unbeliever doesn’t. Therefore, the response of the believer to what the Scriptures principally teach differs to that of the unbeliever. 

Whereas the believer responds as one hearing good news, the unbeliever responds as one hearing bad news. To the one there is an aroma of life to the other there is a stench of death! Therefore, the unbeliever seeks to either ignore or reinterpret the teaching of Scripture. But the believer delights in his duty; he delights to do the will of God. This is just another way of saying that he, along with the Apostle Paul, delights in the Law of God. To be sure, the believer of himself falls down many times in the line of duty. He cannot do God’s will perfectly. He cannot keep God’s Law without flaw. However, this doesn’t stop him from striving to serve God. Why is this? It’s because of what the believer believes.

He believes that the One revealed in Scripture has forgiven him all his sins. He believes that the One who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them has sent His only begotten Son to lay down His life as a Man to pay for his sins. He believes that, as the first Adam represented him in his sinful disobedience to God, so the last Adam, Jesus Christ represents him in His perfect obedience to God. In the first man, Adam, all were made imperfect. In the second Man, Jesus, all who believe in Him are made perfect.

When God looks at the fallen imperfect man who by His grace believes what the Scriptures teach about God and himself, God sees that believer as He sees Jesus Christ – perfect! Now, the believer of course sees himself as anything but perfect. The fact is that he sees himself as a sinful wretch saved by the grace of God alone. So what does the true believer do about this? Well, he strives to be what God claims him to be – perfect.

Now, some people have been known to make an erroneous assumption on this point. They assume that when God declares a sinner righteous that that justified sinner is freed from the requirements of God’s Moral Law. Hence, they allege that the justified sinner is placing himself back in bondage by striving to keep God’s Moral Law out of love and gratitude to God for setting him free.

But let me ask: From what has the justified sinner been set free? Has he been set free from the requirements of the Moral Law? Or has he been set free from the penalty for failing to meet the Moral Law’s requirements? The answer from Scripture is clearly that the justified sinner has been set free from the penalty exacted on sinners for failing to meet the Moral Law’s requirement’s – i.e., perfection! For example, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1).

But how can any fallen, imperfect sinner ever hope to keep God’s Law perfectly? He cannot. The reason Scripture calls fallen man a sinner is that he fails miserably to keep God’s Law. Sin is the transgression of God’s Law (1 John 3: 4). Therefore, all transgressors of God’s Law are sinners. Which is another way of saying that fallen man is in bondage to sin, i.e., sinning against God.

But, when fallen man is declared righteous by God, i.e. justified by God’s grace alone, he is at the same time set free from his bondage to sin, i.e. sinning against God. But for what has the sinner been set free from his bondage to sin? Well, it is so that he can serve God. He has been set free from breaking God’s Law, which is another way of saying what he had been set free to keep God’s Law. Therefore, the redeemed and sanctified sinner is now free to serve God instead of serving sin. 

And how does the redeemed sinner serve God? By glorifying Him and enjoying Him in every facet of life. So, how would the true believer set about glorifying God in worship, for instance? Well, he would do well to listen to WSC Q & A 3, wouldn’t he? He would search the Scriptures to find out what they taught concerning God. And he would also find out what duty God requires of him.

So, he would find out from the Scriptures how God wishes to be glorified in worship, wouldn’t he? And where would be find this laid-out clearly in Scripture? Well, the Ten Commandments, the first four in particular, summarize very well what the Scriptures principally teach about the proper worship of God. 

And where would the redeemed sinner find out the duties God requires of him toward his fellow man? Well, again he would find this taught throughout all the Scriptures. But he would find all the teaching of Scripture on this duty neatly summarized in the last six of the Ten Commandments.

So, it’s nonsense to suggest that there is any human being who is not morally bound to keep God’s Commandments, saved or unsaved. For God is not a God of chaos, but rather is the God of order. His Law brings order. Lawlessness brings, nay, lawlessness IS disorder, even chaos!

Conclusion

Let’s note the perfection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ alone is the only Man ever to keep perfectly God’s Law in its entirety. It’s His perfect Law-keeping that saves, and not your or my miserable attempt at it. That’s why God in His Word exhorts us to believe in Him alone for salvation. Therefore, keep on believing in Him for salvation from your sins. Keep on turning your back on your sins and keep on believing in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

But none of us would know any of this if God hadn’t revealed it to us. Nor would we know the type of God He is unless He revealed it to us. Therefore, we need the Scriptures to teach us about God and the duties He requires of us. So, read the Scriptures, believe, and do your duty, and do all to the glory of God. Amen.