The foundations of theology are thus trinitarian: The Father, through the Son as Logos, imparts himself to his creatures in the Spirit. Theologians also distinguish God’s own trinitarian self-knowledge (archetypal) from the revealed knowledge accommodated to human understanding (ectypal) (ed. John Bolt, Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, 50).

This point cannot be stressed enough: the divines believed that if human actions were not contingent (that is, freely chosen), then God could in no way hold sinners accountable for their sin. Conversely, if human acts were not truly contingent and free, then there would be no need for the response of faith to the preaching of the gospel. Another important element to consider is that Reformed theologians believed that God is free, and in an analogous fashion so are his creatures. The Confession states that God is “most free” (2.1) and that man, male and female, was created “after his own Image” with the “Law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfill it: and yet, under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject unto change” (4.2). The Confession affirms freedom of the will, but there are some important qualifiers regarding the nature of humanity’s freedom (J. V. Fesko, The Theology of the Westminster Standards, 110).

In the garden Adam was free to sin and not to sin, but once he sinned, he plunged himself and all of his progeny into bondage. The nature of the bondage, however, is important to note; while fallen humanity is unable to do any spiritual good, this does not mean people have lost freedom of choice. The Reformers make a common distinction between what Martin Luther (1483-1546) famously called teh bondage of the will (voluntas) and free choice (liberum arbitrium). The human will is bound to sin, but our choices are free and not forces upon us. Even though God decrees whatsoever comes to pass, people freely make their own choices. God is not the author of sin and offers no violence to the will of creatures–they freely choose sin. Only through the grace of the gospel does fallen humanity freely choose what is spiritually good, though we are still hampered by the abiding presence of sin. When sinners are converted and ultimately glorified, they are completely freed from sin and immutably able freely to choose good. The question naturally arises, whom does God free from the bondage of sin? (111).

God, despite the decree of Adam’s fall, is not the author of sin. God does not force anyone to do anything. In fact, the [Westminster] Confession–unlike Calvin–for example, argues that God permitted the fall; permission is a category that Calvin largely rejected. The Confession states, “This their sin, God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsell [sic] to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory” (6.1). Judas could have refrained from betraying Christ, but instead freely chose to do so, and he freely chose suicide over repentance (J.V. Fesko, The Theology of the Westminster Standards, 100).

Understanding God’s attributes, considered both absolutely and relatively, is key to the proper understanding of how the divines explain the nature of the decree. This absolute-relative distinction (opera ad intra-ad extra) highlights the independence and freedom of God in contrast to the created order. God is free, for example, to create and not to create; the creation is not part of God, neither is it an emanation from him, but rather it is radically contingent–it does not exist necessarily but is created ex nihilo (J.V. Fesko, The Theology of the Westminster Standards, 100).

The distinction between God’s internal and external work rests upon another key distinction covered in the previous chapter, archetypal and ectypal theology–God’s knowledge of himself, which is perfect, infinite, and known only to him, and the revealed copy or shadow, which is perfect and true but finite and suited for humanity (J. V. Fesko, The Theology of the Westminster Standards, 100).

This division of attributes, though listed together in [Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 2], relies upon a standard way of explaining God’s person and work, namely, his opera ad intra (internal work) and opera ad extra (external work). In other words, God can be considered either absolutely separately form his creation, or relatively, as he is related to his creation. As Johannes Wollebius (1589-1629) notes, “Both essential and personal works include those affecting God alone [ad intra] and those whose effects are felt outside of God [ad extra].” Likewise he states, “Those works of God which have their object outside of him are either immanent and internal, or outgoing and external” (J. V. Fesko, The Theology of the Westminster Standards, 100).

And the essence of the Christian religion consists in the reality that the creation of the Father, ruined by sin, is restored in the death of the Son of God and re-created by the grace of the Holy Spirit into a kingdom of God (Bavinck, Prolegomena, 112).

Throughout Scripture, the act of worship is shaped by and related to God’s acts of redemption in the closest possible way (R. Scott Clark, Recovering the Reformed Confession, 258).

The worshipers God desires have always worshiped God in accordance with God’s revealed will, e.g., Abram built altars, Moses assembled a Tabernacle, Solomon constructed the First Temple in Jerusalem. But for us, for New Covenant believers, what is acceptable worship? How do we serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear?

We worship and serve God in Christ, because the Father through Christ has redeemed us. We are born again, by Word and Spirit, and reborn we see and enter into the kingdom of God (John 3).

Hebrews 1:1-2a: God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.

Hebrews 12:28: Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

“A disciple is one who learns and comes under instruction and guidance. . . . The church Is not only where disciples go once a week; it’s where disciples are made, by the ordinary ministry and the fellowship of the saints” (Michael Horton, Core Christianity, 141).

Well, no wonder the psalmist, joyful for the sake of others, said, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD” (Psalm 122:1).