Just lately, I received a request to hold a lecture about the meaning of the confession of our personal faith.  That strikes me as an important topic.  For many, a more or less large contradiction exists between their personal beliefs and the written confessions of the church.  Therefore it is good to carefully examine and think about the relationship between the two.  In this thematic article, I will render an annotated adapted form of the aforementioned lecture.

We could very quickly deal with the relationship between our personal faith and the confessions of the church.     Actually, only one word is necessary to shed light on this.  That one word is the first word of the apostolic credo, “credo” (I believe).  We use this word also as the name of that confession, “credo”.  In our language you need two words to express this: “I believe”.  That says everything.  I believe.  It is a personal confession.  This personal confession is confessed every Sunday by the congregation.  My personal confession is also the confession of the church.  And, inverted, the articles that the church confesses are my own personal confession.  Credo—the basis of the topic of the relationship between the one and the other is that simple.  Allow me to further develop this statement in the following sections.

Confession is Personal⤒🔗

The confession of faith is a personal confession.  It is, by definition, a personal confession.  Faith is personal.  You cannot believe because your parents say so.  It can also not be done under the authority of the office-bearers or of the church.  Believe is a verb.  It is an activity one undertakes.  If there is not a personal faith, it is not faith.

Believing is also a twin.  Paul writes, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Confess with your mouth and believe with your heart; the combination of confession and belief is the way of salvation.

We are called to believe (Eph. 4). Simultaneously, we are called to confess our faith (1 Peter 2). Believing and confessing belong together.  We are reminded of this when we talk about what it means to be called a Christian.  I am thinking of Lord’s Day 12 (Heidelberg Catechism). I am called a Christian “because I am a member of Christ by faith and thus share in his anointing, so that I may as prophet confess his name...!”  This is a very personal statement—I am, through faith, a member of Christ, and this bond of faith which binds me to him means that I will confess his Name.  That is my personal confession. In this context Lord’s Day 12 does not address the working out of my personal faith experiences, that which I experience in the relationship with Christ.  It is about confessing the Christ.  It is about his Name.

Confession of the Church←⤒🔗

The Credo is not only a personal confession.  It is simultaneously a confession of the church.  Faith is personal (otherwise it is not faith), but it is not private.  In this individualistic time period, we must emphasize that.  In this time, much attention is given to a personal relationship with Christ.  You must believe in him and have a personal bond with him.  For many, the church only enters the picture as a gathering where you, with your own faith experiences, feel at home.  But, you are not only a member of Christ, but also a member of the body of Christ; his congregation.  Faith and church belong together.  That is not an invisible church in which we claim membership.  It is also not a church that we choose because we were born into it or because we feel at home in it.  No, also here we are called to be holy.  We are called to up-hold the unity of the congregation.  It is one body and one Spirit (Ephesians 4).  The faith that we confess is the “catholic faith”, the ecumenical, undoubted Christian faith.  Credo, I believe.  But we can, along with the confession of faith of the Nicean Creed also say: “We believe”.   Or, as the Netherlands confession of faith begins, “We believe with the heart and confess with the mouth.”  This confession is made (as it says on the title page) “…with the general agreement of the faithful who are scattered throughout the Netherlands”.  It is a general statement of agreement.

Without the church we cannot have faith. In principle, this is not possible; the Lord does not wish it.  Also, in practice it is not possible.  Through the instruction of the church, we come to faith.  Through confession and baptism we are incorporated into the church.  This is also apparent in the original function of the Credo in the historical church.  This confession was spoken by anyone who through baptism became a member of the church.  The Credo still functions in this manner.  We word it differently than in previous times, but still, an adult who has come to faith and those who, baptized as children, come to public profession of faith, are always asked whether they agree with the twelve articles of the faith.  Thus, you are a member of the church by means of personal agreement with the ecumenical confession of the church.

Catechism as Example←⤒🔗

The Catechism is an excellent example of this.  It is set up as a book of instruction in the teachings of the gospel.  The form does not appeal to us as much today.  It appears to be a question and answer game about the truths of the faith.  That gives it a dry, intellectual impression, an idea that already is prominent about the teachings of the church.  It appears to be sort of a “theory of the faith”, and theory is not everything.  Practice must accompany it.  The practice then is the experience of the faith as a personal faith.  The teaching of the church is not automatically my personal confession.  A differentiation is experienced between the confession and the personal faith.

When you read the catechism, you see it somewhat differently.   Do you not recognize that the Catechism has a very personal tone?  That is already obvious in the first question and answer: “What is your only comfort?”  That is a question that, in the practice of everyday life, can readily be asked.  It may be worded differently.  But if a colleague asks “What do you actually believe?” he is in essence asking exactly the same as Lord’s Day 1.  Only a personal answer can be given to this personal question.  Therefore the answer is personal: “That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.”  The intent is not a bit of theory, a memorized lesson for the recipient.  The purpose is that the “student in the faith” personally learns to believe in the Lord Jesus and learns to confess him.

This tone is maintained in the Catechism.  How often do we not read about “my” or “I” or the plural “we”!  Repeatedly it also asks “What does it profit you that you believe this?”  What is the purpose, etc.?  It is not about intellectual faith truths.  It is not something like “the theory of the faith”.  The church as body of Christ teaches the faith as personal faith.  The confession of the church and our personal faith interlock.  Believing is something you do within the communion of saints in the church.

One Name←⤒🔗

I already made one comment about the content of our confession.  With Lord’s Day 12, we are called to confess the name of Christ.  The Lord once asked: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  He asked Peter: “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter’s answer was “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matt. 16). That was also the personal answer of Martha in John 11.  When the Lord Jesus asked her if she believed that he was the resurrection and the life, she confessed “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world” (John 11:27).  That question and that answer remain relevant, also in the 21st century.  It is the only name whereby man can be saved (Acts 4). Making profession of faith is always confessing the name of Christ.

Many Articles←⤒🔗

There is one Name, but there are many articles of confession: 12 articles, 52 Lord’s Days, 37 articles in the Belgic Confession.  The Canons of Dort have five chapters, each of which contains many articles.  There is one name, but there appear to be many truths.  The confessions seem to be a data base of faith truths, a comprehensive enumeration of facts out of the Bible.  Faith appears to be a faith in articles.

Not everyone is able to be comfortable with this.  Is it not about you believing in Jesus Christ?  Just look at church history, how things developed; with every new confession, separation and dissension grew.  Maintaining the confession happens at the cost of unity in the church.  The saying that insists “the Lord unites but doctrine divides” is well known.  As a result, you would readily see Christians reversing that movement.  From the many articles, man retreats to the one name.  What matters is that you believe in the Lord Jesus.  Church boundaries are not that important anymore, so long as you believe in Christ.  You can be together in the name of Jesus.

In this retreat, the personal relationship with Christ is set in juxtaposition to the confessions of the church.  The experience of that personal relationship is seen to be more important than the church with her confessions and her boundaries.  The confession is not personal; it is also old.  That document would be better placed in a historical museum, since we do not experience our faith in that manner anymore.

It must be very clear that people, in this way, under the flag of Christ’s name, take the field against the confessional-reformed character of the faith and of the church.

Growing in the Faith←⤒🔗

The name of our Saviour was not given to us for that.  The Holy Spirit desires that we grow more and more towards Christ, who is the head of the congregation.  That can only happen when we hold fast to the truth.  Then we will no longer sway to and fro, and up and down under the influence of myriad winds of doctrine.  This is how the apostle Paul presents it to the brothers and sisters in Ephesus (and us).  He urges the Philippians (and us) to “strain forward to what lies ahead” holding true to “what they have attained”  (Phil. 3).  We must be filled with “the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”  (Col. 1:9).  We must increase in that.

Paul did not want to know anything else but Jesus Christ and him crucified.  All of the activity in his life is strongly concentrated on one name; nothing besides!  He needed to write many letters to make it clear to us what Jesus Christ and him crucified meant.

These and other words from Scripture give us no permission to draw back to a minimal confession.  Contrary to this, they ask for a forward movement of growth and deepening in understanding.

Is that not the nature of love?  Believing in the Lord Jesus is loving him.  The apostle fervently desires that the hearts of the Colossians will be comforted and will be “knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery” (Col. 2:2, 3). Does not love urge us to want to know our beloved Saviour better and better?  In him, says Paul, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.  He is the personification of them.

All God’s Promises←⤒🔗

I am purposely using the description, the personification of the knowledge and wisdom of God.  The Lord Jesus is thus not a tenet, or a dogma of an article of confession.  We have a living Saviour and he is the Person of the Son of God.  He is Someone; therefore a living relationship is possible.  That is what faith is about, indeed, it is about a bond of faith with this Person.

Meanwhile, he is Someone about whom there is much to say, and who also has said much to us.  In him all the treasures of the wisdom of God are hidden.  He is the personification of the promises of God.  There are many of those.  We are not dealing with a relationship with articles of a confession, but with the promising God.

In Lord’s Day 7 of the Catechism, the question is asked: “What then must a Christian believe?”  The answer is “All that is promised us in the gospel.”    Following this, in Lord’s Day 8, the triune God is named first; we believe in God.  He has made his promises.  In the twelve articles, through faith, we confess who he is and what he has promised. That which the twelve articles briefly summarize, the Catechism develops and explains.

That means that we cannot separate the twelve articles from this explanation.  For example, when we say: “I believe a holy catholic Christian church” then we mean by this that which is explained in Lord’s Day 21.  To this we add what is laid out in the Belgic Confession articles 27-29.  We cannot separate the promises from Christ, nor separate Christ from the promises.  Likewise, we cannot separate the articles of the Credo from the explanation that has been given of it.  Christ gives us much to believe and much to confess.  There are great riches for which we need many words.  Only in this way can we say what the one name means for us.  All confession is confession of Christ.  For this reason there are many articles which together form our personal and congregational confessions.

Five Functions←⤒🔗

It remains for me to say something about the manner in which the confessions of the church function in our personal faith.  I wish to point out five functions.

In the first place it is logical to think about instruction in the faith.  The confession is an important aid to help us to understand personally what and who the Lord Jesus wants to be for us.  This function is the most clear with the catechism.  For this function, the confession does not replace the Word of God, but it does help to make the voluminous Bible overseeable, in order to read and understand the Bible.  In this way we learn the “Biblical language”, the Biblical doctrines, the words which we will need in the house of God in order to speak about faith and in order to understand each other.

That can be very practical.  Just consider how often, for example, we see “Lord’s Day 1” written at the top of an obituary.  In the midst of sorrow, man grasps those well known words to confess where his comfort lies.  You also often find words of confession on cards designed to be sent to encourage people in times of sorrow.

If we do not speak this “Biblical language”, it presents great difficulties.  For example, you can notice among people who have strayed from and left the faith, that they are hardly able to express themselves on the matter of faith.  This difficulty will arise when you do not know the words of faith.

Tied together with this function of instruction, there is another—the confession has a function for mutual recognition.  Because you speak the same language, you recognize each other in the faith.  This function is most clearly seen in the Belgic Confession.  In this confession, we recognize each other as churches and together we form a Reformed federation.  In this way we found (and continue to find) each other.  Is that not also the case in a personal recognition?  How can we, in the church, understand each other if we all speak a different language, use a set of different words or if we can only speak about our faith in a totally individualistic manner?  We cannot do without the confession as a means of mutual recognition and understanding.  Expressing this in a modern manner, it forms our communal framework of reference.

I will add something to this. We are not enslaved to certain wording!  The confession is not a magic formula that works only if it is uttered in unchanged form.  In the time of the Reformation, a number of different confessions were written, all of which were Reformed.  The same faith can be expressed in a great variety of words.  You are not duty bound to add Lord’s Day 1 to an obituary or funeral notice.  You may also use very personal words.  Any number of factors may affect this decision—our personal insight, our age, our life and faith experiences, our ability to express our own thoughts in our own words.  If you experience much sorrow, you begin to speak differently from one whose life is a bed of roses etc.  The confession does not exist to suppress this variety.  On the contrary, it exists to support and be a foundation for this variety.  It remains important in all personal variations.  Within those variations in words, the ecumenical confession will resound.  It will be another variation of the same gospel.  Moreover, the confession provides trust between people.  That which sometimes appears quite different, which sometimes is said in totally new ways, can have the same intent and meaning.  Although it is said differently, it does not hinder the unity in faith.  This awakening and nurturing of trust between believers, I would like to call the third function of the confession.

In addition, in fourth place, the confession also gives us personal protection.  It holds us in the faith delivered to us by the saints.  We would then, for example, think of the confession of Athanasius or of the Canons of Dort.  We are not the first ones to read the Bible and to believe God’s promises.  The gospel did not begin with us.  That humbles us.   We are able to check whether our personal insights are good insights and if modern answers are truly scriptural answers.  This function, today, is not the least of the five. Much more than earlier, we live in an open culture.  Via the many modern media, all sorts of false teachings and deviations assail us, much more than in former times.  Think about all the foolish insights announced and promoted in the national twaddle culture of the media!  In this open culture, the confession forms a personal guard that protects us against the heresies of others and our own sliding away.

In the lengthier version of this article, I wanted to compare the confession with an arsenal of weapons.  Unexpectedly, it can happen that a member of the Jehovah Witnesses knocks on your door in order to persuade you that the Lord Jesus is not equal to God.  This heresy was condemned by the church long ago.  Just read the confessions.  Whoever knows them, stands strong.  Another example is the modern attention for the faith experience or of the increasing difficulty with original sin.  In the Canons of Dort, both of these topes are discussed, logically and scripturally.  There are so many weapons in the confessions!  Old heresies are not eradicated.  They often return in new clothes.  Much of what is brought forward today, our brothers and sisters of long ago recognized and challenged.  They reach out to us with weapons with which we may today fight for the faith that once was delivered to the saints (Jude :3).

An Offering of Praise←⤒🔗

More can be said about these topics.  Let me conclude with the most important function of our confessions.  In Hebrews 13, we are urged to bring a continuous offering of praise to the Lord God, “that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (Heb. 13:15). That offering of praise to the living God whom we know through the name of Jesus Christ, is the highest goal of every word that we speak in confession.  Together with all the saints, we may bring that offering.  Who would wish for his voice to be a dissonant?  Using the confession of the church, we may blend in harmony with the multitude that cannot be counted.