What Do the Confessions Say About
Salvation Through Christ?
Some material for reflection -- instead of reaction
by Gene TeSelle
The question put by Dirk Ficca -- "What's the big deal about
Jesus?" -- was intended to be Socratic, and he himself
presented two kinds of answers to it. This was immediately seized upon
in terms of sound bites in order to discredit the Peacemaking Conference
and hold all the office-holders in Louisville somehow responsible.
Before we get too far into sound-bite theology, let's look at what the
confessions actually say about this issue.
There is no question that the Bible has statements
that salvation is only through the name of Jesus. The confessions make
the same kinds of statements, but not always in the same way. Sometimes
they use the triple formula of election in eternity, salvation through
the cross, and application to believers by the Holy Spirit (C-6.071,
7.169). At other times they emphasize that election is in Christ, by
adoption and incorporation into Christ (C-3.08, 5.053, 5.059-60).
For reflection: What are the
strengths of one and the other way of stating it?
Early on in the Book of Confessions you may be struck,
however, by the mention in the Scots Confession of "all the
faithful" from Adam on (C-3.04) and the Kirk "in all
ages" starting with Adam (C-3.05). The Second Helvetic Confession
declares, even more dramatically, that our religion is really the oldest
religion in the world (C- 5.092).
For reflection: What do they mean?
Why do they say this? What do you think are their reasons?
The Confessions are very clear about the link between
Israel and the Church, the Old Testament and the New Testament. They
constitute "one fellowship, one salvation in one Messiah" (C-
5.129). There is one covenant in two dispensations (C-6.042). They seem
to be saying that the ceremonial law of Israel, since it was a
foreshadowing of Christ, functioned in the same way as the Christian
sacraments, as a means of grace for those who believed God's gracious
promises.
For reflection: Was this grace made
available without knowing the name of Christ at all, as seems likely in
most if not all cases? Might it be, then, that Jews continue to receive
the grace of God -- indeed, the grace of Christ -- through those
ceremonies? Does God hear the prayers of Jews today?
There are more questions. Since the early centuries,
the Catholic Church assumed that baptism is necessary for salvation.
Therefore they concluded that, in the case of an emergency, a lay
person, "even a woman," could baptize. The Reformed Church put
forward an alternative argument, enshrined in the Scots Confession
(C-3.22) and the Second Helvetic (C-5.191): the apostle has said that
women are not to exercise churchly office, therefore they are not to
baptize and baptism is not necessary for salvation. While we have
abandoned their view of ministry, we have not abandoned the conclusions
they drew.
The Westminster Confession declares that "elect
infants" (not all infants) and "all other elect persons
incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word"
(C-6.066) are given salvation. In such cases it seems that the offer of
salvation does not need to be mediated through Word and sacrament -- and
does not need to be responded to in an explicit act of either the person
or the parents.
For reflection: How are we to
understand this?
There is still more. During the negotiations that led
to the reunion with the Cumberland Presbyterians, who rejected
predestination as "fatality," the "Northern" church,
the PCUSA, adopted the Declaratory Statements of 1903, which include the
statements that grace is offered to all human beings, with none of them
prohibited from receiving it (C-6.192), and that all who die in infancy
are given salvation (C-6.193). In once sense this is an extension of the
Westminster Confession's confidence that salvation can be offered even
to those who are "incapable of being outwardly called by the
ministry of the Word" (C-6.066); but it broadens this possibility
beyond the elect to all persons, and perhaps intensifies the questions
already raised about how grace can be offered to all, and how all are
really able respond to the offer of grace.
For reflection: What issues are
raised here? What kinds of answers might be given? How do you assess
these various answers?
