02.02. Instructed In The Confession

INSTRUCTED IN THE CONFESSION Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4. In the covenant the Lord teaches His children to be free and independent.

While election contains only those who will infallibly inherit eternal life, the covenant describes the way in which the elect are led to their destiny. Election and covenant are therefore not distinct in a smaller and larger circle, for both contain the same persons; but while election takes these by themselves, the covenant views them in coherence with the whole human race.

Although the covenant maintains God’s Sovereignty in the work of salvation in a beautiful way, and nothing of man is allowed to enter, at the same time does it not violate man as he was created after God’s image. When the Lord receives His honour, man too receives the place and honour, which is his according to God’s will. He elects His own in Christ, that they should be holy and blameless before Him in love.

Indeed, in the covenant of grace Christ is the Head of the congregation, but He is there with His believers, and does not take them from their place. He is at all times the Surety for His people, but in such a way, that they themselves, taught by His Spirit and enabled, consciously and voluntarily, live and walk in the covenant. The covenant of grace is indeed established with Christ, but through Him extends to all His people and it takes them with body and soul, with mind and will and all their strength.

Since God works in them to will and to do after His good pleasure, He exhorts them to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. By God’s grace they are, what they are; they can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens them. Because Christ lives in them, they live by faith in the Son of God. That is why, although the children of believers are already before they know or will anything, taken up in the covenant of grace, the call comes to the parents to bring up their children in the aforesaid doctrine, and cause them to be instructed therein. Whereas in all covenants there are contained two parts, the covenant of grace admonishes and obligates us to new obedience. When the Lord tells us, "i am your God, He adds: walk ye before My face and be upright! Giving Himself to us, He wants us to give ourselves and all we have to Him.

However, children cannot right away confess and walk in that confession. The parents are responsible for the children, They perform as witnesses by the baptism of their children, and pledge their Christian upbringing. On the basis of adoption from God’s side, they must bring their children to a conscious and voluntary confession of faith.

Here too, the natural is a symbol of the spiritual. Natural life which by conception and birth is ours from the parents, is in complete sense a gift, unmerited and even forfeited before we were born. But life, from its early beginnings, is in need of care and protection. Without care it would languish and perish. The first and highest cause of these provisions is God. He is not only Creator, but also Provider of all things. When life, by Him called into being, was not kept from moment to moment by His almighty and omnipresent power, it would descend into nothing. If it pleased God, He could keep all this, without making use of any means, like He kept Moses forty days on the mountain and Jesus in the wilderness. He would also be able to feed them, like He fed Elijah at the brook Crith by the ravens and fed Israel forty years with manna from heaven. But as a rule the Lord works by means. He uses food and drink to feed us, and He avails himself of parents as the natural providers for their children. The parents must gather treasures for their children. The children live off these treasures. They don’t merit any, they are purely dependent and live by grace.

Yet, it is not really the bread that feeds us, but the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Men does not live just by bread only, but by the Word, the commandment, the power, the blessing laid in there and communicated by the Lord. Only that satisfies, which the Lord is pleased to support with strength and virtue.

Feeding in the natural realm, is what instruction is in the spiritual realm. It would not be too wonderful for God to keep the life of man’s soul without any means. But it pleases Him to instruct people by people, and especially by use of the word to form the mind. From the early years, mind and heart, conscience and will, emotion and imagination are in this manner formed by the work of others. And also by caring for the spiritual life, which is realized by regeneration, the Lord does not follow any other way. In the first place, the parents serve as instruments in God’s hand, to develop the spiritual life of their children. The means they must use thereby is the Word of God as laid down in Scripture. It is not only the parents, and not just the Word by itself, which give life or preserve it. For here too we must remember that man shall not live by bread alone, by the Word without more men cannot live, but by the blessing and power which proceeds from the mouth of God. It is not from Paul who plants, or Appollos who waters, but it is the lord alone Who gives the increase.

Yet, in the hand of parents and teachers, the Word of Scripture, under God’s blessing, serves to sustain spiritual life. What food is for the natural body, that is the Word of God for spiritual life. "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalms 119:103). That Word meets us from the first moments of our earliest years. It came to us not only when the Bible was opened, and was read and searched by us; neither did we for the first time meet the Word in the worship service, where it was heard by us. But that Word came to us from our earliest days. It came to us Men Father reprimanded us, in Mother admonishing us, when the teacher instructed us, in associating with friends, in the witness of the conscience, in life’s experiences. It accompanies us all the time, from the cradle to the grave, it never leaves us alone. We hear it in the blessing of the congregation, when we sing, when the Word is spoken, in command or prohibition always set before us. We are always led, ruled, admonished and comforted, encouraged and discouraged, convicted of sin and pointed to Christ by the Word. It is the atmosphere we breath, from the time of our birth, it is the food, the drink, the air, the sunshine, the rain for our spiritual life. That Word is always a power. We do not know how or when, but when it exercises the heart of man, at all times it remains in itself a power of God unto salvation. It is never a vain sound, a dead letter, an empty phrase. It is always "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). It judges the thoughts and intents of the heart; it is a hammer that breaks the heart of the hardest sinner; a sword of the Spirit, which strikes dead the proud and self righteous man; A witness of God, that awakens the conscience; a seed of regeneration, a power unto sanctification, "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (1 Timothy 3:16). In one word, a means of grace, going before, and is much more than the sacraments.

Even there where it does not spread a blessing, it exercises its influence. The devils believe and they tremble. For unbelievers it is a savour of death unto death. It is a rock of offense on which the ungodly hurt themselves. If it does not soften the heart it will harden it. Man who is touched by the Word will never remain the same. He will be better or worse, but can never hide behind the shield of neutrality. "For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah 55:10-11). The origin of this power lies in the fact that this is the Word of God. Holy Scripture is not just for one time inspired by the Lord, but is continually maintained as such by His almighty and omnipresent power. The gospel, which comes to man from Scripture in many forms and in many ways, is at all times by God upheld and inspired. At all times it remains His Word. It is always accompanied by the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in the congregation, and from there goes out into the world and convinces those in the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. It is a word that continually proceeds from the mouth of God, comes to us in Christ, and by the Spirit of Christ is attested to in our hearts or consciences. That is indeed why the Word is food and drink for our spiritual life. It is a means, not the fountain of grace. God is and remains the giver and steward of all grace; no man, no priest, no word, no sacrament is by Him supplied with the treasure of grace, or charged with its dissemination. Ministers can give the sign and seal, but only God grants the signifying matter. Only He has - this is also grace vowed in sovereign grace, that when the Word is administered after the meaning of the Spirit, everyone who accepts it in faith, will be granted Christ, Who is food and drink for our souls, the bread that came from heaven, the water of life, of which he that drinks shall nevermore thirst. But the Word must be received in childlike faith, and accepted in all humility. It is like bread that can only maintain our body, when we eat it with our mouth and is digested by the body. That is also how the Word of God only becomes food for our soul, when accepted by faith and implanted in the heart.

Both are destined and designed for each other. He Who created food, created also the mouth to eat it. He Who gave the Word, also gave new life through regeneration, a life that can only be fed and strengthened by the food of the Word.

They are related to each other. The Word works and strengthens spiritual life. By its nature, spiritual life in virtue of its character longs for this food, like the child for its mothers milk, like the hungry one for bread and the thirsty one for water. For they both proceed from one Spirit. In the natural realm knowledge is only possible, while reason in us and the thoughts in creation, together and in mutual relation, are made by that Word, which was in the beginning with God, and was God, by which all things are made. It is the same light that illuminates the eye and that illuminates the object. The same light of knowledge shines in human reason, and also in the works of God’s hands. Only then man does see and know, when both rays of light, descending from the one source of light, meet each other. "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light"(Psalms 36:9) That is how the spiritual man and the Word of the Spirit belong together. It is the same Spirit, i.e., the Spirit of Christ Who brought about and maintains the Word, and saw to it that the spiritual man was born in us. In Scripture He places Christ before our eyes; and in our hearts He has Him living by faith. From Scripture He showed us the image of Christ; and after that image He recreates us more and more. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is therefore an unmistakable sign of spiritual life, when our heart goes out to the Word. It is natural that the hungry longs for bread and the thirsty for water and the sick for medicine. It is just as natural for the spiritual man to long with a desirous heart for the Word of God and to Christ, offered to him in the Word. He does not grow above the Word, like the mystic dreams of it; he does not use the word as a ladder, to ascend for a way and then takes to his wings to go in his own power. We cannot deal like that with the Word, for soon we would fall to the ground. Those who refuse bread, will die of hunger. If we do not esteem the Word of Christ, we do not love Him. We don’t need the doctor if we refuse to take his medicine. But the spiritual man, as long as he lives, feels himself connected to that Word as a means of fellowship with the Lord. According as he grows in faith and becomes stronger, he moves closer to that Word. He holds on to it like ivy that sticks to a wall. He leans on it like a stick and staff during his pilgrimage. He loves it more all the time, deems it of ever greater value, at all times finds it richer treasure for his heart and life. More and more it becomes to him a Word of God, a letter from his Father, sent to Him from heaven, to guide him to the Father’s house above. Thy word is a light upon my path and a lamp unto my feet. Thy law is my delight, how do I love thy law. That is why parents must feed the child of the covenant with that Word. If done with discernment, this cannot begin too early.

Already the reverence shown by family members during prayer and bible reading, cultivates in the child a realization of things that are holy, which often remains until the later years of life. The short prayer that is taught to the children for and after meals, before they go to sleep and after they rise, will many a time leave indelible memories, and in later years it reminds of a devout youth. We don’t have to wait with teaching children religious words until they understand them, as if little hypocrites would be raised; for by words they learn to understand the matter, as by the matter they understand the words, the one helps the other. In general there is in the child a striking similarity between the feeling of dependency and humility in its nature, and the attitude the Lord wants to see in us, and which pleases Him most. If we do not become like children, we shall in no wise enter into heaven. But this bringing them to the Word must at the same time be teaching and upbringing, it must affect heart and mind, and together be directed to knowing and doing. We must watch against the onesidedness of orthodoxy and also that of pietism. Religion is not just knowledge but also living. Man has not only understanding, but also feeling and will. God requires in His law, that we must love Him not just with our understanding, but also with the heart, the soul and all our strength.

Therefore we must teach the children; teach them the truth, carefully and painstakingly, that they may have pure ideas, clear concepts, and a true knowledge will be formed in their minds. Cultivating emotions and impressions without clear and true concepts can be dangerous; it short-changes truth; opens the door for errors and lies, and often leads to a dissolute life.

Yet, clear concepts and pure impressions are not enough. These are very difficult to teach, especially in the religious realm, without influencing the mind and the heart. For true understanding and real knowledge cannot be known without the heart. With all learning, attention, interest and love are needed. We only know truly what we love in the depth of our soul. That is why upbringing does not succeed education. The heart does not get its turn shorter or longer time after the mind; we do not first teach pure concepts in the hope that later they will be accepted in true faith and have their influence on life. From the first beginning education must be coupled with upbringing. Education must at all times have an upbringing character. God’s truth is of a nature, that it cannot be rightly known without upright faith in the heart. To memorize these things without the heart, is like having just an image of the matter, but is to remain foreign to the matter itself.

Therefore, influencing the conscience and will, the training to know and to do, imparting clear, pure images and arousing deep impressions of the mind must always go together. We may not separate the matter from the words, or the words from the matter. For God united these two. He has bound Himself to give to everyone who believes the Word in truth, the matter expressed in the Word. To know God in the face of Jesus Christ, is to have eternal life. When we speak of God, Christ etc., these names may not just be sounds, but we must think of those who are indicated by them. Then there is a rich gospel, not something unimportant, but a world of invisible, eternal goods, which are signed, sealed and given to us. When home, school and catechism classes, education and upbringing work together, we may expect, that with the Lord’s blessing, spiritual life will increase, lead to faith and repentance, and reveal itself to the outside world into a confession of mouth and heart. But we may never forget that the increase must come from the Lord. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vein that build it’ (Psalms 127:1). Parents, teachers and pastors are nothing but instruments in His hand. He is the only true Father and Pedagogue of His children. He feeds, leads, preserves, protects and strengthens them to perfection. Not served by the hand of men as being in need, He gives life and breath to all. He disposes of the power over the Word and the working of the Spirit.

Jesus is the Vine, believers are the branches, and the Heavenly Father is the Husbandman.