- A Relation of
Fellowship - A Spiritual
Seed - Gathered in the
Generations - Unconditionally
of Grace - Realized and
Perfected
Chapter 8
David J. Engelsma
Defense of the Faith
The contemporary movement in reputedly conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches denying justifica- tion by faith alone and attacking all the doctrines of grace is logical development of the theory of a conditional covenant. Therefore, it cannot be opposed, not effectively, except by the repudiation of a conditional covenant.
There are theologians who are condemning the movement, although they are few. The silence of most Reformed theologians and churches -- silence in the face of one of the gravest threats to the gospel of grace since Dordt! -- is deafening. But the theologians who do speak out mostly limit themselves to the error of denying justification by faith alone. They do not get to the root of the evil. They cannot. With the rare exception, they are themselves committed to a conditional covenant.
One of two things will happen.
The theologians and the churches may reexamine their confession of a conditional covenant. Pray God this is the outcome! Then, Reformed theologians and churches will at last seriously confront these questions: Is the covenant conditional, that is, dependent on what the sinner does? Is the promise of the covenant directed in grace to all alike, depending for its realization on the sinner? Is the covenant independent of election? Is the covenant breakable in the sense that God establishes it with a man by gracious promise so that he has the life and benefits of the covenant in his heart, but because of unbelief and disobedience loses the covenant in the end?
If the Reformed churches face these questions, they will also be led to consider whether the covenant is not a warm, living relation of love, rather than a cold contract; whether the covenant in Scripture is not itself the highest good -- the very blessedness of salvation--rather than a mere means to some other end; and whether Christ is not the head of the covenant of grace.
Or, the outcome of the present development of a conditional covenant will be that Reformed and Presbyterian churches succumb to the heretical movement, whether by tolerating the heresy or adopting it.
There are reasons to fear that this will be the outcome. For one thing, the reputedly conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches refuse to discipline the officebearers who are publicly promoting the heresy by writing, by lectures, by conference, and by preaching. An outstanding instance of this refusal to discipline was the action of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church at its general assembly in 2003 overturning the discipline of an elder who had taught justification by faith and works in the public worship services of a congregation (see New Horizons in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, August-September 2003, pp. 20, 21).
Another reason for fearing that the Reformed and Presbyterian churches will succumb to the heresy of a doctrine of justification by faith and works rooted in a conditional covenant is that some of their seminaries are fountainheads of the new departure from the gospel of grace. One of them has been a fountainhead of this grievous error for the past thirty or more years. All this while, it has been pouring pastors who teach the false doctrine of justification by faith and works into the churches it serves. (See Mark W. Karlberg, "The Changing of the Guard: Westminister Theological Seminary in Philadelphia," The Trinity Foundation, 2001.)
It is the peculiar calling and privilege of the Protestant Reformed Churches at this crucial hour in the history of the Reformed churches to defend the gospel of sovereign grace by proclaiming and defending the truth of the unconditional covenant. In the unique history of these churches, God has led them to a clear understanding and heartfelt embrace of the unconditional covenant. It may be that some will now hear the witness of the Protestant Reformed Churches to the unconditional covenant. Who knows, as Mordecai asked of Esther, whether they are "come to the kingdom for such a time as this"?
In this witness to the truth of the unconditional covenant, the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary has an important role. It prepares ministers of the gospel to resist the contemporary assault on sovereign grace. It instructs ministers in the truth of the unconditional covenant. It trains men both to teach the unconditional covenant and to warn against the doctrine of a conditional covenant. It sends out pastors who teach believers and their children that God is God and that salvation is of the Lord in the covenant, as on the mission field.
If the conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches will still not hear this witness and succumb to the heretical development of a conditional covenant, approving justification by faith and works, they will thereby be destroyed as Reformed churches and will take on the mark of the false church according to Article 29 of the Belgic Confession.
When the churches do succumb, they will be responsible for the damnation of their own members and the future generations of their members -- all those who trust for righteousness in their own works, as their churches have taught them.
But even then, the covenant promise of God will not have failed -- not in a single instance. Nor will anyone have lost the union with Christ that he once enjoyed by virture of the bond of the covenant of grace.
The covenant promise of God is never ineffectual (Rom. 9:6).
The truth is that even in conservative Reformed churches not all who are in the sphere of the covenant are covenant friends of God (Rom. 9:6). They always seek their righteousness in the works of the law (Rom. 9:32).
Only some are, or ever were, "children of the promise." They seek, and attain to, "the righteousness which is of faith" (Rom. 9:30). And this is due solely to divine election (Rom. 9:6-33).
The word for this grand truth is grace.
Table of Contents
For Further Study
The following material is added as an appendix to the original discussion