# Christ upholding the covenant



## steadfast7 (Sep 2, 2010)

I went to a downtown lunch communion service at a non-PCA Presbyterian church and the Pastor spoke on the covenant. I'd like your thoughts as to how it squares with Reformed orthodoxy.



> ... So, finally, God decided to take the ultimate step – to send One to walk among us, to bridge the gap between the human and the divine, to establish a new and lasting covenant that could not be broken.
> 
> And we remember the establishment of that covenant every time that we celebrate this sacrament, every time that we recite words that the Gospels suggest that Jesus spoke when he broke bread and shared the cup with his friends on the night before he was killed. “This is the new covenant sealed in my blood.”
> 
> ...



note the idea that the two natures of Christ upholds the two sides of the covenant and gurantees its unbrokenness.

thoughts?

thanks.


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## steadfast7 (Sep 3, 2010)

anyone?


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## rbcbob (Sep 3, 2010)

John Owen, commenting on Hebrews 8:10-12 says



> How it was needful that this mediator should be God and man in one
> person; how he became so to undertake for us, and in our stead; what was
> the especial covenant between God and him as unto the work which he
> undertook personally to perform; have, according unto our poor weak
> ...


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## Peairtach (Sep 3, 2010)

Remember that you can be in the Covenant in an outward sense by water baptism and yet not be in the Covenant in an inward sense by regeneration (baptism into Christ by/with the Spirit). See the discussion of this in e.g. Louis Berkhof's _Systematic Theology._ Our Apostle (the Apostle to the Gentiles) tells the Corinthians who were baptised with water and taking the Lord's Supper - and thus in the Covenant administration - to examine themselves.

But where that inner reality is of being not only in the administration of the Covenant of Grace (Bond of Love), but also in its life, then Christ in His Person and Work is the surety/guarantor of the Covenant and is even called "a Covenant" in Scripture (Isa. 42:6; Isa. 49:8).

In what is often called the Covenant of Redemption (_Pactum Salutis_) in Reformed Theology, between the Father and the Son in eternity, the Son "agreed" to fulfil the terms of the Covenant of Works, previously broken by Man in Adam, to provide the basis for a Covenant of Grace with God's people.

The Spirit "agreed" to apply the benefits of Christ's work to God's people. 

There are three religious administrations of the Covenant of Grace, during all of which people are saved by grace through faith:-

(a) The Patriarchal from Adam to Moses

(b) The Mosaic from Moses to Christ 

(c) The Christian from Christ to the Eschaton.


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## jwithnell (Sep 3, 2010)

> it no longer depends on our goodness,


 This gives me pause because we have never been saved by grace. I'd also like to know the broader context of this person's thinking -- might he be justifying antinomianism.


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## Peairtach (Sep 3, 2010)

> And it is for that reason why it no longer depends on our goodness, our obedience, our perfection, our faithfulness – it depends, instead on Christ’s goodness, Christ’s obedience, Christ’s perfection, Christ’s faithfulness.



He doesn't say whether we are still under the law as a rule of life, but not as a Covenant of Works.

---------- Post added at 11:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 PM ----------




jwithnell said:


> > it no longer depends on our goodness,
> 
> 
> This gives me pause because we have never been saved by grace. I'd also like to know the broader context of this person's thinking -- might he be justifying antinomianism.


 
We are _justified_ by grace through faith in Christ alone. But we are never saved _without_ works, because salvation is a broader reality than justification and includes _also_ sanctification. 

Even the converted Thief on the Cross evidenced good works produced by grace between his conversion and his death, for which he would have received a reward additional to (alongside) his salvation by Christ's life and death.


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## py3ak (Sep 3, 2010)

Nova said:


> I went to a downtown lunch communion service at a non-PCA Presbyterian church and the Pastor spoke on the covenant. I'd like your thoughts as to how it squares with Reformed orthodoxy.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
I can understand why this might have seemed like a neat idea to the pastor, but I think it's fundamentally mistaken. Covenants are made between and kept by persons, not by natures. It is the one Person of Christ who acts, though of course some acts are proper only to one nature (e.g., to suffer is not proper to the divine nature, but to the human; and yet because of the unity of the Person, Paul can speak of the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory).
I think it also ignores that the covenant is between God and the last Adam. Thus Thomas Boston teaches (_A View of the Covenant of Grace_) that "The parties contractor in this covenant are, God, and his chosen, the last Adam..... On heaven's side is God himself, the party proposer of the covenant.... On man's side, then, is God's Chosen, or chosen one."


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