R.C. Sproul

It's the Father who sends the Son into the world.

It's not that the Son comes on His own initiative.

In fact, Jesus said, I do nothing on my own authority, but only that which the Father sends me to do.

And so we see the Son coming from heaven to do the will of the Father in this world because the two of them from all eternity, God the Father and God the Son, are in perfect agreement about the mission that the Son will fulfill in this world.

that the Father and the Son are one in their eternal purpose.

And you could add to that also the Holy Spirit, who is also in complete agreement with the Father and the Son in God's plan of redemption.

So we have to talk about this prior covenant that takes place within the Godhead among the persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

And so we often will say that in the economy of redemption, it's the Father who sends the Son into the world to redeem His people.

It is the Son who accomplishes that redemption by His work of obedience.

It is the Holy Spirit, then, who applies the work of Christ to the people.

It's the Spirit who illumines the Word of God for us.

It's the Spirit who regenerates us in our souls.

It's the Spirit who brings us to the Son, who reconciles us to the Father, so that redemption, biblically, and we have to understand this from beginning to end, is a Trinitarian work.

And again, the point of the covenant of redemption is that this idea of redemption is not an afterthought in the mind of God, a plan B whereby God's going to correct the mess He made out of creation.

No, before He even creates the world, He has an eternal purpose of redemption, of redeeming His people in this world, and that is in complete agreement among all three

persons in the Godhead.

And so that is where covenant is rooted and grounded in the character of God Himself.

Now when we talk about the working out of the covenant of redemption, a distinction is made with respect to the obedience of the second person of the Trinity, with the obedience of Christ, the God-man, between what is called the perfect act of obedience

and the perfect passive obedience.

Now that may or may not be a distinction that you're all familiar with, but let me just in a few moments try to simplify what it means.