What Baptists Believe about Salvation: God's Covenant
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Introduction
Introduction
Please turn with me to Romans 3:20-24.
We have been talking about what Baptists believe, and specifically for the last few Sunday nights, we’ve talking about what Baptists believe about salvation.
I’ve said that these truths within the doctrine of salvation are like posts that uphold a dock. You can walk on the planks and enjoy the dock without every thinking about the posts, but if you understood the posts upholding the dock you would have greater assurance in and greater appreciation of the dock’s strength.
In the same way, we can believe and enjoy the Gospel without ever understanding the truths of God’s decree or God’s covenant, but you wouldn’t be saved without God’s decree or God’s covenant just as you wouldn’t enjoy a dock that didn’t have posts undergirding it. And if you did understand truths like God’s decree and God’s covenant, you would have greater assurance of and greater appreciation for the Gospel of grace that you have in Jesus.
So, tonight we are discussing God’s covenant. May God give us greater assurance and greater appreciation for His grace.
[Read . Pray.]
God is holy, and we are not. We are eternally separated from God because of our sin against Him and have no hope of being united to Him unless He moves toward us. That is to say, we can’t go up to God so He must come down to us. And this He has done in the person of Jesus Christ.
The Bible, however, doesn’t simply say, “So God came down in Jesus of Nazareth.” It promises, describes, and reveals the coming of God in Jesus of Nazareth in terms of covenant.
There was the Adamic Covenant in which Adam, the first man, was required to obey God, and God promised eternal life as a result. The signs of this covenant were the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.
Of course, Adam failed to obey God and the curse of sin and death and separation form was the result.
God, however, promised that a child would come forth from the woman that would suffer at Satan’s hand but ultimately destroy the work of Satan.
Then there was the Noahic Covenant in which God promised to never destroy the world again with a flood no matter how much it deserved it. The sign of this covenant was the rainbow.
By sparing Noah and his family, God protected the seed of the woman who would destroy the work of Satan.
The Abrahamic Covenant was between God and Abraham (and all his offspring). It is recorded for us in ...
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
“I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.”
The sign of this covenant was circumcision. And in this covenant revealed that the promised seed of the woman would come through the line of Abraham.
Then the Mosaic Covenant was between God and Israel after the Exodus. It can be found in but is summarized in the Ten Commandments of . Circumcision as a covenant sign continued, but the Sabbath was also a sign of this covenant.
In the Mosaic Covenant (i.e., the Law) God showed His people just how desperately they needed the promised seed to come and destroy the work of Satan in the world and in their own hearts.
The Davidic Covenant was between God and King David. In it God promised King David that one of his descendents would sit on the throne of Israel forever.
In this covenant, God showed that the promised seed of the woman would come from the house of David.
Ultimately, all of these covenants find their fulfillment in the new covenant, which was foretold in Jeremiah and Ezekiel but actualized in the perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
says...
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Jesus said in ...
And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus all these covenants find their yes and amen. They are all apart of God’s eternal covenant of grace; all apart of the eternal agreement between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit to glorify Himself in the salvation of sinners.
God the Father agreed to ordain our salvation before the foundation of the world.
God the Son agreed to purchase our salvation through His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.
And the God the Holy Spirit agreed to apply salvation to our hearts as we turn from sin by trusting in Jesus.
God’s covenant is the story of God coming down to us to be reconciled with us in One Mediator between God and Man - the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
Let’s note briefly a few different things about God’s Eternal Covenant of Grace...
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
#1: God’s covenant offers salvation ().
#1: God’s covenant offers salvation ().
because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
[Exp] The Apostle is, of course, talking about the Mosaic Covenant, a conditional covenant in which God promised to be the God of the Israelites as long as they obeyed Him. He promised them blessings for their obedience and curses for their disobedience. They experienced many of the curses and not too many of the blessings because they were so consistently disobeying God.
but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
There were some prideful, religious folks who thought they had earned salvation by keeping God’s Law given to Moses, but the truth is, the Law condemned everyone. As says, “…by works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight...”
[Illus] I was at a conference once where a pastor had written a book called, How Good is Good Enough? Of course, the point of his book was that no one could be good enough for God apart from Jesus, but another staff member jokingly took a picture of his own face, put it on a book cover with the title, This Good.
If only it were that easy!
If only it were as easy as comparing ourselves to one another, we might actually be good enough! But we must compare ourselves to the holy character of God revealed in the Mosaic covenant, and that comparison reveals that we fall short of the glory of God.
[App] Our transgressions of God’s Law reveal that we have no hope of salvation, no hope of being justified before God apart from God acting out behalf. We have lied, stolen, and coveted. We’ve idolators, adulterers, and blasphemers. And that’s all we’ll ever be unless God sets His grace upon us in Jesus Christ.
Only through the redemption that is in Jesus crucified and resurrected are we justified, not by works of the Law, but as a gift according to God’s grace.
In Jesus we are not longer slaves to lying, stealing, and coveting. We are no longer idolators, adulterers, and blasphemers. As says...
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
#2: God’s covenant requires faith ()
#2: God’s covenant requires faith ()
because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
[Exp] The salvation that God offers to us by His grace in Jesus is only accessed by faith. This faith may at times be referred to as trusting God or believing God but it boils down to taking God at His Word.
The Hall of Faith in Hebrews is a record of OT saints who took God at His Word; a record of those who had “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” because they took God at His Word ().
Of course, Abraham is held up as the prime of example of taking God at His Word. When God formalized His unconditional covenant with Abraham in , the Bible says that “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
In Romans, Paul said that all those who believe God as Abraham did have their faith credited to them as righteousness ().
In Galatians, Paul said that we could be sure that “it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham,” (). Listen to ...
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
Now, we might wonder where such faith comes from. In Adam we all sinned; i.e., we all refused to believe God when He said that the price for sin is death and the way of obedience to Him is life. In our sin and rebellion against God, we’ve done the very opposite of faith, so where does the faith God requires comes from?
It is the gift of God. Listen to ...
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
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The faith in Jesus required by God’s eternal covenant of grace is gifted to us by God!
[Illus] I was at yet another conference and the subject of our total depravity before God came up. The doctrine of total depravity says that man in completely dead in trespasses and sins. It doesn’t mean that he can’t do anything good for his family or good for society. It does mean, however, that he can’t do anything good enough to earn God’s approval. He is dead in his sins and apart from the intervening grace of God, he shall remain so.
One man said in response to total depravity, “Well, I must not be completely dead! I must have something to offer because I can always offer God my will, my faith!”
But the truth is any will to believe God concerning His Son Jesus; any faith that we place in Jesus as the promised seed born of a virgin, victorious over sin and death through His death and resurrection—all that comes to us as a gift from even if we don’t realize it.
[App] If we are believers, it is because we have been justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus who died to save us from God’s wrath and rose to make us right with God.
That faith in Jesus is a requirement.
That faith in Jesus is the gift of God.
#3: God’s covenant promises the Holy Spirit ().
#3: God’s covenant promises the Holy Spirit ().
“I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. “My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
“Moreover, I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who rebukes them, for they are a rebellious house. “But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.
[Exp] The promise of the New Covenant was that God’s Spirit would come to dwell in His people. They would receive new hearts with God’s written on them. They would yearn for God and year to obey Him. In the Holy Spirit, God would come to dwell with His people. He would be their God, and they would be His people ().
[Exp] The promise of the New Covenant was that God’s
Of course, as we’ve already seen, the New Covenant was accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus who said that Hi shed blood was the blood of the New Covenant.
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.
Before His death and resurrection and after, Jesus promised His disciples the Holy Spirit would guide them, empower them, and seal them.
In , Jesus said...
Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew.
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
In , Jesus said...
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
And in , the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Spirit of Christ, wrote...
Psalm 110:13
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
Ephesians 1:
The eternal covenant of God’s grace offers salvation in Jesus, requires faith which is the gift of God, and promises the Holy Spirit to guide us, empower us, and seal us for the day of redemption.
[TS] See below...
Conclusion
Conclusion
The covenants—the Adamic, the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, the Davidic—are all promises of God that find their yes and Amen in Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant. That’s what says...
For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
This is what Baptists believe. In the London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689, the last paragraph under the heading “God’s Covenant,” says it well...
Confessing the Faith: The 1689 Baptist Confession for the 21st Century VII. God’s Covenant
This covenant is revealed in the gospel. It was revealed first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman. After that, it was revealed step by step until the full revelation of it was completed in the New Testament. This covenant is based on the eternal covenant transaction between the Father and the Son concerning the redemption of the elect. Only through the grace of this covenant have those saved from among the descendants of fallen Adam obtained life and blessed immortality.
Let us praise the Lord for His marvelous grace.