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Our great God and Savior, we come before you this morning thankful that you are who you are,
that you are our creator, sustainer, the
one who cares for us.
Father, we praise you and ask that you would bless us as we close out this year,
that we would be mindful of the great things that you have done for us, not just this but throughout our
entire lives, shepherding, protecting, keeping us to the day of our salvation.
And Father, blessing us each and every day with what we don't
deserve and could not earn.
We thank you for eternal life that is found only in Christ Jesus.
We thank you for saving us and calling us and pray that you'd bless this time in Jesus name.
All right, well I've been asked, and not that this seems like it'll be a problem, but
I've been asked by somebody who couldn't be here this morning, that if you have something particularly
witty or helpful to say that you would speak loudly and also that I would repeat it so
for the benefit of those on video.
So my favorite pupil has a cold this morning and won't be with us.
We're in the quiz.
Is there anybody who doesn't copy of quiz number 10?
Number 10, number 10, number 10.
I see that hand.
Dave, yes.
Anthony, puzzled, not certain if he has it.
We're on question number 12 of lesson number 10 or chapter 10, just out of curiosity.
And how many have read the book?
Wow, so it's unanimous.
I can only say this is really just just such a good book and very, very helpful.
I commend it to you.
Okay, number 12.
True or false, the Father is rightly regarded as the
beginner of all activity.
It is true, and we know that because the highlighter says that.
That's not necessarily true, but Barrett says we are merely recognizing that in any single
act of the triune God, that is to say, whatever he does toward his creation,
each person receives attention in a way that corresponds to each person.
In other words, when he says person, he's talking about the persons of the Trinity that corresponds to
each person's distinct, incommunicable.
And what does that mean?
Can't be communicated.
Okay.
And eternal relations of origin, unbegotten father.
What's it?
What are we?
What do we say of the son?
Eternally generated is not correct.
The son.
Eternally begotten is correct.
Thank you, Christine.
And of the Holy Spirit, he is spirited.
So that which is appropriated to each person is consistent with the personal properties.
Paternity, which would be consistent of were with the father.
Affiliation consistent with the son and spiration consistent with the spirit.
And the father is the beginning of activity.
These are all from John Calvin, the beginning of activity, the
fountain and wellspring of all things.
Those are from John Calvin again, the eternal relation, because the father is
unbegotten in eternity.
So of the son, John Calvin says he is the father's
wisdom, counsel, and the ordered disposition of all things.
The eternal relation, because the son is begotten by the father in eternity.
The spirit Calvin again says the father and sons
that the spirit is the father and sons power and efficacy.
Every work is completed in the Holy Spirit, because the spirit is spirited
by the father and son in eternity.
Okay, so the father's the beginner of all activity.
The son we could say is the one who
ordered and well, he disposes of all things, he accomplishes all things, and he accomplishes them in
the spirit.
So completed in the Holy Spirit.
Thoughts, complaints, concerns, questions.
You know what I would never say is never.
When when we say what I will say this, what he stays away from
Barrett does, and he talks about it a little bit is saying that the spirit is eternally
begotten.
Because why would he say doesn't why would
Barrett say he doesn't want to say that the Holy Spirit is eternally
So, you know, in order to keep them separate in order not to confuse them.
I mean, it is difficult enough for our feeble little minds to keep separate.
The Father, Son and Spirit, let alone, you know, starting to give them the same eternal origins.
So, yes.
And, and, you know, asked your first question, does he never do that?
I don't think he does.
And if he does, you know, I guess I could search the document and see if he does that.
But I don't think so.
I wouldn't want to call eternal generation a generic term.
And the reason I wouldn't want to call it a generic term is because it applies.
No, because it applies to the spirit of the son, we would say he's eternally not generated, but
eternally begotten.
Okay, because he's the son, that's the nature of the son.
And, you know, I've mentioned this before, but let's just kind of
pick a knit with the ESV because it's fun to pick knits with the
ESV.
I mean, the ESV is a good translation.
Don't get me wrong.
It just does some things that I really
for example, John
1, 14.
This is a perfectly fine verse because it's a Christmas verse.
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, we recognize this as Jesus,
second person of the Trinity, you know, the if we look back at first, verse one, we would
say, the word, right, the eternal son.
And that's, and the word was God.
So back to verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son
from the father, full of grace and truth.
Does anyone have another?
What's the word I'm looking for?
Another version of the Bible besides the ESV.
Yes.
What do you have?
The only begotten.
And what translation is that?
New King James.
Only begotten.
So much better.
Why?
Why would I say that?
Yeah, it tells us more.
And the Greek word there is monogenes, which, you know, again, lends itself
to kind of a, that he's the unique son, you know, wouldn't it.
And, you know, only son.
It's okay.
Except there's a theological reason why they chose only son.
And the reason, the theological reason they chose only son is
because this is a, uh, uh, the new Testament advisor was Wayne
Grudem.
Oh, now the pieces start to Wayne Grudem who believes in the
eternal subordination of the son.
So, you know, the less that said about the eternally begotten nature equality with this, the
father, the better.
So, yeah, we don't, we don't really care much for that.
I mean, there are a lot of great features in the ESV and I was just reading this morning, um,
not just Isaiah 35, the chapter for this morning, but, uh, how the ESV
app now has added some additional features that you can access.
And I think the ESV study Bible notes, I think either I'd already bought them or
they're free, but you can get those, you know, there are a couple of things that you can do now with the ESV
uh, app that weren't available before.
And so I thought that was pretty cool, but it had, it has its
problems.
Number 13, how does Psalm 33, six, help us to understand creation
as a work of the triune God.
And I guess to understand that we'll have to read Psalm 33, six, when we
Psalm 33, six, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and by the
breath of his mouth, all their host.
Now, when you just read that studying all that we studied over the last year and a half, whatever it is,
I don't, I don't know.
I don't really keep track.
Somebody else usually does that for me, but when you, when you hear that verse, what are you
struck by?
Word of the Lord, John one and you were saying Mr. Smith, sir.
So, I mean, I think it's, it's kind of hard to, once you've started studying
this idea of the, of Trinity and you've started kind of unpacking
that and thinking to yourself, okay, Jesus Christ is the eternal word.
He's the logos and the Holy spirit is breathed out.
That is to say spirated by the father and son.
And so then you come to a verse like this and you, and you think to yourself, okay, by the word of the Lord, the heavens
were made.
Now, does that seem to coincide with John one, one and John one and you know,
further?
And then when we read and by the breath of his mouth, all their hosts, well,
instantly we think of the Holy spirit.
What do you suppose all their hosts means
somebody have a study Bible on them?
I mean, all their hosts could mean either could be the angels could be
right.
The heavens, the stars, haven't really studied that.
So I don't really know.
But anyway, that's, that's enough.
Barrett says this, he says the creator spirits appeared or appears on the lips of the
Psalmist as well.
By the word of the Lord, heavens were made because et cetera, Psalm 33, six, but notice the Psalmist
also mentions the word of the Lord.
That word, it turns out is not just letters, but describing the son himself, describing this word.
John says he was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him and
without him was not anything made that was made.
And we can also look at Colossians one for that.
Number 14, true or false.
Jesus is quote the creative cause end quote.
It's true or false 50, 50 tell the truth, shame the devil
who will boldly step out over that cliff.
It's true.
Barrett writes as Basil says, it is the father who is the original cause, right?
We saw that in number 12, that he is the beginner of all activity.
It is the father who is the original cause of the son, who is the creative cause and the spirit who
is the perfecting cause creation is brought into existence by the will of the father
and the operation of the son and is perfected by the presence of the spirits.
Trinity in action.
Number 15, true or false.
Many early theologians saw parallels between creation and redemption.
Boy, that's a nebulous question.
If there ever was one, uh, many early
theologians saw parallels places of comparison between
creation and redemption.
In other words, between what we see in God's creation and how
he redeems us, how he saves us.
And the answer is true.
Barrett writes many of the fathers and reform thinkers.
And here's a not really fancy word, but unusual
phrase here.
Cross pollinates cross pollinate.
When you cross pollinate, you take the pollen from one flower and take it to another flower, right?
You're so you're changing there.
Many of the fathers and reform thinkers cross pollinate between creation and salvation.
In other words, they do make those comparisons appropriating creation to the father,
redemption to the son and sanctification to the spirit.
The layout of the Nicene creed is a case in point.
Beginning with the F it's affirmation of God, the father, the creator of heaven and earth
of all things visible and invisible.
Then it transitions to the only begotten son who for us men.
And because of our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy spirit and the
Virgin Mary and became human, the uncreated, but
only begotten and eternal son was born in a manger to redeem creation.
So that the spirit, the one who eternally proceeds from the father and the son might descend
as the Lord and lawgiver breathing new life into those still in the throes of death.
By the spirit, we become a new creation remade and reborn into the image of the son.
So the answer was true.
Then he kind of lays it out.
Number 16, true or false creation will be recreated by the grace of the Holy
spirits.
Creation will be recreated by the grace of the Holy spirit.
Because of inseparable operations.
Yes, I would say true because I can't imagine writing a question like that and having the answer be false.
So who writes these things anyway?
Creation will be, yes, it's true.
Uh, Bob Inc said this, the essence of the Christian religion.
I mean, when you hear something like that, you go, I better listen because he's about to explain
the heart of Christianity.
He says the essence of Chris of the Christian religion consists in this, that the
creation of the father ruined by sin is restored in the death of the son
of God and recreated by the grace of the Holy spirit into a kingdom of God.
The essence of the Christian religion consists in this, that the creation of the father ruined by sin is
restored in the death of the son of God and recreated by the grace of the Holy spirit
into a kingdom of God.
Now when we hear that,
there is a lot to unpack there.
I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it, but just to emphasize this, the answer to so many
questions in life comes in this little phrase here, ruined by sin.
That the answer to so many questions in life comes in that little phrase, ruined by sin.
I think one of the big questions in life that often pops up for people is,
why?
Why did so and so die?
Why do I have this disease?
Why, you know, is this war taking place?
Why, I mean, you fill in the blank.
The answer to why, almost without exception, is some form of ruined by
sin.
This world is so submerged in sin.
It's amazing to me, and here's one of the, you know, true confession from Steve.
One of the real problems with politics is what?
That we can, and I'll just tell you the answer to this, that we can find common cause with people
who are utterly depraved.
Is that true or false?
So our hope can't be founded in politics because we're going to wind up, now you say, well,
then why would you get involved in politics at all?
Because at a local level, we can affect things.
It's not going to save the world, but I can make, you know, my little corner of the world a little bit better.
I can improve it a little bit.
But when, you know, even, and I've used this example before, imagine this, that, you know, BBC is
involved in a pro -life march.
Would there be anything wrong with that?
Anything wrong with, you know, protesting against abortion and protesting in favor
of life?
Nothing wrong with that.
You're proudly marching down the street, you get to the end of the protest, you know, everybody's like, whoo,
wasn't that great?
Then what happens?
That's exactly what happens.
And you go, hmm.
You know, I should have taken that left -hand turn at Albuquerque, to paraphrase Bugs Bunny.
That's too many laughs, Michael.
But the reality is that no matter how much better I can make my
town, we can make our state, commonwealth, whatever.
The ultimate problem is, at the end of the day, when we're done, and we look to our left,
or we look to our right, or we hear the prayer from the priest, we have to recognize one thing, that whatever
good we've done, the one thing that we failed to do is
love these people that we've linked arms with and say, you know what?
I appreciate the fact that you guys are united with me on abortion, or you're united with me
on transsexualism, or you're united with me on whatever the issue is.
But there's a bigger problem.
And that bigger problem is, you're on your way to hell.
Now, that's a really fine conversation starter.
Hey, thanks for coming today.
Did you know you're on your way to hell?
I mean, I was I was reminded of that by a friend the other day, you know, and it wasn't what he
said, although, not directly.
And, you know, but I find myself having to, like, block about 75 % of his posts.
And I'm like, remind me why I'm friends.
Well, I sort of I met him, I like him.
But that brother, well, he's not a brother.
He's saved.
He's lost.
And, you know, if he has, and he does, if he has some good insights on some things, he's got some really
bad insights on a lot of things.
Why is that?
Because he is ruined by sin.
He needs to be born again.
He needs to be recreated by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Thoughts, questions, concerns, comments, heresies.
I always welcome heresies.
It's a it's a joy to my pastoral heart.
Pastor, I'd like to hear a heresy.
Oh, Brian.
Brian has a heresy.
OK.
Yeah, but it was done in a restaurant with a bar.
So that kind of.
I'll tell you seriously, I mean, in the religion I grew up, the idea of
there being a bar where we ate was just like so I'd be like, can we even go in here?
You know,
I mean, I had to check my root beer for caffeine levels, you know, so
you think I'm joking.
I'm not joking.
All right.
Number 17, number 17.
Not a true or false.
So put your thinking caps on.
Second Thessalonians, chapter two, verses 13 and 14 contains a clear indication of
an intra Trinitarian compact.
I guess it should be a true or
false.
Let me think about it.
I mean, again, I just who wrote this quiz?
Because why would that be false?
I mean, you know, why would I read a question like that?
But I guess we should read Second Thessalonians two verses 13 and 14 to
determine whether or not that's true and whether Dave is a lion heretic dog or not.
Second Thessalonians, chapter two, verses 13 and 14.
But we ought to all or we ought always to give thanks to God for you,
brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the
firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Holy Spirit and
belief in the truth.
To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you ever think about salvation that way that you're going to obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Can you think of scriptures that would tell you that you're going to obtain the glory of Jesus Christ?
A hush fell over the room.
Is there?
I think I think there is one in John 17.
Yeah.
That was one of the ones I was thinking of.
And I think it's also in said first.
What's that?
Romans 8.
Romans 8 is excellent.
I'm not.
I mean, it could very well be there.
And what's that?
OK, what does it say?
He also glorified.
Sure.
Yep.
And and when you think about that glory, what's it going to be like?
You know, our temptation or our temptation, I should even put it that way.
You know, what what do we usually kind of default to?
Is that we're going to receive glory?
Yes, but it's going to be a.
Lesser glory, right?
Do we often think like that?
At least I do.
But if we go to.
I think what Dave said in John 17 is right, but I'm thinking I was thinking also of if I
can find it first, John.
OK, there you go.
And.
First, John, three to beloved, we are God's children now.
Right.
And again, just think about, I mean, there's so many verses that we just kind of glide over.
John says beloved.
Well, who's he talking to?
He's talking to other Christians.
And then notice he says we are God's children.
You know, some people say, well, we're all God's children.
In a generic sort of if we said it this way, we're all created by God.
Well, that's true.
Are we all adopted by God?
No, scripture could not be more plain.
So, you know, I mean, he wouldn't say beloved, we are God's children and the rest of us are
Satan's children.
I mean, you wouldn't say that, but we are God's children.
He's running to believers now.
And what we will be has not yet appeared because we know that when
he appears, he's talking about Jesus.
We shall be like him because we shall see him as
he is.
What does that mean that we will be like him?
We're going to share his glory, even as Dave just read in, referred to in John
17, 22, as Carol said in Romans 8, 30, to be
glorified isn't to receive a lesser glory.
We're going to receive the same glory as Christ because we will be, we will be in
him.
So back to second Thessalonians 2, 13
and 14.
We see there, give thanks to God for you brothers, beloved by the Lord,
which means how should we understand that?
I would say beloved by Christ because God chose you.
Father chose you.
I mean, we could say the son chose us, the spirit chose us.
But I think in context, he's saying beloved by the son,
because God, the father chose you as a first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the spirits
and belief in the truth.
So I think you've got the Trinity all there to this.
He called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Barrett says, when Paul in Ephesians 1 and 2, or in Ephesians 1 and
second Thessalonians 2, takes us back to eternity to reassure believers that their salvation
was predestined in eternity by none other than the triune God himself.
He assumes what theologians have called the covenant of redemption or the pactum salutis.
What's pactum salutis mean?
Covenant of redemption.
Unlike many other covenants in the Bible that are between God and his people, the Abrahamic covenant, the
Mosaic covenant, et cetera, the covenant of redemption is between the persons of the Trinity.
In other words, it is inner Trinitarian.
And since our triune God is timelessly eternal, so too must the covenant must
be the covenant of redemption.
Now I want to just park here for a moment talking about the
covenant of redemption, the agreement between father, son, and spirits
to redeem the chosen people, the elect.
Should that give a Christian comfort?
And if so, why should it give us comfort?
Let me, let me just expand that a little bit.
Let's talk about a covenant.
And you know, one of the things that that's nice about this church is this center
aisle.
And you know why I like the center on, because it makes for great illustrations on covenant.
Now I'm, I'm going to walk a covenant here.
I'm going to walk down the middle of the aisle.
And this is what cutting a covenant would be like.
The two parties typically would go through and on each side were what?
Sacrificed animals.
They were cut in half, right?
So when it, and when half of the animal would be on this side, the other half would be on this side.
And what was it to symbolize when they walked down this aisle?
I mean, not, it's not a marital aisle here at the moment.
What did it symbolize?
Sealing the covenant.
If you break this covenant, you're going to cut, get cut in half.
So why should the covenant of redemption bring comfort
to a Christian?
Because it's inner Trinitarian father, son, and spirit agreeing to do something.
And when we think of it as a covenant or an agreement, essentially can God
break a promise to himself?
I mean, essentially this would be like God saying, if I don't do this, if I don't
redeem my people, if I don't keep my promises to my people,
then I cease being God, which, you know, what are the things God can't do?
He can't lie and he can't change.
He can't cease being God.
So I think there's great comfort in this for us because I mean, as
sure, you know, for us, as sure as the sun comes up one day, the sun won't come up.
How do I know that?
Because in heaven, there is no sun.
We have the sun.
We don't need a sun, but the most sure thing we can
imagine is God's promises.
And that's what we have here.
Thoughts, questions, concerns before we move on?
Heresies?
I keep waiting.
You know, somebody's going to come out with a really good one and I'm looking forward to it.
Number 18, true or false?
Jesus incarnation was an act in furtherance of a divine conspiracy.
You know, I actually like writing that one because this question, I mean, I look at it and I have a
certain admiration for the deviousness of the question.
So I'd like to pat that guy on the back.
It is true.
Dave saw through my clever ploy using that divine conspiracy thing.
It sounds bad, doesn't it?
It sounds really bad.
Barrett writes, what occurs in this intra -trinitarian, see, you have to be careful
with inter and intra, intra -trinitarian covenants, talking about
the, the pactum salutis or the covenant of redemption.
The son enters into a covenant with the father to be the mediator of God's people, right?
This is what he does.
How many mediators are there between God and man?
One, the man, Christ Jesus, no matter what Rome says, the son
brings the covenant to fruition by means of his incarnation.
Hence it is the covenant of redemption.
The son, our covenant surety fulfilling the covenant by redeeming sinners by his
own blood, by his own death.
Barrett writes far from some cold contract, right?
Just kind of written.
I mean, how many have ever purchased like, well, how many have purchased a house?
Ever bought a house?
How many, how many signatures did you have to put on that thing when you bought the house?
I mean, you would think, right?
I, the undersigned, you know, agreed to, you know, buy this house 172 Jennifer drive.
Wait, is that going on the internet?
And, and you know, you sign and you know, that's it.
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.
It's like you sign that, then you sign, you know, I understand that if both my legs are broken,
uh, I must pay.
If one of my legs are broken, I must pay.
If you know, my little toe is broken, I must pay, you know, did it.
I have insurance.
You didn't do that.
I understand that in the event it snows, I must pay.
You know, I mean, there's just like a million times you have to sign sign there
or initial this or that or the other thing.
And did you read every word that home?
Well, why not ours?
I mean, I think that's probably why they do it that way.
Cause they want to make sure you don't read it.
And because they can come back at any time and claim your firstborn didn't know if you know that
it's right there.
And like, did you read the contract?
What's wrong with you, Mr. Smith?
Uh, so he says far from some cold contract, which just made me think about buying a house.
The son voluntarily accepts the stipulations of the covenant out of his love for the father,
right?
We tend to think, and, and, you know, I hope this won't hurt your feelings after I just said, you know, we should find great comfort
in the, the covenant of redemption because it's between the father, son, and spirit,
And they, they can't break it and they won't break it.
They have no desire to break it, but here's something that may not bring you all that much comfort.
We're basically just, if we could put it this way, in some sense,
we are objects.
Yes of God's love, but we're basically the Christmas presents.
You know, we get given from the father to the son who then
dies for us, redeems us, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, and then the son gives us back to
the father.
So, I mean, in that sense, we're just, we're the gifts that they give each
other.
Not so much, you know, sorry, but
they do it out of love for one another.
John Owen says the covenant of redemption is that compact covenant convention or agreement that was
between the father and the son for the accomplishment of the work of our redemption by the
mediation of Christ to the praise of the glorious grace of God.
Now, does that redound to our benefit?
The answer is yes.
Was that the ultimate design?
You know, when you hear somebody say, well, God wants you to be happy.
Is that true?
I, you know, and the answer, the answer is eventually, but if we think the goal of
this life, God created us that we may have joy.
Can I tell you where that comes from?
God created us that we might have joy.
I think that's abominable and I'll tell you why, because it's what I learned as a Mormon.
So God created us that we might have joy.
I mean, if you think about joy in this lifetime, do we have joy?
And you know, as I get older
and I am getting older, most of us are, as he looks around the room,
seeing if there's anyone who's not getting any older, that would be bad, especially during Sunday school.
As we get older, we begin to be able to, I think, put things in better perspective.
And we realize what the, the purpose of this life is what?
To glorify God.
You know, how do we do on that?
You know, if I said, Hey, how'd you do on glorifying God yesterday?
Show of hands, how many really glorified the Lord yesterday?
Probably somebody did.
Wasn't me though.
So I'm going to put my,
that's, that's kind of the goal, but how do we glorify God?
I think ultimately we glorify God by being redeemed by him.
I mean, everything, you know, how do we glorify God by him glorifying himself through us.
But what we have is we have a lot of sorrow, a lot of difficulty
in this life.
Do we have joy?
But I think ultimately, you know, maybe the goal isn't so much joy as it is
satisfaction.
Right?
In other words, when I look back in my life, and I don't know, your mileage may vary, but I want to look back in my life.
I think I'm, I'm getting what I not only don't deserve, I'm getting what I
undeserve, right?
I mean, whatever the opposite is of heaven, that's what, well, it's hell.
That's what I deserve.
And I know that.
So when I look at what the Lord has done in me, I'm both filled with joy and
through me and in my life and everything else, I'm filled with joy and thankfulness.
But also just knowing that there's a satisfaction.
I don't, and I can put it this way.
What do I regret?
I regret my sin.
The good news is what?
My sin is paid for.
So then what?
I'm ultimately, I'm satisfied.
My soul is satisfied because of Christ.
And I look forward to heaven.
We need to get going here.
We're going to get done.
Number 19, true or false.
One must be wary, which means afraid.
I just wanted to use a fancy word and it's shorter than afraid.
So I look for short words.
One must be wary of a teaching known as the pactum salutis.
False.
As we've already said, the covenant of redemption.
I mean, there are people who don't like it.
Why would they not like it?
Because they don't understand it.
Or I mean, I think that's a good answer.
I think the other answer is, well, I can think of two reasons not to like the covenant of
redemption.
One is that phrase is never in the Bible.
So that's one problem.
The other problem is if you say the father, son, and spirit have conspired,
have agreed to bring about the salvation of the elect,
that pretty much as we understand the concept of free will, what does it do to it?
It eradicates it.
The covenant of redemption is a fundamental pillar of reformed theology.
As Richard Muller points or explains out, explains, it is a pre -temporal
intra -Trinitarian agreement.
In other words, before time existed, the Trinity agreed on this.
Between the father and the son concerning the covenant of grace and its ratification in and through the work of
the son incarnates.
In the unity of the Godhead, the son covenants with the father to be the temporal sponsor of the father's
testamentum in and through the work of the mediator.
All that to say, they just agreed to do the father's will, right?
He comes to earth and he does the father's will.
Number 20, true or false?
In divine adoption, the Holy Spirit is primarily a witness.
Very good.
Adoption is the one singular divine act of our triune God.
Okay, that's Barrett.
He says, we are adopted by the father through the son by the Holy Spirit.
Adoption is common to the whole Trinity.
Author of adoption, father.
Model of adoption, son.
Imprint of adoption, the Holy Spirit.
As the unbegotten person of the Godhead, the father is the author and architect, the one who
predestines us for adoption, and who declares us to be his children upon faith in his son.
As John says, all who did receive him, Christ, who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God.
That's John 1 .12.
Since adoption is filial, in other words, coming from the father, a family metaphor,
the only begotten son himself, to use the wording of another theologian,
becomes the model as to what our affiliation looks like.
In other words, we're adopted in Christ.
We're adopted in that same way.
Calvin says this, it would be the folly and madness of presumption to call God our
father except on the ground that through our union to the body of Christ, we are acknowledged
as his children.
Heidelberg Catechism asks, why is he called God's only begotten son, since we are
also the children of God?
Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural son of God, but we
are children by adoption through grace for his sake.
Okay, thoughts, questions, concerns?
Because we have to move on.
Okay,
I'll just read
this from Barrett.
Thanks to the spirit, we can approach God as our father.
As Paul says, we have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we
cry, Abba, Father.
Romans 8 .15.
As a gift from the father and the son, the spirit indwells us so that he might conform us into the
image of the son.
The spirit is sent by the father and the son to perfect the work of the father and the son
in us.
Okay, seeing no questions, we will close in prayer.
Father in heaven, thank you for this time.
Thank you for this study that we've had in the Trinity.
I pray that you would bless us.
Even as we study your word to see things like Psalm 33 .6 and to think
about how you, father, son, and spirit work
in your creation that we might better understand you and better love you and
adore you.
We pray for these things in Jesus name.
Amen.