When Christians publicly confess the truths that the church has always confessed, God is distinguishing between the church and the world—as well as between true and false churches. Historic doctrinal standards help draw a sharp line between orthodox teaching and false teaching in the articulation of “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

Some of my earliest childhood memories center on being with my family in worship on the Lord’s Day. In the Reformed and Presbyterian churches that we attended, expository preaching, hymn-singing, and prayer were fixed elements of worship, as were the historic creeds and confessions of the Christian church. We regularly confessed the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed—or some particular doctrinal statement out of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Westminster Shorter Catechism, or Heidelberg Catechism. Our pastors cited doctrinal statements from the Westminster Shorter Catechism in their sermons. Though I was unaware of it at the time, these historic doctrinal formulations were shaping my young mind in regard to biblical doctrine, worship, and the Christian life. Over a decade ago, I had the privilege of planting a Reformed and Presbyterian church. I enthusiastically incorporated many of the historic creeds and confessions into our worship service for the express purpose of instruction—as well as for the preservation of the core truths of the Christian faith and the worship of God.

In his 1973 article “Towards a Confession for Tomorrow’s Church,” J.I. Packer insisted that historic creeds and confessions assist the church in carrying out four principal responsibilities—its doxological, declarative, didactic, and disciplinary tasks. Accordingly, churches should make use of these historical doctrinal statements in their worship (doxological), witness (declarative), teaching (didactic), and conservation (disciplinary). Packer proceeded to define how they function in each task:
Their doxological function is to glorify God by setting forth his works of love and putting into words a responsive commitment. Their declarative function is to announce what the communities that espouse them stand for, and so to identify those communities as belonging to Christ’s church, the worldwide fellowship of faith.

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Written by D. Eaton |
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
When Hebrews says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin,” it means without Christ’s blood. If we deny Jesus and his death on the cross, we have no forgiveness. We stand guilty before God himself, and we will bear the wrath we deserve. Many years may now stand between you and your greatest sins, but time does not erase guilt. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. You might think you can come to a point where your good deeds will outweigh your evil deeds. It will never happen. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.

When the author of Hebrews makes the negative case concerning the blood of Christ, its significance is far-reaching. Throughout the book, he makes the positive case that Christ’s blood can cleanse us from dead works. Still, later he says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin” (Heb. 9:22). By saying it this way, he cuts off any other options we think we might have, yet we live in a world that believes there are many roads to God.
Earlier in the chapter, he tells us that God makes no covenants with man that do not require the shedding of blood. He goes on to say that almost everything was cleansed with blood in the Old Testament. The Tabernacle, the Book of the Law, and even the people were sprinkled with blood (Heb. 9:21). There could be no ceremonial cleanliness in the Old Testament unless a death had occurred, and these Old Covenant ceremonies were types and pictures of actual heavenly realities (Heb. 9:23).
Blood was required under Old Testament worship because the wages of sin is death. If God was going to paint a picture of the only way man could be right with God, death was a necessary component of that illustration. However, the pictures themselves were not sufficient. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take our place in bearing the wrath of God. They are not valuable enough to pay our debt.
If it was necessary for the Old Testament copies of the things in heaven to be cleansed with blood, how much more the heavenly things themselves, with a better sacrifice (Heb. 9:23). Christ did not enter an earthly copy of the Holy of Holies on our behalf to put away sin, he entered the presence of God (Heb. 9:24).
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Jesus bore the just and holy wrath of God that we deserve, there is no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). And, not only that, because Jesus kept all the moral law that you and I couldn’t keep, again he gives us what don’t have (Rom. 5:19, Matt. 3:15). That is his righteousness. In the end, a sinner is reconciled to a holy God because of faith in the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. When God looks at a believer, he doesn’t look at what he has done. He looks at him with as much fondness and affection he does with his beloved Son Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Do you often feel like you’re lonely even though you’re surrounded by many people? Do you find yourself being drowned in a sea of sadness? Is melancholy your only friend? Do you often get irritated? Do you struggle to concentrate? Do you find reading the Bible an uphill task? Do you often find yourself having your affections unmoved even after doing your devotions? Do you feel like life is a drudgery? Do you suffer from amnesia? Do you feel like you’ve caught up yourself in the endless cycles of thoughts that scare you or make you anxious? If you do, I suspect you may be suffering from depression.
I am not a physician nor am an expert in this area to make a full claim. But, as far as I understand, there are two primary reasons why people get depressed. 1. Spiritual Reasons. 2. Physiological (Neurological) reasons. Not all types of depression must be tied down to spiritual reasons and similarly, not all of them should be to physiological reasons either.
Many a time, spiritual reasons such as unconfessed sin or living a hypocritical life may eventually turn into depression as our body and soul are not two separate entities but actually one. Someone has rightly put it, “We are not bodies who have souls but we are embodied souls”. In other words, what we do and think has an indelible impact on our psyche.
On the other hand, just like any physical disease, such as diabetes and hypertension, would have physiological effects on our bodies, so does depression. In the same way that we are not spiritually culpable for being diagnosed with diabetes or hypertension, we also are not necessarily responsible for the involuntary chemical imbalances in our brain. Pastor and Author David Murray writes “We need to recognise the exceeding complexity of depression and resist the temptation to propose and accept simple analyses and solutions. Just as no two hearts are identically diseased, and just as no two cancers are the same, no two depressions are the same in cause, symptoms, depth, duration, and cure. Therefore, we must avoid making our own experience the norm for others.”1
Friend, whether you’re suffering from depression because of spiritual reasons or from physiological reasons, please do not hesitate to reach out to the elders in your church and share your struggles with them. It is my hope and prayer that they would help you out through the Word of God and be with you in your journey as you seek to overcome depression.
No matter what your situation may be, I am primarily writing this article to encourage you and to point you to our Lord Jesus. I hope the following truths would really help you to meditate and to rejoice in God’s unchangeable promises.
1. Justification: The Bible is emphatic that God is absolutely, inherently and transcendentally holy. John says “God is light. In him, there is no darkness at all (1 Jn. 1:5). There isn’t a tiny speck of unholiness in him. And, he not only hates unholiness (sin) but he cannot let sin go unpunished (Ps. 5:4-6).
On the other hand, we are sinners through and through. We are not only sinners by deed, we are sinners by birth and by nature (Ps. 51:5). So, one of the divine dilemmas, as it were, in the Bible is, how can a good, just and holy God reconcile sinners to himself? (Rom. 3:26 (God is just and the justifier)) Now, the beauty of the gospel is that God sent his Son to be punished on our behalf on the cross so that whoever believes in him is saved from the wrath to come.
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