Introduction

I have begun revisiting the theology of Norman Shepherd, who was the professor of systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) from 1963 to 1981. He was released after controversy over his doctrine of justification.

His doctrine of justification was that a man is justified by an obedient faith. The faith that justifies now and in the final judgment is a faith that is obedient—repents, obeys, perseveres—and without its obedience faith does not justify, does not assure, and does not save. His doctrine of justification is central to his doctrine of the covenant.

I examined only Shepherd’s doctrine of the covenant made with Abraham. But what Shepherd says of that covenant, he repeats about the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant in Jesus Christ. His covenant doctrine consists of God’s promise and man’s obligation. The promise of God given in the covenant is made effectual in man’s fulfillment of his obligation. That obligation is to trust and obey, believe and repent, cleave and persevere. The promise of God is made effectual in man’s fulfilling the obligation to believe that promise and to persevere in repenting and obeying. A man does this by grace. Yet it is man’s doing of these things that makes God’s promise effectual. Failing to do these things, God’s grace and promise fail for that man, and he falls away into perdition.

Norman Shepherd defends his covenant doctrine as honoring the absolute sovereignty of God’s saving grace and the full activity of his covenant people. His doctrine is conditional, and he freely speaks of conditions in the covenant. Yet he does not need to use the word condition because his phrase that the covenant promise of God is fulfilled in the way of the faith and faithfulness of the covenant people is sufficient to teach that faith and its obedience, faith with its faithfulness, is the decisive activity in God’s covenant. An obedient faith is the hinge on which the covenant promise of God turns, as it is the hinge on which the justification of the believer in that covenant turns. Faith is man’s decisive activity, his doing for salvation. Obedience is man’s decisive activity as the fruit of faith, his doing for salvation.

Norman Shepherd puts himself forward as a great opponent of merit, but when faith as man’s activity is decisive and obedience as man’s activity is decisive, faith and obedience are meritorious. Thus it is not unjust to say that when Norman Shepherd uses the word promise, he means conditional promise, for that promise is not effectual unless man does something, namely believe and obey.

My interest now is to demonstrate how Norman Shepherd applies these things to the experience of the covenant, specifically to conversion, perseverance, and assurance. I remind the reader that I am interested in the sound of federal vision theology. My purpose in revisiting Norman Shepherd is to familiarize the reader with that sound.

I contend that this sound is now being heard in the Protestant Reformed Churches in preaching and writing. This is especially so at the point of the experience of salvation. A great deal of mischief has been done in these churches by false teaching about the experience of salvation. This is being done all the while studiously avoiding the more offensive terms, such as a general promise and condition.

But as I have said, Shepherd often leaves these things out of view.

I also remind the reader that this theology—with the word condition or not—is subtle, soul-destroying, and church-destroying. It has come into the Protestant Reformed Churches. If it is not rooted out, it will destroy these churches. The destruction has already begun. The teachers of this false theology attack and ridicule the doctrines of grace at the point especially of the experience of salvation, caricaturing them as making men “stocks and blocks” and as being “antinomian.” This false theology is a conditional possession or experience of salvation and the covenant.

Shepherd’s Theology of Experience of Justification in the Covenant

Concerning justification in the new covenant, Shepherd writes,

Our focus now is on the experience of justification among the people of God. How do people make the transition from wrath to grace, or from condemnation and death to justification and life? How do they get justified, how do they stay justified, and how do they know they are justified?^*

The experience of justification can be summarized this way: how does the believer have peace of conscience that he is right with God? Wrapped up inseparably with the doctrine of justification is the experience of justification. The experience of justification is justification itself, for the main sense in which scripture speaks of justification is justification in the conscience of the believer, whereby being justified by faith he has peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and has the assurance of the forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, salvation, and eternal life. The faith that justifies is faith that is the assurance of that justification. The experience of justification is by faith without works at all. The assurance of justification is by faith alone without works.

However, for Norman Shepherd this is not the case. Concerning the experience of justification, which is justification, he writes,

In the beginning God created human beings for union and communion with himself, for covenant fellowship. Sin separates us from fellowship with God and alienates us from him. We become hostile to God. Therefore the initiative for restoration of that fellowship comes from God himself. That is his saving grace. (80)

His explanation of the power of preaching is important because he seems to make salvation all of God.

God comes to us with his grace from outside of us, in the preaching of his gospel…

The word of the gospel strikes our ears, and the Holy Spirit accompanies that word with power according to the sovereign will and purpose of God…The Spirit drives that word home to the heart…The Holy Spirit also transforms the heart to receive the word…This is the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, the new birth. At the same time the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us…The Holy Spirit lives in us so that we are activated, motivated, and controlled by the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in us unites us to Christ because the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ…Because we have the Spirit of Christ, we have Christ in us. We are united to Christ and belong to him. Thus united to Christ we become the beneficiaries of all that Christ has done…Specifically, we are justified—our sins are forgiven—and we are sanctified—recreated in the image of God in righteousness and holiness. (80–81)

Regarding the promise side of the covenant, Shepherd writes,

Regeneration, justification, adoption, and sanctification represent the promise side of the new covenant, and these promises are received by faith…faith comes by hearing the word preached or proclaimed. What do we do when we preach the gospel, and what kind of response are we looking for?

First, we expose the sin of sinners to whom we proclaim the gospel…Second, we tell guilty sinners what God has done for us in Christ to save us from sin, condemnation, and death…Third, we plead with sinners to come to Jesus so that their sins can be forgiven. We teach them to come in the only way they can come, in repentance and faith…When this preaching is accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, sinners do respond in repentance and faith…

Fourth, we teach these converted sinners to observe all that Jesus has commanded…walking the path of righteousness, the Way of Holiness…Fifth, we encourage God’s people to persevere in this faith and to keep walking in the Way of Holiness no matter what obstacles, opposition, or discouragement they may meet along the way. And sixth, we assure these pilgrims that they are on the right path, and that the Lord will never leave them or forsake them. (81–82)

His presentation can be summarized this way: God takes the initiative and comes with the gospel and the promise. By promise Shepherd means conditional promise because that promise depends on man’s response by grace. Man must respond by fulfilling his obligation of faith and obedience, or faith and repentance. Shepherd speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit’s work is made effectual in man’s activity, man’s responses, or man’s fulfilling his obligation. Man’s activity of faith and repentance is the decisive thing on which God’s promise depends and without which that promise (conditional) fails.

Norman Shepherd then more fully examines perseverance in relationship to justification:

The Bible teaches that we are justified by faith. That is, we enter into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ…the Lord God forgives our sin and recreates us in righteousness and holiness…We enter into a justified state by means of a living faith [faith inseparably intertwined with repentance] and we remain in a justified state by means of a living faith…The sinner whose sin is forgiven and who has been transformed into the likeness of Christ—all by faith—perseveres in that faith and so remains in a right relationship with God.

Perseverance in faith is represented to us in Scripture as a gift from God. It is one of the gracious benefits that we receive from our union with Christ…We have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. We are “shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time”…

Of course, this promise of perseverance, like all of God’s promises, must be received by faith, and saving faith is always a living and active faith. Therefore coupled with the promise of perseverance as a gift is the exhortation to persevere in faith and obedience to the Lord…

The verse that is of special interest because of its direct connection to justification is Hebrews 10:36. “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”

…In verse 36 the author does not mention faith expressly, but he does mention it in both the preceding and following verses. What he expressly urges is perseverance in doing the will of God. Just as faith without works is dead, so works without faith are dead. The verse urges perseverance in a living, active, and obedient faith. The promise is that you will receive what God has promised; and what God has promised is deliverance in the Day of Judgment and eternal life—justification and eternal life…

They persevere in faith, repentance, and obedience…They receive what was promised on the ground of what Jesus has accomplished for us by his death and resurrection. (82–85)

Perseverance is in the justified state. Justification is by an obedient faith, and perseverance is by that same obedient faith. Perseverance is a gift and promise of God, but that promise and gift depend on man’s response of faith and repentance. The promise of perseverance depends on man’s activity.

Norman Shepherd then considers assurance:

These comments on perseverance lead naturally to a consideration of assurance…The man who perseveres is in the right with God. He is justified and he will receive the crown of life…God has promised to forgive our sins, to renew us in the image of Christ, and to usher us into eternal life…That is the foundation that we have for the assurance of our salvation in the Day of Judgment. (85–86)

For Shepherd assurance and justification are inseparably intertwined:

We get at this matter of assurance by asking the question, When are we justified?…Some say we are justified in the eternal decree of God, and that this decree is simply worked out in the course of history. Others say that we were justified when Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead on the third day…Still others say that we are justified at the moment when we are baptized, or at the moment when we come to personal faith in Jesus…Then there are those who say that we are justified really only in the final judgment. 

There is a measure of truth in all of these views, but the key to understanding the biblical doctrine lies in the last view mentioned. We will be justified on the day when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and when each one will receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10)…

Now, again, the question of assurance is this, what is going to happen to me on that day, and can I know for sure what will happen to me? (86–87)

He teaches that the basis of assurance is Christ’s work:

The basis for this assurance lies in the fact that 2,000 years ago Jesus passed through the final judgment for me and in my place…United to him by faith, I am justified in him…I know now what will happen to me in the Judgment because of what Jesus did for me 2,000 years ago in his death and resurrection…

All these things are true: I was justified when Jesus died for me; I was justified when I was converted; I am now in a justified state; and I will be justified in the Day of Judgment…

It is essential to note that this assurance is not simply information about the future and what is going to happen in the future…It is the assurance that is given with faith in Jesus and faith in the promises that he has made to us. (88)

For Shepherd assurance is by faith, but the faith that assures is man’s response to the promise by grace, and that faith is a penitent, active, obedient faith. Faith does not assure apart from and without its obedience:

It is not assurance that I have independently of my response to the gospel with a true and living faith. Therefore this assurance does not stay at the same level all the time. Faith can waver; it can be stronger or weaker at some times than it is at other times. Because obedience is the fruit of faith, my assurance will rise as I walk closer to the Lord in my love for him and surrender to his will. And because disobedience is the fruit of unbelief, my assurance will diminish as I wander away from the Lord in disobedience. We must cultivate assurance of grace and salvation in the same way that we cultivate faith, namely, by attention to the word of God, by the use of the sacraments that sign and seal the truth of that word, and by faithfulness to that word. (88–89)

The verdict that we will hear in the final judgment is the same that we hear in the preaching of the gospel, which, according to Shepherd, is that those who trust and obey, believe and work, are justified:

It is true that the judgment of the last day will be open and public. We will see the judge and we will hear his verdict. But even now in the course of our human experience the Lord pronounces his judgment, and we can hear it with our own ears…

This happens in the reading of God’s word and in the preaching of his gospel when God’s people are gathered before him to worship…[The pastor] tells us in the name of the triune God and with the authority of Christ that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. He tells me that my sins are forgiven and that God has accepted me as his child. That is the good news of God’s justifying verdict that I hear with my ears and receive by faith as the Holy Spirit drives that word home to my heart…

If a sinner who hears the gospel does not embrace the forgiveness of sins promised to him there, he stands condemned. He has rejected the good news, and he will be condemned for his unbelief, his impenitence, rebellion, and disobedience…

The most practical and pressing theological question we can ask is this: What is going to happen to me in the Day of Judgment? The gospel is not nearly as complicated as we might think from looking at the many heavy tomes of scholastic theology written on the subject. We are justified and saved according to the eternal plan and purpose of God. We are justified in the death and resurrection of Christ 2,000 years ago. We are now justified by a living, active, penitent, and obedient faith in Jesus. And we are sure to be justified when the ascended Christ returns to this earth to judge the living and dead. That is the good news of the gospel, the gospel we believe and proclaim. (90–93)

An Analysis of Shepherd’s Doctrine of Experience

It must be remembered that all of this has to do with the assurance and experience of justification in the covenant. It is surely true that assurance of justification is assurance of what will happen to the believer in the final judgment. It is also true that his assurance consists in the knowledge that he is justified.

But for Shepherd there is no assurance of justification and thus of what will happen to one in the final judgment without that man’s response of faith as his activity and without the works of faith, or the obedience of faith, as his activity. It is impossible for Shepherd to speak of assurance by faith alone, which would be justification by faith alone. In all his teaching of assurance, works must always come in, for assurance of justification is by an active, obedient, living faith.

Assurance by an obedient faith is no assurance at all because it casts the believer back on his own believing—faith as that which he has done for salvation—and his own obeying—working as that which he has done for salvation. Thus this doctrine vexes the poor conscience of the believer.

An application of this doctrine, then, must be made to the covenant. Federal vision theology connects justification, the promise, and the covenant of grace. For that theology the promise of God is realized in the way of faith and obedience, or covenantal loyalty.

I have been contending that there is such a presentation of the promise of God in the Protestant Reformed Churches, where the conditional covenant has been officially rejected. In essence, then, this presentation brings conditional theology, specifically Schilderian conditional theology, back into the Protestant Reformed Churches. This presentation studiously avoids the word condition but teaches conditions in substance.

What is this presentation? 

When the presentation of the covenant consists solely in God’s promise and man’s covenant obligation. When the covenant is reduced to promise and demand, and without the fulfillment of the demand the promise is not realized. It is a presentation of God’s promise without explicitly rooting that in God’s eternal election and reprobation, which cuts across the historic lines of the covenant. It is the presentation of the promise as fulfilled by grace, meaning that the promise is given and to some degree is realized in the hearts of the covenant people, but the realization of the promise results in the enabling of God’s people to do, will, believe, repent, obey, and persevere. And by that doing—activity—they attain to a higher, better, richer, and ultimately heavenly realization of the promise.

The promise is received by faith, and that faith is an active, living, penitent, obedient, persevering faith. It is the old, tired dirge of salvation by faith and works.

When this is connected to the preaching of the gospel, then the promise of the gospel—you will be saved—is made effectual by man’s response of faith and his response of the obedience of faith. The gospel is made to depend on what man does, specifically, faith and repentance.

When this idea about the promise is connected with assurance, there is no assurance by faith alone and no teaching that faith itself is assurance. Assurance is by faith, but that faith is a penitent, obedient, active faith.

Over against federal vision theology, the truth of the covenant promise as stated by the Protestant Reformed Churches over fifty years ago must be asserted loudly and incessantly.

God surely and infallibly fulfills His promise to the elect…

The sure promise of God which He realizes in us as rational and moral creatures not only makes it impossible that we should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness but also confronts us with the obligation of love, to walk in a new and holy life, and constantly to watch unto prayer. (Declaration of Principles, in Confessions and Church Order, 426)

God surely and infallibly fulfills his promise to the elect. All the life of the child of God, all his blessedness, and all his hope, assurance, grace, and glory depend on that fact. God surely and infallibly fulfills his promise. Nothing of that promise depends in any way upon the activity of man, but all the activity of man is the infallible fruit of the infallible realization of the promise. The believer has the blessed assurance of his justification and thus of his salvation and of eternal glory by faith alone. This faith does not need to be propped up by works, as though it were a weak and wilted thing. Faith is assurance, assurance that righteousness is freely given me as my own only for Christ’s sake.

Along with that faith, then, is the assurance that God has elected me, that Christ has died for me, that I will enter heaven, that I stand in God’s grace and have access to him through Jesus Christ, that I am the object of his favor, that he will perfect in me the work begun in me, and that he will never abandon me as the work of his hands.

I will conclude this series with a warning. The Protestant Reformed Churches can have Herman Hoeksema and his “do nothing, nothing but believe,” or they will be overrun by Norman Shepherd and his “trust and obey.” When Herman Hoeksema said that, he did so against precisely the same false doctrine that the Protestant Reformed Churches have faced and are still facing. Hoeksema’s theology “do nothing, nothing but believe” has been ridiculed openly by his spiritual children and is being replaced with the very theology that language was intended to reject.

I have warned you. I am now free from your blood!