Gods Story, Promise, and Reign

1
Gods Story, Promise, and Reign

• Presbyterian Beliefs
• Covenant and Kingdom

2
Defining Covenant

• Gods voluntary condescension to cross the divide
  between Creator and creature, to relate
  graciously with finite human beings, and to
  create a relationship with them (WCF 71)
• John Murray a divine covenant is a sovereign
  administration of grace and promise.
• It is a divine activity (it starts with God and
  his rights as the King).
• It is an administration (it suggests Gods rules
  for relationship, which he as our King has the
  right to set up)
• it displays Gods grace, from first to last, in
  allowing finite human beings to have God as
  their blessedness and reward (WCF 71)
• it is based on Gods promise.

3
Gods covenant tells a story of redemption.

• This story began in the Garden with a covenant
  that Adam failed to keep (covenant of works).
• It has continued on after Gen 315 with a second
  covenant that a Second Adam would fully keep
  (covenant of grace).
• This second covenant has two phases (or
  administrations or dispensations) the old and
  new covenants.

4
Gods covenant tells a story of redemption.

• It is God the Kings story of redeeming a people
  for his own glory.
• Adam and Eve (Genesis 217-18, 315)
• Noah (Genesis 6-9)
• Abraham (Genesis 121-3, 151-6, 171-14)
• Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Judah (Genesis 4910)
• Exodus and Passover
• Giving of the Law (cf. Galatians 323-26)

5
Gods covenant tells a story of redemption.

• Moses and Aaron (Deuteronomy 1815 Hebrews
  51-11)
• The Promised Land (Joshua Hebrews 1113-16)
• Saul, David, Solomon (2 Samuel 7 1225)
• Prophetscall Gods people back, threaten
  judgment, promise salvation (Isaiah 9, 11, 53)
• When the fullness of time had come Jesus the
  Messiah (Galatians 44-5)
• First/second advent Good and evil grow up side
  by side until the judgment (Matthew 13)
• We continue to live in the new covenant
  furthering extending the history of redemption.

6
Gods covenant tells a story of redemption.

• Presbyterians believe there is continuity to the
  storyit is one story about one people, with two
  phases.
• Some believe that there is discontinuity in the
  storytwo separate stories about two different
  people dispensationalism.

7
Gods covenant is an irrevocable promise.

• This story is all about Gods promise to provide
  a Redeemer for Gods people.
• Adam The promise was about a Seed that would
  come to crush Gods enemy (Genesis 315)
• Abraham Through his Seed all the families of the
  earth would be blessed (Genesis 123 Galatians
  38)

8
Gods covenant offers an irrevocable promise.

• As the promise is progressively unfolded, it
  becomes clear that this Seed would be a perfect
  prophet, priest, and king.
• It also becomes clear that this Seed would not
  see corruption (Psalm 1610), that he would be
  forsaken by God as he is pierced for the
  iniquities of his people (Psalm 22), that he
  would personify the wisdom of God (Proverbs 8).

9
Gods covenant offers an irrevocable promise.

• This Seed, the Redeemer of Gods people about
  which Gods story tells us, is Jesus.
• In Jesus, we have Gods promise to save those who
  come to him
• As God, he sustains human nature from sinking
  under Gods wrath as well as securing the
  perfection of his substitution (LC 38).
• As Man, he performs as our substitute, obeying
  the law and satisfying the wrath of God (LC 39).
• The promise which Gods covenant holds forth is
  nothing less than Jesus himself (LC 65-66).
• This promise is the same in the OT as in the NT
  (John 546-47 856). There has always been one
  way of salvationfaith in the Redeemer of Gods
  chosen people.

10
Gods covenant results in the establishment of
his kingdom.

• This story of Gods promise is driving toward the
  establishment of his kingdom on earth (Mark
  114-15).
• This kingdom that Jesus was talking about was a
  reign and a realm.
• The Kingdom that Jesus came to establish had
  everything to do with his reign.
• With the coming of the Kingdom of God, Gods
  reign in Jesus Christ was being made manifest to
  the entire world.

11
Gods covenant results in the establishment of
his kingdom.

• This reign was established through Jesus death
  and resurrection (John 1836) and comes to us
  through the work of the Word and Spirit (John
  33).
• Jesus reign is already present, but not yet in
  its full and final condition (Acts 233-36
  Hebrews 28-9).
• His reign will be fully realized in a new heavens
  and new earth (Isaiah 6622-23 Revelation 21-22).

12
Gods covenant results in the establishment of
his kingdom.

• The Kingdom that Jesus came to establish also was
  a realm.
• And the realm in which Jesus reign is being
  manifested is the world itself (Matthew 1338).
• Gods redemption has a cosmic goal (Genesis 8-9
  Romans 819-25). He intends his people to inherit
  the entire earth as a city made by God for his
  people (Hebrews 1113-16).
• Until that final consummation, Jesus reign is
  most fully realized in the church, where Gods
  will in heaven is done on earth in worship
  (Matthew 610 Revelation 4-5).