It was Sinclair Ferguson who memorably wrote a decade and a half ago that of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit was not the forgotten, but the unknown member of the Godhead.¹In that same vein, among the Three Forms of Unity, the Belgic Confession (1561) is certainly the most unknown. It is not forgot­ten, as we see it in the back of our songbooks and as office-bearers sign their names to the Form of Subscription; but it is all too unknown in our churches.

We are familiar through catechetical preaching with our beloved Heidelberg Catechism, which Philip Schaff once described as being,

baptized with the pentecostal fire of the great Reformation” and being “the product of the heart as well as the head, full of faith and unction from above.²

I remember the first time I read its opening question, “What is your only comfort in life and in death,” and feeling like the new wine of Reformed truth was entering into me as a new wineskin.

We are familiar with the Canons of Dort as the capstone of our confessions and our armament against Armin­ianism. We know this document as it gives expression to the “doctrines of grace” or the so-called “five points of Calvinism.” I, too, recall reading the Canons for the first time and being struck by the precision of its doctrines of predestination, the sufficiency and efficiency of Christ’s satisfaction, the nature of sin, the power of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, and the preserving work of the triune God. At the same time, I was moved by how these doctrines led to devotion, precision led to piety, and exposition led to experience.

Yet we have another confession. In this, the 450th anniversary of its publication, the Belgic Confession needs to be moved from being relegated to unknown status to being celebrated as an equal form of our unity in Christ as Reformed churches. Let me offer three reasons to celebrate it.

Celebrated for its History⤒🔗

The Belgic Confession should be celebrated for its history. Its history is the stuff of legend: a persecuted minor­ity, a repressive regime (Spain), and heroic, itinerant preachers. One of those preachers in the southern Low Countries (now Belgium) was Guido de Brès. The family business was making idols for Roman Catholics. Yet God heard his mother’s prayers, just as he heard those of Monica for her son Augustine, leading de Brès to become a minister of the gospel. His ministry was defined by Paul’s words: “as dying, and, behold, we live” (2 Cor. 6:9). First he would preach in a town for a season, but then he would be exiled: to London, then to Geneva, and then to various cities throughout the Low Countries. At some point, the Reformed churches believed the time was opportune to publicly confess their faith in a document in order to show the Spanish Catholic magistrate that their faith was that of the apostles and ancient church. De Brès’s act of tossing a pack­age containing this Confession over the wall of the magistrate led to a manhunt that eventually led to his death.

Why should we celebrate this history? Very simply: it testifies to us that the doctrine we confess with our lips is worth the price of our lives. Will you celebrate this Confession by professing its truths before a dark and dying world or will you hide its light “under a bushel” (Matt. 5:15)?

Celebrated for its Theology←⤒🔗

The Belgic Confession should also be celebrated for its theology. What is this theology? It contains the “old paths” (Jer. 6:16) of the prophets and apostles, of the ancient church fathers, and of the ecumenical councils. It is truly catholic (Christian) theology. Its theology begins with God (art. 1) and ends with the eternal kingdom of God ushered in by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (art. 37), like the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. It speaks of how we know God: “He makes Himself more clearly and fully known to us by His holy and divine Word” (art. 2). It speaks of the most blessed and all-glorious triune God who exists as “three persons in one only divine essence” (art. 9). It speaks of His creation and providence (arts. 12-13), man’s heinous sin (arts. 14-15), God’s predestinating work a la ancient Augustinianism (art. 16), the person and work of the Son (arts. 17–26), and the existence and reality of a holy catholic church (arts. 27-36).

An inquirer to our church recently summarized for me the theology of the Belgic Confession in this way. After years and years of legalism in evangelical churches, pouring out his heart to God in prayer for the answers his mind and soul wanted and coming into contact with me, he read the Belgic Confession. His response? “I felt like it was Christianity 101 that I’ve always believed.” That was music to my ears. Why? Because “the Reformed faith” is not some cultic set of doctrines and rituals, not some secret club for a few frozen chosen, and not something that takes immense mental gymnastics to understand. No; Reformed Christianity is Christianity. Reformed Christianity, therefore, is the answer to sinners’ deepest longings and needs. But how did this realization bring peace to the soul and experience of grace to the heart of this inquirer? Let me conclude with the answer in our final point.

Celebrated for its Piety←⤒🔗

The Belgic Confession should be celebrated for its piety. In the theology of the prophets, apostles, church fathers, and ancient creeds we find the deep-rooted piety our souls need.

As Dorothy Sayers once wrote,

The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man – and the dogma is the drama.³

The heroic history and catholic theology of the churches under the cross in the Low Countries was not dry, dusty, dead orthodoxy but was a living faith that led to orthopraxy. Listen to how Guido de Brès and the Reformed churches made the profession of theology in a way that expressed what came to be known as praxis pietatis, the practice of piety, by the Puritans.

• We do not just confess that the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, but that they are because “God, from a special care which He has for us and our salvation, commanded his servants ... to commit His revealed Word to writing” (art. 3). When you read the Word at home and hear the Word read in worship, do you realize that you are experiencing God’s special care for your soul?
   
• We do not just confess that the Trinity is true because of a list of Bible proof-texts. The Confession even says our Christian experience is a testimony to the reality of the Trinity:
  
  “Moreover, we must observe the particular offices and operations of these three persons towards us. The Father is called our Creator by His power; the Son is our Savior and Redeemer by His blood; the Holy Ghost is our Sanctifier by His dwelling in our hearts” (art. 9; emphasis added). And although our sense of experiencing our Triune God’s work in us will wax and wane in this life, we “expect hereafter to enjoy the perfect knowledge and benefit thereof in heaven” (art. 9).
   
• We do not just confess the doctrine of original sin and that it is not washed away by baptism, but is “by (God’s) grace and mercy ... forgiven them.” Affirmation leads to action: “Not that they should rest securely in sin, but that a sense of this corruption should make believers often to sigh, desiring to be delivered from this body of death” (art. 15). Do not despair because of your original sin, but desire deliverance from it.
   
• We do not just confess the doctrine that Jesus is our Mediator at the right hand of God in the Apostles’ Creed: “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” This confession is of immense practical benefit for our assurance. Our Mediator “ought in no wise to affright us by His majesty or cause us to seek another according to our fancy,” as Roman Catholic theology implies with Jesus as Judge and the many saints and intercessors besides him (art. 26). Instead, the Confession says,
  
  ''For there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth, who loveth us more than Jesus Christ ... If, then, we should seek for another mediator who would be well affected towards us, whom could we find who loved us more than He who laid down His life for us, even when we were His enemies? ... And who will sooner be heard than the own well-beloved Son of God?''
  
  In our sinful hearts, though, we convince ourselves of the contrary: “But I’m too sinful, too unlovable, to unworthy.” Yet listen to this: “Let us not forsake Him to take another, or rather to seek after another, without ever being able to find Him” – and here’s my favorite line in all of the Confession – “for God well knew, when He gave Him to us, that we were sinners” (art. 26). Doesn’t that cause you to sing:
  
  Amazing love! How can it be? That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

These are just a few of the gems of piety that flow from the doctrines contained in this historic Reformed Confession. I trust the Belgic Confession will no longer be to you our unknown Confession.