1689 London Baptist Confession
1. The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although
reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their creator, yet they could never have
attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he
hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
( Luke
17:10; Job
35:7,8 )
2. Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased
the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and
salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved; and
promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, his Holy Spirit, to
make them willing and able to believe.
( Genesis
2:17; Galatians
3:10; Romans
3:20, 21; Romans
8:3; Mark
16:15, 16; John
3:16; Ezekiel
36:26, 27; John
6:44, 45; Psalms
110:3 )
3. This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of
salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full
discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal
covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the
elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam
that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly
incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of
innocency.
( Genesis
3:15; Hebrews
1:1; 2
Timothy 1:9; Titus
1:2; Hebrews
11;6, 13; Romans
4:1, 2, &c.; Acts
4:12; John
8:56 )
For further study:
"Baptist Roots in America: The Historical Background of Reformed Baptists in America", Samuel E. Waldron, Simpson Publishing Co. (1991)
"A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith", Samuel E. Waldron, Evangelical Press, 1989
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