THE FAITH OF FREE WILL BAPTISTS
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CHAPTER IV
Creation, Primitive State of Man, and His Fall
SECTION I: Creation
1. Of the World. God created the world, and all things that it contains, for His own pleasure and glory and the enjoyment of His creatures.
2. Of the Angels. The angels were created by God to glorify Him and obey His commandments. Those who have kept their first estate He employs in ministering blessings to the heirs of salvation and in executing His judgments upon the world.
3. Of Man. God created man, consisting of a material body and a thinking, rational soul. He was made in the image of God, to glorify his Maker.
SECTION II: Primitive Man, and His Fall
Our first parents, in their original state, were upright. They naturally preferred and desired to obey their Creator, and had no preference or desire to transgress His will until they were influenced and inclined by the tempter to disobey God's commands. Previous to this, the only tendency of their nature was to do righteousness. In consequence of the first transgression, the state under which the posterity of Adam came into the world is so different from that of Adam that they have not that righteousness and purity which Adam had before the fall; they are not willing to obey God, but are inclined to evil. Hence, none, by virtue of any natural goodness and mere work of their own, can become the children of God, but they are all dependent for salvation upon the redemption effected through the blood of Christ, and upon being created anew unto obedience through the operation of the Spirit; both of which are freely provided for every descendant of Adam.
SECTION I: His Divinity
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, possesses all divine perfections. As He and the Father are one, He in His divine nature, filled all the offices and performed the works of God to His creatures that have been the subjects of revelation to us. As man, He performed all the duties toward God that we are required to perform, repentance of sin excepted.
His divinity is proved from His titles, His attributes, and His works.
1. His Titles. The Bible ascribes to Christ the titles of Saviour, Jehovah, Lord of hosts, the first and the last, God, true God, great God, God over all, mighty God, and the everlasting Father.
2. His Attributes. He is eternal, unchangeable, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, holy, and to be worshipped.
3. His Works. By Christ the world was created. He preserves and governs it; He has provided redemption for all men and He will be their final Judge.
SECTION II: The Incarnation of Christ
The Word, which in the beginning was with God and which was God, by whom all things were made, condescended to a state of humiliation in being united with human nature and becoming like us, pollution and sin excepted.68 In this state, as a subject of the law, He was liable to the infirmities of our nature, was tempted as we are, but lived our example, perfect obedience to the divine requirements. As Christ was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, He is "the Son of man," and as the divine existence is the fountain from which He proceeded, and was the only agency by which He was begotten, He is "the Son of God," being the only begotten of the Father, and the only incarnation of the Divine Being.
The Atonement and Mediation of Christ
1. The Atonement. As sin cannot be pardoned without a sacrifice, and the blood of beasts could never wash away sin, Christ gave Himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and thus made salvation possible for all men. He died for us, suffering in our stead, to make known the righteousness of God, that He might be just in justifying sinners who believe in His Son. Through the redemption effected by Christ, salvation is actually enjoyed in this world, and will be enjoyed in the next by all who do not in this life refuse obedience to the known requirements of God. The atonement for sin was necessary. For present and future obedience can no more blot out our past sins than past obedience can remove the guilt of present and future sins. If God pardoned the sins of men without satisfaction for the violation of His law, it would follow that transgression might go on with impunity; government would be abrogated, and the obligation of obedience to God would be, in effect, removed.
2. Mediation of Christ. Our Lord not only died for our sins, but He arose for our justification, and ascended up to heaven, where, as the only mediator between God and man, He makes intercession for us until He comes again.
3. We believe that all children dying in infancy, having not actually transgressed against the law of God in their own persons, are only subject to the first death, which was brought on by the fall of the first Adam, and not that any one of them dying in that state shall suffer punishment in hell by the guilt of Adam's sin for of such is the Kingdom of God.
