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A good confession presents biblical doctrines in a succinct and public way. While confessions are often forged through the fires of theological controversy, their aim is positive. At their best, confessions draw out the finest biblical exegesis, weave together the unbreakable strands of God’s truth, and adorn them with the keenest insights of church history. When used properly, confessions do a lot of good in many directions. They guide the church in Bible reading, they orient believers to what is most important, they clarify difficult doctrines, they hold church officers accountable, they encourage theological learning among church members, they bind Christians to the past, and much more.
But behind the usefulness of orthodox confessions lies a single fundamental question: Are confessions biblical? Confessions have their benefits, but are they biblically warranted? Are confessions a suitable instrument for building up the church? Or are they an unnecessary addition to church life that cuts against God’s Word?
Let us consider just four reasons that orthodox confessions help the church be more biblical, not less. First, the very existence of the Bible suggests the need for confessions. Second, the Bible itself provides examples of confessions. Third, defenders of biblical authority have long valued confessions. And fourth, obedience to the Bible is advanced through confessions. Let us consider each reason in turn.
First, the Bible’s very existence suggests the need for confessions. The author of Hebrews tells us that the living God is a speaking God: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb. 1:1–2). But God has not spoken simply to make noise. He demands to be heard, acknowledged, believed, and—yes—confessed by human beings. “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance” (Isa. 45:23). Thankfully, God enables sinners to receive His revelation into their hearts and then to speak it forth from their lips. The Apostle Paul testifies to this when he writes, “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak” (2 Cor. 4:13, quoting Ps. 116:10). Notice that, according to Paul, God’s revelation (“what has been written”) yields faith (“we also believe”), which prompts verbal confession (“so we also speak”). By giving us the Bible, God has designed for us not just to read it but to believe and confess the gospel revealed in it. “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Rom. 10:10). Carefully written confessions display that a church has embraced God’s saving revelation with gladness and joy, thus fulfilling a key purpose for which God gave us the Bible.
Second, the Bible itself provides examples of confessions. Of course, the Bible does not contain the kind of robust and full-orbed confessions produced during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (e.g., the Westminster Confession of Faith). Those documents are the fruit of centuries of theological reflection on the Christ-centered truth that the Bible organically unfolds for us. Yet the Bible abounds with concise statements of essential doctrine grounded in history and taught in Holy Scripture.
Think, for example, of the fundamental confession of Old Testament faith that Moses delivered to Israel: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). Or consider the pithy speech that fathers in Israel were instructed to recite to their sons about the nation’s slavery and deliverance into covenant with God: “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. . . . And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always” (see vv. 20–25). The New Testament also features short, confession-like statements of faith. Paul declared that his entire preaching ministry consisted of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Later, he expanded on that gospel in a longer but still compact form: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (15:3–4). When he was not confessing biblical truth in these memorable ways, Paul encouraged others to do it, urging Timothy to follow “the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me” (2 Tim. 1:13). Paul’s protégé was to hold fast to the Apostle’s teaching, in part, by rearticulating and delivering to others (see 2:2) the body of truth that God had entrusted to the church. By maintaining orthodox confessions, the church displays Timothy-like obedience to Paul’s command and mirrors the Bible’s own statements of truth.
Third, the staunchest defenders of biblical authority have long valued confessions. While this point does not prove the biblical nature of confessions from the Bible itself (see above), it shows that using confessions can demonstrate, and not detract from, an ultimate commitment to the Bible. Beginning in the second century AD, churchmen sought to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) through creedlike statements. Theologians such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Tertullian of Carthage defended Christian doctrine against challengers by promoting what is known as the “rule of faith” (regula fidei). This “rule” consisted in doctrinal summaries derived from Scripture that guarded the church against heresy, guided readers to better grasp what Scripture says, and shaped the baptized into better disciples of Christ. Though it was never reduced to a fixed formula, the “rule” generally covered the basics of the faith, such as creation, sin, Christ, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God, and the final judgment. Its presence in early Christian writings proves that from the very beginning, the post-Apostolic church possessed a doctrinal core and was concerned with preserving biblical doctrine in short statements for subsequent generations. As time went on, these early summaries of God’s revelation provided the building blocks for the church’s more fixed formulations that we know as creeds and confessions.
Too many people today waffle in the no-man’s-land of ambiguity when they speak about God. They fall into vague uses of words such as love and Jesus and faith. By explaining such words under the brighter light of biblical teaching, good confessions pour more precise substance into these terms. The Westminster Confession tells us that Jesus is God’s “only begotten Son,” “the Mediator between God and man,” “the Head and Savior of his church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world” (8.1). The Heidelberg Catechism explains that faith is not just a belief in God’s Word but “also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit works in me by the gospel” (Q&A 21). The biggest champions of biblical authority have treasured these teachings and so have used creeds and confessions to point readers back to the Scriptures, helping them speak about the Bible’s content wisely and responsibly. We should follow their example by valuing confessions out of a true love for Scripture.
Fourth, and finally, confessions help Christians obey the Bible’s commands under the redemptive reign of Jesus Christ. Just as Christians are to repudiate deception and commend themselves to everyone’s conscience “by the open statement of the truth” (2 Cor. 4:2), confessions transparently communicate to all people, including church visitors, just what the church believes from Scripture. Written confessions assist church elders in becoming “able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2) with greater effectiveness. They can help deacons to “hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (v. 9). By teaching Christians to articulate the truth more accurately, confessions can lead the whole church to love the truth (2 Thess. 2:10), rejoice with the truth (1 Cor. 13:6), and walk in the truth (3 John 4). By linking Christians to formulations of faithful generations that preceded them, confessions support the church’s call to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). By breaking down biblical doctrines into bite-sized chunks, confessions aid parents, especially fathers, in honoring God by rearing their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (6:4). (How wonderful would it be if every high school graduate moved out of a Christian home firmly knowing the answer to the catechism question, “What is the chief end of man?” [WSC 1].) Most of all, since “God is spirit”—that is, all-gloriously divine—“and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24), written confessions are a wonderful way for believers to unite their voices in ascribing to Him the glory due His name (Ps. 29:2).
Theologians are fond of saying that human beings are designed to “think God’s thoughts after him” under the light of His Word. But we are also made to receive God’s Word into our hearts and then to proclaim His wonderful works back to God, in the church, and throughout the world. We do this well as we mimic and expand on the Bible’s own short statements of truth, as well as when we defend the Bible’s authority in all matters of belief and Christian living and live out the Bible’s commands together. In all these ways and more, written confessions enhance the church’s faithfulness to the supremely authoritative Scriptures and so demonstrate that such confessions are, in fact, supremely biblical.