GRACE THROUGH THE AGES - REDEMPTION

 GRACE THROUGH THE AGES                                                                                     

HANDOUT UNIT #2

By: Bradley Anderson 

REDEMPTION

1. CLASS DESCRIPTION

In Grace Through the Ages, we are on a journey through the covenants of the Bible. In this unit we will look at the scriptures which point to an eternal purpose of redemption, between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit from before the foundation of the world. 

2. REDEMPTION AS A PRETEMPORAL, INTRA-TRINITARIAN COVENANT

1. Pretemporal means occurring or happening before the existence of time. 

2. Intra is a prefix that means between two groups.

3. Trinitarian means of or related to the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

4. A pretemporal intra-trinitarian covenant of redemption then would be a covenant which promises redemption, agreed upon by the members of the Trinity, from eternity past, before the beginning of time.

 

The EFCA statement of faith agrees in spirit with a covenant of redemption: “God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His glory.”

Professor D.A. Carson of Trinity Divinity School has stated: “We are the friends of God by virtue of the intra-Trinitarian love of God that so worked out in the fullness of time that the plan of redemption, conceived in the mind of God in eternity past, has exploded into our space-time history at exactly the right moment. When the time had fully come, as Paul puts it, God sent His Son (Gal. 4:4). 

3. THE CASE FOR INCLUDING REDEMPTION IN THE THEOLOGICAL COVENANTS

1. The French scholar and friend of John Calvin, Theodore Beza (1519-1605), was one of the first Protestants to suggest that the pretemporal intra-trinitarian plan of redemption might be understood as a covenantal.

2. Beza noted that the Latin Vulgate, translated by Jerome (382 to 405) used the latin term dispono or “appoint” to render diatithemai in verse 29 of the original greek text of Luke 22:28-30.   Dee-ah-tith-e-me

3. “Diatithemai” is the Greek verbal form of covenant. Jesus is saying: I will covenant to you thrones, just as my Father has covenanted to me a throne.

4. For reasons unknown, the various English translations of the bible have chosen not to emend Jerome’s translation of Luke 22:28-20 and the covenantal implications of the passage remain  hidden in the original Greek. 

5. The Son is obedient to the Father. As we have already noted in Unit 1, the covenants vary in their conditionality, but all covenants contain obligations between both parties. In the pretemporal intra-trinitarian plan of redemption, Jesus and the Holy are understood as being obedient to the Father.

1. John 14:25–31, Matthew 26:39 - the Son obeys the Father.

2. John 15:26–27 - the Spirit proceeds from the Son and the Father.

3. John 6:35–40, 44 - the Son redeems the ones that the Father gives him.

4. The role of the Father may be seen as giving to the Son, those who belong to the Son.

5. The role of the Son may be seen as being sent by the Father, to redeem those whom the Father has chosen to be redeemed. The Son is not pleading with an angry Father to be a father to those whom the Son is redeeming. Rather, the Son and the Father are both involved in redemption. 

6. The role of the Holy Spirit may be seen as being sent by the Father and the Son in facilitating the redemption that the Son has accomplished. 

6. In the pretemporal intra-trinitarian plan of redemption, the Son is rewarded by the Father for obedience. The reign of the Son, given to the Son by the Father, is a reward for obedience to the will of the Father in humbling Himself

[6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:6–11

7. The love between the Father and the Son is not a mercenary love which Jesus had to win from the Father. Rather, from their mutual love, the Son does the will of the Father.

1. John 17:16–26

2. 1 Peter 1:20–21

3. Ephesians 1:3–10

4. Ephesians 3:7–13

5. 2 Thessalonians 2:13–15

6. 2 Timothy 1:8–9

7. John 6:38

4. SUMMARY 

1. From all of these scriptures it is evident that the Son is obedient to the Father's will to:

1. Be the God-man Mediator.

2. Take on human nature.

3. Represent humanity.

4. Redeem humanity.

5. Be sent of the Father to redeem.

6. Fulfill the law on behalf of humanity.

7. Die in their place.

8. Intercede for them.

9. Confer the riches of the grace that He has merited to humanity.

2. In return for this, the Son will receive the promises of the Father. 

1. To sit at the Father’s right hand.

2. To be the head of His mediatorial kingdom.

3. To confer a place of honor and rule for His followers.