Creeds and Confessions and Catechisms

There are those today who, confessing the Creeds and Confessions and Catechisms which came out of the Reformation, believe themselves saved by the same.

To confess the great doctrines of the Reformation should be the most humbling of things, not because these have any merit or inspiration in and of themselves, but because they are brief commentaries upon that which has all merit and the inspiration of God: His Scriptures.

If one confesses these great documents of the Reformation, yet lives like the world; if one states that they are saved by such confession, yet act and speak like those who could call themselves just as “moral” in our post modern society of relativistic humanism, they do not understand what they confess, for they think themselves to be something when they are nothing, and holding to various forms of that which has infected both the various cultures, sub cultures, and the church (I do not speak of the Bride of Christ here, made up of His elect, but those who think they are such, yet do not live according to the Scriptures), they, instead of fearing a misrepresentation of the thrice Holy God, fearlessly proclaim that they are His without understanding a shred of that upon which their confession is based upon.

They have not even begun to understand what it means to be totally depraved, yet chosen by God because of His good pleasure; they cannot act as children of light, for the light in them is a great darkness, precisely because they have not been converted by the magnificent grace given in Christ Jesus our Lord, which, rather than being apart from God’s holiness, is given to undeserving sinners as part of His holiness.

There is no humility with such persons, and the mores of this world run rampant through their ranks: feminism, personal entitlement, counting their station in life as proof of God’s blessings, rather than remembering “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich (that is, as the infinite, eternally good and holy God the Son), yet for your sake he became poor (read Philippians 2:1-11), so that you by his poverty might become rich (this would be the humbling truth of salvation by grace – 2 Corinthians 8:9).

Counting one’s self as better than those who suffer privation and physical maladies in this world, they slander and defame the name of the very God they say they hold to, and do despite to the Spirit of Grace.

They do not realize having all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord, for such a thought as going to the cross is foreign to them – they would have their candy from the world and think themselves inheritors of that which is by grace alone, yet do not even know the meaning of wrongfully handling the word of truth.

Peter describes such, as does Paul, and John, in many ways, but the one thing all these descriptions have in common is the world means more to these people than the cross; human dignity means more to them than the humility shown by our Lord in His first advent.

For such as these, they should remember well the words of Matthew 7:21-23 and Luke 6:46:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?

We could go further in describing them as Scripture – “wells without water” comes to mind – but the fact is, the point of the above passages quoted is that proclaiming one’s self-sufficiency before our Lord and God, our Savior Jesus Christ, on the day of judgment, whether it be of false miracles, or false morality of the flesh observing things without understanding and thinking they are well, when “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil,” will result in those terrifying words of that quoted above: "I NEVER knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!"

Before reciting one’s formal confessions, creeds and catechisms, one would do well to understand the Scripture – without the healing of our Great Physician, we can spend every day in the pew and hear every sermon ever preached on the Scriptures, yet not understand, for the poison of pride blinds the eyes of those who live against that which God has made plain in His Son to His saints, but to those who live like the world, they are yet enemies of God.

Consider well that which you recite: Look to the testimony of the Scripture which is the foundation of it!

Learn from our great High Priest, Shepherd and Prophet, our Savior and Sacrifice, our Passover and our King, for He shows us what it is like to be lowly and meek of heart, after giving us to see the Father by the regeneration of His Holy Spirit.

To God’s glory alone – Bill Hier