I succumbed to pressure and moved this whole blog to wordpress.

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For some annoying reason, wordpress won't accept any none alpha-numerics. So, the all important hyphens are gone from my catchy domain name.

Christian Mind Paper - Part V

I start to show the weaknesses of this paper with this post. A not insignificant portion of the paper is quotes. And here I include a fairly big one. Doing this is frowned upon.

The covenantal of redemption taken as a whole has its referent in Zechariah 6. Meredith Kline interprets this passage as follows:

The covenantal origins of the royal grant to Christ go back before the making of the covenant with David to the intratrinitarian counsels before the world was, back to a primal divine pact. Though the covenants made between God and man in the course of human history were determined upon in eternity in the all-embracive divine decrees, the actual covenanting between the parties does not occur until the creature party is on the scene. However, since all parties of the intratrinitarian covenant are present at the determination of the eternal decrees, that decretive predestinating is at the same time an actual eternal covenanting of the persons of the Godhead with each other with respect to their relationships in all that they decree concerning creation and redemption. It was in that eternal covenant that the cosmic kingdom of glory was granted to the Son as the reward for his faithful execution of the work the Father gave him to do (cf. Luke 22:29; John 17:4, 5). This covenantal commitment to the Son was renewed in the course of the historical administration of the Covenant of Grace. It came to earthly expression in the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants: Christ was the promised seed of Abraham to whom pertained the promise of kingship and kingdom (Gal. 3:16) and Christ was the son of David to whom the dynastic promises of the Davidic covenant were directed. What Zechariah 6:9-15 prophesies is the Father's fulfillment of the eternal covenant by bestowing the promised kingdom grant on the Son who came to earth as Jesus, the Christ of God, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1), and obediently carried out the stipulated task.¹

1Meredith Kline “The Exaltation of Christ” Online: http://www.kerux.com/documents/keruxv12n3a1.asp

Note that the above footnote points to the whole article.

Christian Mind paper: Part IV.

Scriptural support for the covenant of redemption is not difficult to produce nor is it difficult to assert that the evidence thus marshaled does in fact constitute solid indicators that such a covenant took place.¹ First, Scripture is replete with the predestinarian electing by the Father of sinners. Beginning as early as Genesis 3:15 God pronounces a curse on the seed of the serpent (which eons later we discover the referent to be humans²) thus immediately splitting all of Adam's progeny into two distinct groups. In Genesis 4:26 we see that God carves out of history those who, by calling on his name, are his covenantal servants.³ God's graphically displays his election and reprobation via the Noahic oracle in Genesis 9:25-27⁴. Further narrowing continues through the genealogies of Shem, Eber and climaxing in Peleg in Genesis 10:25 where God outright states that he is dividing the earth up along these family lines⁵. This leads to the election Abraham and the subsequent election of Issac over against Ishmael, and of Jacob over against Esau. New Testament corroborates this electing process, most notably in Acts 13:48. The covenant of redemption asserts that God elects these as gifts to be an inheritance for his Son who agrees to earn these gifts. Scriptural support for this is found in John 6:38-40 as well in Psalm 2:6-9. Indeed, these verses are difficult if the covenant of redemption is denied.

Jesus Christ the God-Man pledged to fulfill the covenant of works in order to make the covenant of grace possible. In other words, he promised to become a man, taking on his flesh and his nature. Essentially, as the second Adam, he would assume posse peccare and posse non peccare. He also promised to obey the law – both the natural law that resides in all men and the specific law given to Israel. Finally, he promised to go to the cross as propitiation for the sins of those elect. In this way, Christ's active obedience to the law, his perfect righteousness, might be given as an act of grace to those elect whose active disobedience as covenant breakers has, as well, been forgiven. The chair passage for this in Scripture is the high priestly prayer of Jesus to the Father in John 17. In this passage no fewer than nine times Jesus refers to those whom God has given him. In John 17:4 he explicitly refers to his having accomplished the work that he was assigned; and in John 17:12 he refers to successfully guarding those for whom he was responsible - an allusion to Adam's failure to guard the garden, a charge he was given in Genesis 2:15.

The covenant of redemption spells out a pledge made by the Holy Spirit as well. It is here that we can most easily begin to see the value of the covenant of redemption as a lens into our systematic theology. Our entire doctrine of the Holy Spirit falls into place when one considers that nearly all the Spirit does is directly tied to his inter-trinitarian pledge. Drawing from Berkhof's Systematic Theology we see four primary tasks that the Spirit must perform. The first task is entirely in relation to the man Jesus Christ. The Spirit must bring him into existence as a man via the virgin Mary. He also must anoint him (Mt. 3:17 ) with the result that Jesus has the Spirit without measure (John 3:34).⁶ Second, the Holy Spirit inspires the writing of Scripture (2 Peter 1:21). Third, the Holy Spirit is the immediate agent of the regeneration (John 3:6-8) and the sanctification of the elect (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). Fourth, he builds, guides and teaches the church (John 16:13,14; Ephesians 1:13, 2:20-22; ).⁷

1Steven Baugh, “The Covenant of Redemption in Galatians 3:20”, WTJ 66,1 (2004), 49-70. Dr. Baugh tackles the tough Gal 3:20 and defends his thesis that even this verse supports the Covenant of redemption.

2See John 8:42-45.

3It is especially important to note that being elect into God's covenant in no way obviates the sinful nature of the elect. All the elect have this in common: they all trust in the promise of God to fulfill all that as covenant Lord he has spoken.

4In addition to displaying his reprobation and election, he foretells the bringing in of the gentiles represented by Japheth into the covenantal family of God fulfilled in Acts 11:1-18.

5It is important to remember that this election is a spiritual operation and the physical ancestry that one may trace is not truly in view.

6The idea that the Spirit is the director of the drama is very apt when one considers his role as the third person of the covenant of redemption.

7Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1932), 98.