Chapter 7
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Study
Work through what the church teaches, with the Scripture behind it close at hand. Tap a reference to read it right where you are. The creeds, confessions and catechisms here are historic and faithful, and good to read, but they are not all part of what this church professes.
To learn what we profess, see Our Beliefs.
1.
The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to Him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
Luke 17:10 KJV Read in context
10So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Job 35:7-8 KJV Read in context
7If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand? 8Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
2.
Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.
Genesis 2:17 KJV Read in context
17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Galatians 3:10 KJV Read in context
10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Romans 3:20-21 KJV Read in context
20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Romans 8:3 KJV Read in context
3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Mark 16:15-16 KJV Read in context
15And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
John 3:16 KJV Read in context
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 KJV Read in context
26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
John 6:44-45 KJV Read in context
44No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
Psalm 110:3 KJV Read in context
3Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
3.
This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.
Genesis 3:15 KJV Read in context
15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Hebrews 1:1 KJV Read in context
1God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Timothy 1:9 KJV Read in context
9Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Titus 1:2 KJV Read in context
2In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
Hebrews 11:6, 13 KJV Read in context
6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Romans 4:1-2 KJV Read in context
1What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 2For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
Acts 4:12 KJV Read in context
12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
John 8:56 KJV Read in context
56Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
King James Version (1769 text), public domain. Text from eBible.org and the CrossWire Bible Society.