REFORMED WITNESS
June 1992
As To Conditions
by Herman Hoeksema
From The Standard Bearer, Vol. 26, pp. 29-30
See more articles by this author
Also in this issue: The 'If' Sentences In Deuteronomy - by George M. Ophoff
...Now, in order to have a fruitful discussion on the matter from a Reformed viewpoint, it seems but proper that we first of all consult our confessions, the Three Forms of Unity, and the Reformed confessions in general. Besides, we can also turn to our liturgical forms, such as the Form for the Administration of Baptism, etc., which must be used in our churches and which are often considered standards of secondary value and importance.
And then we discover, in the first place, that the term "condition" never even once occurs in any of our Reformed Standards.
Do not minimize the importance of this obvious fact by saying that this is a mere argumentum e silentio, an argument from silence, which has but little force. For this is not true. In the first place, consider that our fathers certainly were acquainted with the term conditio, for already Calvin, who had a profound influence upon Reformed thinking at the time and upon the formulation of the Reformed symbols, used the term. Yet the Reformed fathers in the composition and formulation of our confessions studiously avoided the term condition, or at least had no room for it anywhere in the expression of Reformed thought.
Besides, in as far as this is indeed an argumentum e silentio, we must not overlook the fact that our own Three Forms of Unity, together with our liturgical forms, are rather elaborate expositions of all the fundamental doctrines of the Reformed Faith, treating of God and man, of the fall and original sin, of the covenant and man's original state of integrity, of election and reprobation, of the incarnation and the atonement, of faith and justification, of regeneration and sanctification, of the church and the means of grace, etc. Surely if the term condition had represented an important element in Reformed thinking it would be met with more than once in this elaborate exposition of our truth as we confess it. Yet it is never once used.
I think this makes this argumentum e silentio rather weighty and valid. It proves definitely, if not that our Reformed fathers consciously rejected the term and purposely avoided it, yet that they had no need of it, and that they found no room for it in the system of Reformed truth.
But there is much more.
The question is, of course, whether faith may be presented as a condition of salvation, and whether the establishment and continuation of God's covenant with us is in any sense of the word contingent upon our fulfilling the conditions of faith and obedience. This, unless we juggle words, is the plain and simple meaning of the question, and in this simple form it certainly will stand before the minds of the people.
But I dare say that, in this sense, the term condition not only has no room in the Reformed system of doctrine, but is, as far as our confessions are concerned, thoroughly unReformed.
For our confessions uniformly present faith not as a condition which we must fulfill, but as a God-given means or instrument empowering the soul to cling to Christ and to receive all His benefits, and that is a radically different conception from that of condition. And as far as obedience or walking in the way of the covenant is concerned, also this is never presented as a condition but rather as the fruit, in fact, as the inevitable fruit, of our being ingrafted into Christ.
Let us consult our confessions on these points.
In the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day VII, question and answer 20, we read: "Are all men, then, as they are perished in Adam, saved by Christ? No; only those who are ingrafted into him, and receive all his benefits, by a true faith."
Notice that faith here is the spiritual means or, as it is often called, the instrument, whereby we are ingrafted, incorporated (ingeljfd, einverleibt) into Christ. This is an entirely passive notion. Man has nothing to do with it. Besides, the Word of God plainly teaches us that this instrument is given us of God. Man does not have the power to believe in Christ of himself. This, too, is taught by the Heidelberg Catechism in the next question and answer, which reads as follows: "What is true faith? True faith is not only a certain knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His word, but also an assured confidence which the Holy Ghost works, by the gospel, in my heart; that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation, are freely given me by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merit."
The point is, of course, that if faith is an instrument which God uses and works in the heart of man, it certainly cannot be, at the same time, a condition which man must fulfill in order to obtain salvation, or to enter into the covenant of God. How different the sense of question and answer 20 of the Catechism would become if we would read: "Are all men then, as they perished in Adam, saved by Christ? No; but only those that comply with the condition of faith, and receive all his benefits." I am well aware, of course, that those Reformed theologians that favor the term "conditions," usually add that God Himself fulfills all conditions. But this is plainly camouflaging the truth that there are no conditions which man can or must fulfill to obtain salvation.
The same truth is implied in Lord's Day XX which reads: "What dost thou believe concerning the Holy Ghost.) First, that he is the true and co-eternal God with the Father and the Son; secondly, that he is also given me, to make me by a true faith partaker of Christ and all his benefits, that he may comfort me and abide with me forever." Also here it is evident that faith is the instrument, not of man but of God, to make us partakers of Christ. And once more, the idea of condition is completely foreign to this Lord's Day.
It is true that in the Lord's Day that speaks of justification by faith, it is the activity of saving faith that is emphasized rather than faith as a power. It tells us that we are justified because God imputes to us the righteousness of Christ, "inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart." And in question 61 we read that we are righteous by faith only because "I cannot receive and apply the same to myself any other way than by faith only." But also this is far from saying that faith is a condition unto justification. It only means that the believer is able to receive the grace of justification by faith as a means which is given the sinner by God.
Again the same truth is emphasized in question and answer 65: "Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all his benefits by faith only, whence does this faith proceed' From the Holy Ghost, who works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel and confirms it by the use of the sacraments." Also here, let me point out, there is no room for anything man can or must do. We are made partakers of Christ and all his benefits by a true faith, and of that faith the Holy Ghost alone is the author. Where would there be any room for the notion that faith is a condition unto salvation? There is no room for it whatever...
God chooses us, not because we believe, but that we may believe - Augustine
The "If" Sentences In Deuteronomy
by George M. Ophoff
From The Standard Bearer, Vol. 25, pp. 423, 424
...We do find in the Bible sentences of the type in which we are now interested in which the Hebrew im appears in the original. The parting addresses of Moses contain sentences of that kind. Let us now get them before us and ascertain the force and purpose of that Hebrew word im as a sentence-element of these declarations.
A sentence of the kind we are now to examine is contained in the discourse of Moses in Deuteronomy 28:1,2. The passage reads, "And it shall come to pass, if -- Hebrew im -- thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God shall set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if (here the text must be rendered when and not if; for the Hebrew has ki and not im) thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." The correlate of this declaration is found at verse 15, "But it shall I come to pass, if (Hebrew im) thou wilt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee..."
Before I go into these verses, I must make a remark. It is this. What we now again deal with in the first instance is the Scriptures in Hebrew, and thus not with the Scriptures in the English language. Hence, rightly considered, the question here confronting us is the following: What is the meaning, force, and purpose of the two Hebrew words im and ki as sentence-elements of these verses. This, certainly, can only be determined by the context. And by context we all mean, must mean, first the very verses in which these words appear; second, the entire discourse; and third, the whole of the Scriptures.
And now the meaning of that Hebrew word im in the sentence, "And it shall come to pass, if -- Hebrew im - thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God... that... all these blessings shall come upon thee." What now is the meaning of the Hebrew word im (rendered "if" in our versions)? Could we translate here, "All these blessings shall come upon thee on the condition that thou hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord?" Let us try it and see what we get. It is verily this: "My people (it is, of course, the Lord speaking here), whether all these blessings will come upon you, I know not. They may or may not. For however eager I am to do thee well, my blessing thee is contingent on thy arbitrary and capricious willingness to originate faith and obedience in thee. Thy will is sovereign. Before it I must bow." This is again a terrible theology, is it not? Well, then, is it necessary to show that the verse as thus construed is in conflict with its near and far surroundings, that, in other words. such ideas are not anywhere to be found in the whole of the Scriptures? Does the Bible teach atheism? The Hebrew im, it is plain, cannot mean on condition that. It cannot have that meaning in this connection.
What, then, may be the function and purpose of the Hebrew word im in the verse under consideration, and in its correlate, "But it shall come to pass if thou wilt hearken unto the voice of the Lord... that all these curses shall come upon thee." The sole function and purpose of in: in these connections is to establish conceptionally before the minds of the people of Israel the certain connection between obedience and blessing on the one hand, and disobedience and cursing, destruction on the other. That this is the sole function of im in these connections is as plain as can be from the whole context. Verse 3 reads, "Blessed shalt thou be in the city," implying. "if thou hearken to the Lord's voice." This idea is repeated with variations over and over as interspersed with "if" clauses such as, "If thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk in his ways," and, "If thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God..." And so, too, the correlate of the idea, "Cursed shalt thou be in the city," implying, "If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." This idea, too, is repeated with variations over and over (vss. 15-68).
Second, we must take notice of the ki clause contained in verse 2 of this chapter, "When thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." Here ki approaches in meaning im. This accounts for the rendering in our versions, "If thou shalt hearken..." Yet there must be a distinction between the two particles ki and im, especially when they occur side by side in the same context as is here the case. Usually the distinction is carefully made and usually also easily discernible. It is discernible here. The sole function of im in these verses is, as was said, to set forth the certain connection between obedience and blessing on the one hand, and covenant infidelity and cursing on the other. In a word, im in this connection is a particle showing certain logical connection. So, too, ki in the verse under consideration. But this particle is here used also of time, "All these blessings shall come upon thee... when thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord." This reads like a prediction. And so it is, as is plainly evident from the tenor of the whole discourse. It is evident from the text at 30:1, "And it shall come to pass, when -- ki -- all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee." Moses, being a prophet and of all the prophets the greatest, here foretells the dispersion and exile of the people of Israel and the ultimate turning of their captivity. That we understand him aright is placed beyond the shadow of a doubt by the sequel, "And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart and with all thy soul. that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion on thee, and will return, and gather thee from all the nations of the earth, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If -- Hebrew im -- any of thine be driven out into the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee unto the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul that thou mayest live. And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee" (30:2-7).
Verily, it is prediction, prophecy, with which we here deal. If so, how can the Hebrew particle im in the verses examined signify doubtful hypothesis? How can these verses be rendered, "The Lord will bless thee on the condition that thou obeyest," and, "The Lord will curse thee on the condition that thou disobeyest," meaning, "whether I, the Lord, will bless thee or curse thee, I know not. For my blessing thee or cursing thee is contingent on thy obedience or disobedience as a condition. Hence, all is uncertain." But fact is that all was certainty. God knew, because He works all things according to the counsel of His will. Faith and obedience are of Him; and He hardens whom He will. Moses and the people knew because God revealed it to them. The nation will alternately forsake God and, with His curses upon them, cry to Him in their distress. And He will raise them up a savior, and His blessings will be upon them for a season. But with the crisis past, they again will turn to their abominations and corrupt themselves more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them. When they will have filled their measure of iniquity, God will scatter them among the nations. But ultimately He will turn their captivity permanently. All is certainty here. Necessarily so, as with God there can be no uncertainties and hence no conditions.
Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin, Book III
Chapter XXII, 9. Is Not Election Joined to God's "Foreknowledge " of Man's Merits in so Far as Free Grace makes just such Merits Possible?
We do not even tarry over the subtlety of Thomas (Aquinas), that foreknowledge of merits is not the cause of predestination on the side of the predestinator's act but that on our side it may in a way be so called: namely, according to the particular estimate of predestination, as when God is said to predestine glory for man on account of merits, because he has decreed to bestow upon him grace by which to merit glory. For since the Lord wills that in election we contemplate nothing but his mere goodness, if anyone longs to discern anything more in it, this will be absurd affectation. But if we were willing to contend in subtlety, we have the means to refute this quibble of Thomas'. He contends that glory is in a measure predestined to the elect from merit,. for God predestines grace to them by which they may merit glory. But what if I should raise the objection that predestination to grace is subordinate to election to life, and is like a handmaiden to it: that grace is predestined for those to whom the possession of glory has long since been assigned because it pleases the Lord to bring his children from election to justification? Thence it will follow that predestination to glory is the cause of predestination to grace, rather than the converse. But farewell to these contentions, as they are superfluous among those who consider that there is enough wisdom for them in the Word of God. For long ago an ecclesiastical writer truly wrote, "Those who assign God's election to merits are wiser than they ought to be."
Chapter XXIV, 3. Faith is the work of election, but election does not depend upon faith
But here we must beware of two errors: for some make man God's co-worker, to ratify election by his consent. Thus, according to them, man's will is superior to God's plan. As if Scripture taught that we are merely given the ability to believe, and not, rather, faith itself! Others, although they do not so weaken the grace of the Holy Spirit yet led by some reason or other, make election depend upon faith, as if it were doubtful and also ineffectual until confirmed by faith. Indeed, that it is confirmed, with respect to us, is utterly plain; we have also already seen that the secret plan of God, which lay hidden, is brought to light, provided you understand by this language merely that what was unknown is now verified - sealed, as it were, with a seal. But it is false to say that election takes effect only after we have embraced the gospel, and takes its validity from this. We should indeed seek assurance of it from this; for if we try to penetrate to God's eternal ordination, that deep abyss will swallow us up. But when God has made plain his ordination to us, we must climb higher, lest the effect overwhelm the cause. For when Scripture teaches that we are illumined according as God has chosen us, what is more absurd and unworthy than for our eyes to be so dazzled by the brilliance of this light as to refuse to be mindful of election? In the meantime, I do not deny that to be assured of our salvation we must begin with the Word, and that our confidence ought to be so intent as to call upon God as our Father. For some men, to make sure about God's plan, which is near us, in our mouth and heart (Deut. 30:14), perversely yearn to flit about above the clouds. This rashness, therefore, must be restrained by the soberness of faith that in his outward Word, God may sufficiently witness his secret grace to us, provided only the pipe, from which water abundantly flows out for us to drink, does not hinder us from according it due honor to the fountain.
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