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Part 3: DOCTRINE OF THE PERSON and THE WORK OF CHRIST (p.305-315)

The Person of Christ

I. Doctrine of Christ in History

A. The Relation Between Anthropology and Christology

• Christology relates to anthropology in order to answer the sinful condition of humanity. The person and work of Christ bridges the gap created by the fall of man.

B. Doctrine of Christ before the Reformation

Pre Summary of the Council of Chalcedon

• Ebionites: Jewish influence which used the idea of monotheism to deny the deity of Christ
• Alogi: Denied that Christ was the eternal logos, Jesus was a man given the powers of Christ at baptism.
• Gnostics: Christ is divine, but not truly man
• Modal Monarchians: No distinction between the persons of the trinity, Jesus is A mode in which God presents himself. Christ is also not truly human.
• Subordination: Christ is less than the Father
• Apollinaris: Christ did not have a human mind or rationality, only a divine one
• Nestorius: Separated the two natures of Christ to understand that the divine only was only morally indwelling. Not too much different then how God can dwell within us.
• Alexandrian School: Too strongly held too the unity of the person and natures of Christ, where proper distinction between the two natures was not held.
  • Eutychus: human nature of Christ was absorbed by the divine.

After Chalcedon

• John of Damascus: there is a communication between the human and divine natures of Christ. Cooperation.
• adoptionism: distinction between when Christ was begotten. Only his divine nature is from eternity the person of Christ was adopted at his baptism.
• Aquinas: the divine nature interacted (became composite) during the incarnation. The human nature received 1. a special dignity in order to be worshiped, and 2. sustained the human natures relationship to God
  • Human knowledge: infused and acquired knowledge. There are two wills in Christ, the human is subject to the divine will

C. Doctrine of Christ after the Reformation

1. Up to the 19.C

• Both RCC and protestant agree with Chalcedon overall.
• Communicatio idiomatum: (Lutheran) Christ's natures pass through the other, his human nature participates in the attributes of the divine nature.
  • (Reformed): two natures are distinct union. Christ the person can have both omniscient and limited knowledge at the same time because of his dual natures.
    • Second Helvetic Confession, "there be in one and the same Jesus our Lord two natures—the divine and the human nature; and we say that these are so conjoined or united that they are not swallowed up, confounded, or mingled together, but rather united or joined together in one person (the properties of each being safe and remaining still), so that we do worship one Christ, our Lord, and not two.… Therefore we do not think nor teach that the divine nature in Christ did suffer, or that Christ, according to His human nature, is yet in the world, and so in every place
      • L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 309." (chap 11 in 2HC)

2. In the 19. Century

• Emphasis on studying the historical Jesus. Anthropocentric results followed.
• Schleiermacher: Christ as a new creation, humanity perfection, God dwells within the Christ. Therefore we strive after this ideal of perfection and God dwelling in us too - Sinless perfectionism
• Hegel: Pantheistic, God became one with creation. (It is pantheistic because creation causes changes in God in some way).
• Kenotic theories (kenosis): Christ "emptied himself" Jesus reduced himself to the nature of man, and then increased in wisdom and power until he became God. Various forms...

• Albrecht Ritschl: All men have in them this divine

II. The Names and Natures of Christ

A. The Names of Christ

III. The Unipersonality of Christ (321)

F. The Kenosis Doctrine in Various Forms (327)

• About the middle of the nineteenth century a new form of Christology made its appearance in the Kenotic theories. It found favor especially among the Lutherans, but also with some Reformed theologians. 327.
  • Desire was to do full justice to the humanness of Christ, the manhood. Stressing self-denial and sacrifice
• Lutheran theologians: In the Son's humiliation during his incarnation he laid aside the actual use if his divine attributes.
• Kenoticists: The Logos at the incarnation was striped of his non-permanent or all of his attributes- in other words these attributes became a potentiality, that developed again, this time alongside the human nature.

A. Essential vs Non Essential Theory

• The theory of Thomasius, Delitzsch and Crosby. Thomasius distinguishes between the absolute and essential attributes of God, such as absolute power, holiness, truth, and love, and His relative attributes, which are not essential to the Godhead, such as omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience; and maintains that the Logos while retaining His divine self-consciousness, laid the latter aside, in order to take unto Himself veritable human nature. 327.

B. Incarnation by Divine Suicide

• Gess and Beecher: Logos reduced himself of all divine attributes, that he ceased from his cosmic functions and eternal consciousness. His consciousness became purely that of a human soul, and consequently He could and did take the place of the human soul in Christ. Thus the true manhood of Christ, even to the extent of His ability to sin, was secured.

C. Ebrard 'Human Mode' Theory

• Logos takes the place of the human soul, giving up the form of eternity. Divine qualities retained, The divine properties were retained, but were possessed by the God-man in the time-form appropriate to a human mode of existence.

D. Martensen and Gore

• Jesus had both human nature and divine nature. However Jesus had another divine 'life-center.' He continued to function in the trinitarian life and also in His cosmic relations to the world as Creator and Sustainer. But at the same time He, as the depotentiated Logos, united with a human nature, knew nothing of His trinitarian and cosmic functions, and only knew Himself to be God in such a sense as that knowledge is possible to the faculties of manhood. 328.

Scripture Proof for Kenosis

• The Kenotics seek Scriptural support for their doctrine, especially in Phil. 2:6–8, but also in 2 Cor. 8:9 and John 17:5. The term “Kenosis” is derived from the main verb in Phil. 2:7, ekenosen.
• Warfield on Philippians 2.5-11, "The verb is found in only four other New Testament passages, namely, Rom. 4:14; 1 Cor. 1:17; 9:15; 2 Cor. 9:3. In all of these it is used figuratively and means “to make void,” “of no effect,” “of no account,” “of no reputation.”2 If we so understand the word here, it simply means that Christ made Himself of no account, of no reputation, did not assert His divine prerogative, but took the form of a servant." 328.
• "The fact that Christ took the form of a servant does not involve a laying aside of the form of God. There was no exchange of the one for the other. Though He pre-existed in the form of God, Christ did not count the being on an equality with God as a prize which He must not let slip, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. Now what does His becoming a servant involve? A state of subjection in which one is called upon to render obedience. And the opposite of this is a state of sovereignty in which one has the right to command. The being on an equality with God does not denote a mode of being, but a state which Christ exchanged for another state." 328.

Objections to Kenosis

• Pantheism, that God is like us in that he is changed by creation.
• Goes against the immutability of God, which is plainly taught in Scripture, Mal. 3:6; Jas. 1:17
• Destroys the Trinity, the Son becomes less than God in some way through his self-emptying.
• Too loose of a relation between divine existence, divine attributes, and divine essence. As if they can all be easily separated from each other. (329)
  • RG: Can God turn off his love? No, God is love?
• It does not solve the problem it set out to solve: It desired to secure the unity of the person and the reality of the Lord's manhood.
  • But surely, the personal unity is not secured by assuming a human Logos as coexistent with a human soul. Nor is the reality of the manhood maintained by substituting for the human soul a depotentiated Logos. The Christ of the Kenotics is neither God nor man. In the words of Dr. Warfield His human nature is “just shrunken deity.” 329.

The States of Christ

I. Humiliation

A.

1. Difference between Condition and State
   1. A state is one persons status as it relates to their standing to the law.
   2. A condition is the current mode of their existence.
   3. Example: status: being guilty in court, therefore one's condition is being in jail
2. Christ in History
   1. Lutheran and Reformed divide throughout reformation to present day history.
      1. Reformed: States belong to the mediator
         2. Focus on the person of Christ, and his divine nature. (transcendent God)
      2. Lutheran: States belong to the human nature of Christ
         1. Focus on the human nature who is existing with his creation (immanent God focus)
         2. This has led to excluding the divine nature of Christ and his work as mediator & judge.
3. Number of States of the Mediator
   1. Three states or modes of existence.
      1. Pre-existence
      2. Temporal human existence
      3. exalted state

B. State of Humiliation #Kenosis , #Philippians

• Two elements in the humiliation of Christ: Kenosis (emptying) and tapeinosis (humiliation)
  • Kenosis: he laid aside the divine majesty and assumed human nature in the form of a servant
  • Tapeinosis: he was subject to the demands and to the curse of the law, obedient in action and suffered a shameful death.
    • "The Lawgiver placed himself under the Law"
      • Gal 4:4
• 5 Stages of humiliation of Christ: Incarnation, suffering, death, burial, descent into hades.

1. The Incarnation and Birth of Christ

• The Son of God assumed the human nature, therefore the word became flesh; is better than 'God became man.' He is pre-existence in time.
• Reformed (and Aquinas) generally believe that the incarnation was the result of sin and would not be necessary for the Son to assume the human nature if the Fall never occurred.
  • Of course God has one plan and sin and redemption were part of the good will of God

• There was no change to the nature of of the Son of God after the incarnation. Rather, he took on, "he acquired an additional form, without in any way changing his original nature. (p.334) #Kenosis
• Human nature came from the substance of Mary.
  • A supernatural birth by the Spirit (1) efficient causse of conception (2) sanctified the human nature to keep Christ free from the pollution of sin (John 3:34, Heb. 9:14)
  • Important because Jesus is truly human and therefore can win redemption for humanity

The Suffering of the Savior

• Jesus suffered during his whole life, not just toward the end. He was a Holy God living in a sin-cursed world, attacked by Satan, hated by his own creation in their attacks and unbelief.
• He suffered in body and soul
• Causes of Suffering:
  • The LORD of the universe had to occupy a the position of a servant,
  • a holy God had to live among a sinful people and world,
  • the knowledge of his upcoming crucifixion
  • sinful encounters with Satan, rebellious people
• Christ's PSA was a unique suffering
• Could Christ sin while being tempted by Satan on earth?
  • Kuyper: Jesus' holiness had to be maintained in the face of temptation
  • Bavinck: The temptations were appealing to his natural instincts
  • Vos: How was it possible that one who in concreto, that is, as He was actually constituted, could not sin nor even have an inclination to sin, nevertheless be subject to real temptation?

Death of our Savior

• death is judicial punishment of sin
  • bore the infinite wrath of God on the cross bearing the sin of the whole human race.
• "The Logos remained united with the human nature even when the body was in the grave" 339.
• Death was carried out by Rome and its Judge

Burial of the Savior

• Part of the humiliation, 'man returning to dust'
• Death was for sinners, a

The Descent into Hades

#descendedintohell #ApostlesCreed

• Descended into Hades rather than Hell. Point was to speak about the burial rather than going into hell. Calvin agrees.
  • See eph4:9, 1 Peter 3:18-19,

• "Preaching to the Spirits"
  • Preaching to Noah and those before the flood. ?
  • Bavinck: referring to the ascension, he preached to the spirits.
• Descended into hell speaks to Christ's penal suffering on the Cross.
  • Scripture does not teach a literal descent into hell.
• "On the whole it seems best to combine two thoughts: (a) that Christ suffered the pangs of hell before His death, in Gethsemane and on the cross; and (b) that He entered the deepest humiliation of the state of death. 342–343."

The state of Exaltation

• Mediator (the Son of God, the 2 person of the Trinity) as the subject of exultation. However the divine nature can not be humbled or exulted.
• Therefore the God-man passed from under the law, and exchanged the penal for the righteous relation to the law, and as mediator brought salvation which he merited for sinners. Crowning him with that honor.
• Modern Liberals not possible to say Jesus rose from the dead

Stages of Exaltation

Resurrection

• Jesus did not just become alive again, others in Biblical History have done this. Jesus' res. (body and soul) was restored to its strength and perfection and raised to an even higher level. Through his own power "I am the resurrection and the life"

• the essential identity is raised, yet the form changes. (1 Cor 15:35-38)
• Defense against the resurrection (p348)

Ascension

• the necessary complement and completion of the resurrection.
• was the visible scene of Jesus going up to heaven (a local transition)
• Lutheran: a change of condition: the person of Christ (human and divine nature) changed from being bound in space and time (as it relates to the human nature) and became omnipresent.
• Significance: Points to the necessity of going to the Father, as Christ prepares a place for us.

The Session at the Right Hand of God

• Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Matt 26:64)
• Significance: Office of King (he is ruling), Priest (he is our mediator), prophet (through the work of his HS)

The Physical Return of Christ

• A stage in his exaltation (when the Son will judge)
• Will be a visible return, not referring to the coming of the HS
• Purpose is judgment and a perfection of salvation

Part 4, Doctrine of the Application of the Work of Redemption

V. Calling in General and External Calling

A. Reasons for discussing Calling first

• Order of calling and regeneration, not the same word; nor do they have the same meaning.
• Possible to maintain that calling -> regeneration and that regeneration -> calling

1. Biblical Representation (455)

• Ezekiel prophesized over the dry bones, the breath of life came into them. Word brings about new life.
• Call precedes the regeneration

• opening of heart precedes the call of Paul's message

• Does not play a part in this discussion, speaks to things being called into being, other things.

• The word of truth brings us forth to himself

• The word (call) precedes regeneration. (v.25 is explicit that Peter is speaking about Preaching)

2. Confessional Standards

Belgic Confession (BC 24)

• hearing (word/call) comes before regeneration

Canons of Dort CoD 3&4.11, CoD 3&4.12

• In these articles the words “regeneration” and “conversion” are used interchangeably
• Has a 'calling before regeneration' vibe.

3. Reformed Theologians

• Generally hold to calling before regeneration. Even those that hold to supralapsarianism generally follow this order.
• Goes on to list some general reasons:

A. Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace

• both preaching and the administration of the covenant come before the saving operations of the Holy Spirit

B. & C. Reaction against Anabaptist and Mysticism

D. Adults did not show regeneration until many years after hearing the Gospel

4. REASONS FOR A SEPARATE DISCUSSION OF EXTERNAL CALLING AS PRECEDING REGENERATION

• because you can

B. Calling in General

• Our calling is a work of the triune God. It is first of all a work of the Father, 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Thess. 2:12; 1 Pet. 5:10. But the Father works all things through the Son; and so this calling is also ascribed to the Son, Matt. 11:28; Luke 5:32; John 7:37; Rom. 1:6(?). And Christ, in turn, calls through His Word and Spirit, Matt. 10:20; John 15:26; Acts 5:31, 32.
• vocatio realis - external call that comes to men through general revelation, rev. of the law not gospel.
• Vocatio verbalis - as that gracious act of God whereby He invites sinners to accept the salvation that is offered in Christ Jesus.
  • Augustine, "The hearing of the divine call, is produced by divine grace itself, in him who before resisted; and then the love of virtue is kindled in him when he no longer resists

C. External Calling

• A calling that is not efficacious.
• The external call consists in the presentation and offering of salvation in Christ to sinners, together with an earnest exhortation to accept Christ by faith, in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins and life eternal.

1. Elements Comprised in it

• a. redemption revealed in Christ
• b. invitation to accept Christ in repentance and faith
• c. promise of forgiveness and salvation

2. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EXTERNAL CALLING

• it is general
• it is an invitation

Significance of External Calling

• God maintains his claim on the sinner
• It is the appointed means of bringing conversion
• revelation of God's holiness, goodness, etc.

Faith (493–509)

Terms
- OT Terms: faithfulness, to believe, to trust, to refuge in (these terms speak to a confident reliance.
- NT terms: pistis: conviction based on confidence in a person and testimony, the confidence itself on which such a conviction rests. Commonly: an absolute transference of trust from ourselves to another, a complete self-surrender to God.
- Figurative Terms expressions used to describe faith: looking to J, hungring/thirsting after, receiving Christ, clothed with his righteousness.
History
- 496) Before the Reformation: not well understood, generally intellectual assent, came to have a wider meaning of self-surrender and love. Came to confound faith with orthodoxy that is informed by love (given a characteristic form), known as the fides formata – charity. This gave way to an understanding of infused righteousness. In other words faith is perfected by love (synergistic merit)

Faith in General: (500-501)
1. A strong opinion, but not certain.
2. certainty that is obtained by perception, experience, and logical deduction, but also an intuitive certainty. Axioms that cannot be demonstrated and intuitive convictions that are not acquired by perception or logical deduction.
3. believing acceptance of what another says on the basis of the confidence which he inspires

Part 5 The Doctrine of the Church and Means of Grace

The Means of Grace

I. The Means of Grace in General

A. the Idea of the Means of Grace

• 604. While the Spirit can and does in some respects operate immediately on the soul of the sinner, He has seen fit to bind Himself largely to the use of certain means in the communication of divine grace.
• faith, conversion, and prayer, are first of all fruits of the grace of God, though they may in turn become instrumental in strengthening the spiritual life. They are not objective ordinances, but subjective conditions for the possession and enjoyment of the blessings of the covenant.
• 04-605) Strictly speaking, only the Word and the sacraments can be regarded as means of grace, that is, as objective channels which Christ has instituted in the Church, and to which He ordinarily binds Himself in the communication of His grace.
• The MOG are in themselves ineffective of producing spiritual results, only power comes from the operation of the HS.

B. Characteristics of the Word and the Sacraments as Means of Grace

1. They are instruments of special grace. Connected with the progressive special grace that is redemptive in the hearts of sinners.
2. They are in themselves, they are not based on experiences. The Word and the sacraments are in themselves means of grace; their spiritual efficacy is dependent only on the operation of the Holy Spirit.
3. Are continuous instruments of God's grace
   1. Connection to LD 25
4. Are the official means of the Church of Jesus Christ. The preaching of the Word (or, the Word preached) and the administration of the sacraments (or, the sacraments administered) are the means officially instituted in the Church, by which the Holy Spirit works and confirms faith in the hearts of me.

C. Historical View Respecting the Means of Grace

• 606)RCC - Relics, and images are means of grace. Word sidelined, has a preparatory significance. The Church itself is regarded as the primary means of grace. In it Christ continues His work. It is a gratia elevans, a infused, elevating grace that into the natural man through the sacraments working ex opere operato. the grace of God is bound to the means.
  • Baptism regenerates man ex opere operato,
  • eucharist raises his spiritual life to a higher level.
  • Apart from Christ, the Church, and the sacrament, there is no salvation.
• 607. Lutheran - Luther gave prominence to the Word of God as the primary means of grace. Sacraments have no significance apart from the Word, they are the visible Word. Holds to a inseparable connection between the outward means and the inward grace communicated through them. Grace of God as a substance contained in the means and not to be obtained apart from the means.
  • The Word - always efficacious and will effect a spiritual change in man, unless he puts a stumblingblock in the way.
  • Lord's Supper - the body and blood of Christ is “in, with, and under” the elements of bread and wine, so that they who eat and drink the latter also receive the former, though this will be to their advantage only if they receive them in the proper manner.
  • objective character of the sacraments and to make their effectiveness dependent on their divine institution rather than on the faith of the recipients. The Lutherans did not always steer clear of the idea that the sacraments function ex opere operato.
• Mystics - virtually deny that God avails Himself of means in conferring grace. Word and the sacraments can only serve to indicate or to symbolize this internal grace.
• Rationalistic - The Socinians of the days of the Reformation, on the other hand, moved too far in the opposite direction. Socinus himself did not even regard baptism as a rite destined to be permanent in the Church of Jesus Christ, but his followers did not go to that extreme. Moral efficacy.
• Baptism and Lord’s Supper - only a moral efficacy. Thought the means of grace as working only through moral persuasion, and did not associate them at all with any mystical operation of the Holy Spirit. Emphasis more on what man did, than what God accomplished through them, MOG as "badges and memorials."
• Reformed - Deny that the means of grace can of themselves confer grace. God only is the efficient cause of salvation. In the MOG, He is not absolutely bound to the divinely appointed means through which He ordinarily works, but uses them to serve His gracious purposes according to His own will. But while they do not regard the means of grace as absolutely necessary and indispensable, God has appointed them as the ordinary means through which He works His grace in the hearts of sinners, and their wilful neglect can only result in spiritual loss. (CoD 3&4.17 3rd paragraph)

D. Characteristic Elements in the Reformed Doctrine of the Means of Grace

1. The special Grace of God operates only in the sphere of the MOG. God is God of order, who in conferring grace ordinarily employs the means he ordained.
2. In the implanting of the new life, God's grace works immediately, without the use of these means as instruments. But even so it works only in the sphere of the means of grace, since these are absolutely required in drawing out and nourishing the new life.
3. Special grace is not inherent in the means, but his grace accompanies the use of the MOG. Contra RCC, Lutherans, Rationalists.
4. Word and Sacraments must not be separated, unlike RCC (see above)
5. All the knowledge which is obtained by the recipient of divine grace, is wrought in him by means of the Word and is derived from the Word.

II. The Word as a Means of Grace (610)

A. Meaning of the Term “Word of God” in This Connection

• We are not speaking simply about inspired Scripture when we speak about the Word of God in connection to the MOG.
• Strictly speaking, it is the Word as it is preached in the name of God and in virtue of a divine commission, that is considered as a MOG in the technical sense of the word, alongside of the sacraments which are administered in the name of God. Connection: The HS working through Christ's Church.

B. Relation of the Word to the HS

• Nomism - intellectual, moral, and æsthetic influence of the Word as the only influence that can be ascribed to it. It does not believe in a supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit through the Word. The truth revealed in the Word of God works only by moral persuasion.
• Semi-Pelagianism, Arminianism, and Neonomianism - considers the moral influence of the Word insufficient, so that it must be supplemented by the work of the Holy Spirit.
• Antinomianism - does not regard the external Word as necessary at all, and displays a Mysticism which expects everything from the inner word or the inner light, or from the immediate operation of the Holy Spirit.
• Reformed - the Word alone is not sufficient to work faith and conversion; the HS can, but does not ordinarily, work without the Word; and that therefore in the work of redemption the Word and the Spirit work together.

C. The Two Parts of the Word of God Considered as a MOG

1. The Law and Gospel in the Word. The law comprises everything in Scripture which is a revelation of God’s will in the form of command or prohibition, while the gospel embraces everything, whether it be in the Old Testament or in the New, that pertains to the work of reconciliation and that proclaims the seeking and redeeming love of God in Christ Jesus. The law seeks to awaken in the heart of man contrition on account of sin, while the gospel aims at the awakening of saving faith in Jesus Christ.
   1. Law - preparatory to the Gospel, make the sinner aware of their state. Galatians 3#24 The law served as a tutor that led to Christ.
2. Necessary Distinctions between the Law and Gospel.
   • A. Not between the OT and NT. Gospel is in the OT (Jer 31:33). Law in the NT (Matt 5:17-19, Romans 8#4)
   • B. It is possible to say that in some respects the Christian is free from the law of God. Adam sinned, and thereby lost the ability to ever live up to the law. When Paul writes of law and the gospel, he is thinking of this aspect of the law, the broken law which can no more justify, but can only condemn the sinner. From the law in this particular sense, both as a means for obtaining eternal life and as a condemning power, believers are set free in Christ.
   • C. There is another sense, however, in which the Christian is not free from the law. The situation is quite different when we think of the law as the expression of man’s natural obligations to his God. The gospel itself consists of promises and is no law; yet there is a demand of the law in connection with the gospel. The law not only demands that we accept the gospel and believe in Jesus Christ, but also that we lead a life of gratitude in harmony with its requirements.

D. Threefold Use of the Law

• Restraining Sin
• Convicting of Sin
• Reminds believers of their duties and leading them in the way of life and salvation. 'rule of life'
• Difference between Lutheran and Reformed:
  • Lutherans - stress the second use of the law. as it is primarily the appointed means for bringing men under conviction of sin and thus indirectly pointing the way to Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners. While they also admit the third use of the law, they do it with a certain reserve, since they hold that believers are no more under the law.
  • Reformed - more attention to the law in connection with the doctrine of sanctification. Conviction that we are still under the law as a rule of life and of gratitude. Heidelberg Catechism devotes not less than eleven Lord’s Days to the discussion of the law, and that in its third part, which deals with gratitude.

III. The Sacraments in General

A. Relation Between the Word and the Sacraments

• Word is essential, word can exist without the sacraments, but the sacraments are never complete without the Word.
• Similarity between Word and Sacraments.

1. Author, Content as Christ is central to both, both appropriated by faith
2. Differ in necessity, purpose (LD 25), and their extension (word goes out to all the world).

B. Origin and Meaning of the Word "Sacrament"

• Origin: originally denoted a sum of money deposited by two parties in litigation. After the decision of the court the winner’s money was returned, while that of the loser was forfeited... Oath in the Roman military, or Greek Mysterion
• 617. Definition: A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, in which by sensible signs the grace of God in Christ, and the benefits of the covenant of grace, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers, and these, in turn, give expression to their faith and allegiance to God

C. Component Parts of the Sacraments

Three parts must be distinguished:

• Outward/Visible Sign - Contains a material element that is observed by the senses. The external matter of the sacrament includes not only the elements that are used, namely, water, bread, and wine, but also the sacred rite, that which is done with these elements. From this external point of view the Bible calls the sacraments signs and seals, Genesis 9#12-13; Genesis 17#11; Romans 4#11
• Inward Spiritual Grace Signified and Sealed - it may be said to consist in Christ and all His spiritual riches: covenant, faith, conversion, communion with Christ in his death and resurrection, a promise given to us which strengthens our faith. This is all done by the HS working upon the heart of man.
• Sacramental Union between the sign and that which is signified - the essence of the sacrament: not physical like RCC, nor local like Lutherans, but Spiritual/ moral (Turretin). Where the Sacrament is received in Faith the HS accompanies it. The external sign is the means employed by the HS in communicating divine Grace.
  • For example baptism is a sign while (one of) the thing signified is regeneration Acts 22#16

D. The Necessity of the Sacraments

• RCC - necessary for salvation
• Protestants - are not absolutely necessary, but are obligatory in view of the divine precept. Wilful neglect of their use results in spiritual impoverishment and has a destructive tendency, just as all wilful and persistent disobedience to God has.
  • Faith is the requirement for justification. Acts 16#31

E. The OT and NT Sacraments Compared

1. Their Essential Unity - RCC = their is an essential difference, OT Sacraments are merely typical, merely legal, prefigured grace. Their was no objective efficacy. OT believers were shut up in the fringes of hell (Limbus Patrum) until Christ came to lead them out.
   1. Protestants: OT sacraments are partakers of Christ. Both OT and NT represent the same spiritual realities.
      1. 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, Paul notes, "For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ."
      2. in view of the fact that they represent the same spiritual realities, the names of the sacraments of both dispensations are used interchangeably; circumcision and passover are ascribed to the New Testament Church. 1 Cor. 5:7; Col. 2:11, and baptism and the Lord’s Supper to the Church of the Old Testament. 1 Cor. 10:1–4.
2. Formal Differences - A)National aspect of Israel, B) Israel also had many other symbolic rites which agreed with the sacraments (whereas the NT sacraments stand alone), C) OT pointed forward to Christ, D) a smaller measure of divine grace accompanied the use.

F. Number of Sacraments

• In the OT - Circumcision and passover.
  • Circumcision - a bloody sacrifice, symbolizing the excision of the guilt and pollution of sin, and obliging the people to let the principle of the grace of God penetrate their entire life.
  • Passover - a bloody sacrament. The Israelites escaped the doom of the Egyptians by substituting a sacrifice, which was a type of Christ, John 1:29, 36; 1 Cor. 5:7. The saved family ate the lamb that was slain, symbolizing the appropriating act of faith, very much as the eating of the bread in the Lord’s Supper.
• NT- Lord's Supper, Baptism. Symbolize the same blessings that were symbolized by circumcision and Passover. Instituted by Christ.
• RCC - 7 Sacraments all instituted by Christ. Before Trent some held to 5, debated others.

IV. Christian Baptism

A. Analogies of Christian Baptism

• In the Gentile World - It was not something new, a common religious purification, however we never see any sort of baptism that is in the name of some God, nor promise of some sort of spirit.
• Among the Jews - The Jews had many ceremonial purifications and washings, but these had no sacramental character, and therefore were no signs and seals of the covenant.
  • Mishna - spoke of infant baptism that had to be in the presence of two or three witnesses. Children of parents who received this baptism, if born before the rite was administered, were also baptized, at the request of the father as long as they were not of age (the boys thirteen and the girls twelve), but if they were of age, only at their own request.
  • John's Baptism - aimed at transferring those who submitted to it into a new sphere of definite preparation for the approaching Kingdom of God.
    • Matt. 3:11, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
    • Differences and similarites: (a) was instituted by God Himself, Matt. 21:25; John 1:33; (b) was connected with a radical change of life, Luke 1:1–17; John 1:20–30; (c) stood in sacramental relation to the forgiveness of sins, Matt. 3:7, 8; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3 (comp. Acts 2:28) and (d) employed the same material element, namely, water. At the same time there were several points of difference: (a) the baptism of John still belonged p 624 to the old dispensation, and as such pointed forward to Christ; (b) in harmony with the dispensation of the law in general, it stressed the necessity of repentance, though not entirely to the exclusion of faith; (c) it was intended for the Jews only, and therefore represented the Old Testament particularism rather than the New Testament universalism; and (d) since the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out in pentecostal fulness, it was not yet accompanied with as great a measure of spiritual gifts as the later Christian baptism.

B. Institution of Christian Baptism

• Instituted by Divine Authority - By Christ after his finished work of reconciliation. Matt 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,"
• The Formula - in the name of Father, Son, HS (Matthew 28#19)

C. The Doctrine of Baptism

• Before the Reformation:
• Since the Reformation:

D. Proper Mode of Baptism

• The essential characteristic is the idea of purification.
  • purification was the pertinent thing in all the washings of the Old Testament, and also in the baptism of John, Ps. 51:7; Ezek. 36:25; John 3:25, 26. And we may assume that in this respect the baptism of Jesus was entirely in line with previous baptisms. If He had intended the baptism which He instituted as a symbol of something entirely different,
• Immersion is not the only proper mode: the mode is never stressed, never explicit. Baptizo does not always signify immersion.

E. The Lawful Administrators

• The Word and the sacrament are joined together in the words of the institution. And because baptism is not a private matter, but an ordinance of the Church, they also hold that it should be administered in the public assembly of believers.

F. The Proper Subjects

• Adults: preceded by profession of faith (Mark 16#16) Consequently, baptism also signifies that man accepts the covenant and assumes its obligations. It is a seal, not merely of an offered, but of an offered and accepted, that is, of a concluded covenant.
• Infant Baptism:
  • 1. The Covenant made with Abraham was primarily Spiritual Covenant. Circumcision was a sign and seal of God's Promises.
    • 1a) The spiritual nature and these promises are proved in the NT. Hebrews 11#9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise
  • 2. The Covenant is still in force and essentially identical with the present covenant.
    • Same mediator, same message of faith in God being of a justifying nature (Romans 4#9), regeneration Deuteronomy 30#6, Spiritual Gifts Joel 2#28, Promises are for them and their Children Acts 2#39
  • 3. God appointed that infants shared in the covenant, and therefore received circumcision as a sign and seal. God organically established his covenant through these households of Israel. This household did not disappear but was spiritualized in the NT Rom. 9:25, 26 (comp. Hosea 2:23).
    • Children included in the covenant with Abraham, the covenant renewal in Josh. 8:35; 2 Chron. 20:13. Thus why would the role of Children be reduced in this new dispensation? Jesus and the apostles never excluded them Matt. 19:14; Acts 2:39; 1 Cor. 7:14
  • 4. NT baptism substituted for circumcision as the initiatory sign and seal of the covenant of grace. Circumcision has ended Gal 6:15, while baptism is now instituted Matthew 28#19. Both signs point to the cutting away of sin and to a change of heart. So baptism refers to washing away of sin and spiritual renewal.
    • 4a) If Children received the sign and seal of the covenant in the old dispensation, the presumption is that they surely have a right to receive it in the new, to which the pious of the Old Testament were taught to look forward as a much fuller and richer dispensation. Their exclusion from it would require a clear and unequivocal statement to that effect, but quite the contrary is found, Matt. 19:14; Acts 2:39; 1 Cor. 7:14.
  • 5. Moreover, the NT speaks of the baptism of households, and gives no indication that this is regarded as something out of the ordinary, but rather refers to it as a matter of course, Acts 16:15, 33; 1 Cor. 1:16.
  • 6. While there is no concrete evidence in the late 1c or early 2c. of baptism, it was the accepted practice by the late 2c and taken for granted as true by 253's Council of Carthage. Its legitimacy was not denied until the days of the Reformation, when the Anabaptists opposed it.
• Objections: 'There is no explicit command' works both ways. Also the Baptists themselves are not true when they hold that Christians are in duty bound to celebrate the first day of the week as their Sabbath.
• Baptism - it may be said that infants of believing parents are baptized on the ground that they are children of the covenant, and are as such heirs of the all-comprehensive covenant-promises of God, which include also the promise of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit unto regeneration and sanctification... It requires them to accept this by faith

Presumtive Regeneration

• Kuyper - a spiritual ground for infant baptism which gives them these blessings. However, “We do not baptize the children of believers on the ground of an assumption, but on the ground of a command and an act of God. Children must be baptized in virtue of the covenant of God."

V. The Lord's Supper

Part 6