The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is effectual calling?

Answer: Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

Question: Why is effectual calling termed a work?

Answer: Because it is effected by various operations or workings of the Spirit of God upon the soul, therefore called "the seven Spirits which are before his throne," Rev. 1:4.

Question: Why is it called a work of God's Spirit?

Answer: Because it relates to the application of redemption, which is the special work of God's Spirit, John 16:14:- "He," says Christ of the Spirit, "shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."

Question: How manifold is the divine calling?

Answer: Twofold: outward, by the word; and inward, by the Spirit.

Question: What is the outward call by the word?

Answer: It is the free and unlimited invitation given, in the dispensation of the gospel, to all the hearers of it, to receive Christ, and salvation with him, Isaiah 55:1; Rev. 22:17.

Question: What is the inward call by the Spirit?

Answer: It is the Spirit's accompanying the outward call with power and efficacy upon the soul, John 6:45.

Question: Which of these is effectual in bringing sinners to Christ?

Answer: The inward call, by the Spirit: "for it is the Spirit that quickeneth," John 6:63; the outward call, by the word, is of itself ineffectual; "for many are called, but few are chosen," Matt. 22:14.

Question: What is meant by few being chosen?

Answer: That few are determined effectually to embrace the call; and therefore termed a little flock, Luke 12:32.

Question: What is the main or leading work of the Spirit in effectual calling?

Answer: It is that by which he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel, Phil. 2:13.

Question: What is it to embrace Christ?

Answer: It is, like Simeon, to clasp him in the arms of faith, with complacency and delight; Luke 2:28.

Question: Where is it that faith embraces him?

Answer: In the promises of the gospel, Heb. 11:13.

Question: What is the gospel?

Answer: It is good news, or glad tidings of life and salvation to lost sinners of mankind, through a "Saviour, who is Christ the Lord," Luke 2:10, 11.

Question: What warrant has faith to embrace him in the promise of the gospel?

Answer: His Father's gift, John 3:16, and his own offer of himself in it, Isaiah 45:22.

Question: Can there be an embracing, or receiving, without a previous giving?

Answer: "A man can receive" - margin, take unto himself - "nothing, except it be given him from heaven," John 3:27.

Question: What is the faith of the gospel offer?

Answer: It is a believing that Jesus Christ, with his righteousness, and all his salvation is, by himself, offered to sinners, and to each of them in particular, Proverbs 8:4; John 7:37.

Question: When is the word of the gospel-offer savingly believed?

Answer: When it is powerfully applied by the Holy Spirit to the soul in particular, as the word and voice of Christ himself, and not of men, 1 Thess. 1:5, and 2:13.

Question: How can we believe it is the voice of Christ himself in the offer, when Christ is now in heaven, and we hear no voice from thence?

Answer: The:voice of Christ in his written word, is more sure than a voice from heaven itself, 2 Pet. 1:18, 19; and it is this voice of Christ in the word, that is the stated ground of faith, Rom. 1:16, 17.

Question: How is Christ offered in the gospel?

Answer: Freely, as well as fully, Rev. 22:17.

Question: To whom is he offered?

Answer: To us sinners of mankind, as such, Proverbs 8:4.

Question: Have we any natural inclination to embrace the gospel-offer?

Answer: No; the Spirit doth persuade us to it, 2 Cor. 5:11.

Question: Will moral suasion, or arguments taken from the promises and threatenings of the word, persuade any to embrace Christ?

Answer: No; the enticing words of man's wisdom will not do; nothing less is sufficient, than the demonstration of the Spirit, that so our faith may not "stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God," 1 Cor. 2:4, 5.

Question: Have we any ability of our own to believe in Christ, or to embrace him?

Answer: No; the Spirit of faith doth enable us to do it, 2 Cor. 4:13.

Question: By what means does the Spirit persuade and enable us to embrace Christ?

Answer: By convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills.

Question: What is the object of the convincing work of the Spirit; or of what does he convince us?

Answer: Of our sin and misery, Acts 2:37.

Question: Of what sin does the Spirit convince us?

Answer: Both of original and actual sin, Mark 7:21, particularly of unbelief, John 16:9.

Question: Of what misery does he convince us?

Answer: Of the misery of losing communion with God, 2 Cor. 6:14, 15; and being under his wrath and curse, in time, and through eternity, Isaiah 33:14.

Question: How does the Spirit convince us of sin and misery?

Answer: By the law, Rom. 3:20 - "By the law is the knowledge of sin."

Question: What knowledge of sin have we by the law?

Answer: By the precept of the law, we have the knowledge of the evil nature of sin, Rom. 7:7, and by the threatening, the knowledge of the guilt and desert of it, Gal. 3:10.

Question: In what capacity does the Spirit convince us of sin by the law?

Answer: As a spirit of bondage working fear, Rom. 8:15.

Question: Have all had an equal measure of this kind of conviction, who have been persuaded to embrace Christ?

Answer: No; some have had more, and some less, as in the instances of Paul and Lydia, Acts 9:6, 9, compared with chap. 16:14.

Question: What measure of conviction by the law, is requisite for such as are come to full ripeness of age?

Answer: Such a measure as to let them see, that they are sinners by nature, both in heart and life; that they are lost and undone under the curse of the law, and wrath of God; and that they are utterly incapable of recovering themselves, as being legally and spiritually dead, Rom. 7:9.

Question: Why is such a measure as this, of legal conviction, requisite in the adult?

Answer: Because, otherwise, they would never see the need they stand in of Christ as a Saviour, either from sin or wrath, Matt. 9:12, 13.

Question: Is this measure of conviction necessary as a condition of our welcome to Christ, or as a qualification fitting us to believe on him?

Answer: No; but merely as a motive, to excite us to make use of our privilege of free access to him, Hos. 14:1 - "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity."

Question: Have not some been under deep legal convictions, and yet never effectually called?

Answer: Yes; Judas went to hell under a load of this kind of conviction, Matt. 27:3-5.

Question: Is not the enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, a means of persuading and enabling us to embrace him?

Answer: Yes; for, "how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" Rom. 10:14.

Question: What is the subject of the Spirit's enlightening?

Answer: Our minds or understandings, which are the eyes of the soul, Eph. 1:18 - "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened," &c.

Question: What is the object of this enlightening, or in what are we enlightened?

Answer: It is in the knowledge of Christ, Phil. 3:8.

Question: Who is the author of saving illumination in the knowledge of Christ?

Answer: The Holy Spirit, who is therefore called, "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him," Eph. 1:17.

Question: In what condition is the mind, before it is enlightened by the Spirit?

Answer: In gross darkness and ignorance, as to the "things of the Spirit of God," 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 5:8.

Question: What is it in Christ that the Spirit enlightens the mind in the knowledge of?

Answer: In the knowledge of his person, righteousness, offices, fulness, &c. John 15:26, says Christ of the Spirit, "He shall testify of me."

Question: What are the distinguishing properties of saving illumination?

Answer: It is of an humbling, Job. 42:5, 6, sanctifying, John 17:17, transforming, 2 Cor. 3:18, and growing nature, Hos. 6:3.

Question: What is the necessity of this illumination, in order to the embracing of Christ?

Answer: Because, without it, there can be no discerning of his matchless excellency, inexhaustible sufficiency, and universal suitableness, the saving knowledge of which is necessary to the comfortable embracing of him, Psalm 9:10 - "They that know thy name, will put their trust in thee."

Question: By what means does the Spirit enlighten the mind in the knowledge of Christ?

Answer: By means of the gospel Rom. 10:17.

Question: Does not the renewing our wills accompany the illumination of our minds?

Answer: Yes; when "the Lord shall send the rod of his strength out of Zion," there shall be a "willing people in the day of his power," Psalm 110:2, 3.

Question: In what consists the renovation of the will?

Answer: In working in it a new inclination or propensity to good, and a fixed aversion to whatever is evil, Ezek. 36:26.

Question: Does the Spirit, in the renovation of the will, use any violence or compulsion?

Answer: No; he makes us willing in the day of his power, Psalm 110:3.

Question: What is the natural disposition of the will before it is renewed?

Answer: It is wicked and rebellious, full of enmity against Christ, and the way of salvation through him, John 5:40.

Question: Can any man change, or renew, his own will?

Answer: No more than the "Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots," Jer. 13:23.

Question: What necessity is there for renewing the will, in order to the embracing of Christ?

Answer: Because till this be done, the natural ill will that is in sinners against Christ, in all his offices, will be retained, 2 Cor. 5:17.

Question: In what appears the ill will which sinners bear to Christ as a Prophet?

Answer: In the conceit of their own wisdom, Proverbs 1:22, and slighting the means of instruction, Proverbs 26:12.

Question: How do they manifest their aversion to him as a Priest?

Answer: "In going about to establish their own righteousness, and refusing to submit themselves unto the righteousness of God," Rom. 10:3.

Question: How do they manifest their opposition to him as a King?

Answer: In their hatred of holiness, love to sin, and saying, in fact, concerning him, "We will not have this man to reign over us," Luke 19:14.

Question: Who are the only persons that are effectually called?

Answer: All the elect, and they only, Acts 13:48 - "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed."40

Question: What may we learn from the doctrine of effectual calling?

Answer: That "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," Rom. 11:29; that "all things work together for good - to them that are the called according to his purpose," Rom. 8:28; and that it is our duty to "walk worthy of God, who hath called us unto his kingdom and glory," 1 Thess. 2:12.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?

Answer: They that are effectually called, do, in this life, partake of justification, adoption, sanctification, and the several benefits which, in this life, do either accompany or flow from them.

Question: "What special benefits do the members of the invisible church (or such as are effectually called,) enjoy by Christ?"

Answer: They "enjoy union and communion with him, in grace and glory," Eph. 2:5, 6.41

Question: "What is the communion in grace, which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?"

Answer: It "is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and whatever else in this life manifests their union with him," 1 Cor. 1:30.42

Question: How are all these benefits connected with effectual calling?

Answer: By a connexion established in the eternal purpose and counsel of God, in which all these blessings or benefits are sweetly linked together, Rom. 8:30 - "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

Question: What is the connexion between effectual calling and justification?

Answer: In effectual calling, sinners, being united to Christ by faith, have thereby communion with him in his righteousness, for justification, Phil. 3:9.

Question: How is adoption connected with effectual calling?

Answer: In virtue of the union which takes place in effectual calling, believers stand related to Christ, as having a new kind of interest in God as his Father; and consequently their Father in him, according to John 20:17 - "I ascend to my Father, and your Father;" and Eph. 1:3 - "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Question: What is the blessed effect of this new kind of interest, which Christ, as the head of the body, has in God as his Father?

Answer: That, by the Spirit of adoption, we may call God our Father, in the right of Jesus Christ, our elder brother, Rom. 8:15 - "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."

Question: How is effectual calling connected with sanctification?

Answer: In virtue of the union, which takes place in effectual calling, believers are related to Christ as the Lord their strength, their quickening, and influencing head, "who of God is made unto them - sanctification," 1 Cor. 1:30.

Question: What is the connexion between effectual calling and a blessed death?

Answer: In effectual calling, believers are united to Christ, by a union that cannot be dissolved by death, Rom. 8:38, 39.

Question: What is the connexion between effectual calling and a happy resurrection?

Answer: In effectual calling, sinners are united to Christ, as a living and exalted head, and therefore their happy resurrection is absolutely secured in him, because he is "risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept," 1 Cor. 15:20.

Question: What improvement should we make of the sweet connexion that is between all these benefits of which the effectually called are partakers?

Answer: We ought, through grace, in the use of all the means and ordinances of God's appointment, to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure; that having the knowledge of our justification, and adoption, by our sanctification, we may have the comfortable prospect of a happy death, and glorious resurrection, 2 Pet. 1:10, 11.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is justification?

Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace; wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Question: From whence is the word justification borrowed?

Answer: Being a law-word, it is borrowed from courts of justice among men, when a person arraigned is pronounced righteous, and, in court, openly absolved.

Question: How does it appear, that justification denotes an act of jurisdiction, and not an inward change upon the soul?

Answer: From its being opposed to condemnation, which all own to consist, not in the infusing of wickedness into a person, but in passing sentence upon him, according to the demerit of his crime, Psalm 109:7.

Question: What is it, then, to justify a person?

Answer: It is not to make him righteous, but to declare him to be so, upon a legal ground, and trial of a judge, Isaiah 43:9, 26.

Question: Who is the author or efficient cause, of our justification?

Answer: It is God himself; for, it is God that justifieth, Rom. 8:33.

Question: Is it God essentially, or personally considered?

Answer: God essentially considered, in the person of the Father, is the justifier, in respect of judiciary power and authority, Rom. 3:26; and our Lord Jesus Christ, in respect of the dispensation, or exercise of that power, Acts 5:31.

Question: In what respect is the Spirit said to justify? 1 Cor. 6:11.

Answer: As the applier of the blood or righteousness of Christ, by which we are justified, Titus 3:5.

Question: In what state is a sinner before justification?

Answer: In a state of sin and guilt, Rom. 3:9, and, consequently, in a state of wrath and condemnation, Gal. 3:10.

Question: How can God justify the ungodly?

Answer: Every elect sinner, however ungodly in himself, yet, upon union with Christ, has communion with him in his righteousness, and on this account he is justified, Isaiah 45:25 - "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified."

Question: Why have elect sinners communion with Christ in his righteousness, upon their union with him?

Answer: Because their sins having been imputed to him from eternity, he became legally one with them, transferring their debt to himself, and undertaking to pay the same, Isaiah 53:6; wherefore, upon union with him by faith, his perfect satisfaction is imputed to them, as if they had made it themselves, 2 Cor. 5:21.

Question: Why is justification called an act?

Answer: Because, like the sentence of a judge, it is completed at once, and not carried on gradually like a work of time, Deut. 25:1.

Question: What is the moving cause of justification, or what kind of an act is it?

Answer: It is an act of God's free grace, Rom. 3:24 - "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

Question: How can free grace be the moving cause of our justification, when it is "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus?"

Answer: Because the redemption that is in Christ, is the channel through which justifying grace runs freely to us, Eph. 1:7.

Question: What are the constituent parts of justification?

Answer: They are two; that in which he pardons all our sins, Rom. 6:7; and that in which he accepts us as righteous in his sight, Eph. 1:6.

Question: What is the pardon of sin?

Answer: It is God's absolving the sinner from the condemnation of the law, on account of Christ's satisfaction for sin, Rom. 8:1.

Question: Why is the pardon of sin set before the accepting us as righteous, in the answer?

Answer: Because, till the sentence of the broken law be dissolved by pardon, it is impossible that our persons can be accepted, or any blessing of the covenant conferred upon us, Heb. 8:10-13; where, after a great many other promised blessings, it is added, ver. 12 - "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness," &c., intimating that the pardon of sin led the way to other covenant blessings.

Question: What is it in sin that pardon removes?

Answer: The guilt of it, which is a person's actual obligation or liability to eternal wrath, on account thereof, Eph. 2:3.

Question: Can the guilt of sin ever recur upon a pardoned person?

Answer: No; the obligation to punishment, being once taken off, can never recur again; because "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," Rom. 8:1.

Question: Will future sins revoke a former pardon?

Answer: No; future sins may provoke the Lord to withdraw the sense of former pardon, but can never revoke the pardon itself; because "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance," Rom. 11:29.

Question: What sins are pardoned in justification?

Answer: All our sins whatsoever, Psalm 103:3 - "Who forgiveth ALL thine iniquities."

Question: How are sins past and present pardoned?

Answer: By a formal remission of them, Psalm 32:5 - "Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin."

Question: How are sins to come, pardoned?

Answer: By securing the non-imputation of them, as to the guilt of eternal wrath, Rom. 4:8 - "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

Question: If the non-imputation of eternal wrath, as to future sins, be secured, why do the saints pray for the pardon of them when committed?

Answer: Because the guilt or liability to fatherly anger is contracted by the commission of them; and, therefore, they pray for the removal of that guilt, Psalm 51:12 - "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation."

Question: Is repentance a condition of pardon?

Answer: No; because this would bring in works into the matter of our justification before God, quite contrary to scripture, which tells us, that "a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ," Gal. 2:16.

Question: How do you prove, that repentance has not the same interest as faith, in our justification?

Answer: From this, that in scripture we are frequently said to be justified by faith, but never said to be justified by repentance.

Question: Is it not affirmed in our Confession, "that repentance is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it?"43

Answer: The meaning is, that repentance is such an inseparable concomitant of pardon, that no pardoned person continues to be impenitent, 2 Sam. 12:13; Matt. 26:75.

Question: If none can expect pardon, without expecting repentance along with it; will it not therefore follow, that repentance is a condition of pardon?

Answer: Not at all; for if repentance cannot so much as have the least instrumentality in pardon, it can never be the condition of it, nor have the smallest influence in causing it.44

Question: How does it appear that repentance has not the least instrumentality in pardon?

Answer: It appears evidently from this, that faith is the sole instrument of receiving Christ and his righteousness; without receiving of which there can be no pardon, John 8:24 - "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."

Question: Does God do any more in justification than freely pardon all our sins?

Answer: Yes; he likewise accepts us as righteous in his sight, Eph. 1:6.

Question: Why is the accepting us as righteous joined with pardon, in justification?

Answer: Bec:use, though among men a criminal may be pardoned, and neither declared righteous nor received into favour, yet it is not so with God; for whom he forgives, he both accounts their persons righteous in his sight, and receives them into perpetual favour, Rom. 5:8-10.

Question: How can a holy and righteous God, whose judgment is according to truth, accept sinners as righteous without a perfect righteousness?

Answer: He accepts them as righteous only for the righteousness of Christ, which is perfect, and becomes truly theirs through faith, Jer. 23:6; Isaiah 45:24.

Question: By what right does the surety-righteousness become theirs?

Answer: By the right of a free gift received, and the right of communion with Christ.

Question: How does it become theirs by the right of a gift received?

Answer: In as much as Christ's righteousness being made over in the gospel, as God's gift to sinners, it is by faith actually claimed and received; hence called the GIFT of righteousness, Rom. 5:17.

Question: How does Christ's surety-righteousness become theirs by right of communion with him?

Answer: In as much as sinners being united to him by faith, have thus communion or a common interest with him in his righteousness, Phil. 3:9.

Question: When is it, then, that, according to truth, God accepts us as righteous in his sight?

Answer: When Christ's surety-righteousness is actually reckoned ours, and we made the righteousness of God in HIM, 2 Cor. 5:21, upon this account precisely, and no other, are we accepted of God as righteous; the righteousness of GOD being UPON all them that believe, Rom. 3:22.

Question: What is the matter of our justification, or that for which we are justified?

Answer: The RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ only; hence he is called, "The Lord our Righteousness," Jer. 23:6.

Question: In what does the righteousness of Christ consist?

Answer: In the holiness of his human nature, his righteous life, and satisfactory death.45

Question: Can law or justice reach the person who is under the covering of the surety righteousness?

Answer: By no means; for "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? - It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again," Rom. 8:33, 34.

Question: Is the righteousness of Christ meritorious of our justification?

Answer: Yes; because of the infinite dignity of his person; for, though he "took upon him the form of a servant, yet, being in the form of God, he thought it no robbery to be equal with God," Phil 2:6, 7.

Question: How is the righteousness of Christ commonly divided?

Answer: Into his active and passive obedience.

Question: What is his active obedience?

Answer: The holiness of his nature and righteousness of his life, in full and perfect conformity to the whole law, without the least failure, either of parts, or degrees of obedience to the end, Matt. 5:17, 18.

Question: What is his passive obedience?

Answer: His satisfaction for sin, by enduring the infinite execution of the curse, upon him in his death, Gal. 3:13, to the full compensation of all the injuries done to the honour of an infinite God, by all the sins of an elect world, Eph. 5:2.

Question: Why does his satisfactory death, as well as his righteous life, get the name of obedience? Phil. 2:8.

Answer: Because his sufferings and death were entirely voluntary, and in most profound submission to the commandment which he had received of his Father, John 10:18.

Question: What is the formal cause of our justification, or that by which Christ's righteousness is made ours?

Answer: It is its being imputed to us, Rom. 4:6.

Question: What is it to impute Christ's righteousness to us?

Answer: It is God's accounting or reckoning it to us, as if we had obeyed the law, and satisfied justice in our own persons, and dealing with us accordingly, Rom. 4:4; 8:4; 2 Cor. 5:21.

Question: Upon what ground or foundation is Christ's righteousness imputed to us?

Answer: Upon the ground of his representing us from eternity, and our union with him in time, Isaiah 53:5.

Question: What necessity is there for the imputation of Christ's passive obedience?

Answer: Because without the imputation of it, we could have no legal security from eternal death, Rom. 5:9.

Question: What necessity is there for the imputation of Christ's active obedience?

Answer: Because without the imputation of it, we could have no legal title to eternal life, Rom. 6:23.

Question: If Christ, as man, gave obedience to the law for himself, how can his active obedience be imputed to us?

Answer: Though the human nature, abstractly considered, be a creature, yet never subsisting by itself, but in the person of the Son of God, the acts of obedience performed in it were never the acts of a mere man, but of him who is God-man, Mediator; and, consequently, acts of obedience, not for himself, but for us, Gal. 4:4, 5.

Question: If Christ's active obedience be imputed to us, are we not released from any obligation to yield obedience to the law in our own persons?

Answer: We are only released from an obligation to yield obedience to the law as a covenant of works, not released from obedience to it as a rule of life, Gal. 2:19.

Question: Is the righteousness of Christ, itself, imputed to us, or only its effects?

Answer: As the guilt itself of Adam's first sin is imputed to all his posterity, by which judgment comes upon all men to condemnation, so, the righteousness of Christ itself is imputed to all his spiritual seed, by which the free gift comes upon them all unto justification of life, Rom. 5:18.

Question: What is the difference between the imputation of our sins to Christ, and the imputation of his righteousness to us?

Answer: Our sins were imputed to Christ as our Surety, only for a time, that he might take them away; but his righteousness is imputed to us to abide with us for ever; hence called an everlasting righteousness, Dan. 9:24.

Question: Why are we said to be pardoned and accepted only for the righteousness of Christ?

Answer: Because a sinner can have no other plea before God, for pardon and acceptance, but Christ's fulfilling all righteousness, as the only condition of the covenant, Isaiah 45:24.

Question: What is the instrumental cause of our justification?

Answer: It is twofold; namely, external and internal.

Question: What is the external instrumental cause?

Answer: The GOSPEL; because the righteousness of God is revealed in it, and brought near to us as a free gift, Rom. 1:17, 5:17, and 10:8.

Question: What is the internal instrumental cause of our Justification?

Answer: It is faith, Rom. 10:10.

Question: Why is faith the instrument of our justification?

Answer: To show that our justification is wholly of grace; it being the nature of faith to take the gift of righteousness freely, without money, and without price; "therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace," Rom. 4:16.

Question: What, then, is the instrumentality of faith in our justification?

Answer: It is merely the hand that receives and applies the righteousness of Christ, by which we are justified.46

Question: Is the grace of faith or any act of it, imputed to a sinner for justification?

Answer: No; for, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," Rom. 4:5.

Question: What is the difference between saving faith, and justifying faith?

Answer: Saving, faith receives and rests upon Christ in all his offices, as "of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;" but justifying faith, receives and rests upon him, more particularly, in his priestly office, for pardon and acceptance, on account of his meritorious righteousness, Phil. 3:9 - "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."

Question: Why is the righteousness of Christ said to be received by faith alone?

Answer: That works may be wholly excluded from having any share in our justification, less or more, Rom. 3:28 - "Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law."

Question: If good works have no influence upon our justification, of what use are they to the justified?

Answer: Though they cannot justify us before God, yet they are good "evidences" of our justification, being the fruits of a true and lively faith, James 2:18, they "adorn the profession of the gospel, Titus 2:11, 12; stop the mouths of adversaries, 1 Pet. 2:15; and glorify God, John 15:8."47

Question: If faith's receiving of Christ's righteousness justify us, does not faith justify as a work?

Answer: It is not properly the receiving, or any other act of faith, that justifies us, but the righteousness of Christ RECEIVED, Rom. 3:22; even as it is not the hand that nourishes us, but the food which we take by it.

Question: If we are justified by faith alone, why is it said, James 2:24, "That by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?"

Answer: This is to be understood of justifying, or evidencing the reality of our faith before men, and not of justifying our persons before God.

Question: When is it that God justifies the ungodly?

Answer: "Though from eternity God decreed to justify all the elect," yet "they are not" actually "justified, until the Holy Spirit does, in due time, apply Christ," and his righteousness "unto them, Titus 3:5-7."48

Question: How were believers, under the Old Testament, justified?

Answer: "Their justification was, in all respects, the same with the justification of believers, under the New Testament," Gal. 3:9; Heb. 13:8.49

Question: What may we learn from this important doctrine of justification?

Answer: That all ground of pride and boasting is taken away from the creature, Rom. 3:27: that faith itself, by laying hold upon the surety righteousness without us, is nothing else than a solemn declaration of our poverty and nakedness; and that, therefore, it is our duty to glory only in Christ Jesus, saying, "Surely - in the Lord have we righteousness and strength," Isaiah 45:24.:


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is adoption?

Answer: Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.

Question: What does the word adoption signify among men?

Answer: It signifies the taking of a stranger into a family, and dealing with him, as if he were a child or heir.

Question: What is the difference between adoption, as it is an act of God, and as it is a deed of men?

Answer: Men generally adopt only one into their family, and they do it on account of some amiable properties, or qualifications, discerned in the adopted; but God adopts many into his family, and that, not upon account of any thing commendable in them, but merely out of his own free and unmerited love, Eph. 1:5.

Question: Of how many kinds of adoption do the scriptures speak?

Answer: Two kinds; namely, general and special.

Question: What is meant by general adoption?

Answer: It is the erecting of a certain indefinite number of mankind into a visible church, and entitling them to all the privileges of it, Rom. 9:4.

Question: What is the outward seal, or badge, of this general adoption?

Answer: It is baptism; which comes in the room of circumcision under the Old Testament, Eph. 4:5.

Question: What is to be understood by special adoption?

Answer: It is a sovereign and free translation of a sinner of mankind, from the family of hell, or Satan, into the family of heaven, or household of God, Eph. 2:19; with an investiture into all the privileges of the sons of God, 1 John 3:1.

Question: By whose act and authority is this translation accomplished?

Answer: By the act and authority of God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Question: What is the act of the Father in this matter?

Answer: He has "predestinated us unto the adoption of children to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will," Eph. 1:5.

Question: What is the act of the Son in this special adoption?

Answer: In consequence of his purchasing the sinner by the price of his blood, he actually gives the power, right, or privilege, to become a child of God, in the day of believing, John 1:12.

Question: What is the act of the Holy Ghost?

Answer: He comes in Christ's name, takes possession of the person, and dwells in him, as a Spirit of adoption, teaching him to cry, Abba, Father, Rom. 8:15.

Question: Why is this translation into the family of God, called an act?

Answer: Because it is done at once, Jer. 3:19.

Question: Why called an act of God's free grace?

Answer: Because the adoption of any of mankind into the household of God, flows entirely from his own free love and favour, Eph. 1:5, they being, all of them, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, Rev. 3:17.

Question: What is the difference between good angels being called the sons of God, Job 38:7, and believers being so called? 1 John 3:1.

Answer: Good angels are called the sons God, because they were created immediately by him; but believers are so called, because they are adopted by him into his family, Rom. 8:15.

Question: Why are we said, in adoption, to be received into the number of the sons of GOD?

Answer: Because the family of God, from among men, consists of a certain definite number of mankind, which can neither be augmented nor diminished, John 17:2, 9, 12, and 6:39.

Question: By what means or instrument does God receive any of mankind into his family?

Answer: By the means and instrumentality of faith, Gal. 3:26 - "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

Question: What connexion is there between faith in Christ Jesus, and our being the children of God?

Answer: Faith unites us to Christ, and acquiesces in the redemption purchased by him, as the meritorious cause of our adoption, Gal. 4:4, 5 - "God sent forth his Son - to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."

Question: Since adoption is an act of translation, from the family of Satan to the family of God, to whom is it intimated?

Answer: To the angels in heaven; and sometimes to the adopted themselves.

Question: How is it intimated to the angels in heaven?

Answer: It is probable that it is intimated to them by immediate revelation, Luke 15:10 - "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth."

Question: How is it intimated to the adopted themselves?

Answer: By the "Spirit itself bearing witness with their spirit that they are the children of God," Rom. 8:16.

Question: Is there any intimation of this made to Satan?

Answer: No; but he cannot miss to know, when he is spoiled of his goods, and the lawful captive delivered, Mark 9:26.

Question: When sinners of mankind are adopted, and enrolled into the family of heaven, is their NAME changed?

Answer: Yes; as the wife's name is sunk into her husband's, so the former name of the adopted is sunk into Christ's new name, Rev. 3:12 - "I will write upon him my new name."

Question: What was the former, and what is the present name of the adopted children of God?

Answer: Their former name was, "strangers and foreigners;" their present name is, "fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God," Eph. 2:19; their former name was, guilty and condemned; their present name is, "the Lord our righteousness," Jer. 33:16; their former name denoted, that they "were without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world," Eph. 2:12; their present name is Jehovah-shammah, The Lord is there, Ezek. 48:35.

Question: Why is Christ's name, put upon them, called his new name?

Answer: Because it is a name that shall never wax old, or vanish away, Heb. 8:13.

Question: Whence come they by this new name?

Answer: When Christ gives them the white stone of pardon he, at the same time, gives them, in that stone, the new name of being the sons of God; which name "no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it," Rev. 2:17.

Question: What are the privileges with which the sons of God are invested?

Answer: Among others, they are invested with great dignity, glorious liberty, a title to the whole inheritance, boldness of access to God as a father, and his fatherly chastisement, or correction.50

Question: What is the great dignity or honour to which they are advanced?

Answer: To the dignity of being "kings and priests unto God," Rev. 1:6, or "a royal priesthood," 1 Pet. 2:9; to feast on Christ their passover sacrificed for them, 1 Cor. 5:7.

Question: In what consists "the glorious liberty of the children of God," mentioned, Rom. 8:21?

Answer: Not only in a freedom from the guilt and dominion of sin, the curse of the law, the tyranny of Satan, and sting of death, John 8:36; but in a filial, and reverential obedience, flowing from a principle of faith and love inlaid in the soul, Gal. 5:6.

Question: Upon what is their title to the inheritance founded?

Answer: Upon their being Christ's - "and heirs according to the promise," Gal. 3:29.

Question: What is the inheritance which the adopted children of God are heirs of "according to the promise?"

Answer: They are "HEIRS of the righteousness which is by faith," Heb. 11:7; "heirs of the grace of life," 1 Pet. 3:7; "heirs of salvation," Heb. 1:14; and, which comprehends all, they are "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," Rom. 8:17.

Question: What does their boldness of access to God, as their Father, include in it?

Answer: A firm persuasion of the power, love, and faithfulness of a promising God, Rom. 4:20, 21, and an assured expectation of relief from him: "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us," 1 John 5:14.

Question: What are the grounds of this boldness?

Answer: The righteousness of Christ apprehended by faith, Psalm 84:9, and his prevalent intercession within the veil, 1 John 2:1.

Question: Why is it that God chastises his adopted children?

Answer: Because he loves them, Heb. 12:6 - "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth."

Question: With what does he chastise them?

Answer: Sometimes with the rod of outward affliction, of various kinds, Psalm 34:19; and sometimes with the rod of desertion, Psalm 30:7.

Question: For what end does he thus chastise them?

Answer: For their profit, that they may be "partakers of his holiness," Heb. 12:10.

Question: How ought the children to behave under the chastisement of their Father?

Answer: They ought neither to "despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when they are rebuked by him," Heb. 12:5.

Question: What are the marks or evidences of the adopted children of God?

Answer: They will resemble their Father, 1 John 3:2; they know their Father's voice, John 10:4; delight in their Father's company, Rom. 8:15; are deeply concerned for his absence, Job 23:3; and out of love to him that begat, they have great love to all them that are "begotten of him," 1 John 5:1.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What is sanctification?

Answer: Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man, after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

Question: What is it for one to be SANCTIFIED?

Answer: It is to be made a saint, or a holy person set apart for a holy use, 1 Thess. 5:23.

Question: Can any sinner sanctify himself?

Answer: No; we can defile, but cannot purify ourselves, Job 14:4.

Question: Whose work is it to sanctify?

Answer: It is the special work of the Spirit of God, 2 Thess. 2:13.

Question: Do any of mankind-sinners deserve that God should sanctify them?

Answer: No; there are none of them that can deserve any thing from God, but to be left to perish eternally in their sin and pollution, because "they are altogether become filthy; there is none of them that doeth good, no not one," Psalm 14:3; Rom. 3:10-13.

Question: What moves God to sanctify a sinner?

Answer: His own free grace and good pleasure, Phil. 2:13.

Question: Are not justification, adoption, and sanctification, inseparably linked together?

Answer: Yes; they that are justified, are adopted; and they that are justified and adopted, are sanctified and glorified, Rom. 8:30.

Question: In what respects are justification and sanctification inseparably joined and linked together?

Answer: In the decree of God, Rom. 8:30; in the promise of God, Psalm 110:3; in the end of Christ's death, Titus 2:14; in the offices of Christ, 1 Cor. 1:30; in the gospelcall and offer, 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Thess. 4:7; and in the experience of all believers, Phil. 3:8, 12.

Question: Though inseparably linked together, are they not carefully to be distinguished?

Answer: Yes; for the confounding of justification and sanctification lays the foundation of many errors, both in principle and practice; and the want of a clear understanding of the difference between these two, contributes to depress and encumber the believer in his exercise; whereas the distinct knowledge of it would free him from that bondage, John 8:32.

Question: In what do justification and sanctification DIFFER?

Answer: They DIFFER in many respects; particularly in their matter, kind, form, properties, subjects, order, extent, ingredients, evidences; in their relation to the law; their relation to Christ's offices; and their use to believers.

Question: In what do they differ in their matter?

Answer: The matter of justification is the righteousness of Christ; but the matter of sanctification is the fulness of Christ communicated, or grace imparted from him, out of whose fulness we receive, "and grace for grace," John 1:16.

Question: How do they differ as to their kind?

Answer: Justification makes a relative, sanctification a real change: the first changes a man's state, the other changes his heart and life, Ezek. 36:26.

Question: How do they differ as to their form, or manner of conveyance?

Answer: Justification is effected by the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us; sanctification, by the implantation of his grace in us.

Question: How do they differ in their properties?

Answer: Justification is complete and perfect at first; but sanctification is carried on gradually, from less to more, until the soul be ripe for glory; the righteousness of justification is strictly and properly meritorious, being the righteousness of God, by which the law is not only fulfilled, but magnified; but the righteousness of sanctification is not so, being only the righteousness of a sinful creature, imperfect in degrees: justification is equal in all believers, but they are not all equally sanctified: hence, in God's family, there are little children, 1 John 2:12, and in his garden, trees of different tallness, or height, Psalm 92:12, compared with Zech. 1:8.

Question: How do they differ in their subjects?

Answer: Christ himself, and not the believer, is the subject of our justifying righteousness; it is inherently in him who wrought it out perfectly for us; but the believer himself is the subject of the righteousness of sanctification; it is implanted in him as a new nature; whereas his justifying righteousness is not in him as a nature, but on him as a robe; and hence it is said to be UPON all them that believe, Rom. 3:22.

Question: How do they differ in their order?

Answer: Although, as to time, they are simultaneous; yet, as to the order of nature, justification goes BEFORE sanctification, as the cause before the effect, or as fire is before light and heat.

Question: How do they differ as to their extent?

Answer: Alt:ough justification respects the whole person, yet, it immediately terminates upon conscience, God's deputy, purging it from dead works, and pacifying it with the sprinkling of the blood of Christ; nothing giving true peace to conscience, but that which gave full satisfaction to justice: but by sanctification we are renewed in the whole man, Eph. 4:23, 24.

Question: How do they differ as to their ingredients?

Answer: The main ingredient in justification is the grace and love of God towards us, manifested in pardoning and accepting us in Christ; whereas the main ingredient in sanctification is our gratitude and love to God, flowing from his love to us, and appearing in our obedience and keeping his commandments, by virtue of his "Spirit put within us, and causing us to walk in his statutes," Ezek. 36:27.

Question: How do they differ as to evidence?

Answer: Justification is evidenced by our sanctification; for none can warrantably conclude they are justified by the righteousness of Christ, if not students of true holiness, and groaning under a body of sin and death: but sanctification cannot be evidenced by our justification; which being the hidden root of holiness under ground, does not appear, except in lively actings of justifying faith, and other graces, which are internal branches of sanctification; sometimes inwardly discerned by the believer, and sometimes outwardly discovered to others by works, James 2:18.

Question: How do they differ in their relation to the law?

Answer: Justification has relation to the law, as a covenant, and frees the soul from it, Rom. 7:4; sanctification respects the law as a rule, and makes the soul breathe after conformity to it, and to delight in it after the inward man, Rom. 7:22; hence justification is a judicial sentence, absolving us from law-debt; sanctification, a spiritual change, fitting us for law-duty.

Question: How do they differ in their relation to the offices of Christ?

Answer: Justification springs from, and is grounded upon the priestly office of Christ, by which he satisfied law and justice, as our surety; but sanctification proceeds from his kingly office, by which he subdues us to his obedience, and writes his law in our hearts, Jer. 31:33.

Question: How do they differ in their use to believers?

Answer: Justification gives us a title to heaven and eternal life; sanctification gives a meetness for it: justification is God's act, pronouncing our persons righteous in Christ, and taking away the guilt of sin; sanctification is the Spirit's work, cleansing our nature, and taking away the filth of sin: by the former, we are instated into the favour of God; by the latter, adorned with the image of God.

Question: How may the work of sanctification be distinguished?

Answer: Into habitual and actual sanctification.

Question: What may be termed habitual sanctification?

Answer: It is that whereby we are renewed in the whole man, after the image of God, and so a renovation of the nature, Eph. 4:24.

Question: Can any have a sanctified life, who have not a renewed nature?

Answer: No; for a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, Matt. 7:18.

Question: What is to be understood by the whole man that must be renewed?

Answer: Both soul and body; in all the powers of the one, and members of the other, 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 5:23.

Question: What is the difference between the renewing of the whole man in sanctification, and the renewing mentioned in effectual calling?

Answer: The renovation in effectual calling is only begun; but this of sanctification, is carried on by degrees, till perfected in glory, Phil. 1:6; there, the seed of grace is sown; here, it is watered, in order to growth: there, the habit is implanted, John 1:13; here, it is strengthened for exercise, Eph. 2:10.

Question: After whose image is the whole man renewed?

Answer: After the image of God; consisting in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24.

Question: Whose image do we bear, before we are renewed in the whole man?

Answer: The image of the first Adam after the fall, having his nature corrupted, Gen. 5:3.

Question: Can any be renewed in the whole man, without being united to the second Adam?

Answer: No; for we are not sanctified, except by faith uniting us to Christ, Acts 15:9, and 26:18; 1 Cor. 1:2, - "Sanctified in Christ Jesus."

Question: Though the believer be renewed in the whole man, yet is any part of the new creature WHOLLY renewed?

Answer: The two contrary principles, grace and corruption, are in the sanctified; being together in such sort, that in every particular part, where the one is, the other is there also beside it: for, what we have of this gracious work of sanctification upon us while here, is but in part; it is not perfect, 1 Cor. 13:9, 10.

Question: What is the tendency of habitual sanctification?

Answer: The tendency of it is to actual sanctification, Eph. 2:10.

Question: In what consists ACTUAL sanctification?

Answer: In being enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness, Rom. 6:4, 6.

Question: In what does habitual sanctification differ from actual?

Answer: The first points at the renovation of our nature; the second at the renovation of our life: the first at the habit; the second at the exercise of grace, working inwardly in the heart, and outwardly in the walk, Eph. 2:10.

Question: What are the parts of actual sanctification, and how are they commonly termed?

Answer: Mortification; or, a dying unto sin; and vivification; or, a living unto righteousness.

Question: Can any die to sin, and live to righteousness, without being enabled by grace?

Answer: No; "We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God," 2 Cor. 3:5. The strength of habitual grace will not be sufficient, without actual assistance.

Question: How does the grace of God enable us to die to sin, and live to righteousness?

Answer: It enables us more and more, 1 Thess. 4:1, or, by little and little, from time to time; for, "the path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," Proverbs 4:18; and "they go from strength to strength," Psalm 84:7.

Question: Does the work of actual sanctification go on constantly without interruption?

Answer: The sanctified person is subject to backsliding and decay; yet God never altogether takes his hand from the good work he has begun, but makes good use of backslidings for farther progress in it, Hos. 14:4, 7.

Question: Why is not actual sanctification perfected in this life, but still a remainder of corruption left in God's people?

Answer: To make them know from experience, the strength of sin, the necessity of mortifying grace, and of the abundance of pardoning grace, 2 Cor. 12:7-9; and to keep them exercised in prayer and humiliation, in the faith and hope of deliverance from a body of sin and death, through Christ, Rom. 7:24, 25.

Question: What is it to die to sin?

Answer: To have the power of sin, in our nature, so far destroyed as not to obey it, but to hate it in heart, and abstain from it in life, Rom. 6:6.

Question: What is it to live to righteousness?

Answer: To have our nature so quickened by the power of grace, as to love and obey the commands of righteousness in our life, Rom. 6:13.

Question: From whence is it that this death to sin, and life to righteousness spring?

Answer: They spring from the virtue that is in the death and resurrection of Christ, to render his mystical members conformable to him in them; "That, like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life; for, if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection," Rom. 6:4, 5.

Question: Why have the death and resurrection of Christ such a conforming virtue?

Answer: Because he died and rose again as a public person. Eph. 2:5, 6, and merited this conformation or fashioning of his mystical members to his own image, Phil. 3:10.

Question: In what consists the excellency of sanctification?

Answer: It is the end and design of our election, Eph. 1:4; of our effectual calling, 2 Tim. 1:9; of our justification and deliverance from the law as a covenant, Rom. 6:14; and of our adoption, Eph. 1:4, 5; it is the end both of mercies and crosses, Rom. 2:4, Isaiah 27:9; and, in a word, it is the end and design of all the precepts of the law, the promises of the gospel, and the operation of the Spirit of God.

Question: Whence arises the necessity of holiness, or sanctification?

Answer: From the holy nature and will of God: for "it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy," 1 Pet. 1:16; and "this is the will of God, even our sanctification," 1 Thess. 4:3; and from the death of Christ, "who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works," Titus 2:14.

Question: For what good end and use is sanctification necessary?

Answer: Not for justification before God; but for evidencing our justification and faith, James. 2:18. It is necessary for glorifying God, Matt. 5:16, and showing forth his praise, 1 Pet. 2:19; for adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour, Titus 2:10; for proving our union to Christ, John 15:5, 6; for promoting inward peace and rejoicing, Psalm 119:165, 2 Cor. 1:12; for maintaining fellowship and communion with God, John 14:21, 23; for making us meet for heaven, because without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Heb. 12:14; for making us useful to men on earth, Titus 3:8; and for stopping the mouth of calumny when we are reproached as evil doers, 1 Pet. 3:16.

Question: What is the meritorious cause of our sanctification?

Answer: The blood of Christ, Heb. 13:12 - "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate."

Question: Whence flows the sanctifying or purifying virtue of the blood of Christ?

Answer: From the atoning virtue of it, Heb. 9:14.

Question: What is the instrumental cause of our sanctification?

Answer: The faith of the operation of God, Acts 15:9.

Question: What is the regulating or directing cause?

Answer: The law of God, Isaiah 8:20.

Question: What is the exemplary cause of sanctification?

Answer: The copy that Christ has set us by his obedience and sufferings, in so far as imitable by us, 1 Pet. 2:21, 22.

Question: What are the marks of sanctification?

Answer: A heart-respect to all God's commandments, and loving them because they are holy; a hatred of sin, and avoiding of all appearance of evil; a spirit of watchfulness and warfare against sin; a delight in doing good; a conversation becoming the gospel; and an habitual improvement of the blood of Christ by faith and prayer, for cleansing from the filth of sin, and of the precious promises for that end, 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Pet. 1:4.

Question: What are the chief motives and inducements to sanctification?

Answer: The will of God commanding, 1 Pet. 1:15; the love of Christ constraining, 1 Cor. 5:14; the dignity of thus resembling God, Lev. 19:2; and the indignity of resembling the devil by the want of it, John 8:44.

Question: What should we do to be sanctified?

Answer: We should fly to Christ by faith, touching the hem of his garment for healing and purification, for we "are sanctified in Christ Jesus," 1 Cor. 1:2; we should pray for the Spirit of sanctification, through whom alone the deeds of the body can be mortified, Rom. 8:13; we should associate with saints, for "he that walketh with the wise, shall be wise," Proverbs 13:20; association begets assimilation; and we should make a right use of God's word and rod, Sabbaths and sacraments.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What are the benefits which, in this life, do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: The benefits which, in this life, do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Question: Are not justification, adoption, and sanctification, pregnant with many blessings?

Answer: Yes; their name may well be called GAD, (Gen. 30:11,) for troops of blessings attend them; some in this life, some at death, but the best of all in the life to come.

Question: What are the benefits which flow from them in this life?

Answer: There are five of them mentioned in the answer; namely, "assurance of God's love," Rom. 5:5; "peace of conscience," Rom. 5:1; "joy in the Holy Ghost," Rom. 14:17; "increase of grace," Proverbs 4:18; and "perseverance therein to the end," 1 Pet. 1:5.

Question: Which of these benefits flow from a sight and sense of justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Question: Which of them belong to the being of a justified, adopted, and sanctified state?

Answer: Increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Question: Do all justified, adopted, and sanctified persons, enjoy assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, at all times?

Answer: Though they have them radically in their justification, adoption, and sanctification, yet they are not always sensible of the possession of them, but are frequently filled with doubts and fears about their gracious state, Job 23:8, 9; Isaiah 49:14.

Question: Whence is it that they who have assurance, peace, and joy in the root, have not always the sensible possession of these benefits?

Answer: This flows sometimes from a sovereign cause in God, to keep down a spirit of pride after special manifestations, 2 Cor. 12:7; and sometimes from a sinful cause in believers; such as, untenderness in their walk, Isaiah 59:2; resting upon a manifestation, Luke 9:33, 34; or quenching the gracious motions and operations of the Spirit, Eph. 4:30.

Question: Is it the assurance of sense, or the assurance of faith, that is mentioned in this answer?

Answer: It is the assurance of sense, or the sensible assurance of God's love.

Question: What is the difference between the assurance of faith, and the assurance of sense?

Answer: The object of the assurance of faith is "Christ in the promise," James 2:23; but the object of the assurance of sense is "Christ formed in the soul," 2 Tim. 2:12; or, which is the same thing, the assurance of faith is founded on the infallible word of God, who cannot lie; but the assurance of sense upon the person's present experience of the communications of divine love.

Question: How may assurance of God's love be said to accompany or flow from justification?

Answer: Because in it we see his love to us, in pardoning our sins, and receiving us into his favour, Psalm 103:3, 4.

Question: How may it be said to accompany or flow from adoption?

Answer: Because we see in it his love to us, in bringing us into his family, and pitying us, "like as a father pitieth his children," Psalm 103:13.

Question: How may it be said to accompany or flow from sanctification?

Answer: Because in it we see his love to us, in killing our corruptions, and quickening his graces, Rom. 8:11, 14.

Question: How do you prove that the sensible assurance of God's love is attainable?

Answer: From the command to give diligence to attain it, 2 Pet. 1:10; and from its being actually attained, by many of the saints; such as, Job, Job 19:25, 26; David, Psalm 73:26; Paul, 2 Tim. 4:7, 8, and others.

Question: How are the saints brought to this privilege?

Answer: Sometimes by a course of holy and self-denied diligence in the way of commanded duty, Isaiah 32:17; and sometimes by the Spirit itself bearing witness with their spirits, that they are the children of God, Rom. 8:16.

Question: What may afford comfort to a believer, when at any time he loses this assurance?

Answer: That the covenant stands fast with Christ, Psalm 89:28; that the love of God is invariably the same, Zeph. 3:17; and that he will in his own time return with wonted loving-kindness, Isaiah 54:7, 8.

Question: What is incumbent on believers for recovering the assurance of God's love when they have lost the present sense of it?

Answer: To be humbled for sin, as the procuring cause of the Lord's departure, Psalm 40:12; to justify God, and to condemn themselves, Dan. 9:7, 8; and to wait in the exercise of prayer and fasting, for the returns of his love, Isaiah 8:17.

Question: Of what advantage to believers is the assurance of God's love?

Answer: It animates to the practice of every commanded duty, Psalm 119:32; it supports under all trials and afflictions, Psalm 23:4; and it fills the soul with the love of God, "because he first loved us," 1 John 4:19.

Question: How may we know if we have the well-rounded assurance of God's love?

Answer: If it flow from faith on Christ in the promise, Eph. 1:13; if it fill the soul with an humble and holy wondering at the condescending goodness of God, 2 Sam. 7:18; and if it beget ardent desires after nearer conformity to God here, and the full enjoyment of him hereafter, 1 John 3:2, 3.

Question: What is the difference between a true assurance of God's love and a false and presumptuous confidence?

Answer: True assurance makes a man more humble and self-denied, Gal. 2:19, 20; but presumptuous confidence puffs up with spiritual pride and self-conceit, 2 Kings 10:15, 16; the one excites to the practice of every commanded duty, Psalm 119:32; but the other encourages sloth and indolence, Luke 11:21; the man who has true assurance, wants to be searched and tried as to the reality thereof, Psalm 26:1, 2; but they who are stuffed with presumptuous confidence hate the light, "neither come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved," John 3:20.

Question: What is peace of conscience?

Answer: It is the inward quiet and tranquillity of the mind arising from the faith of being justified before God, Rom. 5:1.

Question: Why is peace of conscience said to accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: Because none can have true peace of conscience who are not justified, adopted, and sanctified: there being "no peace to the wicked," Isaiah 57:21.

Question: When may we be said to have that peace of conscience which flows from justification.

Answer: When the conscience, being sprinkled with the blood of Christ, is set free from the fear of vindictive wrath, Heb. 10:22.

Question: When have we that peace which flows from adoption?

Answer: When we have soul-quiet and composure, through the faith of God's being our friend and father in Christ, Jer. 3:4, 19.

Question: When have we that peace which accompanies or flows from sanctification?

Answer: When we have the Spirit of God shining on us, in the exercise of grace, and assisting us in the performance of duty, Psalm 138:3.

Question: Whether is the peace of sanctification, or that of justification, most stable and permanent?

Answer: The peace of sanctification, having many imperfections cleaving to it, is more fluctuating and unstable than the peace of justification, which is founded upon a righteousness that is everlasting, and always the same, Isaiah 45:24, 25.

Question: Have all believers peace in their consciences at all times?

Answer: They have ground of peace, being in a state of peace; but have not always the sense of it, Job 6:4.

Question: What is it that hinders or mars the sense of peace in those who are in a state of peace?

Answer: Their not improving the promises by faith, for promoting their sanctification, Isaiah 40:27, 28; their sitting down upon present or former attainments, Psalm 30:6, 7; and their giving way to the temptations of Satan, who is an enemy both to their grace and comfort, Isaiah 56:11.

Question: What are the marks of true peace of conscience, which distinguish it from carnal security.

Answer: A continual warfare against all known sin, Psalm 119:104; and a sincere endeavour to please God, verse 165; with a constant fear of offending him, Gen. 39:9.

Question: What is joy in the Holy Ghost?

Answer: It is that inward elevation and enlargement of soul which flows from the lively exercise of faith, feasting on Christ in the promise, 1 Pet. 1:8 - "Believing, ye rejoice, with joy unspeakable, and full of glory."

Question: Why is this joy said to be in the Holy Ghost?

Answer: Because the Holy Ghost is the author of it; as personally inhabiting, or residing in the believer, John 14:16, 17.

Question: What is the matter or ground of this joy?

Answer: God in Christ as the everlasting portion of the believing soul, Psalm 16:5, 6.

Question: What are the properties of it?

Answer: It is a hidden joy, Proverbs 14:10; it is permanent, John 16:22; and it is unspeakable, 1 Pet. 1:8.

Question: What are the peculiar seasons of this joy?

Answer: The time of special manifestations after a dark night of desertion, Isaiah 54:7, 8; the time of tribulation for Christ's sake, Acts 16:25; the time of God's remarkable appearance for his church, Ex. 15:1; and sometimes in or about the time of death, Psalm 23:4.

Question: When may believers be said to have that joy in the Holy Ghost, which accompanies or flows from justification?

Answer: When they have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," Heb. 10:19.

Question: When may they be said to have that joy which flows from adoption?

Answer: When the "Spirit itself beareth witness with their spirit, that they are the children of God;" and enables them to "cry, Abba, Father," Rom. 8:15, 16.

Question: When may they be said to have the joy that flows from sanctification?

Answer: When they have the testimony of their conscience bearing witness to their sincerity, and to the uprightness of their aims and endeavours in all the duties of religion, 2 Cor. 1:12 - "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world."

Question: What are the signs and evidences of joy in the Holy Ghost, which distinguish it from that joy which temporary believers, or hypocrites, may sometimes have in the word? Matt. 13:20.

Answer: Joy in the Holy Ghost has an enlivening, Neh. 8:10; enlarging, Psalm 45:1; humbling, Job 42:5, 6; and sanctifying influence upon the soul, 2 Cor. 3:18; whereas the joy of hypocrites has no such effects.

Question: What do you understand by increase of grace?

Answer: The gradual advances which the saints are helped to make, in the exercise of grace, and experimental godliness, Psalm 92:12, 13.

Question: To what is the increase of grace compared in scripture?

Answer: To "the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," Proverbs 4:18.

Question: What is the spring or cause of the believer's growth?

Answer: Union with Christ, John 15:4; and participation of vital influences from him, Col. 2:19.

Question: Why is it ordered that believers shall grow in grace?

Answer: Because there is a particular stature, at which every member of the mystical body is appointed to arrive, even "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," Eph. 4:13.

Question: How does growth in grace flow from justification?

Answer: In as much as the justified person is delivered from a legal incapacity to grow, Psalm 116:16; and is made free and unfettered for the service of God, Gal. 5:1.

Question: How does it flow from adoption?

Answer: In as much as the sincere milk of the word is desired by the new-born babes, that they may grow thereby, 1 Pet. 2:2.

Question: How does it flow from sanctification?

Answer: In as much as the image of God, drawn upon the soul, is in sanctification, carried on to a nearer conformity, till we shall be perfectly like him, when we shall see him as he is, 1 John 3:2.

Question: Do believers grow in grace at all times?

Answer: They have a principle of growth, the seed of God remaining in them, 1 John 3:9; but they do not grow at all times; they have their winters, Song 2:11, in which the influences of grace, necessary for growth, are ceased, 5:2.

Question: Whence is it that the believer's growth ceases at any time?

Answer: Faith being like the pipe that received the oil from the bowl to each lamp in the candlestick, Zech. 4:2; if that pipe be stopped, or the saint's faith lie dormant and inactive, then all the rest of the graces will also languish and decay, Psalm 27:13.

Question: How is growth in grace revived, after the languishings and decays of it?

Answer: The pipe of faith remaining still at the Fountain, as a bond of union between Christ and the soul, the Lord Jesus clears this mean of conveyance, and then the influences for growth flow, and the believer's graces look fresh and green again, Hos. 14:7 - "They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine."

Question: Since the tares have their growth, as well as the wheat, Matt. 13:26, how shall we distinguish between the growth of hypocrites, and the growth of the true Christian?

Answer: The distinction lies in the nature of the growth: the growth of the true Christian is regular and proportionable in all the parts of the new man; it is a "growing up into him in all things who is the head," Eph. 4:15; whereas, hypocrites when they get more knowledge into their heads, and no more holiness into their hearts, may be more taken up with the externals of religion than formerly, and yet as great strangers to the power of godliness as ever, 2 Tim. 3:5.

Question: What are the several ways in which believers grow at once?

Answer: They grow inwardly and outwardly; upward and downward, Isaiah 37:31.

Question: How do believers grow inwardly?

Answer: By uniting more closely to Christ, and cleaving more firmly to him as the head of influences, which is the spring of all other true Christian growth, Eph. 4:15.

Question: How do they grow outwardly?

Answer: By being fruitful in good works in their life and conversation, Titus 3:8.

Question: How do they grow upward?

Answer: In heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the world, Phil. 3:20 - "Our conversation is in heaven."

Question: How do they grow downward?

Answer: In humility and self-abasement; the branches of the largest growth in Christ, are, in their own eyes, "less than the least of all saints," Eph. 3:8; yea, "the chief of sinners," 1 Tim. 1:15; they see that they can do nothing, 2 Cor. 3:5; that they deserve nothing, Gen. 32:10; and that they are nothing, 2 Cor. 12:11.

Question: May not Christians mistake their case, by measuring their growth in one of these ways, exclusively of the rest of them?

Answer: Yes; if, for instance, they measure it upwards, and not at all downwards; for, though a Christian may want the sweet consolations and flashes of affection, which he has sometimes had, yet, if he be growing in humility, self-denial, and a sense of needy dependence on the Lord Jesus, he is a growing Christian, Hos. 14:5 - "I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall - cast forth his roots as Lebanon."

Question: When believers cannot perceive their growth, how may they know if they have true grace at all, how ever weak?

Answer: If they have any measure of self-loathing on account of sin, Ezek. 36:31; if they have a desire for grace, Neh. 1:11; if they prize Christ above all things, Phil 3:8; and if they love his members for his sake, 1 John 5:1.

Question: What is meant by perseverance in grace?

Answer: A continuing still in the state of grace, and the habitual practice of godliness, to the end, John 10:28.

Question: Can none who are justified, adopted, and sanctified, fall totally and finally from grace?

Answer: No; they can neither fall totally from all grace nor finally without recovery; for, "those that thou gavest me," says Christ, "I have kept, and none of them is lost," John 17:12.

Question: How is the perseverance of the saints infallibly secured?

Answer: By the immutability of electing love, Jer. 31:3; by an indissoluble union with Christ, Rom. 8:38, 39; by the merit of his purchase, 1 Pet. 1:18, 19; by the prevalency of his intercession, Luke 22:32; by the inhabitation of the Spirit, John 14:16; and by the power of a promising God, 1 Pet. 1:5.

Question: What promise, among others, have believers for their perseverance in grace to the end?

Answer: They have that remarkable promise, in Jer. 32:40 - "I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."

Question: What security have believers by this promise.

Answer: They are secured on every side; both that God will never cast them off, and that they shall never depart from him.

Question: What is the ground, in law, upon which believers are secured, that God will never cast them off, and that they shall never depart from him?

Answer: Christ's perseverance in obedience to the law for them, till the condition of the covenant was perfectly fulfilled, Phil. 2:8, by which their perseverance was purchased, and infallibly secured, Titus 2:14.

Question: Do all who make a zealous profession of religion persevere in it?

Answer: No; many of them afterwards fall away, John 6:66.

Question: What may we conclude about those who fall totally and finally from their profession?

Answer: That they were never in reality what they professed themselves to be, 1 John 2:19 - "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us."

Question: What are the chief branches of the promise of perseverance?

Answer: A promise of the continued influence of grace, Isaiah 27:3; and a promise of continued pardon for the sins of the believer's daily walk, Jer. 33:8.

Question: Why is the promise of the continued influences of grace necessary?

Answer: Because the stock of inherent grace would soon fail: of itself, it would wither away, and die out, if it were not fed, John 15:16.

Question: Why is the promise of continued pardon necessary to the perseverance of saints already justified?

Answer: Not as if there were any need of new pardons with respect to their state; because none of their sins can bring them afterwards under the guilt of eternal wrath, Rom. 8:1; but only with respect to the sins of their daily walk, which bring them under the guilt of fatherly anger, Psalm 89:30-32.

Question: How is the pardon of the sins of their daily walk granted to believers?

Answer: Upon their renewed actings of faith in Jesus Christ, and of repentance towards God; yet not FOR their believing and repenting, but for Christ's sake, 1 John 2:1, 2, even as the first pardon is given, chap. 1:7.

Question: Does repentance then go before the pardon of sin?

Answer: Although repentance does not go before, but follows after the pardon of sin in justification; yet not only faith but repentance also, goes before the pardons given to those who are already justified, 1 John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."

Question: How does the perseverance of the saints flow from their justification?

Answer: In as much as they who are once justified, and accepted in the Beloved, are always so; for "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," Rom. 11:29.

Question: How does their perseverance flow from adoption?

Answer: In as much as he who has adopted them as his children, is their everlasting Father, Isaiah 9:6; and therefore they shall abide in his house for ever, John 8:35.

Question: How does it flow from their sanctification?

Answer: In as much as the sanctifying Spirit is given them to abide with them for ever, John 14:16; and to be in them a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, John 4:14.

Question: What improvement should be made of this connexion of the benefits and blessings that accompany and flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: It should excite in us a desire after the saving knowledge of the truth, as it is in Jesus, in whom all the lines of divine truth meet, as in their centre, Eph. 4:21; and to admire the infinite goodness and wisdom of God, who has so linked all the blessings of the covenant into one another, that they who are possessed of one, are possessed of all, 1 Cor. 3:22, 23.


The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained

Question: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?

Answer: The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.

Question: Why are the persons spoken of in the ANSWER, called believers?

Answer: Because they have been enabled, by grace, to credit the truth of God in his promise, and to embrace the good that is in it, Heb. 11:13.

Question: What is the difference between believers, and others, in their death?

Answer: Believers die in virtue of the promise of the covenant of grace, in which death is made over to them unstinged, as a part of Christ's legacy, 1 Cor. 3:22; whereas all others die in virtue of the threatening of the covenant of works, Gen. 2:17, having the sting of death sticking fast both in their souls and bodies.

Question: What is the sting of death?

Answer: The sting of death is sin, 1 Cor. 15:56; and the curse is the inseparable companion of sin, Gal. 3:10.

Question: What security in law have believers against the sting of death?

Answer: Christ's receiving it into his own soul and body, as their Surety, that they might be delivered from it: wherefore the promise of victory over death, made to him, Isaiah 25:8, secures the disarming of it to them, 1 Cor. 15:57.

Question: How many fold are the benefits which believers receive from Christ at their death?

Answer: They are twofold; such as respect their SOULS, and such as respect their BODIES.

Question: How does it appear that the souls of believers exist in a state of separation from their bodies?

Answer: From the Lord's calling himself the "God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," long after their death, as an evidence that their souls were living; for "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," Matt. 22:32; and from the death of believers being called a departure, 2 Tim. 4:6; intimating that the soul, upon its separation, departs only from the earthly house of this tabernacle, to a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, 2 Cor. 5:1.

Question: Are the souls of men absolutely and independently immortal?

Answer: No; God only is so, 1 Tim. 6:16 - "Who only hath immortality."

Question: In what sense then are souls immortal?

Answer: In that, as to their natural constitution, they are incorruptible, having no inward principle of corruption, but remaining in a state of activity after the death of the body, Heb. 12:23 - "The spirits of just men made perfect."

Question: How do you prove the immortality of the soul from the nature of it?

Answer: In its nature, it is a spiritual, immaterial, or incorporeal substance: and, therefore, where there is no composition of parts, there can be no dissolution of them, Luke 24:39 - "A spirit hath not flesh and bones."

Question: How are we sure that the soul shall never be annihilated?

Answer: From the promise of everlasting happiness to the righteous; and the threatening of everlasting misery to the wicked, Matt. 25:46 - "These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."

Question: What are the benefits conferred upon the SOULS of believers, upon their separation from their bodies?

Answer: They are made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, Heb. 12:23; Philip. 1:23.

Question: How does it appear, that the souls of believers are not made perfect in holiness, while united to their bodies in this life?

Answer: From the remains of corruption and indwelling sin which cleave to the best of the saints of God, while in an imbodied state, Rom. 7:23, 24.

Question: In what consists that perfect holiness which is conferred upon the souls of believers at their separation?

Answer: Not only in a perfect freedom from all sin, as to the very being of it, Rev. 21:4, but in a perfect likeness and conformity to God, 1 John 3:2.

Question: What comfort may the believer have, in the prospect of the separation of his soul from his body?

Answer: That as sin made its first entrance into him at the union of his soul and body, so it shall be for ever cast out at their separation; in which respect, among many others, death is great gain, Phil. 1:21.

Question: Why must the souls of believers be perfectly holy at their separation?

Answer: Because nothing that defileth can enter within the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, Rev. 21:27.

Question: What is the necessary concomitant of the soul's perfect holiness?

Answer: Perfect and uninterrupted communion with God, 1 John 3:2.

Question: Where is this perfect and uninterrupted communion to be enjoyed?

Answer: In glory, 1 Cor. 13:12.

Question: When do the souls of the saints pass into glory?

Answer: As they are made perfect in holiness immediately upon their separation, so do they likewise immediately pass into glory.

Question: Why is it said in the answer that they pass immediately into glory?

Answer: To show that the fiction of a middle state, between heaven and hell, invented by the papists, has no manner of warrant, or foundation in scripture.

Question: How do you prove from scripture, that the souls of believers, upon their separation from their bodies, pass immediately into glory?

Answer: The soul of that certain beggar, named Lazarus, was immediately, upon its separation, "carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom," Luke 16:22; in like manner the soul of the thief upon the cross was immediately glorified; for, says Christ to him, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," Luke 23:43; and Stephen, among his last words, prays, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," Acts 7:59; plainly intimating, that he firmly believed his soul would be with Christ' in glory immediately after death.

Question: What is that glory into which the souls of believers immediately pass?

Answer: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," 1 Cor. 2:9. However, since naked discoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earthly resemblances, would be too bright for our weak eyes; such is the condescension of God, that he has been pleased to represent to us heaven's happiness, under similitudes taken from earthly things, glorious in the eyes of men.

Question: What are the similitudes by which this glory, into which the souls of believers immediately pass, is held forth in scripture?

Answer: It is compared to a kingdom, Luke 12:32; to a "house not made with hands," 2 Cor. 5:1; to an "inheritance incorruptible," 1 Pet. 1:4; and to a "better country," Heb. 11:16.

Question: Why is the heavenly glory compared to a kingdom?

Answer: Because of the fulness of all spiritual and eternal good, of which the saints are there possessed; and the glorious dignity to which they are advanced, Rev. 1:6 - "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father."

Question: Why is it called a house not made with hands?

Answer: To signify the unspeakable excellency of the heavenly mansions, above the most stately palaces built by the hands of men.

Question: Why is it said to be an incorruptible inheritance?

Answer: To intimate, that the happiness of the saints will be of an unfading nature for ever, 1 Pet. 5:4 - "Ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Question: Why is it called a better country?

Answer: To show that there is no comparison between "the things which are seen, and are temporal, and the things which are not seen, and are eternal," 2 Cor 4:18.

Question: What benefits do believers receive from Christ, at death, with respect to their bodies?

Answer: Their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection, Isaiah 57:1, 2; Job 19:26.

Question: How does it appear that the bodies of believers in their graves remain still united to Christ?

Answer: The union was with the person of believers, of which their bodies are a part; and this union being indissoluble, it must still subsist with their bodies in the grave, as well as with their souls in heaven, Isaiah 26:19.

Question: How may believers be assured of this from the union between the two natures in the person of Christ?

Answer: Because, as at the death of Christ, though his soul was separated from his body, yet neither the one nor the other were separated from his divine person, but remained as firmly united to it as ever; so neither the soul nor body of the believer shall be separated from Christ by their separation from one another at death, but both of them remain indissolubly united to him for ever, Rom. 8:38, 39.

Question: What is the difference of the grave to the righteous and to the wicked?

Answer: To the one the grave is a resting-place; but to the other it is a prison-house, where they are kept in close custody for the judgment of the great day, Dan. 12:2.

Question: Why are the bodies of the saints said to REST in their graves?

Answer: Because their graves are like beds of ease, where their bodies lie in safety, till they shall be awakened in the morning of the resurrection, Isaiah 57:2.

Question: How is their resting in the grave expressed in scripture?

Answer: By "sleeping in Jesus," 1 Thess. 4:14; intimating, that they sleep in union with Jesus, and that his Spirit keeps possession of every particle of their dust, which he will quicken and rebuild as his temple at the last day, Rom. 8:11.

Question: How long will they rest in their graves?

Answer: Till the resurrection of all the dead at the great day, John 5:29.

Question: How may believers be assured of receiving these promised benefits from Christ at their death?

Answer: They may be assured of them, upon this ground, that the promises of these benefits to them are all ingrafted upon the promises made to him, as their glorious head, before the world began, 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2.

Question: Upon what promise made to Christ, is the promise of disarming death, to the dying believer, ingrafted? Hos. 13:14 - "O death, I will be thy plagues."

Answer: It is ingrafted upon the promise made to him, of complete victory over death, Isaiah 25:8 - "He will swallow up death in victory."

Question: Upon what ground may believers be assured that their souls, at death, shall immediately pass into glory?

Answer: The promise of transporting their souls into heaven, immediately upon the separation from their bodies, (Luke 23:43 - "Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise,") is ingrafted upon the promise made to Christ, that when he should make his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed, Isaiah 53:10.

Question: Upon what promise made to Christ is the promise of destroying death, to the dead believer, ingrafted; Hos. 13:14 - "O grave! I will be thy destruction?"

Answer: It is ingrafted upon the promise made to him, of the resurrection of his mystical members, Isaiah 26:19 - "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust."