The Covenantal Nature of Christianity (Part1)

1. The Gospel cannot be properly understood unless it is viewed within a covenantal frame.

Hebrews declares Christ to be the mediator and guarantor of the covenant between God and His elect (Heb. 7:22; 8:6). The Gospel itself is an invitation to enjoy a covenant relationship with God. The Church is the covenant community. God's gifts to the Church, such as the preaching of the Word, pastoral care and discipline, the administration of the sacraments, these are all sign, seals, and instruments of the covenant through which the covenant blessings flow to those who believe.

The Bible is the book of the covenant. The preaching of the Word reaffirms to us God's gracious promise that He will be our God and we will be His people. Christ himself, when He instituted the Lord's Table, described His expiatory sacrifice as the fulfillment of the protoevangelion: This is the New Testament (i.e., covenant) in my blood. When Adam sinned and thus violated the covenant of works, God established the covenant of grace by promising a Savior, of the seed of the woman and then demonstrated what this meant by killing animals (showing a substitutionary sacrifice for their sin) and by clothing them in the skins of these sacrificed animals (showing the imputed righteousness of God's elect).

In order to be truly mobile, our bodies require a skeleton. In much the same way, Scripture has an internal framework upon which everything is connected. This internal structure is Covenant. That is why we will never understand the Gospel until we view it covenantally.

Defining P in TULIP

Perseverance of the Saints is the Biblical doctrine that teaches that the elect whom God has chosen for salvation will eternally reside in His sovereign care. There is a divine certainty the elect will be brought to dwell with the Lord in heaven. Christ assures His own they will not be lost but will be glorified at the last day. What Christ has promised, He will perform. The perseverance of the elect does not depend upon their good works, but upon the faithfulness of God.

Based upon the truth of the previous four points, what may we say about the salvation of the elect? To say that it is anything less than eternally secure is to undermine everything which we have already shown to be Scripturally true. If salvation can be lost, then I have to think that it is inevitable. If the security of our salvation hangs upon nothing securer than our own will, then we are eternally on thin ice. If God can't secure my salvation now, why should I think He can in the eternal state?

If, as Scripture says, God's calling is "irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29), then we cannot imagine God electing a man to salvation, only to get fed up with him later and unelecting him. Furthermore, if salvation is not of works, then it is not of works! Works don't earn salvation, neither do they maintain it. Anyone who says this is a license for sin is a fool and anyone who uses it as a license for sin has been "designated to this condemnation" (Jude 4).Paul explicitly argues that precisely because justification is not of works a saved man will walk in the good works God has prepared beforehand for him (Eph. 2:10).

The Father always hears the Son (John 11:42). The Son expressly asks the Father to bring to Heaven, both His original disciples as well as all who will believe on Him because of their preaching (John 17:20-24).Christ ever lives to make intercession for them for whom He died (Heb. 7:25). How can I say that He intercedes only for those for whom He died? Hebrews 7:25 says, "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" Note the words "draw," "save," and "intercession" We have already seen that only those whom God draws come to Christ (John 6:44). Moreover, it is these for whom He died. And it is only these for whom He intercedes. Jesus tells us Himself, as we eavesdrop in on His High Priestly prayer, "I am praying for them (those whom the Father has given Him). I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me" (John 17:9). Tie all these strands together and you have this: Those whom God elected and Christ atoned for and to whom the Spirit applies this redemption, are eternally secure because no less than Jesus Himself intercedes for them based upon the Father's satisfaction with the Son's atoning work. To deny the eternally secure nature of the elect's salvation is to deny one or more of the aforementioned explicit statements of Scripture.

Again, we must remember that the perseverance of the elect does not depend upon their good works, but upon the faithfulness of God. In the words of the Psalmist, "Not to us, Oh LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness" (Ps. 115:1).

Defining I in TULIP

Let's review the previous ideas a second to see the inevitability of our next point. If all men are total depraved and therefore totally unable to do anything tending to their own salvation, God must elect those who will be saved; otherwise no one would ever be saved. No man who is totally evil and whose heart and imagination is given over to only evil continually will ever, on his own, exercise his will to believe in Christ. Faith and repentance are spiritual acts and thus cannot be done by carnal men. If God elects those who will be saved, and has provided in Christ's death the atonement for their sins, then they must of necessity come to saving faith.

Hence Irresistible Grace is the inevitable and positive response produced by the power of God in the elect to the inward call of the Holy Spirit when the outward call is given by the proclamation of the gospel. Christ Himself teaches that all whom God has elected will come to a sure knowledge of the truth. Individuals always come to Christ for salvation when the Father effectually calls them. The eternal and omnipotent Holy Spirit of Almighty God causes the elect to manifest genuine evangelical repentance. It is a source of great comfort and joy to know that the gospel of redeeming grace will wondrously save as it subdues the most hardened, sinful heart.

Think back to John 10. Jesus tells his disciples that He has are other sheep, referring to those who will come to faith through the Church's obedience to the Great Commission (John 17:22). Throughout the first 30 verses of John 10, Jesus uses some pretty confident language about the future faith of the "other sheep." He says, I MUST bring them," and "They WILL come" (emphasis mine). Jesus entertains no doubt about the future faith of the "other sheep."

Arminians insist that the deciding factor in salvation is man's free-will. Man must be free, they argue, to accept or reject Christ, otherwise salvation is a sham. Since I have dealt with this ridiculousness elsewhere, I won't refute it in great detail here. But let me merely observe that Arminians, for all their extolling of free-will, have no trouble giving God the short end of the stick when it comes to free-will. Everybody seems to have it but Him. The word "Almighty" means nothing if it does not mean "mighty over all." This would include man's will. Scripture does not hide the fact that God controls men's wills, either. And, as we noted previously, Scripture presents a tension between God's sovereignty in salvation and man's responsibility to believe which it does not try to resolve. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are both true.

John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Note well that these verses do not says, "No one will come to me," or "will not accept," because the passages are not addressing willingness. They both say "can not." this refers to ability. The only person who ever comes to Christ is the one the Father draws, which word in the Greek means literally, "to drag." Men come to Christ when God drags them to Him. And you still want to say that God does not control men's wills?

Note also that only a spiritual person, that is, one who God has made alive in Christ, can understand the things of the Spirit of God. Faith is a gift of God. How can it be a requirement for regeneration when it is the result of it?

Defining L in Tulip

Limited Atonement answers the question, "For whose sins did Christ atone?" The Bible teaches that Christ died for those whom the Father gave Him to save. Christ died for the elect, which refers to all who will be born again. Belief in the doctrine of a definite redemption provides an incentive for evangelistic zeal and under-girds the presentation of the gospel. With confidence the soul winner can share the Scripture that promises that Christ will not lose any that the Father has given to Him. "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." The death of Christ was not one of potential atonement for all people. Rather, Christ died to accomplish a real redemption for His people. The night Christ was born, the angels declared that Jesus had come to "save His people from their sins." Christ’s atoning work was not designed to make men savable but to actually purchase their salvation by His own precious blood. The work of the Cross is effectual only for the elect.

This is perhaps the least favorite of the five points by the detractors of Reformed soteriology. Arminians and their theological first cousins, Roman Catholic, bristle at the notion of an atonement intended for some men and not for everyone. This doctrine is hated because it is portrayed as unfair or unjust. Actually though, fairness or justice have little to do with. Simply consider this: All men are equally guilty before God and thus hell-deserving. If we were to appeal logically to justice and fairness, God should damn everyone to Hell. The fact that He has chosen anyone speaks of kindness and mercy.

I always feel confidently secure that my theology is correct in this regard when an Arminian assails me with the same arguments Paul's opponents brought against him. You'd think they had never read Romans 9:18-24: "So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me, 'Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?' But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump on vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory - even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" When an Arminian assaults us with the same arguments that Paul's opponents used, that seems to indicate that we are on the right track theologically. Furthermore, when Paul says that God "has not destined us for wrath," doesn't that logically imply that some men are destined for wrath?

If the Atonement is not limited to the elect, but God is earnestly trying to save all men without exception, what do we do with these Scriptural statements?

Joshua 11:20 For it was the LORD's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded Moses.

1 Samuel 3:25b But they would not listen to the voice of their father for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death.

John 10:11, 26 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep...but you do not believe me because you are not part of my flock.

2 Thessalonians 2:11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.

Jude 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Let's set the record straight: Neither I nor any advocate of Reformed theology, derive any morbid pleasure from the idea that some men have gone and still will go to Hell. We derive no morbid satisfaction, nor any self-flattering enjoyment from the notion that Christ's atoning sacrifice was efficacious for some and not others. But that is beside the point. We may not, without imperiling our immortal souls, toy with God's Word simply because we place less stock in it than we do in our own fallen sense of justice and equality.

Defining U in TULIP

This doctrine states that God has chosen, apart from human merit, those whom He is pleased to bring to knowledge of Himself. This divine selection was not based upon God looking forward to see who would receive the offer of the gospel. Nor it is based on God looking into the future to see who will reject the Gospel. Both the preterition of the non-elect and the choosing of the elect are based solely on the counsel of God's own will. Some individuals have been chosen for glory, while others have been prepared for destruction (Prov. 16:4; Rom. 9:22). The act of election took place before the foundation of the world. The doctrine of unconditional election does not diminish man's responsibility to believe in the redeeming work of God the Son. Scripture presents a tension between God's sovereignty in salvation and man's responsibility to believe which it does not try to resolve. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are both true.

I worked so hard to make the above paragraph succint that it hardly seems necessary to say much more. One need only to look through the Scriptures to any passage where God's people are said to be elect or chosen, and when we inquire why they are so elect or chosen, Scripture with unified testimony repeatedly affirms that it is due to nothing more than God's sovereign good pleasure.

Case in point,

For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

Romans 9:9-26 (ESV)