The Protestant Reformed Churches repeat loudly and often that they are the spiritual heirs of Rev. Herman Hoeksema. What is becoming increasingly clear is that they are not his heirs. They have departed from Hoeksema; and, departing from him, they have departed from the Reformed faith. When I was still a minister in the Protestant Reformed Churches, I noticed that these churches were departing in the doctrine of the preaching of the law and in the doctrine of so-called progressive sanctification.

Protestant Reformed ministers teach that the preaching of the law is the preaching of the gospel. They teach that the preaching of the law ministers grace and sanctifies. One of the supposed effects of this preaching of the law would be progressive sanctification. To promote the false doctrine of progressive sanctification, Protestant Reformed ministers, following the lead of Prof. R. Cammenga, point to all the places in the Reformed creeds where the words “more and more” are used. These words are used, for instance, in Lord’s Day 44: “Likewise, that we constantly endeavor, and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God” (Confessions and Church Order, 134).

Some time ago Professor Cammenga preached on Lord’s Day 44. I am publishing in this article an excerpt from the end of his sermon. The excerpt is basically the last two points of his sermon. He preaches painfully slowly, and there is not much content, but the reader will get the picture of the current state of theology in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The sermon is entitled “The Marks of Christians.” The second point is entitled “More and More Conforming to the Image of God,” and the third point is entitled “More and More Longing for Perfection.”¹

Along with that sermon and on the same subject, I am publishing in this article a portion of a sermon by Rev. Herman Hoeksema on Lord’s Day 44.² In order to show that what he preached he also wrote, I include in this article a small section of his commentary on Lord’s Day 44 from his The Triple Knowledge.

I will let the reader be the judge of who is Reformed: Professor Cammenga or Reverend Hoeksema. They cannot both be Reformed, for their teachings are antithetical to one another. The men are antithetical in their views of the power and preaching of the law, and they are antithetical in their views of progress in sanctification. 

I intend to write some articles in Sword and Shield on this subject. To start off, I give the reader the following excerpts.

Prof. Ronald Cammenga on Lord’s Day 44

Besides hatred of sin, the Christian’s life is marked by more and more conforming to the image of God. That’s the second part of the 115th answer: “Likewise, that we constantly endeavor, and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God.” The Christian life is the life of holiness. But that holiness is God’s image in us. Once we lost that image. We had that image; we were created in that image. Adam was our first father. He lived in paradise as the image bearer of God. He resembled God, and he resembled God especially in his holiness in perfection.

Through his own sin he forfeited, through his own sin he lost, the image of God; and now the work of God’s grace in us is that he restores that image in us. That’s holiness; that’s heartfelt devotion to God that arises out of that image of God in us. Holiness is not mere outward conformity to ten rules, the ten commandments. Holiness is not exclusively negative: don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that. Holiness is not compliance with the laws of the church. But this is holiness according to the new image in us: that we “delight.” That’s the word the 113th answer uses—that we delight in the law of God. Holiness is such a delight in the law of God that we obey God’s law. That’s how the 114th answer sums up the whole Christian life. Really, the whole Christian life can be described by that one word. No, but even the holiest of men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience. That’s the Christian life: obedience. We are not our own, to live as we good and well please. But we belong to Jesus Christ and to God in Jesus Christ, and that means we obey him. Obedience: that’s what the law of God demands of us. Every aspect of the Christian life is obedience—obedience to the ten commandments and then to those commandments as they are expanded and amplified in all the exhortations, warnings, and rebukes of the word of God. Really, the whole Christian life can be described by that one word: obedience.

Even the children can understand that. You know what obedience is. You know what it is to obey your mom and dad. You know what it is to obey your teacher at school. That now is how we show that we are the children of God. We obey our heavenly Father. We do what he says. Refrain from doing what he forbids. A Christian obeys all of God’s commandments. He doesn’t pick and choose. All of God’s commandments.

The new obedience that the Heidelberg Catechism speaks of in the 114th answer—that small beginning of the new obedience—does not mean, that small beginning, that we only obey some of God’s commandments but not others. Mustn’t think that growth in holiness means that you start by obeying commandment one; and then at some time down the road, you work on commandment two; and then sometime down the road, you work on commandment three. Not that. Or that you begin by obeying the commandments on the first table of the law and then later on get to the commandments of the second table of God’s law. Not that either. Maybe commandments one through six and commandments eight through ten but not that seventh commandment: fornication, adultery. We hang on to that commandment. Is that what you’re doing, young people? We minimize the seriousness of that sin. We excuse it. That’s not the mark of the true Christian. The true Christian strives to obey all of God’s commandments. That’s the nature of the law itself. The law is such that if you break one commandment, you have broken them all. The law is such that it is obeyed in its entirety, or it is not obeyed at all. If there is someone here this morning who is deliberately disobeying one of the commandments of God, holding that sin dear, refusing to break with that sin in his or her life, then the warning to you this morning is to repent—to repent of your sin and sinfulness; turn away from your sin to God in Christ.

The fruit of the preaching of the law now is that more and more we become conformable to the image of God. That’s how the second “more and more” comes in. That more and more would become the more earnest in seeking remission; but more and more earnest, says Lord’s Day 44, in conforming to the image of God. Not only is it the case that under the preaching of God’s law we more and more know our sins and our sinfulness. That’s true, but that’s not all of it. More and more we are made conformable to the image of God. More and more, in the case of every regenerated child of God, there is growth, development in holiness. Right alongside of that sinful, fallen, depraved, Adam nature—the old man—God creates a new man, a new man in the image of God. We become new men and new women. And under the preaching of God’s word, in particular now under the preaching of God’s law, that new man in us grows and develops. In regeneration, after all, we are born, born again. And from the time that we are born, we grow, and we grow into mature men and mature women in Christ.

That is how you must understand, too, the small beginning referred to in the 114th answer. That’s not a beginning like A is the beginning of the alphabet. What does that matter? It could just as well be C. We’ll put A in the place of C, start the alphabet with C. It doesn’t change the alphabet. That’s not the way it is with this small beginning. This small beginning is like the baby. It’s a new birth. The baby conceived in his mother’s womb grows and grows and develops until finally that baby is born and then grows and grows from a baby to a toddler to a young man, a young woman, to a mature man or woman in Christ. Or that small beginning is like the acorn that you can hold in your hand. That little tiny acorn, but you plant it. That acorn is a small beginning of what in the course of years becomes a giant oak tree. That’s the beginning, the small beginning of the new life in us. That small beginning grows and grows and grows, and it does so under the preaching of the law. God does not only use the law to teach us our sin, but he uses the law in order that that new man in us may grow.

There is an important truth here. Listen carefully to me. God uses commands to accomplish that which is commanded. That was true at creation. God didn’t think the world into existence. He commanded, and what he commanded came to pass. Let there be light. And that command brought forth the light! That’s the case with the preaching of the gospel. God commands us to repent and believe. The commands themselves work repentance over our sins and work faith in Jesus Christ. So it is with our sanctification. The ten commandments must be preached as God’s commands to us: thou shalt and thou shalt not. And those commands in the preaching of the gospel, God uses to work the more and more of our being conformable to the image of God.

But that more and more that God works through the preaching of the law also includes the more and more for perfection, the longing for perfection. That’s included in Lord’s Day 44. That’s the very last part of the 115th answer: “That we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in a life to come.” That is exactly because in this life even the holiest have only a small beginning of the new obedience. The holiest! Where does that leave you? Where does that leave me? It leaves us longing for that better day. That’s why 1 Thessalonians 4 ends the way it does, with the resurrection and the second coming of Christ. Then the great desire of the Christian life, perfection, is realized. That’s heaven. Heaven isn’t, first of all, our bliss and glory. Though heaven will be bliss and glory, it will not be, first of all, our being reunited with loved ones, although we yearn to be reunited with our loved ones. But, first of all, it’s the longing for perfection, at long last to be done with the struggle against my sinful nature, at last to worship God perfectly.

Now, the connection between that perfection and our obedience to God’s law is this. First, our obedience to God’s law now. And the joy that we experience in keeping God’s law is a foretaste, a little taste, of the joy of perfection. Second, it is in the way of our obedience to God now that we arrive at, we come to, the perfection that is proposed to us in a life to come. As the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:14, “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” And finally, only in the way of holiness do we enjoy the assurance, the assurance in ourselves that one day we will come to the perfection that is proposed to us.

Now, may the preaching on the ten commandments these past weeks have awakened in us a consciousness of our sins and quickened us to fight against our sin. May it have provoked us to holiness, so that more and more we strive to be conformed to the image of God. And may it have quickened in our hearts the desire for the perfection of that better day.

Amen.

Rev. Herman Hoeksema on Lord’s Day 44

The Christian is, in a way, a very mysterious creature, mysterious. You think you can understand Romans 7 as I read this morning? Is that mysterious, beloved? Listen. “For that which I do I allow not.” Notice I, I, I. The same I. That which my person, my ego does, my ego allows not; but what my ego, my person, would, that my person does not. But what I hate, what my ego hates, that my ego does. And then, nevertheless, the apostle says in verse 17, “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” That you experience, beloved, that you experience? Remember, the Christian is, after all, not two persons, although he feels in himself, in his own conscience, as if he were. The Christian, don’t forget that, after all, has no two hearts! Has only one heart. And that one heart is reborn, is regenerated—that first of all. That one heart. We must insist on that, beloved. From a natural point of view, he is one person, one nature, one body, one soul. From a spiritual point of view, he has not two hearts but one heart. In that one heart dwells the Spirit of Christ. That’s the Christian. That one heart is holy, perfect, righteous, loving the law of God. But that is only his heart.

That’s only the small beginning. And that small beginning, beloved, is a small principle—a principle, not simply a beginning, as the beginning of a spool of thread is the beginning. No, that beginning is a principle, the principle of life in his heart. And while in his heart, in which dwells the Spirit of Christ, there is the principle of holiness and righteousness and love of God, in his nature, in his soul, and in his body, there are, let me say, the old habits of sin. The old ruts of sin are in his nature, the rut of sin in his body. Oh, yes, that body is already one thousand years old, you must remember. That body came from my father and mother and from generations preceding. And my soul is intimately related to my body; and so in the body and in that soul, there are deep ruts of sin. And in those deep ruts of sin, the wagon of my life slides with ease, beloved. And so while I’m a new man, a new man in Christ, the old man with the ruts of sin often deceives me and leads me into ways of corruption and iniquity. That is the Christian. The new man in Christ is the principle, is the new heart. The old man is full of ruts of sin, into which the new man easily slides. That is the way it is. Even the holiest of them, beloved, don’t forget that.

Sometimes it is explained that we gradually, we gradually, increase in holiness. That’s not true. We don’t increase in the small beginning. Not according to the Catechism, not according to experience. It’s not so that when I’m regenerated and when I’m called, that I have a small beginning and then gradually—maybe through the preaching of the word and through instruction—I grow, and that principle grows. No, sir! That remains a small beginning until the day of my death! Oh, ’tis true! That small beginning must more and more dominate. That’s true. That small beginning must more and more rule; that small beginning must more and more have the victory; but nevertheless, it remains a small beginning of the new obedience until the day of my death for you and for me. That’s the way it is.

No wonder that the Catechism finally asks the question, what’s the use then? What is the use? Why must the law be preached at all if that is the case? If I’m not perfect, as the perfectionist has it? The perfectionist, as you know, claims that he can fulfill the law of God. He can, even though he doesn’t always. According to his nature and principle, he can perfectly perform the law. The Reformed Christian says not only that he does not but that he cannot. He cannot. He is so constituted in his nature, in his new man in the midst of his old man, that he cannot. He can’t perfectly perform the law. He cannot. That is the Reformed Christian. And that’s scripture. No question about it, beloved. If anyone says that he has no sin, he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him.

But if that is the case, if we cannot perfectly perform the law, if we can only have a small beginning of that perfection, why must that law still be preached? Is it, is it not better not to proclaim the law, as the antinomian has it? Antinomianism claims that there is no use anyway, and therefore there is no use to preach the law. The law isn’t for the Christian, not at all. Well, of course, the law isn’t for the Christians as law, as commandments simply. The law is for the Christian in the spiritual sense of the word. And when the spiritual sense of the law is preached to the Christian, he will certainly derive benefit. But that benefit is not that he will gradually increase in perfection. No.

The Catechism tells us that there is a fourfold benefit of the preaching of the law. First of all, by the preaching of the law, we increase in the knowledge of sin. That is, we gradually have a deeper sense of sin, beloved. That’s one thing. We gradually have a deeper sense of sin. What formerly was no sin to us, now, through the preaching of the law, it certainly becomes sin.

Secondly, because of an increasing knowledge of sin, we also flee more constantly to Christ. We must not be discouraged; we must never be discouraged. Faith is not discouraged, even though we see our sins, beloved. That is not the idea of faith. That is not the idea of the preaching of the law. No, the deepening sense of sin must have the result that we flee to Christ! We must have forgiveness; we must have daily forgiveness; we must daily cry out with the publican, “Oh, God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” every day.

The more we hear the law, the more we see the perfection of the law as I proclaim it unto you this morning, the more we seek the blood of Christ. Only in the blood of Christ is there redemption. Only in the blood of Christ is there forgiveness. Only in the blood of Christ are we righteous. We are not righteous in ourselves; we are not righteous in our own nature. We are righteous only in Jesus Christ our Lord. Our state is righteous only in Christ before God. Remember that. That’s our comfort.

And in the third place, of course stands to reason, if our knowledge of sin is deepened and if we are sorry for our sin, for our sins—spiritual knowledge of sin is sorrow over sin—if that knowledge of sin is deepened and if we flee to Jesus Christ for forgiveness more and more, then it stands to reason that we pray and long for sanctification. We are not satisfied; we are not even satisfied with our present condition. That isn’t it. But longing for sanctification, we pray to God for the Holy Spirit that he may dwell in us and that we may walk, more and more walk, in sanctification of life and heart.

The fact that we confess our imperfection is no excuse for the Christian. Just excuse himself. He longs to be delivered from the body of this death until he arrives in perfection. And, therefore, the final fruit is hope. As the apostle has it, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We shall be delivered; we shall be perfectly delivered; we shall be perfectly delivered from all sin and imperfection forevermore. And for that state, beloved, for that state we long. And for that state we pray. And for that state we hope. And hoping for that state, we love the preaching of the law, for it tells us that perfection is coming in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Thanks, O Lord, for the preaching of thy word. Sanctify it unto us; cause us to know ourselves in our sin. Cause us to know ourselves in Jesus Christ our Lord, so that we may more and more live according to that small beginning of new life within us, fight against sin, and have the victory and hope for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory. Amen.

Rev. Herman Hoeksema in The Triple Knowledge

And notice too that the Catechism tells us that the very holiest of the children of God have but a small beginning of the new obedience in this life. Even he that is farthest advanced on the way of sanctification, and is most consecrated to God and to His service, still has but a small beginning. There is, therefore, principally no difference, according to the Catechism, between the holiest and the less holy, between the beginner and the advanced Christian. It is not true that there are believers who have a very small beginning of the new obedience, and people that have a bigger beginning. On the contrary; according to the Catechism, evidently, all believers, no matter how far they are advanced, are alike in this respect. All have but a small beginning of the new obedience, until the day of their death. It also means that sanctification does not consist in this, that that principle, that small beginning, gradually develops and increases. It remains a beginning. It remains a principle. It remains small until the day that we put off the earthy tabernacle, and enter into the house of God in heaven. Sanctification consists in this, that through the power of the Holy Spirit and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that new principle of life in the heart of the believer, that small beginning, fights the good fight of faith, and more and more overcomes the operations and the power of sin that is in our members.³