Show Notes
Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A #12
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, this evening we are thinking about a very special doctrine. It has the word special, actually, in the question of the Shorter Catechism in your hymnals.
[00:00:12] If you would turn to the Shorter Catechism, question 12, this is on page 968.
[00:00:28] The doctrine we're considering this evening from the Scriptures is the doctrine regarding something that we might call the covenant of life, or the covenant of works, or the relationship that God established with mankind when he created us.
[00:00:49] The Shorter Catechism addresses this question in question 12.
[00:00:55] I'll read the question, and let's read the answer together.
[00:00:59] What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?
[00:01:07] When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death.
[00:01:25] So here we have a very straightforward answer to a very important question.
[00:01:32] And it's something that we in some senses know by nature the way that God has created us in the way that he has created the world. But we also know this through the scriptures in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3 and other places that tell us about this original relationship that God established with man.
[00:02:02] There's various aspects of it. The aspect that's highlighted here is a covenant. A covenant is a solemn promise which is made, which is establishes a relationship. And the particular promise that God made came in the form of a threat.
[00:02:23] It came in the form of this threat for a command. First, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then the consequence, or you will surely die.
[00:02:35] That was the promise. Now attached to that was a corresponding commandment and consequence or reward, which is if Adam had passed this test, he would have received life.
[00:02:51] Now, how do we know that Genesis 1 and 2 and this relationship that God establishes with man is a covenant? Well, there's a couple of ways we know that there's a special relationship that's being established here.
[00:03:05] One is from Genesis 2:16 and 17, where we have this condition and penalty.
[00:03:12] And it's given in this very solemn and awesome way a second proof that we have of this. And there are others. But another comes from Hosea 6, 7, where we read that they, like Adam, transgressed the covenant. There it's speaking of Israel. And so here it specifically identifies Adam, a covenant with Adam. And it's saying that Israel broke a covenant, like Adam broke the covenant.
[00:03:43] Now, one of the things that's of course, really important to recognize about our relationship with God in the way that he made us is that we are even in simply by being made by him. We are obligated to Him.
[00:03:58] God doesn't need to establish any other special commands or conditions beyond simply making us in order to demand our obedience.
[00:04:14] One of the ways that we might think about this, it comes from Psalm 48.
[00:04:21] I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart.
[00:04:28] Another set of verses comes from Romans. If you would turn there with me. We're going to spend a little bit of time here at the beginning of this book to think about the obligation that God placed on us. An obligation that was clear and important.
[00:04:51] Paul is going to make the argument that all are saved by the Gospel, both Jews and Gentiles.
[00:04:59] We're saved through faith and through faith alone. But before he establishes that, he makes this other argument which says that all are condemned on both Jews and Gentiles because of their disobedience to the law of God.
[00:05:14] So let's spend some time here hearing what he has to say here about our relationship to him and creation and what all this reveals. So verse 18, Romans, chapter 1, verse 18.
[00:05:27] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
[00:05:40] When you suppress something, you press it down.
[00:05:44] Sometimes an analogy is used of like a beach ball in a swimming pool. You can suppress it, you can push it below the water, but it's just going to pop back up. There's a kind of foolishness in it and a vanity in it, and ultimately you can't do it. But yet it's attempted.
[00:06:06] Verse 19.
[00:06:08] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
[00:06:15] For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
[00:06:31] Let's pause for just a moment. So you see what God says in the things that he has made in creation. Ever since the very beginning, his eternal power and divine nature have not only been accessible and known. People could figure it out, but clearly perceived.
[00:06:50] It's not a confusing thing, it's not a mysterious thing. It's an obvious thing.
[00:06:56] And everyone knows it, because we all live in the world that God has made.
[00:07:01] There's an implication of this which comes in the next sentence. Paul says. So they are without excuse, right? If we know about the eternal power of God, if we know about his divine nature, and as he will get to, as he will come to say, if we know the laws that he has commanded, then we can't say, I didn't know.
[00:07:22] We can't talk about our disobedience to his law and to the things that he has commanded and say, I don't know. Because we do know. It's been clearly perceived.
[00:07:33] He explains more going back to this idea of suppression in verse 21. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
[00:08:03] So here Paul points specifically to the idolatry that we see in all religions apart from true religion. But even we see, even we see the original sins there of that exchanging of the glory of the immortal God for lower things.
[00:08:25] Now, verse 24 goes on. Paul gives more implications of this. What happened as a result.
[00:08:33] Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their heart to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
[00:08:52] So as Paul goes on to say, then this because of the way that. Because of who he is and because of the way he created the world, and because we're all in the world. This applies universally to Jews and to Gentiles. Let's look at how he deals with both.
[00:09:18] So in verse. Let's go to chapter two, verse one. He says, therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges, here's the reason for in passing judgment on one another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
[00:09:41] You see what he's saying? He's saying, you, which is all of us, constantly are making decisions and judgment calls. We might say about this person or that person, we stand and judge, saying, this is right and this is wrong.
[00:09:56] And yet we practice the very same things that we condemn in other people.
[00:10:03] Well, if we are able to condemn the things that other people practice, we condemn ourselves.
[00:10:10] And he goes on to say in verse two, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
[00:10:26] It's a foolish thing to think, isn't it? To think that in our daily, everyday lives, we're constantly judging ourselves, our coworkers, our leaders, almost every article we read, whether it's on a sports team or an economic policy or some policy document at work, we're constantly, constantly judging. In some ways it's a very good thing. It's an important part of living life and being wise, making decisions between right and wrong.
[00:11:00] But there's a prideful piece of it. We become, as we say, judgey, right when we think that we can exercise this judgment, this skill of judgment, and yet it never applies to ourselves or that we will somehow escape the judgment of God who judges perfectly in all ways.
[00:11:21] Verse 4.
[00:11:22] Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
[00:11:34] You see his point there?
[00:11:36] He's saying, just because God doesn't condemn you and punish you every time you disobey doesn't mean he's not aware of what you're doing.
[00:11:48] What is he doing? He's being kind. He's being forbearing, he's being patient. Why? Because his kindness is meant to lead us to repentance.
[00:11:58] If in our lives we kind of say, if we say to ourselves, well, God's not doing anything, so I guess I don't have to worry about it. I guess it's not important to it. You're taking exactly the wrong kind of lesson. You're drawing the wrong kind of conclusion from that.
[00:12:14] Instead you should say, look at the riches of his kindness, look at the riches of his forbearance. I should repent of my sins.
[00:12:26] Let's keep going. 5. But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. What you have not yet seen, you will see. It will happen. And verse six, he will render each according to his works. To those who by patience and well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But those who are self seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil. The Jew first and also the Greek.
[00:13:07] But honor, glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good. The Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality.
[00:13:17] So Paul has established his point in another way now, right? He's established this point of the way that God judges and the coming judgment. He's gone from the beginning in creation to the end when he comes in and reveals his wrath and he shows that universally again, we are all under the judgment of God, and he will show no partiality.
[00:13:39] Now Paul addresses Gentiles, verse 12. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
[00:13:55] For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers who will be justified.
[00:14:04] It's not enough to just know it. It's not enough to just hear it. It's not enough to just say, I have the law of Moses. Aren't me and my people great? Not enough. It must be the doers of the law.
[00:14:16] Paul speaks about gentiles in verse 14, when he says, when Gentiles who do not have the law. And he's referring to the law of Moses there.
[00:14:26] When Gentiles who do not have the law, Moses by nature do what the law requires. They are a law to themselves, even though they don't have the law.
[00:14:42] They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness. And their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them that judgment aspect on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secret hearts or the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
[00:15:03] So lots going on there. There's some confusing things, but the core of what he's saying is this. Look at the Gentiles.
[00:15:12] They follow the laws not perfectly, not in any way that's going to justify them, but you see them trying not to steal, trying to take care of each other, upholding the importance of love, these kinds of things. How do they do that when they don't have the law of Moses? How do they follow something like the Ten Commandments when they haven't been given the Ten Commandments? The answer is because they have the law, even though they don't have the law of Moses. How is it they have the law? Remember what we heard in the beginning. It's been revealed to them God's eternal power, his divine nature and his demands on people. It's in us.
[00:15:54] It's not just out there. It's in us and in our consciences, bearing witness against us, accusing, excusing.
[00:16:04] And so in this way the Gentiles are not excused.
[00:16:09] Those who are not Jews have, in a sense, the law of God and are required to obey it. Not all the ceremonial laws, not these specially revealed things. But he's talking about the moral law, the law that's written on their hearts and their consciences bear witness to them.
[00:16:28] What about the Jews.
[00:16:31] He addresses them now in verse 17, he says, if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law, and boast in God, and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you're instructed from the law. And if you're sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind and a light to the darkness, or and a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of the knowledge of knowledge and truth. You then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
[00:17:05] He's piling up all of these phrases. And to appeal to their sense of honor as Jews, you have the law. You've been given this great light. Remember Moses, he goes up on the mountain. It's this glorious experience, terrifying as well. Israel's told, do not touch the mountain, or you will surely die. God thunders, there's lightning, there's clouds. And the law is given to Moses.
[00:17:35] And in this, Israel was to be an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children and all these other things. But then we come to the condemning verse of 21.
[00:17:45] Do you not teach yourself while you preach against stealing? Do you steal?
[00:17:53] You who say that one must not commit adultery? Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
[00:18:11] Not the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of the Gentiles, but the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of Israel.
[00:18:23] For if now, verse 25, we're almost done for. Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law.
[00:18:32] But if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. It's like it hadn't even happened. It loses the significance. Or that's. Don't overthink that one.
[00:18:45] It has. Your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. It's as if you were undoing it. So, verse 26. If a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
[00:19:03] Catch that one. A man who is uncircumcised. Who are we talking about? Jews or Gentiles? Gentiles. If a Gentile keeps the law, will he not be regarded as circumcision, even as the One who is circumcised and doesn't keep the law is regarded as uncircumcised.
[00:19:22] God shows no partiality. What's the big deal? Obedience.
[00:19:28] Obedience to the law.
[00:19:31] Just because you are circumcised doesn't mean you get a special pass and don't have to obey.
[00:19:40] Then he goes, he says in verse 27, then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and the circumcision, but break the law.
[00:19:54] And there's examples of this we have throughout the Old Testament of Gentiles coming into a context and speaking and acting in a way that brings condemnation on Israel.
[00:20:05] One example that comes to mind is Jonah going to Nineveh, right? Jonah goes to Nineveh to preach this repentance that Israel herself should have repented in the similar ways. And Nineveh does it almost easily.
[00:20:22] Jonah's all worried and all these things, and he's upset. And he goes there and he says to the king, you know, there's this destruction coming. And then so quickly, there is this all. There is all this repentance in the city is saved.
[00:20:37] Or we see Jonah being so rebellious, but the sailors in the boat with him, seeking to try to appease the God that is clearly upset with Jonah.
[00:20:51] And there's other things we could point to. There are various ways throughout the Scriptures in which the Gentiles, you might think of the kings that Abraham had contact with, remember the lying about Sarah and all this stuff. And the King says, what are you doing, Abraham?
[00:21:12] Why are you deceiving me in this way?
[00:21:17] When he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law, then he will condemn you who have written code and circumcision, but break the law, now he's going to bring it home. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly.
[00:21:37] Nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God.
[00:21:55] Now, in the next few verses, Paul deals with this question which we won't deal with here, which you see at the beginning of chapter three, which is, well, then what advantage is there in being a Jew?
[00:22:05] Okay, we're going to pause. Skip that for now. You can read that later.
[00:22:11] But then he comes finally to some of these conclusions. Let's look at verse 21 of chapter three, and we'll finish here. Now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. This is speaking of Jesus Christ, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believed, for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
[00:22:45] All have sinned and fallen short of the glory God.
[00:22:51] So ultimately, it's going to be faith alone that saves us. It's going to be the righteousness of God and not the righteousness of man that saves us.
[00:23:01] In the background of all of this, the foundation for all of this is the covenant that God originally made, in which he said, obey and you will have life. Disobeyed, and you will have death.
[00:23:16] These things are written into our consciences. They're written into nature itself. But God did pick this particular command about eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and forbidding it.
[00:23:32] Why?
[00:23:34] Here's one possible explanation. This comes from James Fisher.
[00:23:38] He says, why did God extend the rule and matter of man's covenant obedience to a thing in itself that's maybe indifferent otherwise, not a part of the moral law, but specifically commanded.
[00:23:52] The answer he gives is that man's obedience might turn on the precise point of the will of God, which is the plainest evidence of true obedience.
[00:24:04] In other words, that man would obey not only in the things that are obvious and true, as made a part of his nature, but he would obey wherever God commands, no matter what, even if it doesn't make sense to man in that particular moment.
[00:24:22] Again, Psalm 40, verse 8. I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart.
[00:24:29] When the law truly is within our hearts, when it's written on our hearts, not just in a way that condemns us, but in a way in which we desire to obey it.
[00:24:39] There is a delight in God and a delight in his will. This is what we are called to be. And that's what Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. They lived peacefully, happily, in obedience. It was disobedience that disrupted these things.
[00:24:59] Remember, the man who comes to Jesus in Matthew 19 says, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
[00:25:08] Obey.
[00:25:09] In some ways, it's pretty straightforward, and we all know it. The problem, of course, is that we all fall short of obedience. We all fall short of the glory of God.
[00:25:26] When we grow up, when we are little and we grow up in the world, there are certain things that we learn really fast, learn instinctually, naturally, like gravity.
[00:25:39] No one sits you down and explains gravity. And then you start living within the reality of gravity. You are always living within the reality of gravity, even in your mother's womb. It's affecting you right away. It's a part of you. You're in that system. That's how things are.
[00:25:57] There's a lot of other realities in this world that we can explain.
[00:26:03] Sometimes the reality, the realities that are there are because of things that have happened.
[00:26:10] And Adam and Eve's breaking of this covenant of life is one of them.
[00:26:17] Understanding that and that reality has a way of really helping us understand certain things about our world and certain things about what God has done.
[00:26:28] Have you ever been to a family reunion, maybe it's been a while, and you get together with your family and you walk away and you go, that's why I am the way I am.
[00:26:37] Or maybe your spouse says to you, that's why you are the way you are. Right. There's something that when we get around our family members, we see these commonalities and we come to understand something sometimes in a way that's deeper about ourselves, that's inborn, ingrained.
[00:26:58] Well, the covenant of works, this covenant of life and the breaking of it and the falling short of it, and this living within creation, it really helps us to understand a lot of things about our lives.
[00:27:11] If we're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, there's going to be a lot that's confusing, a lot that's hard to understand. But if we come to understand what the scriptures are saying, that God created man, righteousness, man broke that covenant, and now we're all under a curse.
[00:27:28] I think if we accept it and we believe it, a little light bulb will go off for a lot of us and go, well, that explains a lot.
[00:27:37] It explains death, it explains suffering. It explains the things that are going on inside my heart. It explains my fleshly nature. It explains how I, on the one hand, know that I'm supposed to do these things and yet feel totally incapable of doing them. And I fail over and over again. On the one hand, I have this ability to sense and understand the glories of God, his awesomeness in creation. When we look at the canyons and the mountains and the rainbows and the stars and the oceans, and we say, wow.
[00:28:12] And when we see the nature of true love and true obedience, and we say, wow. And then we say, what am I doing? Why can't I get my life together? Why am I such a mess?
[00:28:25] When we think about how God created the world and how man broke that covenant and came under God's wrath, And curse we go. Okay, that makes sense.
[00:28:43] Understanding the covenant of life and the special acts of providence that God made with us at the beginning of the world is helpful in a second way, and I'll end with this. It not only helps us to understand the situation in which we all find ourselves in, but it helps us to understand with a lot of clarity who Jesus is and what he came to do.
[00:29:05] The scriptures talk about Jesus in a couple places as the last Adam.
[00:29:11] They talk about Jesus as the one who came to fulfill the law, to fulfill all righteousness and to even be our righteousness, to give us a righteousness that is from God, a righteousness which is given to both Jews and Gentiles, people all over the world.
[00:29:36] Jesus came to do, to put it very simply, what Adam failed to do.
[00:29:41] And he did it.
[00:29:43] He accomplished it.
[00:29:45] Which is why in Christ there's no more death or fear of death, because there's no more conditionality to the covenant.
[00:29:57] There's no more hoping that it will all hinge on obedience. Because obedience was offered, obedience was given.
[00:30:08] Christ fulfilled it. He did it. Our confidence is built in this. All the more when we realize that Jesus was not just another man, but he was the Son of God.
[00:30:20] God fulfills all obedience. God is perfectly righteous. And Jesus as this last Adam, as our representative in the way Adam was, establishes us a salvation that is secure.
[00:30:36] He obtains what Adam failed. And in that way we never want to say, one day in heaven we'll get to go back to the Garden of Eden.
[00:30:48] We don't want to say that, because as good as the Garden of Eden was, it was conditional.
[00:30:55] Heaven's not conditional. The Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of God is not conditional in the sense that it has the potential to be lost because Jesus fulfilled the condition and he earned it perfectly for us.
[00:31:14] That's why the Scriptures say that we live not by the law, but by faith. It's why the Scriptures tell us that the law was unable to produce the righteousness in us. But the Holy Spirit is that we receive first Jesus, righteousness accounted to us in our justification. And the Holy Spirit continues to work righteousness in us, making us more and more like our Savior.
[00:31:44] These are the implications of the covenant of works. And it makes a big difference for our daily lives, because we all fall short daily.
[00:31:55] And in those moments when we fall short of the glory of God, when we sin, when we fail to do the things that we're called to do, we have a decision to make. Are we going to try and put forward more and More obedience so that we will potentially earn back God's pleasure and grace, a work that's futile and impossible?
[00:32:20] Or will we put our faith in the solution God has provided, in the righteousness he freely gives to us?
[00:32:29] This is how we deal with guilt. This is how we deal with shame.
[00:32:33] This is how we deal with our need for strength in this life. This is how we deal with our fears when we are looking forward to the things that are come. In each of these instances and in different ways, we look to Christ, who is our Savior and who is the last Adam.
[00:32:52] Let's pray and ask that God would help us to do that.
[00:32:56] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that he gave his life for us so that we might live not in our own strength or in our own righteousness, which is already under your wrath, but in his.
[00:33:12] In him we are justified not by obedience to the law, but through faith.
[00:33:19] Lord, we ask that you would help us to believe the promises that you have given to us.
[00:33:26] We ask that you would help us to humble ourselves and our foolish attempts to live righteously before you, as if we could earn something from you and instead live our lives righteously before you because we have been given something from you.
[00:33:43] Lord, help us to depend on faith. Help us to rest on the grace that you have promised to us in Christ.
[00:33:51] Help us to believe in the hope that you have given to us even though we struggle and fall.
[00:34:00] Lord, we ask that you would also help us to fall less and less and less.
[00:34:06] We ask that you would be glorified in us more and more and more as you work your righteousness in us, as you strengthen us, as you make us more obedient and more repentant in the great work of sanctification. And we ask that you would bring it to full completion one day in the work of glorification.
[00:34:27] Lord, we have a great abundance of grace in Jesus Christ.
[00:34:32] Let us cling to him in every circumstance, in every situation, and see ourselves as no longer belonging generally to the children of man, to mankind, and under a curse.
[00:34:45] But let us see ourselves as those who belong to Christ, the Son of man, who lived and died for us. Let us learn to see ourselves as those who have died to the old man and live in the new man, and no longer let sin reign in our bodies, making us obey its passions. But instead let us learn to present our members to God as instruments of righteousness, all because of the righteousness of Christ.
[00:35:18] We are not under law, but under grace. Help us to live in light of that, to enjoy it and to give you all the glory, we pray this in Jesus name, amen.
