Nielsen’s Nook

Commentary

That the word may become effectual for salvation. First, it seems that the Westminster Confession has a place for the word not being effectual. Unlike many of the proponents of “Pointed Calvinism” (i.e., 5 points, 4 points, or as one pastor said, “I am a 4.49er because if I was a 4.5er, I would have to round up), the covenant theology of the Westminster Confession holds the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of humanity in marvelous and mysterious relation. One does not swallow up the other, while at the same time God is absolutely sovereign and we are absolutely responsible to him for our thoughts, words and deeds. Second, this question reminds us that since the Fall, when humanity rebelled in Adam by sinning against God, the word of God has been expressly and mercifully redemptive in its scope. It is now for our salvation, that one day we will experience the word of God in perfect communion again, having been saved we will be perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity.

we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation and prayer. It is God who speaks to us sovereignly in his Word and who sovereignly gives his people the responsibility of attending to his word, a sacred treasure to our souls. The operative word here is our attendance to the word, where diligence, preparation and prayer describe for us how we ought to attend to God’s word. Diligence then is the purposed disposition we have to feeding on the word of God, which is first among the outward means by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption. It is not something we may do casually, but is something in which we must strive diligently. Preparation explains to us that this is not an endeavor which is like any other. We must prepare our hearts to receive it, for our hearts are bent to resist the divine instruction. But it is not simply because our hearts are bent such, but that the word is actually a true delight for the elect and as such something into which God calls us to engage in prayerful delight, to ponder the wonder of what is said and Who has said it.

receive it with faith and love. This important phrase seeks to balance us in relation to the work of attendance that has been previously presented. Our attendance to the word of God is certainly a duty, but if we should speak only of our duty to attend to the word of God we should miss the wonder of it, and so find ourselves living in a desert of duty, sinking quickly into the hardened cesspool of prescriptionism. We receive the word in faith, believing that God’s intent is in fact efficacious; that it will form in us the loveliness of Christ more and more, for it is Christ whom we love, because he has first loved us. God intends to be our delight not simply and obscurely a divine despot.

lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives. It is because God is our delight, because we long to see Christ, the perfect person, formed more fully in our own imperfect lives, that we lay the word of God up in our hearts. It is a confession that we need riches that we ourselves do not have. For if we were rich, we would have no need for Christ. But as it is we are poor in spirit and he has given us the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, as Kingdom Citizens, we seek to live thus, practicing the word of God in our own lives believing that God’s word reflects himself and is therefore our delight to see worked out in our own practice, vocation and all of life.