Chapter 1: What is the covenant of redemption and its significance?
God has made promises to His people, and He has kept those promises. We only can exist in the family of God and in the church because our God is a God who keeps covenant. Our God is a God who is a covenant keeper where we are all covenant breakers. God never breaks His promise.
Welcome to Renewing Your Mind on this Monday. I'm Nathan W. Bingham. All of us at one time or another have broken a promise and probably have been the victim of broken promises. But this week, R.C. Sproul will show us that God always, always keeps His promises, and He does so through covenants.
These messages are from Dr. Sproul's series, The Promise Keeper, and we'll give you lifetime digital access to this 14-message series and its study guide. Plus, we'll send you a copy of his book, The Promises of God, to thank you for your donation at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343.
Our hope is that through this series and book, you'll learn more about our covenant-keeping God. If you're not watching today on YouTube, why not head on over to the official Renewing Your Mind YouTube channel, subscribe, like and comment on today's video and help extend the reach of this teaching.
Well, today we're going to examine the covenant of redemption, the promise that preceded and established all other covenants. Here's Dr. Sproul.
Today we're going to focus on the covenants of the Bible. Now sometimes historic reform theology is nicknamed covenant theology. I've never really appreciated that distinction too much because I believe that all branches of theology recognize to some degree the importance of covenants in understanding biblical redemption.
Now, to be sure, there's a certain focus on covenant that you find within Reformed theology, but we're not going to be just simply developing Reformed theology in this course so much as looking actually at the content of the biblical covenants as they occur to us.
I think it's very important for us to understand at the outset that the whole concept of covenant is integral, it's foundational, it's basic to the whole scope of divine revelation. We could even say, for example, that the way that God reveals His Word and His plan biblically is through the structure of various covenants.
And yet at the same time, as frequently as the Bible speaks about covenants, there's a lot of confusion, I'm afraid, that attends the very meaning of the term covenant. For example, we frequently speak about the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and then we speak of the Old Testament.
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Chapter 2: How do biblical covenants differ from modern agreements?
And so there was a contract or a pact, an agreement binding these two sides to each other.
in addition to that we see commonly in our society what we call the industrial contract which comes in many forms when people go to work for a company they may sign a contract where the employer promises them certain remuneration and benefits and so on where the employee in turn promises to give so much of their time in working for the company we call that an industrial contract you see it in
labor agreements all the time with unions and so on but also on a more popular level every time we buy something with a credit card Or on installment, we enter into a contract or an agreement to pay the full amount of the merchandise, which we may not pay in advance. We may pay over time.
And when we do that, that's a commercial agreement, a commercial contract, where both parties are bound to deliver on their promises. And, of course, most significantly, we see it in the marriage contract. where the marriage contract is an agreement that involves oaths and vows, sanctions and promises between two people.
Now, all of these different covenants that I've just mentioned in our culture have elements of similarity to the biblical covenants, but they're not identical, though the biblical covenants have indeed elements of promise.
One thing makes them different from these other normal customary agreements that we're talking about, and that is that biblical covenants are established on the basis of a divine sanction. That is, they are established on the foundation of a promise not made by equal parties. but they're made on the foundation of the divine promise of God, and they are inherently religious.
Now, people might argue, well, marriage covenants are also religious, vows are taken before God, and that's true, but there's also some even people say that the covenant of industry, industrial contracts are also religious insofar as the vows are taken, so help us God, and all the rest, and there are
religious elements that you can find in these various or religious implications found in these various other covenants, but they don't have the same profound import of theological sanction that we find in the covenants of the Bible. Now again, the key function in terms of redemption and redemption history of a covenant in the Bible is the relationship between promise and fulfillment.
When I say that the basic structure of redemptive history that we see in the Scriptures is covenant, what I'm simply saying is that we exist as a church, we exist as people because God has made promises to His people, and He has kept those promises. He has fulfilled those promises. And that we only can exist in the family of God and in the church because our God is a God who keeps covenant.
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Chapter 3: What role does the Trinity play in God's plan of redemption?
gives us the record of the controversies that Jesus had with the Jewish authorities of His day, and so much of that debate between Jesus and the Pharisees and Jesus and the scribes and so on had to do with the origin of Jesus and the basis of His authority. And again and again and again in the gospel of John, Jesus is saying that He was sent from the Father.
that he was the supreme missionary of God. A missionary is someone who is sent and authorized by the one who sends them or the group that sends them. And so Christ constantly refers back to his origin, not as a baby born in Bethlehem, but as the one who came down from heaven who was sent by the Father and authorized by the Father to speak the Father's word.
If you look at that, then you understand something of what went on before God even created the world, before God ever created Adam and Eve, before there was any kind of probation in the Garden of Eden. And we talk in the first instance not about a covenant that God makes with us, but a covenant that takes place within the triune Godhead itself.
And this we call in theological parlance the covenant of redemption. Now one of the things that's so important about this is that it speaks to us about the agreement that has existed from all eternity among the persons of the Godhead about God's plan of redemption.
I remember when I was in graduate school in the 60s and there was a controversy brewing among German theologians on the continent that if I recall it was called something like the Umstimmung Controversy, which there were those theologians who were arguing that the ministry of Jesus was impelled by Jesus' desire to overcome the vengeful, wrathful inclinations of the Old Testament God.
Going back to the heresy of Marcion in the early church who expunged all references in the New Testament that would make the Old Testament God the father of Jesus because he thought that there was a basic incompatibility between Christ and the God of the Old Testament. You still see people like that all over the place who say, well, I like the
Jesus in the New Testament said, Old Testament God, I can't stomach, He's such a vengeful God, and so on. And so this idea that arose in German theology was the idea that Christ came, really, He was trying to change God's mind.
to relent from His purpose and plan to judge people and expose them to His wrath, and that basically the salvific work of Christ had to do with the sons persuading the Father to ease up, as it were, and so that Christ reveals to us mercy where the Father was all judgment.
Well I can't think of anything that is more distorting of the biblical portrait of both God the Father and God the Son than that kind of understanding. And so the principle that we're talking about here of the covenant of redemption is that the plan of salvation is conceived in the Godhead. And in a sense we can say it's the Father's plan. It's the Father who sends the Son into the world.
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Chapter 4: How does the concept of progressive revelation relate to covenants?
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. The act of obedience has to do with Christ working as the second Adam, willingly placing Himself under the requirements of the law. and takes upon Himself that responsibility in our behalf and actively obeys every commandment that God requires from human beings.
That's why you saw the confusion at the time of Jesus' baptism when John announces that Jesus is the Lamb of God who is going to take away the sin of the world and presumably the Lamb without blemish, and he calls the rest of the people to come into the river there to be baptized as a sign of cleansing from sin. And Jesus comes and presents Himself to be baptized. And John said, wait a minute.
What's wrong with this picture? I just told everybody you're the Lamb, you know, the one without blood. You should be baptizing me. I can't baptize you. You're not a sinner. And what does Jesus say? Suffer it now, John. You see? for these things must needs be fulfilled to fulfill all righteousness."
Now, he didn't go into a lengthy discourse with John the Baptist on why he wanted John the Baptist to baptize him. He was just saying, look, he pulls rank. He says, let it go. Do it. Just baptize me. It has to be done. Well, why does it have to be done? Because if Jesus is going to be the second Adam, the new representative of the people
He must fulfill in His own person all of the obligations that God imposes upon His people. In a real sense, He becomes Israel, the incarnation of Israel, and He has to do everything that the law requires of those people. And so He actively pursues obedience. His meat and His drink is to do the will of the Father.
So then we distinguish that from the passive obedience, and the passive obedience, Kent makes this an absolute distinction because he actively submits himself to being passive to the requirements of the Father. This has to do with his suffering. His active obedience is that obedience by which he achieves perfect righteousness and thereby merits redemption for his people.
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Chapter 5: What is the difference between active and passive obedience of Christ?
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Use the link in the podcast show notes or visit renewingyourmind.org to request this week's resource offer. And for our global listening audience, digital access to the complete series and study guide is waiting for you. at renewingyourmind.org slash global. Thank you for making this program possible. Well, tomorrow, R.C.
Sproul will explain that when God makes a promise, He fulfills it in real time and space. We don't believe in myths and fables, but in real history. So please make plans to join us Tuesday here on Renewing Your Mind.
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