A Faith to Confess: The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
Rewritten in Modern English
Reprinted here by permission


  1. GOD gave Adam a law, written in his heart, that required his full obedience; also one command in particular, namely, that he must not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thereby Adam and all his posterity were bound to personal, complete, exact and perpetual obedience.  God promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of the law, and endued Adam with power and ability to keep His law.

    Gen. 2:16,17; Eccles. 7:29; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:10,12.

  2. The same law that was first written in man’s heart continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after Adam fell into sin, and was given by God upon Mount Sinai in the form of ten commandments, written in two tables.  The first four commandments constitute our duty towards God and the remaining six our duty to man.  The ten are known as the moral law.

    Deut. 10:4; Rom. 2:14,15.

  3. Besides the moral law God also gave to the people of Israel ceremonial laws which served as types of things to come.  They fell into two main groups.  In one group were rites, partly relating to worship, which pre-figured Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and the blessings He procured for us.  The other group contained a variety of instructions about moral duties.  By divine appointment all these ceremonial laws were to be observed, but only until they were abrogated in New Testament days by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah and only law-giver who was empowered by the Father to terminate them.

    1 Cor. 5:7; Eph. 2:14,16; Col. 2:14,16,17; Heb. 10:1.

  4. To the people of Israel God also gave sundry judicial laws which applied as long as they remained a nation.  The principles of equity which appear in them are still valid, not because they are found in Moses’ laws but in virtue of their unchanging character.

    1 Cor. 9:8-10.

  5. Obedience to the moral law remains for ever binding upon both justified persons and all others, and that in respect of the actual content of the law, and also of the authority of God, the creator, who is its author.  In the gospel Christ in no way cancels the necessity for this obedience; on the contrary He greatly stresses our obligation to obey the moral law.

    Mat. 5:17-19; Rom. 3:31; 13:8-10; Jas. 2:8,10-12.

  6. So far as the law is a covenant of works under which justification or condemnation is awarded, it has no application to true believers.  Yet in certain other ways it is of great use to them as well as to others, for as a rule of life it informs them of the will of God and instructs them in their duty.  This done, it directs and binds them to obey it.  It also reveals to them the sinful defilement of their natures, their hearts and their lives, so that as they examine themselves by the light of the law, they may be convicted more deeply of sin, and caused to humble themselves on account of it and to hate it the more.  At the same time the law also gives them a clearer sight of their need of Christ, and the perfection of Christ’s own obedience to the law.  Similarly, as the law forbids sin, it causes the regenerate to fight against the evil inclinations to sin that they find in themselves.  Furthermore, the threatenings of the law are of value in showing the regenerate what their sins deserve, and what afflictions their own disobedience may cause them in this life, even while they stand delivered from the curse and the unrestricted rigor of the law. In similar manner the promises attached to the law intimate God’s approbation of obedience and set forth the blessings which flow from the fulfillment of the law, but with the proviso that those blessings do not accrue to men from the law viewed as a covenant of works.  The fact that a man does good and refrains from evil because the law encourages the former and deters from the latter, is no evidence that the man is under the law and not under grace.

    Rom. 3:20; 6:12-14; 7:7; 8:1; 10:4; Gal. 2:16; 1 Pet. 3:8-13.

  7. The aforementioned uses of the law of God do not run contrary to the grace of the gospel, but are most happily in line with it, for the Spirit of Christ subdues the will of man and enables it to do freely and with cheerfulness that which the will of God, as revealed in the law, requires to be done.

    Ezek. 36:27; Gal. 3:21.

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