Public Confession: After the “Yes”

Making public confession of faith is a special event. With our “Yes” we bind ourselves, before God’s face, to the congregation. We promise to live and die with God’s Word and to adorn our walk with good works. When we make confession, we swear an oath before the Lord, an oath from which we are never again free. It stands forever, and the Lord shall one day return to it when we appear before His judgment seat. Then He shall demand an account of what we have done with this oath. If we permit all of this to penetrate our hearts, making confession becomes a very impressive event. This year, too, many young people are making confession of faith. I hope that you will be unable to do it in your own strength, but that the prayer, “O let Thy Spirit be my constant aid,” may live in your heart.

Church Attendance

It is not the purpose of this article to consider at length the meaning of making confession. That has already been done many times. Now the question is rather what the consequences of our confession are for our lives. It is worth the effort of considering this.

If you have made confession, you have, as a result, become a professing member of the congregation. Before that you also belonged to the congregation, but then you were a member through your parents. They bore the responsibility by virtue of their promise at baptism. But when you make confession, you assume the responsibility they had before. Now you bear the full responsibility of membership yourself. You are now a professing member, an adult member. This means that the congregation can expect that you will faithfully live with the church. I think, first, of church attendance. Faithful church attendance may be expected of professing members. Do not permit your place to be empty without lawful reasons. Scripture says that we may not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25). We can never justify going to church only once on a Sunday if we could easily go twice. Professing members must be expected to come under the Word faithfully. It is a great wonder that we still can go to church freely, that we may still come to the place where the Holy Spirit works. For when you sit in church under the Word, you are at the place where the Holy Spirit will, in a special sense, work. Faith is, after all, by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). The Holy Spirit uses the preaching to convert people.

The Lord’s Supper

The sacraments belong with the Word. You bear the seal of baptism. When you make confession, you take to your own account the responsibility bound to baptism. The Lord’s Supper is related. By your making public confession, the way to the Lord’s Supper is opened. Our forefathers called confession of faith a request for admission to the Lord’s Supper. Yet we may never make this automatic. That is a fatal danger; then we have a view of the congregation in which we proceed from the assumption that all professing members are true believers. Then the preaching of the need for conversion loses its emphasis and power. If you have made confession, you have a church right to attend communion. Never forget, however, that there is a divine right which we receive through a new birth and conversion. Therefore each administration of the Lord’s Supper is preceded by a week of preparation, a week of self-examination. Then the Word resounds powerfully, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Rev. A. Vergunst wrote, “We may never disregard the fact that, between public confession of faith and participation in the Lord’s Supper, there must be true self-examination. If an automatic linkage is ever made, I think that a great trivialization is being done.” May we continue to take this seriously.

But we also should not have the idea that it is normal or natural not to go to the Lord’s Supper. The Lord has a right to our lives, and therefore no one has a right to be unconverted. Never make it your custom to stay home during administration of the Lord’s Supper. There are, unfortunately, people who do this, reasoning that they are, after all, unconverted. But always remember that the administration of the Lord’s Supper has something to say to the entire congregation. The command “Examine yourselves” is proclaimed to the entire congregation. If we are strangers to the life of grace which teaches a hunger for Christ out of the depths, then the way is not merely to stay home, but to cry for conversion. If the facts that the Lord has a right to us and that we have sold ourselves under sin become needs in our lives, we will no longer be able to let go, but will cry out of the depths to God.

Official Oversight

There are some other subjects which I wish to address in addition to the preaching of the Word and the sacraments. By making confession you also promise to submit yourself to the oversight of the office-bearers of the congregation, to their admonitions and instructions, and to church discipline. It is Christ Himself who instituted the offices in the church. Professing members may be expected to bow under the official authority of the King of the Church. “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account” (Hebrews 13:7). There is often so much loveless criticism of office-bearers. There is often much talk behind their backs. There is so little prayer for them. Do not let this be your attitude. It is true that the office-bearers are human and are full of faults and shortcomings. Undoubtedly there is much in them with which to find fault. But hold them in high regard because of the office which they bear. The Lord did not lay the holy offices in the church on the shoulders of angels, but of men. They need your prayers, too. It is wonderful when office-bearers may know themselves to be carried by the prayers of Aarons and Hurs, who bear the needs of the congregation in prayer on bended knee. It is wonderful when such Aarons and Hurs are found among the young members of the congregation.

Congregational Meetings and Church Activities

When you have made confession, it is also expected that you will participate in the life of the congregation in other ways. In addition to the various church activities, I think, for example, of congregational meetings. By making confession, the young men are granted admission there. Do not allow your place to be empty without reason. Demonstrate your interest. It is very discouraging for consistories when very few members show their interest at church meetings. Let people see that you know yourself to be involved in the entire life of the congregation. Here we can also think of church evenings and midweek services. I often notice that there are very few young people at midweek services. I understand very well that life can be very busy. One has class, another works evenings, and the third has something else which demands his attention. Yet as a rule, where there is a will there is a way. Is it not a wonder that the Lord will work for the salvation of your soul during the week as well? Then there ought to be very weighty reasons if we stay home from a midweek service. Is it not often a lack of hunger for the Word of God?

Lifestyle

Making confession of faith also has consequences for our entire lifestyle. In baptism the Lord set us apart from the world. With your “Yes” you take that upon yourself. Should not this be seen in your entire lifestyle? Then we live differently than the world does, we talk differently, we dress differently, and so on. We ought to walk as a congregation set apart — in the world, but not of the world. Can this separateness be seen on you at school, in the office, at the factory — in short, wherever the Lord has given you a place in life? Bear in mind that your confession must find expression in your entire lifestyle. I know that if we seek it entirely in external things, there is the danger of Pharisaism, but external things definitely are involved. Let your confession find expression in your entire life. It is not so bad if you cannot discuss television programs and sports, if you are not up on the content of all sorts of empty and godless literature, if they say that you clearly are from a strict church. Consider that the favor of God is infinitely more than the favor of man. “For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory” (Luke 9:26).

Healthy Concept of Church

There are more things that could be mentioned, but then this article would be too long. You have made confession in the Netherlands Reformed Congregations. May you have love for our congregations. All forms of denominationalism are to be condemned. Then we see no further than our own congregations. Then we think there is nothing outside of us. That is not the case. The Church, with a capital “C,” is concerned. That Church is both inside and outside our congregations. As far as that is concerned, we ought to suffer more pain from the fact that children of God are separated so far from one another by church walls. If God’s children may meet one another in the Lord, church walls fall away. No, may all forms of denominationalism be far from us. Yet I wish to plead for a healthy concept of the church, for love for the congregations in which the Lord has given you a place and where He still lives and will work. The Lord still has His people among us and still converts others among us. If this concept of the church is there, you will remain faithful to our congregations, yet not forget the prayer of Christ, “That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee” (John 17:21).

The Invisible Church

By your “Yes” you have become a member of the visible church. It is necessary, however, to become a member of the invisible church, the Church with a capital “C,” by regeneration. If your name is written only in a church register on earth, your name will be deleted when death comes. But if your name may be written in the heavenly register, in the Lamb’s Book of Life, your name will never be deleted. In that book are the names of all whom the Father has known, the Son has purchased, and the Spirit has sealed. That is the Church with a capital “C.”

Be constantly conscious of this, and let it be the anticipation of your heart. The Holy Spirit continues to prepare a bride for King Jesus. All living members of the church become, by God’s grace, officebearers — they are all prophets to confess His Name, priests to offer themselves to Him as living sacrifices of thanks, and kings to fight in the strength of Christ.

Prayer

Your “Yes” has many consequences. This can never be accomplished in our own strength. If you may experience that in the depths of your heart, you will look outside yourself for strength from above. Then there will be a praying life. In this way, confession and prayer belong together. If things are right, the two are inseparably bound. I wish you a praying life.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not....But let him ask in faith” (James 1:5-6). Then only one thing remains: “O let Thy Spirit be my constant aid.”

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