The Confession has many wonderful truths about Christ to convey, all of which round out a robust Christology. We know that Christ died and was raised again, so what is Christ doing now?
We’re told that “on the third day he arose from the dead with the same body in which he suffered, with which he also ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of his Father making intercession, and shall return to judge men and angels at the end of the world.” The apostle Peter tells us in Acts 10 that “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption” (vv. 36-37). All men who have died have their bodies rotting away in the ground or at the bottom of the sea. But Jesus Christ was raised with his body which did not see any corruption or decay. It was a sign (as if the resurrection wasn’t enough) that Christ was the perfect, clean sacrifice. He still carried the scars he suffered, and by them he was recognized. Even they continued to serve a saving purpose (John 20:27). Peter again reminds us that Christ serves also as our judge: “And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). This is not the only eschatology (end-of-this-age) in the Confession, but it is the only component mentioned of Christ’s second coming. There are many difficult passages to harmonize when it comes to the “train schedule” of the end of the age. But one truth is to be held high above all others: he is coming again, just as he said. But until then, at this very moment, we have a high priest doing what high priests do, which is praying to God on behalf of the people. The author of Hebrews assures us, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (vv.24-26). Once Christ entered into the heavens, his sacrificial ministry was complete. He has put it away, as if he was storing it in the garage, never to use it again. It is no longer necessary. And Christ’s intercession is a solemn cause for peace in the Christian’s heart, for as Paul says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34). The Confession tells us what was accomplished in his sacrificial ministry: “The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of God, procured reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him.” The Confession regularly uses the words of Scripture as its own. Hebrews 9 tell us, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (vv.13-14). And when it comes to the idea of God’s justice being satisfied in Christ’s atoning work, Paul tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23-25b). That odd word, propitiation, means the satisfaction of a grievance or a debt. It carries the significance of finally ending a long-standing series of payments by one final, large, sufficient payment. But what of those who came before the time of Christ’s atoning work? The Confession says, “Although the price of redemption was not actually paid by Christ till after his incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit thereof were communicated to the elect in all ages[.]" In Revelation 13, a beast rises out of the sea, drawing worship to himself. But only certain people are willing. “And all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (v.8). The book of life of the Lamb who was slain precedes even creation, meaning that God’s election is sure and unchanging. God is not on a rescue mission because things took a turn. God is on a mission, but it is his to glorify himself. So two things must be true and are true at once: God wrote down the names of those he would save before anything was made, and Christ would die at a predetermined time to shed his blood and cover over their sins. “But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). “Once for all” covers all those whose names appear in that book. And of course, there is no other mediator between God and man. “Christ, in the work of mediation, acteth according to both natures, by each nature doing that which is proper to itself[.]” “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13). Regarding election, the Confession says, “To all those for whom Christ hath obtained eternal redemption, he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same, making intercession for them[.]” John 6:37 is perhaps the clearest passage about the beautiful relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” We must not separate what God has put together. There is no incongruity between a transcendent being who is totally outside of created reality ordering his creation so that his creatures will either choose or reject him. But still, what assurance there is for the Christian who knows that he only goes to the Son because the Father has given him or her over to the Son. If the basis for your assurance is what you decided to do, you need to look no further than your ability to avoid carbs. If your ability to be saved is based on will-power, not to be crass, but you are hosed. Rounding out the Confessions description of Christ as our great and only mediator, it says, “This office of mediator between God and man is proper only to Christ, who is the prophet, priest, and king of the church of God;” and “This number and order of offices is necessary[.]” Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” Christ is the narrow gate. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is greater than the angels, Moses, the temple, and the sacrifices. There is no other name by which we can be saved. Next week, we will move on to an issue no no controversy whatsoever: free will.
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Our redemption is trinitarian, meaning that redemption is not just a work of the Father, but of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father planned redemption, the Son purchased redemption, and the Spirit applies redemption.
When it comes to Christ, we are right to speak often of his atoning death. He willingly substituted himself on our behalf that we might take on his righteousness. We often speak of why Christ died; but why did Christ live? Did Jesus just live to prepare himself to die? Why did he need to experience childhood? Adolescence? Why did he not need to experience other things, like marriage and childrearing? And of course, how was Jesus able to live a sinless life? Did he just have that much more willpower than me? Clearly some of those questions are more important than others, and the Confession helps us understand the Scriptures on the weightier matters. Jesus lived a righteous life that his sinlessness might be counted to us, and he did so in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Confession begins by saying, “The Lord Jesus, in his human nature thus united to the divine, in the person of the Son, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure, having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;” Acts 10:38 says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Peter is referring to what took place at Jesus’s baptism. When Peter is speaking to Cornelius in Acts 10, he is placing Jesus’s anointing after the time that John the Baptist began his ministry and directly before Jesus began his. During the overlap of John the Baptist and Jesus, there were those why tried to pit one against the other. John dissolves any notion that he is better than Jesus, and he famously says, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Immediately after, John the apostle comments on what John the Baptist has just said, saying, “For he whom God has sent utters the the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure” (3:34). When John bore witness to Jesus, he recognized that the Spirit was at work in him. While on the earth, Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and fulfilled all of his redemptive obligations in the power of the Spirit. And as if God would withhold any good thing from us, we now live in the power of the same Spirit. As Paul tells us in Romans 8:11, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” The Confession goes to say of Christ in the flesh, “in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, he might be throughly furnished to execute the office of mediator and surety;” The apostle Paul is bursting with praise about the eternal Son when he writes, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:19-20). There was nothing un-Godlike about Christ. Even in the flesh, he remained God, without any violence or negative effect to his divinity. Because he was divine, and because in his flesh he ministered in the power of the Spirit, Jesus Christ was worthy to be our substitute. His sinlessness made him able to stand in our place, because he was without blemish or spot. Only a sinless, living substitute would be worth sacrificing. As a sinful creature, I cannot die an atoning death for anyone else, because I bring my own sins to the altar. Not so with Christ Jesus. The whole creation is under a curse, which is the consequence of the first sin. Paul writes in Romans 8:20-21, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Christ substituted himself for us, but in that substitution he reconciled the cosmos that had been “subjected to futility,” or cursed, because of the entrance of sin into the human realm. And it was in this perfection of his righteousness that he was an able “mediator and surety.” The Confession continues, “which office he took not upon himself, but was thereunto called by his Father; who also put all power and judgement in his hand, and gave him commandment to execute the same.” We see here again notes of the covenant of redemption. Christ did not decide in himself to redeem fallen creatures, but he was called by his Father to do so. But in calling the Son to redeem creation, he also gave the Son the Spirit, as well as authority to judge. There is an unbreakable line between the Father and the Son. As John says, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (5:21-23). In his first coming, he came to save. In his second, he will come to judge the living and the dead. And next week, we’ll see how not only did the Father call the Son to take up the redemption of our souls, but he did so willingly and joyfully. The Christian faith is a trinitarian faith. To our own peril do we neglect the doctrine of the Trinity. It is, in fact, the Christian doctrine of God.
Within the covenant of redemption, each person of the Trinity is co-equal and co-ultimate, but each person has his own work within the covenant. The Father plans redemption, the Son purchases redemption, and the Spirit applies redemption. But before we can describe Christ’s work in our redemption, we must be clear on the person of Christ. Of the person of Christ, the Confession says, “The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things he hath made, We need only to read the opening prologue of the gospel of John to see Christ’s pre-existence. He is of the same substance as the Father, equal in power and majesty. Hebrews 1:2-3 tells us that Christ is the final revelation of God, the appointed heir of all things, and the agent of creation. He sovereignly orders and guides all things to their appointed ends. The Confession continues, “did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her: and the power of the Most High overshadowing her; At a certain point in time, predetermined by the Father, God the Son descended to the earth, took on flesh, and experienced all of the common difficulties of the fallen human condition. Those difficulties were true and real. He was tempted in all the normal ways that we are, yet in the power of the Spirit, he never disobeyed his Father. The virginal conception is not a nice accessory to the faith, something supernatural we can ignore if Enlightenment culture finds it appalling. The virgin birth was not just a miracle but a sign to direct people to Christ. We often talk about the mention of the virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14 at Christmas time, as we should. The whole point of talking about it is to confirm that 700 years before Christ was placed in the womb of a virgin by the Spirit, God said to be on the lookout for it. The virginal conception bears witness to the divine plan of God to redeem fallen humanity and bring glory to himself. Christ fulfills his divinely appointed role, revealed to humanity through the Scriptures. “and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures; so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.” Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham. Paul says in Galatians 3:16, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to me, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ. The promises of God made to Abraham find their fulfillment in Christ. And as he is the true Israelite, the church is now the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16). The genealogies of the gospels matter immensely. They are instrumental in proving Christ’s rightful place as the offspring of Abraham and the rightful inheritor of those promises. Matthew begins his gospel making this very point. He could have begun with the birth of Christ, but it was crucial to see Christ as the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant and promises. These connections were crucial to understanding the person and work of Christ long before Paul put them down to paper. Jewish Christians accepted Jesus as the Messiah because they saw him as the fulfillment to the covenant made with their patriarch. One critical note to make is how a human nature and the divine nature co-existed in one man. There have been those who said that Jesus would go between the human and the divine, depending on the moment. For instance, when Jesus was tempted, his human nature was in control. When he healed people or cast our demons, his divine nature was in control. Scripture makes no such distinction. There have also been those that have said the human and divine nature co-mingled into a third nature. Again, the same problem shows itself. Does Scripture give any warrant for such a belief? It seems best to take passages such as Philippians 2 at face value, where Paul says that Christ did not give up his divine nature nor abuse his divine nature by taking on flesh. He simply was. But Jesus also took on human flesh, which did no violence to his divine nature. He was “found in human form,” meaning more than he simply “appeared” as a man. He was 100% God, 100% man, from the point of the incarnation on. As both fully man and fully God, Christ was uniquely able to mediate between fallen man and the righteous God. Priests were men who spoke to God on behalf of the people and vice versa. Christ was the true and better high priest, who entered the holy of holies once for all to atone for sins by the shedding of his blood (Hebrews 9:12). Next week we’ll how the Son obeys the Father and is therefore worthy of inheriting all things. The purposes of God are immeasurably glorious, magnificent, and unfathomable. His will is inscrutable (Romans 11:33). This extends, of course, into the plan of redemption. We are well aware that we are in a covenant with Jesus Christ as his church, which we call the new covenant. But who decided that? Was this always a part of God’s plan?
Baptists, along with many other Protestants, have a rich history of “covenant” theology. We understand that God works among his people in covenants. But God is also a Trinity, three persons of one essence. Which leads us back to the first question, which was, “Who decided that?” The Confession spends some considerable time, one of the longest chapters, even, on the person and work of Christ as our mediator. But the Confession begins in eternity past. It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man; the prophet, priest, and king; head and saviour of the church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world; unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. One of the first things the Confession states is that there was a covenant between God and the Lord Jesus. This covenant extends into eternity past. We call this “the covenant of redemption”, or the “pretemporal agreement between the persons of the Trinity to plan and carry out the redemption of the elect.”(1) Baptists are by far and away not the first to articulate the covenant of redemption. While that term goes only as far back as the Reformation era, the idea is ancient. Luke 22:29 contains the words of Jesus when he tells the disciples, “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom”. The word for “assign” in the Greek is diatithēmi, which literally means to make a covenant.(2) At a point in the past, God the Father made a covenant with the Son to procure for the Son a kingdom of his own. In Romans 3:25, Paul says that Christ was a “propitiation” with his blood for God. A propitiation is the means of appeasing God, of satisfying his justice. The Father and the Son were in perfect communication and perfect agreement about the plan of salvation. So far, we’re not exactly braving any new theological terrain. Jesus was sent by the Father, he has come to do the Father’s work, and the Father has imbued the Son with authority. We take all of this for granted, but it actually only makes sense if the persons of the Trinity are in a coordinated effort with varying functions yet working in agreement. There are also various “transactions” that take place within the Trinity. The Father gives the elect to the Son because the Son will do certain things in obedience to the Father. They are working in complete agreement. Hebrews 10 quotes Psalm 40 as if Christ was the speaker of that Psalm. The speaker, Christ, says that God has not desired offerings of animals, but God has given this speaker a body to sacrifice, and it is the will of God to have this body given as a sacrifice. Then Christ says, “I have come to do your will.” The Father and Son are of the same mind, but there is a distinction between roles. They share the same will, but the Son’s role in redemption is to come to die. Again, there is deep agreement between the persons of the Trinity in what must take place and which role each person would fulfill. We must never say that the Father or the Spirit died on the cross. We must never say that the Spirit or the Son planned salvation. The Spirit indwells believers, not the Father or the Son. They are essentially the same, yet each have their specific roles. They are in agreement, the most basic definition of a covenant. Isaiah 53:10 says, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” God had a plan to crush his Son, but that required the Son making an offering for guilt. That also resulted in blessings for the Son, that he would see his offspring and continue in doing the will of the Lord. It is not that the Son was surprised as the requested to be crucified; it is that the Father, Son, and Spirit perform their roles out of the same will and mind. Two of the most important Old Testament passages for the New Testament are Psalms 2 and 110, and both of them give evidence of the covenant of redemption. Psalm 2:7 says, “I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” The word for “decree” is the Hebrew “ḥōq”, which means decree, statute, or even covenant. Basically, it’s an appointed task. There are two persons mentioned in this verse: The LORD and “me”, or the Son. This passage is either quoted or alluded to in Acts 4:25-27, 13:33, Hebrews 1:5, & 5:5 and directly applies “Son” to Jesus. There is a task given by the Father to the Son, and unless we want to say that the Father has more authority than the Son and slowly creep into believing in three different gods, we take it to mean that they are in agreement about the plan of redemption, or in other words, are in covenant together. Psalm 110:1 says, “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” David is clearly writing not about himself but two different people. There is God, and there is another ruler who is later called “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (v.4). In verse 4 again, God makes an oath with this other Lord, who he then makes a priest-king, just like Melchizedek. God the Father swears an oath to God the Son, making him a priest-king. We can either spiritualize these things away, or we can take them as they come. It is best to read these as the three co-eternal, equally-ultimate persons of the Godhead as working in a covenant together to secure our redemption. But because of this covenant between the Godhead, our salvation is both secure and has all conditions satisfied. Next week, we’ll talk a look at the specific role of God the Son, Christ the Mediator. (1) Guy M. Richard, “The Covenant of Redemption,” Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives (2020, Crossway), 43. See this chapter for general flow of the argument given here. (2) https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1303/kjv/tr/0-1/ |
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