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Justification takes place by works and by faith—by the works of Christ and by our faith.
If hatred of sin is necessary to God, then penal justice is equally necessary because the hatred of sin is the constant will of punishing it.
When the apostle says that 'faith is by hearing' (Rom. 10:17), he does indeed give us to understand that the ministry of the church ought to come in as the ordinary means of producing faith in adults. He does not teach, however, that the church is clearer and better known than the Scriptures.
Good works are required as the means and way for possessing salvation. Even though they don't contribute anything to the acquisition of our salvation, they are necessary to the obtainment of it. No one can be saved without them.
We do not deny that the church has many functions in relation to the Scriptures. She is: (1) the keeper of the oracles of God to whom they are committed and who preserves the authentic tables of the covenant of grace with the greatest fidelity, like a notary (Rom. 3:2); (2) the guide, to point out the Scriptures and lead us to them (Is. 30:21); (3) the defender, to vindicate and defend them by separating the genuine books from the spurious, in which sense she may be called the ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15*); (4) the herald who sets forth and promulgates them (2 Cor. 5:19; Rom. 10:16); (5) the interpreter inquiring into the unfolding of the true sense. But all these imply a ministerial only and not a magisterial power.
The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures is enjoined upon men of all languages, therefore the translation of it into the native tongues is necessary. Since men speak different languages and are not all familiar with those two in which it was first written, it cannot be understood by them unless translated; it comes as the same thing to say nothing at all and to say what nobody can understand. But here it happens by the wonderful grace of God that the division of tongues (which formerly was the sign of a curse) becomes now the proof of a heavenly blessing. What was introduced to destroy Babel is now used to build up the mystical Zion.
It was not necessary for the apostles to write a catechism so as to deliver their doctrines professedly. It was enough for them to hand down to us those doctrines in accordance with which all symbolical books and catechisms might be constructed. If they did not formally write a catechism, they did materially leave us either in the gospels or in the epistles those things by which we can be clearly taught the principles of religion (katécheisthai).
If theology takes some things from other systems, it is not as an inferior from superiors, but as an superior from inferiors (as a mistress freely using her handmaids). Theology does not so much take from others, as presupposes certain previously known things upon which it builds revelation.
Institutes of Elenctic Theology
That God is the object of theology is evident both from the very name (theologias and theosebeias), and from Scripture which recognizes no other principal object.Institutes of Elenctic Theology
Thus that all things are discussed in theology either because they deal with God himself or have a relation (schesin) to him as the first principle and ultimate end.Institutes of Elenctic Theology
But the divine dayspring from on high is adored, Christ the Lord, who is our sun and shield; the sun of every blessing, asserting the glory of religion; the shield of the most safe protection, affording an invincible and inexpugnable guard to liberty.
According to this view, the law is divided into three categories: the dietary laws, the ceremonial laws, and the moral laws. As helpful as those distinctions may be, we must keep in mind that for the Jew in the Old Testament period, all of the law was moral. It was a moral issue to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego whether they obeyed the dietary laws of God while they were in exile. It was a moral issue for Israel whether it obeyed the ceremonial law. Yet the purpose in our day of distinguishing between the three is to communicate that there is still a substantive stratum of law in the Old Testament that seems to continue into the life of the New Testament church.How Does God\'s Law Apply to Me?
In regard to use, the moral is the end of the others, while the others are subservient to the moral. A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper
The moral law regards the Israelite people as men; the ceremonial as the church of the Old Testament expecting the promised Messiah; the civil regards them as a peculiar people who in the land of Canaan ought to have a republic suiting their genius and disposition. A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper
he law given by Moses is usually distinguished into three species: moral (treating of morals or of perpetual duties towards God and our neighbor); ceremonial (of the ceremonies or rites about the sacred things to be observed under the Old Testament); and civil, constituting the civil government of the Israelite people. The first is the foundation upon which rests the obligation of the others and these are its appendices and determinations. Ceremonial has respect to the first table determining its circumstances, especially as to external worship. Civil has respect to the second table in judicial things, although it lays down punishments for crimes committed against the first table. A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper
The law of the Lord our God that was handed down to His people through Moses is partly ethical, partly sacrificial, and partly political.A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper
For since His will can have for its object nothing but good, it cannot will evil as evil, but as terminated on the permission of that which is good. God, therefore, properly does not will sin to be done, but only wills to permit it.
Effectual calling is an act of the grace of God in Christ by which he calls men dead in sin and lost in Adam through the preaching of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, to union with Christ and to salvation obtained in him.
The liberty of reading the Scriptures does not take away either oral instruction, pastoral direction or other helps necessary to understanding. It only opposes the tyranny of those who do not wish the darkness of their errors to be dissipated by the light of the divine word.
By the beatific vision... God will be seen without end, loved without cloying, praised without weariness.Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 3.612
The right of discipline belongs to the Church; those who despise this discipline are rejecting not just men, but God, who has appointed such ordinances for our edification.
Those who are always contending and disputing, rather than seeking to edify in love, do harm to the church. The truth needs no wrangling, but a firm and humble assertion.
The foundation of all true theology is humility, for when pride takes root in a theologian, the entire system of his doctrine becomes corrupted
A threefold love of God is commonly held; or rather there are three degrees of one and the same love. First, there is the love of 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 by which God willed good to the creature from eternity; second, the love of 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 by which he does good to the creature in time according to his good will; third, the love of 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 by which he delights himself in the creature on account of the rays of his image seen in them. By the love of 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, he loved us before we were; by the love of 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, he loves us as we are; and by the love of 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺, he loves us when we are (viz., renewed after his image). By the first he elects us; by the second, he redeems and sanctifies us; but by the third he gratuitously rewards us as holy and just. Institutes of Elenctic Theology, III.8,5
The non-binding laws were exclusively 'ceremonial'... Laws concerning everyday civil matters in the Israelite community are binding in their underlying principles... The only laws that are, without exception, ever-binding are the laws of the Decalogue.From the Finger of God, 2
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2. Thomas Watson (128)
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