“Count your blessings,” we have been told. For a Christian, this is no easy task—not because we have so few, but because we have so many! And they are so amazing, we struggle to find words to describe them fully. We need help. And we have that help in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

The Confession provides an inventory of our spiritual blessings in Christ. With the assistance of a hundred seventeenth-century pastors, we can begin to describe our greatest blessings in depth and detail. We can read the table of contents of the Confession as a list of reasons to give thanks to God: Holy Scripture, creation, providence, effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, saving faith, repentance unto life, and good works—just to name a few. Are these realities not all blessings to the Christian?

Studying the Confession chapter by chapter gives us the help we need to count our spiritual blessings with clarity, so that in both the hard times and the good times, we can heartily praise God.

Blessed in the Hard Times and in the Good

Consider the hard times—“when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad,” as Julie Andrews famously sang. How can Christians heartily praise God when our health fails, a loved one leaves, or we are weighed down by the sin that so easily entangles (Heb. 12:1)? Like Julie Andrews, Christians can remember “a few of our favorite things.” For thoughtful Christians, this means our spiritual blessings in Christ. The Confession jogs our memory and focuses our attention on our blessings in Christ, so that even in extreme suffering, we can take hold of the glory that one day will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). When we study the Confession, even in the worst of times, we can count ourselves blessed with tangible reasons to praise God and rejoice in Christ.

And what about the good times—why do we need the Confession then? Whereas bad times can lead us to doubt that we have blessings, good times can distract us from the ones that most matter. We can get so caught up in the blessings of our immediate circumstances that we fail to focus on our eternal blessings. Certainly, it is good to thank God for good health, harmonious relationships, a check coming in, and simple joys like “brown paper packages tied up with strings.” Yet we have so many more blessings in Christ, blessings of enduring value. The Confession helps us to identify our spiritual blessings as the true root of our rejoicing, adding depth, purity, and power to our praise, even in the best of circumstances.

But, you might wonder, would not our regular Bible reading reveal these blessings to us sufficiently? Why study a manmade document like the Westminster Confession of Faith when we can count our blessings as we come across them organically in our regular study of God’s Word?

Certainly, book-by-book study is the bread and butter of Bible study and should be our first and favorite way to learn the truths of the Christian faith. That said, however, studying the Westminster Confession of Faith, especially in a group setting, richly enhances our regular Bible reading by adding clarity, correction, complexity, coherence, and communion with other Christians.

Clarity

Because of the way the Bible was written, our blessings are not always obvious. Sometimes truths are buried deeper in the text and harder to find. Often, we need to compare one passage with another to recognize its meaning and the blessing it contains. As we walk through our ordinary Bible reading, we might be standing right on top of a blessing and miss it! Like a treasure map, the Westminster Confession can point out our blessings and let us know specifically where to dig further. The more noticeable blessings we may certainly find out on our own. But how many more treasures might there be to discover? Having studied the Confession, we find ourselves having more “aha” moments as we discover the hidden treasure in our regular Bible reading.

Correction

Studying the Confession also corrects us when we are digging up “trash” of our own making rather than true treasure from the Word. Sometimes in our regular Bible reading, we can misinterpret a passage, not comparing it with the whole of Scripture. That’s a hard task, challenging for any one person to do. The Westminster Confession helps us by summarizing the meaning of the whole of Scripture. As we hold our interpretations of a particular passage in the light of what the Confession teaches, we have an efficient way to compare our thoughts with the teaching of all Scripture. In this way, the Confession can alert us when we are drawing conclusions that aren’t really there to be found and direct us to the truths that are.

Complexity

As the Confession directs us toward true treasure, it educates us to have an appreciation for the complex and valuable. Sometimes when we receive a special gift, we don’t immediately appreciate exactly what it is or what it does. The same can be true for our blessings. Many are of profound value. Consider, for example, chapter 8 in the Confession, “Of Christ the Mediator.” There the Confession explains how Christ is the head of the new covenant, fulfilling all roles as our prophet, priest, and king. The Westminster Confession is helping us to understand the comparatively complex details of our blessings so that we can appreciate them more fully.

Coherence

The Confession also adds coherence to our Bible study. Frankly, Bible reading alone can remind me a little bit of my closet: I know there is a lot of good in there, but it is not in order. The Westminster Confession helps us by ordering the truth we find in the Bible in a logical way such that one chapter sets the foundation for the next. The Confession opens with the chapter “Of Holy Scripture” because God’s revelation is the basis of what follows. Chapter 6 on the fall sets up chapter 7, “Of God’s Covenant with Man,” which then sets up chapter 8, “Of Christ the Mediator.” Indeed, the Confession follows a structure that enables us to develop our theology to great heights while securing it on the solid foundation of God’s Word. Only through a careful ordering can we express our knowledge in a coherent whole.

Communion

Given the usefulness of the Westminster Confession, it is not surprising that churches through the past four centuries have used it as their standard for the faith. Many Protestant denominations today base their standards on the Westminster Confession, even if altering a chapter here or there to suit their particular perspective on the sacraments or church government. While Christians have doctrinal differences, the Westminster Confession shows how believers hold the bulk of the greater matters in common. As individuals, we can draw strength and stability from knowing that we hold to the same faith as that expressed by believers around the world and through time. We can be encouraged as we experience a communion with so many of God’s people through our shared use of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Furthermore, the Westminster Confession provides a common vocabulary for our theology, enabling us to discuss our faith together and learn from previous generations. We need this common vocabulary to navigate our differences and, as iron sharpens iron, refine one another as the body of believers.

The blessings we find in the Bible, as summarized and organized by the Westminster Confession of Faith, aren’t just to be counted: they are to be celebrated. We can study the Westminster Confession of Faith on our own, but how much better to study it with others! I encourage you to bring food, add singing, and make a party of it as you count your blessings together. Yes, some study requires effort. But many hands make light work. Studying the Westminster Confession in a group helps us as a church to glorify God and to enjoy him—together.      

The author is a member of Calvary OPC in Glenside, PA, and has written Confessing the Faith Study Guide, a companion to Confessing the Faith by her husband, Chad B. Van Dixhoorn. New Horizons, February 2022.