This article is the first installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith". Find the whole series here.
Introducing the Belgic Confession
The systematic study of Biblical doctrine seems increasingly endangered. Among pragmatic people living under the influence of secularism, the study of doctrine is a very low priority. As popular culture embraces absurdity, we might question the usefulness of studying, say, the attributes of God, or the nature of sacraments.
But a careful and practical systematic study of the faith is exactly what we need. It always has been. While resisting Judaism and paganism the early Christians “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine” (Acts 2:42 KJV). Paul believed that good doctrine “will equip the saints for the work of ministry,” build up the body of Christ, promote unity and Christian maturity, and prevent childish vacillation and gullibility (Eph. 4:11–14). Doctrine is more than mere Bible knowledge. Just as a child could know the alphabet but not know how to speak its language, so a Christian could memorize the entire Bible and not understand its logic. To bring letters to life grammar is needed. And doctrine is like the grammar of Scripture. For this reason, J.C. Ryle urged believers to understand “the nature, place, and proportion of the various doctrines.” We must “be sound in the faith, and…armed with a clear scriptural knowledge of the whole system of the gospel.”
The Belgic Confession (1561) can help us achieve this mature faith. The confession was written in what we call Belgium by Guido de Bres in consultation with some of the best religious minds of his day. It was quickly adopted by the reformed churches of the Netherlands as an official summary of what Christians believe. Its thirty-seven articles are structured by the seven major heads of Christian doctrine, each of which explains a vital facet of vibrant Christianity. These seven overlapping movements offer a grammar of Christianity and answer the question, “Why do I need doctrine?”
To Trust Scripture (articles 3–7)
The one true God chiefly makes himself known through “his holy and divine word” (Belgic Confession, Article 2). This doctrine is called prolegomena—it comes first and lays a sound foundation for biblical faith. The Bible is the true and complete revelation of God’s will. It “was not sent nor delivered by the will of men” (3). It trumps human opinion no matter how popular or coercive it may be. If you fail to submit to Scripture you will “be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14). J.C. Ryle is right: to question “the trustworthiness of Scripture” will “bring spiritual desolation.” On the contrary, knowing Scripture can bring life (John 6:63).
To Know God (articles 1, 2, 8–13)
The study of God is known as theology proper, the most important of all pursuits. When the Lord says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10), he’s saying, stop everything else and know me. You can’t flourish in any other pursuit if you don’t know the God who made the world in which you live. Scripture teaches that there is “a single and simple spiritual being whom we call God” (1). This one God exists in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the key to finding unity in a diverse world. Only in his self-sufficiency can we hope for our needs to be met.
To Know Yourself (articles 14–15)
Unlike God humans do not have innate self-knowledge. To have a true anthropology, a right view of humanity, we must study to know ourselves in relation to God. The Bible teaches that God “made and formed man in his image and likeness—good, just, and holy” (14). Tragically, the first man “by his sin separated himself from God” (14). Adam’s sin resulted in the “corruption of all nature” (15). This teaching sounds negative. But only a biblical anthropology adequately explains the evil in this world and previews the rescue work of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 15:45–49).
To Love Christ (articles 16–21)
Jesus doesn’t enter the Bible’s story late, in what we call the New Testament. A biblical Christology teaches that God, “in his eternal and unchangeable counsel…elected” in Christ a people “without any consideration of their works” (16). God comforted fallen Adam, “promising to give him his Son…and to make him blessed” (17). In “the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4) “God sent his only and eternal Son into the world” (18) as our Savior, having “two natures united in a single person.” He is “true God in order to conquer death by his power, and true man that he might die for us in the weakness of his flesh” (19).
To Believe the Way of Salvation (articles 22–26)
Christ’s death and resurrection are historical facts. How they help us is answered by soteriology, the study of the way of salvation. God saves us when “the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith that embraces Jesus Christ, with all his merits” (22). Believers are justified “‘by grace’ through redemption in Jesus Christ” (23; cf. Rom. 3:24). All our sins are covered and we are accepted by God. Christ fulfilled the “ceremonies and symbols of the law” (25) and canceled “the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (Col. 2:14). Justification begins the process of sanctification, in which the Spirit renews God’s people in love and obedience. We strive for holiness in “Christ our only Mediator” (26).
To Treasure the Church (articles 27–36)
We aren’t meant to strive alone. A biblical ecclesiology affirms one “catholic or universal church—a holy congregation…of true Christian believers” (27) that God increases and preserves. For our part we must keep the church’s unity, submit to its instruction and discipline, and “build up one another” by our gifts (28). Biblical churches preach the gospel, administer Christ’s sacraments, and practice loving discipline. They are governed “according to the pure Word of God” (29). Under God the congregation chooses ministers to teach, elders to lead, and deacons to serve, each in imitation of Christ our mediator (30–32). Separate from the church, civil government must restrain lawlessness and promote goodness. Christians “must be subject to the government” in ways consistent with God’s word (36).
To Prepare for the End (article 37)
The final doctrine is eschatology, God’s teaching about the end times. At God’s appointed time “our Lord Jesus will come from heaven bodily and visibly…with great glory and majesty” to join every human spirit with an eternal body, to judge the living and the dead, and to welcome the faithful into glory and banish forever from his good presence every evildoer.
This is the story of the world, a summary of all that is true as God has revealed it to us. It is the logic of Scripture, an overview of a large book that contains some things “that are hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). The Belgic confession is like a roadmap pointing out the essential features of biblical geography to help us on our way. And it is more like a digital map than an old paper one; it invites us to keep zooming in by opening our Bibles and finding in it treasures new and old (Matt. 13:52). Doctrine is not contrary to God’s living word. It is like short but sincere wedding vows; they sum up what the marriage should be like. But like those vows, doctrine is meant to be lived. Let’s make that our goal as we study the Christian faith over the coming months using as our guide the thirty-seven articles of the Belgic Confession.
