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				THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE
				Dr. H. Bavinck
TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH BY GILBERT ZEKVELD

1 THE BASIS OF THE CONFESSION

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The covenant is established on God's unwavering and everlasting mercies.

With the first covenant that was established before the fall, God came to man with the demand of obedience, and promised him eternal life and heavenly salvation only after fulfilling the law. That covenant reckoned with the will and work of man, in some respects it was in his own hand, and therefore it was unstable and could be broken.

But the covenant of grace has its foundation and stability in God's gracious counsel alone. It rests not in man and does not depend on his approval. It is eternal, unchangeable, constant as the Lord Himself. "Mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee" (Is. 54:10).

In this covenant God is first and last, the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega. In a beautiful way it maintains the absolute Sovereignty of God in the whole work of salvation. For from its beginning to its very end, there is nothing in it of man. Redemption is pre-eminently a Divine work, a work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All boasting is excluded; all the glory is the Lord's, Who is Creator and also Re-creator of all things.

That is why it is a covenant of grace, of pure grace. This covenant has its origin in the Divine virtue of grace. Its contents are gifts of grace; glorification of grace is its destiny. It is God Who established this well-ordered and eternal covenant. It is God Who accepts the (by sin from Him estranged) man; Who grants him all the blessings of the covenant; Who makes him walk in the way of the covenant and leads him by this covenant to heaven and salvation.

The surety of this covenant is reason why in Scripture it is repeatedly introduced as a testament. It is not a mutual treaty or pact; it is not like an agreement between two persons, who after much deliberation sign the contract. But the covenant of grace is an institution, a merciful decree of the Lord, a gift in Christ. "And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me" (Luke 22: 29).

As testament, as last and free arrangement, in the form of an inheritance, the Divine blessings of this covenant become ours, outside and without our will. It is the most precious gift, the most perfect gift, which descends on us 'from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning."

Let us have a look and see, what kind of goods they are, which make out the contents of this free and eternal covenant. Together they form a kingdom of spiritual and material, of heavenly and earthly, of eternal and temporal blessings. There is opened here for man a fullness of blessing, a fountain of salvation and a well-spring of life. One grace changes into another and in turn it is replaced by new grace. From Christ's fullness we receive grace for grace.

In the first place they are benefits, which are granted to man in this covenant. For before anything else Christ came to earth, to seek and save that which was lost. He did not come to reform society, as political leader of the nations, as artist or one worldly wise. Saviour was His name and office. He was thereunto anointed with the Spirit, by the Father, to preach the gospel to the poor; he was sent to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

They are first of all spiritual blessings, whereby the congregation is blessed by the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and regeneration, faith and repentance, sanctification and perseverance, become the possession of believers in communion with Christ. Both -their conscience and being, their state and standing are renewed by the Spirit of Christ. Through the Spirit Who Jives in them they became other people; they are not from beneath, but from above; they are born of God, by Him adopted to children, and destined for the heavenly inheritance. The old is past, behold, all things have become new,

But these spiritual and eternal blessings are coupled with earthly and temporal blessings. Heaven and earth, spirit and matter, soul and body are closely aligned, and absolute separation would not be possible. The glorious image of the future which is shown by the Old Testament prophets, does not only tell us that Israel will be a holy people, by the Lord from eternity betrothed, that He will cleanse from all impurity and give them a new heart, but also, that under the Prince of Peace, the house of David shall enjoy unknown prosperity and extra-ordinary fruitfulness of the earth.

That is also how the New Testament joins spiritual and material blessings. It does emphasise the former. We must seek first the kingdom and its righteousness; and that kingdom becomes already part of those who believe the gospel of Christ, and turn to Christ with a true heart. For in the first place it is established in the heart, it is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Whoever looked for and found that kingdom as a pearl of great price, will receive all the other things on top of the former. These people do not need like the heathen, be anxious and ask the question, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For our heavenly Father knows that we have need of these things. He, Who did not spare His own Son, shall with Him give us all things. The hairs of our head are all numbered. Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure.

Those who would follow Jesus must leave everything, but they will receive already in this life, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, friends and fields, and in the age to come everlasting life. Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

All these benefits of the covenant are put together in the one great promise, that God will be our God and the God of our seed.

With this promise commences the proclamation of salvation, when God looks for man after the fall, breaks his friendship with Satan, making him his enemy instead, and takes him up again in communion with Himself. It is the most prominent aspect of the covenant that was established with Abraham. It has a place above the law that was given to Israel, and is sum and substance of the dispensation of the covenant of grace in the days of the Old Testament. In the midst of misery God's people find blessedness and comfort; Whom do they have in heaven besides God? and there is nothing on earth they desire beside Him. He is the strength of their heart and their portion forever. When Israel forsakes the Lord their God, is this their comfort, that in spite of this the Lord will remain their God, gathers them again from exile and on the end of days establishes a new covenant, in which they will be His people and He will be their God.

And this promise passes over into the New Testament. It is fulfilled in Christ Who in the greatest temptation, in the agony of Gethsemane, in the suffering on the cross, remained standing, because God was His God and He His much beloved Son. It is fulfilled in the congregation that came in Israel’s place and glorying in Emmanuel, God with us, became His people. It shall be fully realised, when the new Jerusalem shall descend from God in heaven, when His tabernacle will be with man, and He shall dwell among His people.

Is there greater gift than the Lord Himself? What can He give more than Himself, Himself with all His virtues and attributes, with His grace and wisdom, with His righteousness and omnipotence, with His un-changeableness and faithfulness? For when God is for us, who can be against us? Whatever may happen, He is and remains ours, in misery and death, in living and dying, for time and eternity. For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living. Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord!

This promise is so much richer, while God therein commits Himself, to be not only our God, but also the God of our seed. It would be great already if God granted communion with some people, who were not related; when in a arbitrary way He would, not taking in account generations, take His elect regardless of all historic coherence of flesh and blood.

But that is not how the lord works. He establishes an organic covenant with humanity, with Christ as its Head, first with Adam then with Abraham who is the father of all believers. With His grace He follows the line of generations. in re-creation he joins creation. He executes election in the way of the covenant, He moves as Father of all mercies in the way, to which as Father of all things, He Himself set His signature.

That is why the covenant of grace is eternal in the sense, that in history it continues from generation to generation and is never cut off. Grace is like a stream which commences after the fall, digs a bed for itself in the history of humanity and discharges in eternity. As covenant it may run through several dispensations and appear in different forms, through God's almighty power it has become an element in this world, which cannot be eradicated, and an indestructible good for humanity.

Precisely because it is a covenant it bears this indestructible character. For in all covenants there are contained two parts. First the Lord God gives Himself to us; but then we are admonished of God and obliged to new obedience, namely, that we cleave to this one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; that we trust in Him, and love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a godly life" (Form for Baptism), When God gives Himself to us, He will that we too shall give ourselves to Him, wholly, undivided, unconditionally with our soul and body, our talents and strength, our money and possessions, with our children and children's children. Before everything with our children, who are the Lord's inheritance and His most cherished earthly blessing. They must be God's, because we are of Him.

Yet, in the covenant He is first and demands us and our children for His service; He glorifies to us and to our children the riches of His grace. He is first, when He calls Adam and Noah, Abraham and Israel into His fellowship, but He remains this also, when He takes their children with them in His covenant. I will be your God, and the God of your seed after you - is the promise, wherewith He commits Himself to the elect in their generations. And before our children did good or evil, He it was, Who as the Sovereign, said, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" (Rom. (9: 15).

Our children do not enter the covenant, because we dedicate them to the Lord. Much less, because by any virtue or merit they made themselves worthy. They are in the covenant by virtue of God's promise. They are in the covenant from the time of their birth, not by nature, but by grace, while God has committed Himself to be the God of believers and their seed.

The same law that rules in the spiritual realm, rules in the natural realm. All of us received a natural life that through our parents we received from God, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. It is not by our merits that we possess life. We did not give it to ourselves, did not merit it, we even forfeited it by our guilt. It is God's gift in a complete sense, not of His particular grace, but of His common grace. We receive it by conception and birth, whereby we are altogether passive. Outside of our awareness and will we are placed in a world, that is filled with rich goods, and we enter into the mighty inheritance of former generations. We stand on their shoulders and enjoy what they brought together in the sweat of their brow.

In much greater measure this is true of the spiritual goods of the covenant. For it is not so that for a long time we wander about outside of the covenant, until at a later date, by faith and repentance we enter the covenant by our own will. For faith and repentance are no conditions outside and to the covenant of grace, but they are blessings of the covenant, assuming communion with Christ and opening the door to the joy of His blessings.

All these blessings, of forgiveness and renewal, sanctification and glory, come to us only from the Mediator, Who bought them for the price of His blood. They cannot be ours, unless we have an interest in His Person. The mystical union with Christ precedes all blessings, and first reveals itself in faith and repentance. As natural life is granted us in birth and after that turns to acts of understanding, so spiritual life becomes our possession by regeneration, and after that will bear the fruits of faith and repentance.

Again, it is not possible to have communion with Christ, but by the Father Who gave us Christ. The offer and gift of Christ precedes all His benefits. It is God, Who in Christ, gives Himself to us and in communion with Him, successively imparts to us all the blessings of the covenant and complete salvation.

Baptism is the sign and seal of this unspeakable gift of God's grace. For it is certain that someone who is baptised in truth, with Christ's blood and Spirit, of the uncleanness of the soul, that is cleansed from all sin, as the body is outwardly cleansed by water.

'When we are baptised in the name of the Father, God the Father witnesses and seals unto us that He makes an eternal covenant of grace with us and adopts us for His children and heirs, and therefore will provide us with every good thing and avert all evil or turn it to our profit. And when we are baptised into the name of the Son, the Son seals unto us that He washes us in His blood from all our sins, incorporating us into the fellowship of His death and resurrection, so that we are freed from our sins and accounted righteous before God.

"Likewise, when we are baptised into the name of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit assures us by this holy sacrament that He will dwell in us, and sanctify us to be members of Christ, imparting to us that which we have in Christ, namely, the washing away of our sins and the daily renewing of our lives, till we shall finally be presented without spot among the assembly of the elect in life eternal." (Form for Baptism).

Baptism is our witness, that God will be our God forever, being a merciful Father, For He has commanded to baptise all those, who are His, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

In baptism the Lord gives us visible evidence, that in Christ He gives Himself and adopts us to His children.

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

Matt. 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!" (Ps. 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" (Hebr. 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" (2 Tim. 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" (Is. 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"(Ps. 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 Cor. 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' (Psalm 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.

3. THE ESSENCE OF THE CONFESSION
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That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.Rom. 10: 9.

 It takes time to live and grow. All what lives and grows takes time to develop. Artificial stimulation of growth results in green house plants, that have no resistance against storms and bad weather.

Spiritual life is also subject to this law of development for organic beings. Holy Scripture knows of a great diversity among God's children. It speaks of lambs and sucklings among the sheep of Jesus' flock; it mentions children, young men and fathers in the faith. Scripture makes a distinction between minors and adults, and in connection with this, between milk and solid food that is administered to believers. Repeatedly it admonishes them, to increase in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, to put on the new man, which is created in true righteousness and holiness, to be strengthened after the inward man and renewed in the spirit of the mind.

As the natural, so must spiritual life develop. It may not remain hidden from man or buried like a treasure in the field. Life is foreign to being idle. Life is movement, life is power, life is to act. All what lives moves and develops. It can be hindered in its growth and resisted, but as long as there is life, there is activity from which it cannot be separated. This is certainly true of spiritual life, that is implanted by the Holy Spirit by regeneration, and bears an everlasting indestructible character. It reveals itself wherever it is found in word and deed, and shows itself in deeds of faith and repentance. And when there is faith, there is confession.

Confession is a glorious word for a more glorious matter. But it has largely lost its beauty and power for us. When we ourselves mention it or hear it mentioned by others, we usually think of the doctrinal standards of some Christian Church, or the public confession, when the young people of the congregation, once in their life time, confess their faith, before they are admitted to the Lord's Table.

But the meaning of the above are derivatives of the word confession. The original sense in Scripture is much richer and much deeper. It is none other and none less than someone's testimony and speaking of his personal faith in Jesus as the Christ.

Two things are included here. In the first place a true, upright faith, a deep, solid conviction of the heart. A confession in the real sense is not possible, when there is no faith in the heart. Confession is a matter of the heart. Its roots are in the heart. It comes from the heart. It is the, fruit of faith in the heart. Without faith, confession is a work of the lips only, words from the mouth, an impersonal, untrue, hypocritical act, that may not have the fair name of confession, and was condemned by the Lord in the Pharisees of His day.

In the second place it is included, that faith is not ashamed and speaks out, openly to the world. Without faith it is impossible to confess. But he who believes in truth and uprightness, must make confession, he will speak in front of friend and enemy, before the face of God, angels and men. Whatever insult may be connected with it, what hate and persecution may be involved, those who believe will speak, loudly, forcefully and boldly. We believe and therefore do we speak.

Jeremiah, by his prophesying, made himself a mockery in the midst of his people, but he could not be silent. The Lord deceived him, was too strong for him and prevailed over him. He said, "I will not make mention of him. But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones" (Jer. 20: 9). The lion roared, who will not be afraid? When the Lord speaks, who will not prophecy?

Believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth go together. To believe and not to confess is acting against the Lord's will. Both are necessary, said a certain church father: a sure, solid faith and a voluntary confession, that the heart may be decorated with the certainty of faith and the tongue confess the truth unashamedly. Another witnessed: the heart needs the mouth, for what fruit is it, to believe with the heart, without openly confessing before men? Faith may justify, complete salvation is found in its confession. Only then faith shines, when it speaks out in confessing, and many profit. On the other hand, the mouth is in need of the heart, for there are many who confess Christ, but their heart is far from Him.

Paul the apostle says that faith grants us righteousness, but confession of the mouth must be added to obtain salvation. We cannot think of both separately, even as confessing the Lord Jesus cannot be taken apart from belief in His resurrection. Faith without confession does not grant righteousness, and confession without faith does not grant us salvation. Faith and confession cannot be thought apart from each other, just like Jesus being lord and His resurrection from the dead, and righteousness and salvation cannot be seen separately. Yet it is true - and this is what Paul wants to say - that although faith justifies, this faith must first become known as a true, justifying faith, when it makes confession. Faith, not the confession justifies. But when this faith is a true faith it is shown in confessing it. True, justifying faith leads only to salvation in the way of confessing. Without sanctification, no one shall see God. Without confessing faith, no one will see heaven. Confessing is not meritorious, but the royal way to salvation.

Faith and confession work together, they support each other. Faith that does not confess is timid, fearful, withdraws and fades away. Confession without faith is like a flower without stem, it fades and fails to the ground. On the other hand, by confessing faith is strengthened, it is established, and it roots grow deeper in the heart. In confessing, faith receives its glow and inspiration; gains courage and boldness; is continually kept and fed as by a hidden fire.

It follows that the so-called public confession is not an act all by itself, that takes place only once and is thereby finished. Many think that is the way it is. A few weeks before the solemn occasion takes place preparations are made. One abstains from public amusements. One attends church and catechism classes with greater regularity. On the very day a new garment is put on. After that they participate only once in celebrating the Lord's Supper. Then, everything is forgotten. Life continues as if nothing happened.

Such a confession is without value. It is not confessing the faith. Confessing is much richer and has much deeper significance. It is a serious act and a solemn hour, when youthful members for the first time do confession of their personal faith in the midst of the congregation. It is a die-stone on life's way, when one becomes of age, and requires entrance into all the rights, which Christ grants His believers. For time and eternity we are bound to the confession we make. God holds us to it, and at one time we shall be judged accordingly. Christ will remember it and shall ask us to give an account of it. The Holy Spirit shall point back to it until the hour we die, unto eternity. It will, if not for us, witness against us in the day of days, and make our judgement heavier.

It is not a matter all by itself that has no connection with life that went before and that follows. It is not a sacrament like what Rome made of it. It has no supernatural holiness in itself. It is not fenced off by the area of unhallowed, natural life. We do not become a new kind of soldier under Christ as King. Confessing our faith publicly is a weighty and grave matter, but is does not stand by itself, it is narrowly connected with the preceding life, and that which follows.

It is preceded by a daily confessing. All faith confesses, after its own measure, in its own way, its own language. Even the faith of the playing child and the youth who is full of life. If it is but a true faith, if there dwells but a true childlike fear of God in the heart, it will come out into the open. It reveals itself in a piety of soul, and upright mind, a tender heart, reverence for what is holy, a delight in prayer, fear for what is evil, in keeping self and others from evil. Our children already confess from the time they were very young, and their confession is pleasing to the Lord.

For what says Scripture? "Suffer the children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Mark 10: 14). It is because the name of the Lord is glorious in all the earth, for, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger" (Psalm 8: 2). "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise" (1 Cor. 1: 27). Children in their simplicity, their uprightness, their humility are proclaimers of the glory of the Lord, which is found in all the earth and appeared most glorious in Christ.

And as confessing from early youth precedes doing public confession, so it is followed by one during one's whole life until the hour of death.

It is true, public confession in the midst of the congregation is done in the first place to gain admittance to the Lord's Table. It opens the door to the table of the Covenant. It appears as if it separates baptism from the Lord's Supper. However, this is not so, much more does it connect the two and keeps them together.

That is how it should be. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are sacraments that have the same value. They have the same strength and significance. They are signs and seals of the same covenant. The Word directs both, they are ordained to point our faith to Christ's sacrifice on the cross, as the only foundation of our salvation. They are given to the same believers. Baptism in the New Testament was mostly administered to adults, therefore confession came before baptism. The one baptized was instantly admitted to the Lord's Table.

But since infant baptism came in general use, there gradually came a separation. Baptism can be administered to the children of the covenant, for it is the sacrament of regeneration and incorporation into the Church of Christ. But the Lord's Table presumes that we ourselves take the bread and eat, that we receive the cup and drink. In order to celebrate the Supper of the Lord to our comfort, it is necessary before all things, rightly to examine ourselves, and distinguish the body of the Lord. It is the sacrament of the growth of our spiritual life in communion with Christ, and is therefore repeated at regular intervals.

That is why the confession came gradually between Baptism and the Lord's Supper, not to separate them, but to the contrary, to keep them connected, and to point from Baptism to the Lord's Supper. The confession presumes baptism and prepares for the Lord's Supper. In confession, the one baptised accepts his baptism and it is his desire to be admitted to the second sign of the covenant. By grace the Lord accepted him as His child; and at the present time, having come to years of discretion and awareness, he speaks humbly and childlike, but also believingly, before all God's people, that God is His God. He places his hand in the hand of the Lord. Wholeheartedly he consents to the covenant, in which he was taken up since birth. At the promise of the Lord: I am thy God, he now answers: I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid, thou hast loosed my bonds. Ps. 116. The Lord brings His children up to be free and independent. He wants a willing people at the day of His power. We love Him, because He first loved us.

That is what. the believer says, when at the solemn hour of his confession he is admitted to the Holy Supper. Of that he does confession, when with the congregation he celebrates the Lord's Supper. What the Lord does at the Lord's Supper comes first, it is His gift, His grace. Therein He offers Christ to us with all the by Him obtained benefits. The Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, instituted the Supper to feed and nourish all those who already regenerated and in His family, are by Him incorporated into His Church. We eat His flesh and drink His blood with the mouth of faith, to strengthen our spiritual life.

But in the second place, the Lord's Supper is our confession. The Lord's Supper follows a, true examination of ourselves, which exists of three parts.

How significant is the confession we make with the Lord's Supper! We do not go on the Table to testify that in ourselves we are perfect and righteous, to the contrary, since we seek our life outside of self in Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that we lie in the midst of death. In celebrating the Lord's Supper we confess that Jesus Christ is the true food and drink of our souls, and that we are members of His body. For it is one bread, seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body.' for we all partake of the one bread.

But the Supper is also not far removed from everyday life. It is extraordinary in the sense, that at all times God's special grace meets us, and in an extraordinary way is set before our eyes and assured to our hearts. We also see it often as strange and wonderful, since it is only celebrated a few times every year, and then not nearly faithfully by everybody. But the grace granted us in the sacrament, is no other then what continually is preached by the Word of the Gospel which feeds us from day to day. The first Christian congregations therefore celebrated the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day, even in their assemblies during the week. It was the highlight of the worship service, where believers exercised the fellowship of the saints, as provisions, they took along on the pathway of life.

The Lord's Supper signs and seals the fellowship we have with Christ, in which we share at all times, and which we enjoy by faith. We testify of that faith, not only when we participate of the Supper, nor just on Sunday on our way to the sanctuary.

We confess that faith all our life long, as certainly as we are true believers. For faith can do nothing but confess. It does not ask the question whether good works are in order, but does them before the question can be asked. Confessing with mouth and heart, with word and deed, in our walk and dealings cannot be separated from faith in the heart. It is fruit from the tree, the fragrance of the flower, the light of the sun, the sweetness of honey. It is impossible that those incorporated in Christ should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness.

To believe is to confess, not only on Sunday but also during the week, not just in Church, but also in family and school, in shop and factory, in store and office, in state and society, in science and art, among believers and unbelievers, before men and angels.

He confesses in maintaining the public worship service, in giving to the poor, in supporting schools, in visiting the prisoner, in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, comforting those who mourn, admonishing the unruly, in refuting those who are contrary, in giving account of the hope that is in him, in keeping oneself unspotted from the world.

To believe, is to confess. Life itself becomes a confession, a living, holy, sacrifice in Christ Jesus, pleasing to God.

4. THE CONTENT OF THE CONFESSION
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There are two things, which according to Holy Scripture make out the contents of the confession.

In the first place, all true confession is acknowledging our sin and guilt. At the great day of Atonement in Old Testament times the High priest had to lay both of his hands upon the living scape-goat, confess all the sins of the children of Israel and all their trespasses, of any which nature they were, and lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness.

It was a common confession, spoken by the High priest, in name of all the people. But this common confession did not exclude the personal, individual confession of sins. For we read of the latter, again and again, in the books of the Old Covenant, especially in the so-called penitential psalms. They form a significant element in the prayers of all God's people, of David and Salomon, of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel.

There is no people in the world that have felt their sins so deeply, and confessed them more humbly than Israel, "For innumerable evils compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs on my head" (Ps. 40: 12); and: 'If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities. 0 Lord, who shall stand? (Ps. 130: 2); and "Enter not into judgement with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified" (Ps. 143: 2).

And we find confession of sin in the congregation of the New Testament. When John the Baptist preached the message of repentance, many were baptised in Jordan, confessing their sins. A multitude of sufferers, received not only bodily healing from the Lord, but an even greater blessing, i.e., the forgiveness of their sins and the redemption of their soul. He taught His disciples to pray, "Father forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. In the parable of the publican He draws a picture, which befits us sinners, over against a holy and a righteous God. The publican standing afar off, durst not lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat on his breast saying, " God be merciful to me a sinner". "If we confess our sIns, He is faithful and just to forgives us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1: 9).

Although confession of sins is very much needed, all by itself it is not enough. The doctrine of sin and misery is not all there is, but precedes that of redemption and gratitude. Yes, whoever is aware of sin and misery, and makes confession of the same, is already a believer. In the Lord's Days of the Heidelberg Catechism that deal with sin and misery, the unbeliever is not speaking, but the Christian. In the first Lord's Day he already glories in his only comfort and confessed, that with soul and body, both in life and death, he is not his own, but belongs to His faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

A true, upright confession of sins is already fruit of a saving faith. Whoever confesses his sin in truth and humility, has already been before the Lord, placed himself before His face and finds himself in God's presence. He cannot do this but only in believing that God is gracious and of great compassion.

There is also a certain acknowledging of sin, that is not in faith. People that live in the world may have a deep sense of misery. "Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear" (Gen. 4: 13). Judas called out, that he had sinned, betraying innocent blood. There is a doubtful speaking, which is not born from a broken heart, but wrested from the heart by the horrible consequences of sin. There is a remorse and despair, which does not drive out to the Lord, but flies away from Him and rises up against Him. There is a sorrow of the world, which worketh death.

But the true confession of sins differs from this despairing cry and bears an altogether different character. It is derived from a contrite spirit, which is not despised by the Lord, but is pleasing to Him. It is not about the consequences of sin, but its essence, the guilt of sin, because it displeases God and is in conflict with His law. It is a heartfelt sorrow, that we have displeased God by our sins, we sinned against His righteousness, even more, because we sinned against His love. For, said Jesus at one time, If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin, but now they have no pretext for their sin.

This confession is coupled with a sorrow after God and works a sorrow not to be repented of. It is a confession before the face of the Lord and holds nothing back. It is accompanied by, and born of faith that God is not only righteous, but also merciful and gracious. It is already a confession of faith; it is from, through and unto faith. Faith does not enter after we know our misery, but precedes it and gives it the right form. Above the law we find the word of grace: I am the Lord, your God. True repentance is also gratitude.

That is why Scripture says in the second place, that confession means confessing the name of the Lord. Repentance and confessing the name of the Lord go together. For confessing that name includes a heartfelt, believing admission, that the Lord is the God of the covenant, Who revealed Himself as the compassionate and faithful, Who in Christ fulfills all His promises of grace. Those who repent with a true heart, repent unto God, the living God, Who in Christ is, a reconciled Father.

When therefore in the days of the New Testament, John the Baptist appears, he does not just call to repentance and confession from sin, but he also points them to the Lamb, which bears the sins of the world. John was not just a preacher of the law and penance, but also the herald of the gospel and a preacher of faith. For the kingdom of heaven was near. And after him came He Who was before him, Whose shoelaces he was not worthy to undo. John administered baptism as a sign and seal of the forgiveness of sins, which can be obtained and granted in the way of repentance.

The whole content of the confession of faith in the New Testament is summed up in few words, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He who confesses Him before man as such, shall at one time be confessed by Him before His Father Who is in heaven. It was a grave moment when all of Christ's disciples went back, and He asked the twelve, "Will you also go away*?" But Simon Peter answered in the name of all, "Lord to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God" (John 6: 68, 69). As soon as the Eunuch confessed this good confession, he was instantly baptized by Philip. The spirits are known by the confession that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Whoever makes the confession, that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

Jesus the promised Messiah, the by God anointed Prophet, Priest and King - is the short content of the whole of Christian faith. It is the core of revelation, the heart of Scripture, the bone and marrow of all confession, the central dogma of all bible truths. The centre from which all rays of the knowledge of God flow to the periphery. The Person of Christ determines the essence of Christendom.

With that confession the Congregation took its place in the midst of Jew and Heathen. By its confession she was separated from both. By way of its confession it came to richer development of faith and life. At first, everyone who confessed the Lord Jesus was baptized. Later, this was expanded to the names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the twelve articles of our undoubted Christian faith, this baptismal confession was further developed. Again later, all these articles of the different confessions of the Christian Church were better realized, and received a more detailed description. The confessions are like branches and leafs, together proceeding from the one trunk, which in faith that Jesus is the Christ, was in the beginning planted in the bottom of the Congregation.

For in this short confession, creation and fall, sin and misery are pre-supposed. The whole Person of Christ with His names and natures, with His offices and states is enclosed as a germ. The whole order of salvation, for the individual, for humanity, for the world, is included. In the cross of Christ which was an offense to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks, sin and grace, law and gospel, justice and mercy, guilt and forgiveness are united and reconciled. Over that cross, God and world, heaven and earth, angels and men, people and nations offer each other the hand of peace. For thereby God has reconciled the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses onto them, and triumphing over principalities and powers.

In the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are partakers of the love of the Father and enjoy communion with the Holy ghost.