Articles on the Westminster Confession
by Gordon H. Clark
The Word of God (WCF 1)
Creeds
Knowledge and Ignorance
The Trinity (WCF 2)
A Hard Saying (WCF 3)
Providence (WCF 5)
Creation (WCF 4)
Healthy, Sick, or Dead? (WCF 6)
The Covenant (WCF 7)
Christ the Mediator (WCF 8)
Justification (WCF 11)
Sanctification (WCF 13)
Free Will (WCF 9)
Effectual Calling (WCF 10)
Adoption (WCF 12)
The Law of God (WCF 19)
Assurance (WCF 18)
Saving Faith (WCF 14)
Repentance (WCF 15)
Good Works (WCF 16)
Christian Liberty (WCF 20)
Perseverance (WCF 17)
Worship and Vows (WCF 21, 22)
The Sacraments (WCF 27)
Baptism (WCF 28)
The Church (WCF 25)
The Civil Magistrate (WCF 23)
The Lord's Supper (WCF 29)
Censures and Councils (WCF 30, 31)
Resurrection and Judgment (WCF 32, 33)
Since God is Truth, and since Christ is the Logos, Wisdom, or Reason of God, one naturally expects that the contents of revelation would form a system. This expectation is not disappointed. The various doctrines of the Bible dovetail and fit into each other. A later part explains more fully the implications of an earlier part. For this reason a given chapter of the Westminster Confession is understood more clearly when it is compared with others. Predestination and Providence were closely related; the chapter on the fall of man lays the foundation for the doctrine of the atonement, effectual calling, and sanctification.
But perhaps Chapter VII on the Covenant suffers most in the absence of comparison with later chapters. And even after comparison, its implications are less clearly noticed than in the other instances, though they are not less but rather more pervasive.
There are two covenants, but for want of space the first can be only briefly mentioned. This is the covenant of works. God promised Adam, and in Adam his posterity, eternal life upon condition of perfect obedience. When Adam violated the terms of this covenant, God made a second, the Covenant of Grace. This Covenant offers eternal life to transgressors through the work of Jesus Christ. In it God promises to give His Holy Spirit to all the elect so as to make them willing and able to believe.
"This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law and in the time of the gospel; under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision . . . all foresignifying Christ to come, which were for that time sufficient and efficacious . . . ; and is called the Old Testament. Under the gospel, when Christ the substance was exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper . . . ; and is called the New Testament. There are not therefore two covenants of grace differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations."
It is in these words that the Confession states the relationship between the two Testaments or Covenants. The two parts of the Bible are not two covenants differing in substance or effect, but they are different administrations of the one Covenant of Grace. For this reason one must not suppose that Christ and the Holy Spirit are absent from the Old Testament. Remember that Christ said, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day." Paul in Gal. 3:8 says that the Gospel was preached to Abraham; and in I Cor. 10:4 we find that the rock in the wilderness was Christ. Regeneration, the work of the Holy Spirit, is pictured as clearly in Ezekiel 36:26 as it is in the third chapter of John.
In contrast with a certain modern error the Westminster doctrine should be insisted upon that since the fall there has been only one method of salvation. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Peter, Paul, and you and I are saved only through the merits of Christ. Neither conscience nor the law nor anything else has the power to redeem a sinner.
Above it was said that the implications of the doctrine of the Covenant are not always so clear, though they are pervasive. Only one further example can be given here. Chapter XXVIII of the Confession treats of Baptism. Now, the Presbyterian view of Baptism depends more on the doctrine of the Covenant than on anything else. As the Old Testament Passover became the Lord's Supper, so the Old Testament circumcision became the New Testament baptism. Those who deny the legitimacy of infant baptism on the ground that there is no specific command to that effect in the New Testament are embarrassed when asked for a specific New Testament command to admit women to the Lord's Supper. Specific New Testament commands are not absolutely necessary when the Old Testament has spoken with sufficient clarity. Such objections to infant baptism are based on a wrong conception of the relation of the two Testaments, a denial of covenant theology, and a neglect of the Westminster Confession. The remedy is obvious.