The Promise and Work of the Holy Spirit

Chapter 12...the final chapter in Volume One! (In other words, I finished it today!!) 

I started this last week, but didn't get very far because my brain was flat on me...

Anyway, the first section is entitled "The Gift of Faith".

In the Covenant of Grace in Christ, God not only provided a Mediator, freely offers sinners life and salvation in Him, and requires of them faith in Christ so as to receive that life and salvation, but He also “promiseth and giveth his Holy Spirit to all his elect, to work in them that faith, with all other saving graces; and to enable them unto all holy obedience” (WLC, Q. 32; emphasis added). The Westminster
Confession simply says that in the Covenant of Grace, God promises “to give unto all those that are ordained unto life his Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe” (WCF, VII, iii). (865)

These two statements from the Catechism and Confession imply several truths. (1) God has elected a certain number of people to eternal life, who are in due time brought to faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit: “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). (2) Sinners are in and of themselves unwilling
and unable to believe in Christ: “No one can [is able] come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). (3) God promises to give His people the very thing He requires of them: faith in Christ that they might be saved. (865)

The next section is "The Power for obedience".

Along with faith, the Holy Spirit also produces in God’s people “all other saving graces,” thus enabling them “unto all holy obedience.” (866)

Why does an inseparable connection exist between saving faith and “saving graces”? In the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son in eternity, it was agreed that the elect would not only be redeemed from sin’s punishment, but that they would also be saved from sin’s power, sanctified by the Spirit and enabled by Him to live faithful lives, before they were brought into the glory of heaven. (867)

“All holy obedience” refers to what the apostle calls “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5), which is that obedience to God that grows out of and is motivated by faith in Christ, in contrast to a legalistic obedience that obeys God in an effort to merit His blessings....“Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). When the Holy Spirit renews the heart of a person, bringing him to new life in Christ, He gives him the gift of faith and the desire and ability to obey God’s revealed will: “I will give you a new heart…and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezek. 36:26–27...). (868)

"The Evidence of True Faith":

James and Paul are not contradictory of each other, they are complementary. Paul is telling us that we are saved by faith in Christ alone; and James is telling us that we are saved by a faith that is not alone, but which proves itself in obedience to Biblical Law....Paul uses Genesis 15 to prove the necessity of faith; James uses Genesis 22 to prove the necessity of “holy obedience” as proof of true faith. (870)

The point of this passage in James is a fundamental one: genuine faith produces an obedient life; and therefore, an obedient life is sure evidence of saving faith. (870)

"The Evidence of Gratitude to God":

This “holy obedience” that is rooted in faith in Christ is also sure evidence of the genuineness of “thankfulness to God.” (871)

Dr. Morecraft again turns us toward the Covenant(s); naturally, he starts us with the Old Testament, but not before he reminds us that Old and New are two administrations of the same covenant.

The Bible reveals one great Covenant of Grace, manifested in several historical covenants, which Covenant over-arches and unifies the Old Testament and the New Testament structurally and thematically. (873)

That done, he briefly touches on the revelations and ordinances of the Old Testament, followed with even briefer comments on the purpose of said revelations and ordinances.

Therefore, the revelations and ordinances: 

The Covenant of Grace was administered in the Old Testament by promises (Rom. 15:8), prophecies (Acts 3:20, 24), sacrifices (Heb. 10:1), circumcision (Rom. 4:11), the passover (1 Cor. 5:7), and by various other types, ceremonies and ordinances, viz., the Tabernacle and its furniture and the Levitical priesthood. (875)

Types are those actions, names and personages in the Old Testament that foreshadowed, or “fore-signified” Christ....(1) They are rooted in history (Matt.
12:40; John 3:14). (2) They are prophetic in nature (Gen. 14; Heb. 7). (3) They are divinely designed as an integral part of redemptive history....(1 Cor. 10:1–11). (4) They are Christ-centered, pointing to Him in one way or another (Luke 24:24, 44; Acts 3:24–26). (5) They are edifying and have meaning to believers in both dispensations (Deut. 30:6; Hosea 14:2; Zech. 6:9–15). (875)

The purpose:

The purpose of the revelations, ordinances and types of the Old Testament was to fore-signify Christ and to build up the elect of God in faith in the promised Messiah. (876)

"The Blessings of Full Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Salvation in the Old Testament":

The church in the Old Testament had a clearer understanding of Christ in the ceremonies, ordinances and types of that administration than is commonly recognized today....Furthermore, the Old Testament believers also experienced more profound spiritual blessings than is commonly recognized today. In fact, what believers in the New Testament experienced, the Old Testament believers experienced, but not in the same measure of light, clarity, power and abundance. (878)

More specifically, for example, full forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation were not merely promises to the Old Testament believers which the New Testament church could expect; they were blessed privileges actually enjoyed by the Old Testament church as many of the Psalms teach us. (878)

We are briefly turned to the administration of the Covenant in the New Testament, with a focus on Christ being the substance of the Old Testament ordinances and types.

Jesus Christ is the substance of both the Old Testament and the New Testament administration of the Covenant of Grace. (879)

Dr. Morecraft points out the ordinances of the Covenant in the New Testament...

First, how many are there?

Since the coming of Jesus Christ and to the very end of history, the Covenant of Grace is administered “in the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper” (WCF, VII, vi). (880)

Second, what is the nature of these ordinances?

In 2 Corinthians 3:9, Paul is comparing and contrasting the older covenant and the
New Covenant, and he states: “For if the ministry of condemnation [the older covenant] has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness [the New Covenant] abound in glory.”...Thus, the New Testament saving ordinances, although less ornate and fewer, are more powerful and less obscure than the Old Testament ordinances, because, in the preached Word, we offer a Savior who has come and is present, who has actually accomplished eternal salvation for all His people once-for-all. The sacraments no longer “fore-signify” Christ to come, but are signs and seals of the crucified, risen, and exalted Christ, present with His people by His Spirit in the Word and sacraments. (881)

Hebrews 12:22–29 also speaks to the greater power, clarity and glory of the New Covenant, as well as the greater accountability to obey God’s Law of those who are members of it, than those who were under the older covenants. (881-882)

Finally, the phrase "To All Nations":

Because the Church is now one body with no ethnic distinctions, the mission of the Church is to make the world’s nations Christ’s disciples, because Christ “wast slain, and didst purchase for God with (His) blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And…hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God” (Rev. 5:9). (883)

That concludes Chapter 12, but I would like to give you my notes on the Appendix. The subject is what is commonly known as "Federal Vision". (Dr. Morecraft quotes extensively from John Murry in this appendix--I would recommend reading the appendix yourself for the full arguments. I fear my report may be slightly confusing without all the minute details.)

Without further ado then, point 1:  "A New View of the Covenant Creeping in Largely Unnoticed". 

This view is such a radical paradigm shift that it can affect every aspect of one’s understanding of God and salvation. The focus of this new view is on what its adherents call “the objectivity of the covenant.” (884)

According to their teaching, being baptized into the organized church is equivalent to entering into the covenant of God.... For them, to be in the visible church is to be “in Christ.” So, they say, by water-baptism God incorporates a person into Christ and, being “in Christ,” from that moment God promises that person all the blessings of the salvation that are in Christ—regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification—unless he should apostatize and be excommunicated, at which time he would no longer be “in Christ”and therefore would lose the salvation he did in fact possess so long as he was a member of the organized church. They teach that, since Christ is “the elect one,” a person’s union with Christ by water-baptism 
proves that person is also one of the elect of God. Thus, in their view, excommunication makes a baptized person no longer one of the elect, since he is no longer “in Christ.” According to their teaching, God promises all who are baptized the blessings of salvation, but of a salvation that can be lost after it has been possessed. This means, if we follow their view, that divine election and divine reprobation are not irreversible. (884-885)

Therefore, according to this new view, in the New Testament’s teaching on the covenant of God, election can be possessed and lost; union with Christ can be possessed and lost; “baptismal regeneration” can be possessed and lost; justification, adoption and sanctification can be possessed and lost. (885)

This new view of “the objectivity of the covenant” goes off track by failing to keep clear two Biblical distinctions: first, the distinction between the corporate election of Israel as a nation (in the Old Testament) and the soteric election of individuals in Christ (in both Testaments), and second, the distinction between being baptized
into the organized church and being incorporated into Christ. (885)

The second section addresses the first of those two distinctions: "The Theocratic Election of Israel as a Nation".

In the Old Testament, Israel was chosen by Jehovah nationally to receive special privileges and to be set apart from all the nations of the world for the purpose of bringing salvation to the world in the Messiah. (885)

This theocratic election of the nation of Israel, however, did not guarantee either the eternal salvation of the nation or of all the individuals within that nation. Therefore, it is to be distinguished from the particularized and soteric election of individuals within the nation to eternal life, which doctrine is taught in the Old Testament (1 Kin. 19:18; Ps. 95:8–11; Isa. 1:9; 10:22,23), as well as in the New Testament (Eph. 1:3f; Rom. 9:22; John 15:16). (886)

As privileged as ancient Israel was to be nationally elected by God, that theocratic election, as her theocratic adoption, was inferior to the soteric election and adoption of individuals in Christ. (887)

"The Soteric Election of Individuals in Christ":

Jesus made the point that the elect must be saved eternally, when He said, concerning the fall of Jerusalem, that “unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short” (Matt. 24:22). (889)

The point of this discussion is simply this: election as it is explained in the New Testament is soteric election that infallibly causes the person elected to receive all the blessings of the eternal salvation to which he was elected. It is not dependent upon anything in the elect, nor can it be reversed. Hence, not all who are baptized are the elect, for not all baptized people go to heaven when they die. Furthermore, the phrase “in Christ” is not to be identified with membership in the organized church by baptism; nor does it denote some external covenant membership by a baptized unbeliever. When a person is “in Christ,” he or she eternally possesses all the eternal, and therefore unlosable, benefits of salvation that are applied to us by virtue of our being in union and communion with Christ. 33 Over against this view is that of Douglas Wilson and the others who hold to this new view of covenant objectivity: “So there is such a thing as genuine covenantal connection to Christ which is not salvific at the last day.” (Reformed is NotEnough, 133). Wilson’s and Shepherd’s interpretation of the vine and branches parable of John 15 also represents this new view. (891)

"Baptism and Union with Christ":

The new view on the objectivity of the covenant includes a doctrine of baptism that approaches that of Roman Catholicism. It holds that by water-baptism a person is brought by God into union with Christ as the source of his promised salvation. Therefore union with Christ, being described by this view as a covenantal union, is an objective relationship—being “in Christ” is being in the organized church; hence it is not only an objective-external relationship, it is a conceivably losable relationship. (892-893)

Although a person has been chosen in Christ before the creation of the universe (Eph. 1:4), and redeemed by the death of Christ two thousand years ago (Gal. 3:13), he does not become an actual recipient of the benefits of that salvation until they are effectively applied to him by the Holy Spirit of God. (893)

We are “in Christ” and Christ is “in us,” if Christ’s Spirit dwells in us. He is the bond of this union we have with Christ. (893)

...“every believer is personally united directly to Christ. The representation that the life which is in the Church through Christ flows from the Church into the individual
believer is decidedly unscriptural, not only in its sacramentarian but also in its pantheistic form (Rome, Schleiermacher, and many modern theologians). Every sinner who is regenerated is directly connected with Christ and receives his life from Him,”...42. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 450–51. (894)

Water baptism is a sign and seal of this union and communion we have with Christ (Gen. 17:7–14; Rom. 6:3–6; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27, 28; Col. 2:11,12). (895)

We are baptized into Christ...

First, we are adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ: “for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Faith, not baptism, is the means of that adoption, as Galatians 3:26 and John 1:12 make unmistakably clear....Therefore, as soon as a person believes in Jesus Christ, in that very moment he is adopted into God’s family, whether that is before or after his baptism with water. (896)

Second, we are adopted into God’s family by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ: “For all of you … were baptized into Christ.” (896)

Third, our union with Christ is signified and sealed to us by water baptism. (897)

"The Meaning of Baptism as a Sign and Seal":

We learn in the first paragraph ([WCF]28:1) that the purpose of baptism is twofold: (1) For the solemn and public admission of a person into the institutional church; and (2) To be a sign and seal of that person’s participation in the salvific blessings of God’s covenant through faith in Jesus Christ. The second paragraph (28:6) also teaches us two truths about the “efficacy” of baptism: (1) It is not
inseparably tied to the moment in which water baptism is administered; and (2) By the right use of baptism the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred, by the Holy Ghost to those to whom saving grace has been promised and therefore to whom it properly belongs, i.e., the elect (Eph. 1:3–4). The point here is that baptism is an effective means of grace to those to whom that grace is promised and to whom it belongs. To them that saving grace is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. (900-901)

In baptism as a sign, “God condescends to our weakness… He also advertises that great truth [of our union with Christ] by an ordinance which portrays visibly to our senses the reality of this grace. It is a testimony which God has been pleased to give to us so that we may the better understand the high privilege of union with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”54 Further,

"[As a seal, baptism] authenticates, confirms, guarantees the reality and security      of this covenant grace. It is not indeed indispensable to the grace sealed; the           grace exists prior to the seal and the seal does not produce the grace sealed. ...
    
"It is apparent that as a sign or seal [water baptism] should not be identified with that which is signified and sealed....The sign or seal presupposes the existence of that which is signified or sealed. Hence baptism is the sign and seal of a spiritual reality which is conceived of as existing. Where that reality is absent the sign or seal has no efficacy.…55 54. Murray, Christian Baptism, 87. 55. Murray, Christian Baptism, 86–87.(901-902)

"The Meaning of 'Baptism Now Saves You' [I Peter 3:20-21]":

Each word is important. (1) “Baptism” is a sign and seal of salvation. (2) “Now” is a word often used by Peter in his first epistle (1:6; 1:12; 2:10; 2:25). It denotes the time of the new covenant, “the last days,” the day of salvation, the reign of Christ, the dawn of the age to come in history in Christ. (3) “Saves” is in the present tense
denoting “continuing saving.” The sign and seal of the covenant continues the effects of salvation in us, which are ours by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8–9; Acts 16:31)....(4) The pronoun, “us,” refers to those who possess salvation by faith, “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure” (1 Pet. 1:1–2). (905-906)

How then does baptism save? Peter gives a twofold answer.
(1) Its saving efficacy is inseparable from “a good conscience,” i.e., a conscience “cleansed…from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14), by “the blood of Christ” (9:14), “through faith” (Rom. 3:25).
(2) Its efficacy is “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God” (vv. 21–22). Without Christ’s resurrection, intercession and reign at God’s right hand, which presupposes His prior death and burial, baptism would be an empty ritual. (907)

As circumcision in the Old Testament, baptism, as a sign of the covenant, places the one baptized into a realm of God’s special blessings and special curses (Deut. 28; Lev. 26). If that person lives faithfully and in accordance with what his baptism signifies, because he has truly received from God the spiritual realities it signifies by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8–9; John 3:16), God shall bestow upon him rich covenant blessings. (909)

"The Sacramental Mode of Speaking":

The actions of the resurrected Christ signified and sealed in the sacraments are sometimes spoken of in terms of the visual signs that represent them (Ezek. 36:22;
Ps. 50:8; Matt. 26:27, 28; Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:11, 12; Gen. 17:10, 13; Ex. 13:21; 34:5; Ps. 47:6). This is proper because there is in every sacrament a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other (WCF, XXVII, ii). (910)

"The Essence of the Covenant of God":

Entering the covenant is not to be identified with being baptized into the organized church. (912)

God’s covenant, at heart, is “a relationship of friendship between God and man, a communion of life, in which man is made to share in the divine life” according to Lewis Bevens Schenck. 70 Lewis Bevens Schenck, The Presbyterian Doctrine of Children in the Covenant, (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, [1940] 2001), 6. (912)

"The Relation of Baptism and the Covenant". Before going further, I'd like to sum up something I gathered from the  Murry quotes: "in" the Covenant does not equal up to the same thing as being "of" the Covenant! Two-letter propositions really do make a difference!

...if baptism is to be a means of grace assuring a person of his participation in the covenant life and bond with the triune God: (1) It must be used rightly, i.e., received with faith in Jesus Christ. (2) The person baptized must be one to whom the saving grace of God’s covenant belongs, i.e., he must be one of God’s elect
in Christ....(3) The time and specific nature of the efficacy of baptism in God’s elect is sovereignly determined by the good pleasure of God. (915-916)

First, it is possible for an unregenerate, and even non-elect, person to be baptized and thereby be publicly initiated into the visible church, either upon a credible profession of faith in Christ and the Bible, or as a child of the covenant, being born of a baptized parent....Only God can see the heart. At the same time, among the children of believers there are Esau’s and Ishmaels, who are not in communion with God because they are devoid of faith, but who do bear the sign of the covenant. (916)

Second, the visible church is the covenant community of God. It is that body of people who bear the sign of the covenant, who have confessed faith in the covenant God, and who have publicly professed that they will be wholly and only the Lord’s, along with their children. Not all who make these public and objective commitments are in communion with God (Matt. 7:22–23). (916-917)

Third, the covenant relationship that God has established with His people in Christ has two aspects to it: (1) A communion of life with God based on the redemptive work of Christ; and (2) A sovereignly-dictated order of life by the covenant Lord, consecrating those who bear the sign of the covenant to Himself. (919)

"Conclusion":

Not all who have received the sign of the covenant, i.e., baptism, are in possession of covenant life and communion with God. The salvific promise of the covenant is made to believers and their seed organically in that the true and elect seed of God is to be found ordinarily among the natural descendants of those who are baptized into the organized church. Only the true seed are in union and communion with Christ. God does not promise to bestow salvation on each and every person who is baptized. (923)

Since the promise of the covenant is made to Christ’s Church organically and corporately, we are to consider all those who have been baptized and have made a credible profession of faith in Christ and the Bible to be the regenerate sons and daughters of God, along with their children, unless by their lives they prove themselves to be apostate and are excommunicated. (924)

...when it comes to our covenant children, we are to view them in the light of the revelation of God to us in His Word, i.e., in terms of the promise of the covenant: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you
throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your seed after you” (Gen. 17:7). (926)

In other words, we must not separate our faith in God’s promise concerning our children from our sustained faithfulness in their Christian nurture. (927)

End Volume 1 of Authentic Christianity by Dr. Joe Morecraft III.

     Racheal