Covenant of
Redemption
In our previous essay we noted that God makes two
types of
covenants conditional and unconditional covenants.
We also noted that
the covenant of redemption as stated in Rom. 8:28-30
is an unconditional
covenant, i.e., there are no conditions placed on
man, but God is
responsible for carrying out all the actions in that
covenant.
Before we study each
of the actions in the covenant of
redemption listed in Rom. 8:28 30, let us look at an
old testament
passage that teaches us about the covenant of
redemption. This passage
is found in II Sam. 23:1 7. This passage begins by
telling us that the
words that follow are the last words of David. Then
it tells us that
though the words were spoken by David as his last
words, that he was
just a mouth piece for the Holy Spirit, "The Spirit
of the Lord spake by
me and his word was in my tongue." In other words
the words spoken were
actually the words of the Holy Spirit with David
being used as a
mouth piece!
Next, in verse 3 we
are told that the Holy Spirit is relating to
us a conversation between the "God of Israel" and
the "Rock of Israel:"
"The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to
me..." Thus in
this conversation the Rock of Israel spake to the
God of Israel and what
followed were the words which the "Rock of Israel"
spake to the "God of
Israel." I Cor. 10:4 tells us that the "Rock of
Israel" is "Christ:"
"...for they drank of that spiritual Rock that
followed them: and that
Rock was Christ." Therefore the words that followed
in II Sam. 23:3 7
were the words of Christ, the Rock of Israel, to
God, the Father, the
God of Israel.
In verses 3 and 4
Christ set forth his own requirements to rule
as King. Then beginning with verse 5 He relates to
us provision of the
covenant of redemption. First He says, "Although my
house be not so
with God..." The Lord's house was composed of
sinners. They stood
before God condemned by sin. They were not righteous
or worthy of
eternal glory. Next Christ said "yet he hath made
with me an
everlasting covenant..." Now we see that this
covenant was between
Christ and God the Father. The covenant was not made
with man. While
the family of God is embraced by this covenant, they
are not parties to
this covenant.
The Lord went further
and said "ordered in all things and
sure..." This covenant between God the Father and
God the Son covered
all the details. There was nothing left to chance.
This covenant is
SURE. All the provisions will be carried out just as
God ordained them.
In addition, the Lord went on: "for this is all my
salvation..." This
salvation is a salvation that the Lord performs as
stated in Matt. 1:21,
"he shall save his people from their sins." Notice
that when Christ
said "all my salvation" that this statement excludes
the works of men in
bringing it about. It is "all" of the Lord. The Lord
went on to say
"and all my desire..." God always accomplishes his
will: he is never
frustrated or disappointed with anything he sets out
to do.
Again the Lord said
further, "Although he make it not to grow."
This covenant neither increases nor decreases in
scope or coverage. It
results in all its provisions being carried out to
its fulfillment and
embraces in the end all those who were embraced in
the beginning. It
neither grows nor diminishes.
Next in v.6 the Lord
said, "But the sons of Belial shall be all
of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot
be taken with hands."
The sons of Belial are representative of our sins.
The fact that they
cannot be taken with hands illustrates our
helplessness in attempting to
do any thing to save ourselves from sin. All of our
works are as filthy
rags before God. Finally, the Lord said, "But the
man that shall touch
them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a
spear; and they shall
be utterly burned with fire in the same place." Who
was it that was
"fenced with iron and the staff of a spear?" It was
Jesus who was
nailed to the cross with iron nails thru his hands
and his feet and who
at the end had a spear driven thru his side. It was
he and he alone
that could deliver and did deliver us from our sins.
Fire is a figure
of God's judgment found often in the scriptures. In
the same placewhere Christ was crucified were our sins utterly
burned with the fire of God's judgment. They were
completely burned with
"fire in the same
place." Since our sins were utterly burned, then
there is nothing left
for the sinner to do to be made righteous before
God's bar of justice.
According to this
everlasting covenant of redemption Christ has
delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us. He
has delivered us from our sins. Praise be to his
Holy name.
In our next essay we will begin to look at the
provisions of the
covenant of redemption listed for us in Rom. 8:28
30.
Covenant of
Redemption Part II
"And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose." (Rom. 8:28)
Rom. 8:28 30 is commonly called the "Covenant of
Redemption." In our
next essay we will consider the "all things" that
"work together for
good." In this essay we will look at the "purpose"
of God. Verse 28
above speaks of those who "love God" "who are the
called according to
his purpose."
Chronologically, God
purposed to call a people, then he called those he
purposed to call, and then as a consequence of this
calling they love
God. No man loves God before he is called of God.
According to 1 John
4:7, "everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God." God's
calling is the "cause," the new birth is the
"effect," and love of God
is the "consequence."
God is a God of
purpose. He does not work his will based on chance
or
happenstance. He purposes to do something, then he
does according to
his purpose. The scriptures speak of the purpose of
God thusly:
A. Isa. 46:11 "I have
spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I
have purposed it, I will also do it."
B. Eph. 3:11 "According to the eternal purpose which
he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord."
C. Eph. 1:9 "Having made known unto us the mystery
of his will,
according to his good pleasure which he hath
purposed in himself."
D. Eph. 1;11 "In whom also we have obtained an
inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who
worketh all things
after the council of his own will."
E. II Tim. 1:9 "Who hath saved us and called us with
an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began.
F. Rom. 9:11 "For the children being not yet born,
neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God
according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth..."
From the above we make
the following observations about God's purpose:
A. What God purposes
to do, he does. According to Nebuchadnezzar in
Dan. 4:35, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing:
and he doeth according to his will in the army of
heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his
hand, or say unto him,
What doest thou?" No force in heaven and earth can
stop or hinder God
from doing what he has purposed to do. Once God
purposes to do
something, it WILL be done.
B. God had an eternal purpose which he purposed in
Christ Jesus.
Mortal time bound man has a difficult time
understanding something that
is eternal, i.e., has no beginning or no end. Yet
what God has purposed
in Christ Jesus has no beginning and has no end. It
is infinitely old
and will last an eternity. The Covenant of
Redemption expresses God's
eternal purpose in Christ Jesus.
C. God's purpose is his good pleasure. It pleased
God to choose,
save, call and glorify a people to be his.
D. God purposed our eternal inheritance.
E. In God's purpose, he councils only with himself,
he does not
council with anyone else. Of course, when you have
all wisdom and all
knowledge there is no reason to council with anyone
else!
F. God works all things after the council of his own
will. God does
not have to alter anything according to changed
circumstances. The God
who has all power and all knowledge can and does
purpose according to
his will and then executes his purpose without
change or need of change.
G. Our salvation from sin and our holy calling is
according to that
which God purposed in Christ before the world began.
God purposed to
save us and God purposed to call us. Now, here in
time he executes his
purpose. He saves us and he calls us. Thus our
salvation and calling
are not by chance or happenstance, but by God's
eternal purpose which he
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
H. God purposed to choose a people to be his and
according to Eph.
1:4 he chose them before the world began. His choice
was not based on
works but was by grace.
To be able to purpose
something, then bring it about exactly as he
purposed it, speaks of God's wisdom, power,
knowledge, and character.
As one old testament verse states "I am God, I
change not, therefore ye
sons of Jacob are not consumed." God purposes and
never changes from
that he purposes. He does according to his purpose
and it comes to pass
just exactly as He purposed it.
In the Covenant of
Redemption God purposed to foreknow, predestinate,
call, justify, and glorify a people. The end result
is that they are
chosen, predestinated, called justified, and
glorified just as God
purposed.
As a side note, we
love God because he called us. The fact that we
love God is evidence we are embraced in this
Covenant of Redemption.
Covenant of
Redemption #3
Rom. 8:28 30 is commonly known as the "Covenant of
Redemption." It is
an unconditional covenant that God made with himself
to procure the
salvation, new birth, and glorification of those he
foreknew.
The statement at the
beginning of this passage has been a subject of
much discussion and controversy in religious circles
thru the ages.
This statement causing controversy is "All things
work together for good
to them that love God." The controversy revolves
around the meaning of
the word "all." Is the "all" in this passage a
universal "all" or a
contextual "all?" All can be universal, i.e.,
embracing everything
without exception or it can be contextual, i.e.,
embracing only those
things within the context. If the "all" is
universal, then the
statement would teach that everything that ever
happens whether good or
bad ultimately works together for good to them that
love God. If,
however, the "all" is contextual then the statement
would be referring
only to the things within the context, i.e., God's
foreknowledge,
predestination, calling, justification, and
glorification. Using the
contextual "all" would teach only that "all" refers
to the above five
things and these five things are working together
for good to them that
love God.
Sometimes, I hear
people make the statement after something good has
happened to someone that "all things work together
for good to them that
love God." I, personally, have never heard anyone
say that after
something bad had happened to someone!
Now, if the "all" in
"all things" is universal then all sins, evil, the
devil, his angels, and every catastrophe as well as
everything else that
happens in the universe would work together for good
to them that love
God. For the all to be universal there could be no
exceptions. Since
the above listed things such as sin, evil, the
devil, his ministry, and
catastrophes don't on the surface appear to be
working together for our
good, God is assigned the responsibility of
controlling those things in
such a way that ultimately they work together for
good for those who
love God. Usually the passage where Joseph told his
brethren, who sold
him into Egyptian slavery, is quoted, "ye meant it
for evil, but God
meant it for good," to attempt to substantiate a
universal "all"
things.
When in doubt about
the meaning of God's word, our best course of
action is to let the scriptures speak as to the
meaning. Rom. 3:7, 8
reads, "For if the truth of God hath more abounded
through my lie unto
his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And
not rather, (as we
be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we
say,) Let us do
evil, that good may come? Whose damnation is just."
Paul said it was a
slander for anyone to report that he or those with
him said "Let us do
evil that good may come." Now if my or anyone else's
evil deeds result
in good to them that love God, then why did Paul say
it was a slander?
Thus it would appear that the universal "all" theory
does not stand up
under the scrutiny of God's word.
Now all this is not to
say that sometimes God providentially intervenes
in our lives and turns "lemons into lemonade." This
has happened, no
doubt, many times in the lives of his people, but
this doesn't justify
saying that God will take every evil and every sin
that is ever
committed and make each of them work for our good.
My conclusion is that
the "all" in Rom. 8:28 is a contextual "all" and
that everything about God's foreknowing a people,
predestinating them to
be conformed to the image of Christ, calling them,
justifying them and
glorifying them works together for our good. Paul
concludes in v. 31,
"What shall we then say to "these" things? If God be
for us, who can be
against us?" The "these things" are the "five
things" in v. 29 and 30
which are the "all things" in v. 28.
Covenant of
Redemption #4
Before proceeding to notice how and why the five
things in Rom. 8:29,
30 in the covenant of redemption work together for
good to them that
love God, let us notice that the five things listed
in those verses are
all listed in the past tense foreknew,
predestinated, called,
justified, glorified. Now we know that from a timely
standpoint we were
not all called at the time this was written, nor are
we yet conformed to
the image of Christ as we will be, nor are we
completely glorified in
the sense that we will be according to this
covenant. How then can we
explain how the past tense verbs can be used? The
answer is found for
us in Rom. 4:17, "(As it is written, I have made
thee a father of many
nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who
quickened the dead,
and calleth those things that be not as though they
were." God can call
things that be not as though they were because what
God purposes to do
must be done! Since the covenant of redemption shows
us God's eternal
purpose, He is justified in using the past tense
though to us some of
those things are yet future. Remember, what God
purposes to do is as
good as done.
Next, we want to
consider the good that those five things work
together. The end result of those five things are
all eternal good for
those whom God foreknew. Now there is much timely
good that comes to us
during our lifetime, such as providential blessings,
growth in spiritual
knowledge, fellowship with God and his people, true
worship of God,
etc. These and many more are timely blessings and
certainly can be
classified as good to us and for us. However, the
good in the covenant
of redemption transcends timely blessings and speaks
to us of
eternal good. First, we will be conformed to the
image of Christ and
that conformation is for an eternity.
Second, the result of
God's calling is that we are born again, and that
spiritual birth gives us eternal life in the spirit.
Third, our
justification from sins places us in a righteous
position with God that can never be altered.
Fourth, our
glorification in body, soul, and spirit is eternal.
Now let us proceed to
consider how those five things foreknew,
predestinated, called, justified, glorified work
together for that
eternal good to those that love God. Please note the
unity of effect
that those five things have. This is noted thru the
use of the
pronouns, whom and them. For when the scripture says
"whom he did
foreknow he also did predestinate...and whom he did
predestinate, them
he also called...," we note the absolute unity of
action and effect upon
the ones being acted upon.
In other words, the
same ones that God foreknew are the exact same ones
that he predestinated, and the exact same ones that
he called, and the exact same ones that he
justified, and the exact same ones that he
glorified. There are not more or less that he
foreknew than he predestinated or more or less that
he predestinated than he called, etc. Thus he
foreknew the same number of people that he also
predestinated, called, justified and glorified. The
effect upon us individually is that once he foreknew
us, he also predestinates us,
calls us, justifies us, and glorifies us. Thus if I
am the beneficiary
of one of the actions of God in this covenant then I
am a beneficiary of
all five of the actions in this covenant. Thus they
all work together
for our eternal good.
But why is it that
they all work together? The answer is because the
action is all of God. None of the things listed in
this covenant
requires any action on man's part. The covenant
speaks of whom God
foreknew and of whom God predestinated, and of whom
God called, and of
whom God justified, and of whom God glorified.
This is the reason why
those five things work together. It is all in
keeping with God's eternal purpose which he purposed
in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is why there can be
no failure in this covenant. It is an unconditional
covenant, that is, there is no conditions placed on
man to perform in
order for the provisions of this covenant to be
carried out. All of the
provisions will be carried out by God.
No wonder the writer
could say in verse 31, "what shall we then say to
these things? If God be for us, who can be against
us?" One might be tempted to say, "Well the devil
and all the fallen angels are against us, as well as
the messengers of Satan, and a wicked world." But it
doesn't matter who might attempt to oppose us, for
God is for us and he has all power in heaven and in
earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him,
what doest thou. God is
greater than all the combined forces of all creation
and God will bring
to pass what he purposes to do. God cannot fail or
be discouraged. We
can rejoice in the knowledge that those five things
in his covenant of
redemption work together for our eternal good,
because God is the one
who is working the covenant.
In our next essay we
will begin looking at what the scriptures have to
say about each of the five things listed in the
covenant of redemption
beginning with those whom God foreknew.
