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)
"He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good."
In this third stanza of "There is a green hill far away," the doctrines of justification and sanctification are conjoined. Naturally, the limitations of hymnology do not permit an explanation of the conjunction: it would seem that forgiveness and being made good are two results, otherwise unrelated, to Christ's death. But the Confession of Faith, Chapter XIII, and still more explicitly Paul, in Romans VI and elsewhere, make sanctification the purpose or aim of the preceding stages of salvation. It is true, but not sufficient to say, we are justified and we are also being sanctified; it is downright false to say, we are justified by faith alone but of course we must now do some good works; to express the relation with a minimum of adequacy we must drop the and and the but and use the conjunction therefore: we have been acquitted and pardoned of sin apart from any human merit, therefore we must do good works. Or, to quote Rom. 6:14, "Sin shall not have dominion over you (sanctification), for ye are not under the law but under grace" (justification).—"He died to make us good."
Such is the Scriptural answer to the objection that justification by faith alone is an immoral doctrine. It is sanctification that unmasks the caricature quoted in a previous article, "Free from the law, O blessed condition; I can sin as I please and still have remission." Paul's argument is clear: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Not at all; how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? . . . Our old man is crucified with Christ in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, in order that henceforth we should not serve sin . . . Sin shall not have dominion over you."
Because Paul said, "Sin shall not have dominion over you," and because of other expressions, certain groups of people who were not privileged to be guided by the Westminster Confession in their study of the Scriptures have concluded that it is possible to achieve sinless perfection during our earthly life. I know one man who boasted that he had not sinned for twenty-six years. And the fact of the matter is that compared with other Christians he was a very good man. Compared with God's law, however, he was, I am sure, imperfect. It is only through a feeble appreciation of God's righteousness and holiness coupled with an ignorance of the definition of sin that one can imagine that one is sinless. Job was able to hold his own against his irritating friends. He was sure he had not committed any particular sin of which his plagues were the punishment. But when his friends left him and God appeared to him, Job said, "Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer Thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth."
Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. To define sin as selfishness or to restrict sin to known sins is inadequate. Sin is defined in terms of the law of God. And no mere man since the fall is able perfectly in this life to keep God's commandments—even for a day. Only Christ was sinless.