Core Doctrine: Covenant Theology

Covenant Theology as the Framework of Redemptive History

Good afternoon, apologia. How are you? Is it afternoon? Is it evening? I don't know. It'll be somewhere in between when we're done here tonight, I suppose. So, as I was coming into this, if you look at your handout for today, you'll see we are continuing in the Core Doctrine series.

We've covered the Trinity. We've covered apologetics. We've covered a lot of really important things that we at Apologia hold near and dear. Some of those things are absolutely definitional of what it means to be Christian.

Some of those are tenets that we as a church hold too dearly. This is the latter. There are many good brothers and sisters who are not covenantal in their thinking. We love them. They have the same Lord, but at Apologia, when you come here, you're going to have covenant theology.

And I thought when I was asked on Wednesday night to do this, I thought it would be really fun to just open up the book of Galatians chapter 3 and say, let's exposit this. Or let's open Romans 5 and let's exposit this.

And that'll be fun, but we're not doing it. I didn't have time to prepare for that, but I think that would be valuable for you. But for the purpose of this series, it's going to be a two-part series, I want to lay some foundations for you tonight.

I want to show what we all should agree on as a church tonight, and then next week we'll get into some disagreements, some things that we might not be as positive on. So if you would, turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 1.

On the topic of covenant theology, there's not like a single verse you can go to and say, ah, this is it. This is the verse we're going to go to. This is a biblical theology that has its roots from Genesis 1 all the way through the entirety of Scripture.

But Ephesians 1 comes as close as you can come to saying, hey, here's a section that tells us what covenant theology is, okay? Ephesians 1, starting in verse 3, if I can find it. There we are. This is the Word of God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, to himself according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved.

In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him.

With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heavens and things on the earth, in him also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will.

To the end, that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth of the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory.

What Covenant Theology Is and Why It Matters

Let's pray, shall we? Heavenly Father, we do come before you tonight so thankful, Lord, for the opportunity to worship you. We come before you knowing, Lord, that you hear our prayers on account of another, knowing, Lord, that you hear us and that you're pleased to give good gifts to your children because of Christ.

Lord, it is our prayer tonight that you would give us good gifts. Lord, that you would apply your truths and your word to the hearts of your people, that you would conform us into the image of your Son, to your glory.

It's in the name of Christ that we pray, amen. All right, so as I mentioned, tonight we are going to continue in our Core Doctrine series and we'll be touching on, da-da-da-da, covenant theology. This is a big topic, okay?

This is a very big topic. It's a topic that I've been studying myself for something like ten years, much to the chagrin of my lovely wife, but it's something I've been studying for a long time and I got to be honest that I am still finding new things about it all the time.

It's beautiful. I'm still finding new truths about covenant theology on a regular basis. Now, you've probably heard the term covenant theology before, but you might not understand what that means, okay?

And so because of this, I'm gonna be spending quite a long time tonight providing background and definitions before we actually dive into the spiritual analysis of this topic. So if you can tough it out for just a little bit, okay, we're gonna lay some foundations that are gonna make the rest of tonight and next week understandable.

In one sense, covenant theology, it's nothing more than the evangelical faith expressed by way of God's covenant action in history. More than this, it's the principle of biblical interpretation that necessarily leads to what we call Calvinism, right?

Have you ever wondered why all of those old guys who wrote of the Reformed Confessions were all Calvinists? Is there a mystery here? No, there's no mystery. It's because the covenant theology that they hold to naturally results in what we know today as Calvinism.

But as you'll see, it leads to so much more than that. It doesn't just lead to Calvinism. This is an entire worldview. It's an entire way of looking at the Scriptures, and it applies to every area of life, and I think you'll see how over the course of the next two weeks.

In that time, in these next two weeks, we're gonna be covering this from a couple of different vantage points, if you will. Today, we need to establish some baseline characteristics of covenant theology that are true no matter what variation you hold to.

Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregational, it doesn't matter. Tonight, we should all have agreement on these topics, right? Today, we're gonna spend most of our time looking at the overarching framework of theological covenants by which God governs and guides redemptive history.

And then next week, we're gonna zoom in to what I like to call the historical covenants that God made with man and look at the nuances that set us as Baptists apart from other confessional Protestants, as well as the practical implications that that has on how we live our lives, how we run our churches, how we manage our affairs in every area of life.

Scripture as One Story Told Through Covenants

Okay, so from the beginning here, we need to understand a few things. I think you all understand this, but we need to grasp this, okay? The Bible is not a collection of random works, okay? It's a single story written by the Spirit of God through the hands of various men.

As such, because of this, because the Scriptures were penned by men who were carried along by God the Spirit, we ought to expect a singular story. God can't lie. God doesn't change his mind. God is not surprised by the suffering in the world.

God has established, that's to say God has determined the end from the beginning, and he's telling one story. One story about the one God who has one plan for one people with one unified purpose. And God has advanced this story by revealing various covenants throughout history.

It's worth mentioning that much like any good story, the story of redemption is told through the use of different genres and, excuse me, different literary styles. Oftentimes, covenant documents are their own unique style.

You might not have known that. A great example of this is the book of Deuteronomy. The entire book of Deuteronomy is one giant covenant treaty. That excites me and like probably two other people in the room, but it is.

It's its whole genre. At other times, right, the concept of covenant, it's integrated, it's woven into the narrative within, as an element within other genres. So when reading the Bible, okay, rather than reading it in some hyper literalistic fashion where Jesus says, I'm the door, and now we think, oh he must have hinges and a handle, right?

We don't do that. We also don't go to the book of Revelation and actually expect a blasphemous woman in purple garments riding the seven-headed dragon, right? We don't read the Bible that way. We read the Bible according to its genre and according to its literary style.

You could say we read the Bible literary-oly, right? We read the Bible literary-oly. Oftentimes, believers of a more dispensational persuasion will criticize us for the way that we handle the scriptures, right?

We're accused of what they call replacement theology or supersessionism. That's to say that we're accused of wrongly dividing the Word in such a way whereas we no longer see a special covenantal existence for the nation-state of Israel.

On top of this, unlike the popular theology that many of you probably came out of, but the popular theology of the day, we're not waiting for a third temple, we're not waiting for the reinstitution of animal sacrifices, right?

Most of the criticism, covenant theology, most of the criticism y 'all are going to receive today for the beliefs you hold is going to come from the dispensational friends, right? They accuse us, like I said, of replacement theology, but that's not an accurate term.

It's not an accurate descriptor. We're not saying that the church has replaced Israel. We're saying, and you got to get this, we're saying that the church is the eschatological Israel that the Old Testament was waiting for, okay?

We're the fulfillment of what they were looking towards. We're not denying the need for a priest. We're not denying the need for a sacrifice or a temple. We acknowledge that the final and the eternal priest and the final and the eternal sacrifice, the final and the eternal temple has come in the person in the work of Jesus Christ.

When push comes to shove, right? Back against the wall. All of the differences that we have come down to how we read the Bible and how we understand the Old and the New Testaments in light of one another.

Once again, remember, one story. Now even dispensationalists will acknowledge the existence of biblical covenants, right? And not just that, like I said up front, but they place their trust in the same God as we do by the same faith.

And all of those who trust in Christ have the faith of Abraham, okay? So brothers and sisters, remember, when we're dealing with our dispensational friends, they're probably your brothers and sisters too, okay?

However, we also need to acknowledge that there are vastly different conclusions that we come to. And this all comes down to how we interpret the Scriptures. It comes down to our methodology of interpreting the Scriptures.

The study of the topic of covenant is not unique to those within the Reformed tradition. In a sense, anybody, any believer who reads the Bible and aims to model their life after its teachings must have a theology of covenant.

It's all over the Scriptures. Covenant is the organizing principle that God uses to advance and reveal His work in history. Let's get a couple definitions out of the way. When I speak of covenant theology, what I'm talking about is that theological framework that views all of redemptive history through the lens of three theological covenants.

Some would say two, three though, if you pushed them. There's the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace. But what is this term I'm using? I'm saying a theological covenant, okay?

A theological covenant, broadly speaking, as I'm using the term here, can be differentiated from a historical covenant. And that while historical covenants can be pointed to directly in the Scriptures, right?

Covenant with Abraham, covenant with Moses, covenant with David, etc. A theological covenant is more of a biblical theology type of understanding. We take all of the Bible and we look at this message that God has given us throughout the Scriptures.

This is an explanation of the overarching teachings that are found throughout the Scriptures. Listen, it would be nice, it would be very nice to be able to pretend that there's always some nice, tidy distinction between theological covenants and historical covenants.

That distinction just isn't as tidy as we'd like it to be. There's overlap, there's communication between these categories, but for the sake of understanding such a broad topic, I'm going to be using those categories as we go throughout the next two weeks, okay?

Now I mentioned that there's three overarching theological covenants that need to be identified. If you're a note-taker, here you are, okay? The covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, the covenant of grace.

The covenant of redemption involves that covenant between the members of the Trinity before creation. The covenant of works is that covenant made with Adam, wherein he represents all of his people and they either fall in Adam or they succeed in Adam.

We know how that went. The covenant of grace is Christ's covenant of works, kept on behalf of his people. If we get these topics wrong, okay, if we get this wrong we risk, we risk getting everything wrong.

Understanding the interplay of God's covenants and history spells out in no uncertain terms the relationship between law and gospel, the relationship between grace and works. Okay, listen, I'm not the guy that's going to stand up here and tell you that there's no relationship between these two.

There is a relationship. Ephesians makes this clear, right? We are most definitely saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, but does Ephesians stop there? No, it does not. Ephesians doesn't stop there.

Ephesians goes on to tell us what should come from that type of grace, what should come from that type of faith. Works do come from that faith and they come from that faith by necessity. Grace, okay, true grace, that type of grace that actually justifies you before God will change you, brothers and sisters.

Grace will cause you to love God. Grace will cause you to love your neighbor and we need to understand that relationship correctly, okay? Covenant theology helps us to do that. Now it's also worth mentioning that there's a difference, this is a bit of a minutia point, but this is important.

There's a difference when we talk about the covenant of grace or the covenant of works versus a covenant of grace or a covenant of works. Listen for the article when I'm using that, I'm gonna be very intentional about that and you'll see why later.

But all strands of covenant theology should have large agreement on these three points. There are minutia that different camps will fill in differently, okay, but the broad structure remains the same.

Reformed Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, we have very, very broad agreement on this topic. Yet, yet, we do have differences and those differences matter and we shouldn't pretend that they don't matter, they matter.

Are these differences definitional of the faith? No, not necessarily. Getting this topic wrong does not in and of itself condemn you as a damnable heretic, right? But what we believe about this topic will have downstream ramifications for how we live out the Christian faith and how we operate as a local church and within our households.

On more than one occasion, on many occasions, I've heard, I've heard people say that Baptists can't be covenantal. Baptists can't be covenantal because Baptists don't practice patal baptism. Michelle, inside joke, that's one that one's for you.

It's true that we don't practice patal baptism, but does that mean, does that mean that we are not covenantal? I'd argue that us Reformed Baptists do not baptize infants precisely because we are covenantal and because our understanding of covenant theology leads us to that conclusion, okay?

There's many systems who practice patal baptism, many systems who practice patal baptism and many of those systems, they're not Reformed, they're not Calvinistic, they're not covenantal, right? Reformed or Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans, Methodists, all of them practice patal baptism, yet none of them are Reformed nor are they covenantal and they don't claim to be.

More than this, the reason that each of these traditions practices patal baptism is different. So where we land on that topic is not necessarily determinative of whether or not we are covenantal. On the contrary, it is our view of covenant theology that ultimately leads to our view on baptism and church membership and various other topics.

And I would say that our view on this topic, you got to get this, okay? If you tuned out, you got to get this. Our view on this topic must be consistent. Our view of the covenants should carry across to every area of faith and life, right?

Our theology proper, what we believe about the nature of God, our view of the Trinity, right? Our view of God's decree in eternity past, our view of salvation, the church, the household, the church's mission in the world, our view of apologetics, our view of eschatology, all of this should be consistent.

If it's not, there's a problem somewhere. And the question we should be asking ourselves as we move forward in this is this, right? Is our view of covenant theology in history, is that view consistent with and does it flow from God's decree in eternity past?

Has God always had the same plan and the same people in view, or has He changed His mind on who the Trinity has decreed to justify, sanctify, glorify, and dwell with in perfect unity for all eternity?

Church, did God change His mind on that topic? The answer is no. Does Christ intercede for people who were not elected and then fail to save them? Or do we have a perfect high priest who lives forever to make intercession for those who were given to him and whom he represents perfectly as a federal head?

The study of covenant theology answers these questions as well. And brothers and sisters, it's glorious! At Apologia, we're covenantal, right? We believe in the unchanging, unified plan of the triune God to unite a particular people with His Son to the praise of His glory.

And we believe that God has set forth that plan from before the foundation of the world, and He's revealed it step by step in history. Here's the main premise for today, okay? If redemptive history is a story, covenant theology is the framework that tells that story.

Covenant theology is how we make sense of this fallen world, and it is also how God is restoring and advancing the cosmos to their eschatological culmination. It's the problem, it's how the world was broke, but it's also how God is fixing it.

You see, we take passages such as the one that Jerry read earlier in Psalm 24, we take this very seriously. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully, he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Do you want to stand on the true mountain of God? Do you want to be in his presence? Do you have clean hands? Do you have an upright heart, in and of yourself? Is that you? If not, brothers and sisters, you have a problem.

If not, you have a huge, a cosmic, an eternal problem. But you see, the good news of covenant theology is this, that the God has made a representational world, and there is one who does have clean hands and a pure heart, and you can be found in him and count it as clean.

That's the good news. Now to this question, what is a covenant? When I use this word, right, we can throw this term around so often that it loses meaning, and a lot of people do, and that's a shame. It really is a shame, because this term is vital.

It's vital to understanding the greatest story that has ever been told. Generally speaking, broadly speaking, a covenant could just be defined as an arrangement between two or more parties where every party has certain obligations.

That's a fine, that's a fine definition, but for the purpose of this sermon, I'm going to zoom in on that just a little bit and give you a little bit more precise, okay? A covenant is an oath-bound arrangement of blessing or cursing imposed and enforced by God upon particular parties.

An oath-bound arrangement of blessing or cursing imposed and enforced by God upon particular parties. Now here's the problem with using a strict definition like this, right? While I do think that this is an accurate definition, I think it can be used as a faithful lens to view the biblical covenants.

I believe this because I studied those historical covenants on their own, and then I came to exegetical and redemptive conclusions that created this definition, right? This is how we should evaluate traditions, isn't it?

We hold those traditions up against the Scriptures. That which is derived from the Scriptures we hold on to for dear life. That which is against the Scriptures must be abandoned. Brothers and sisters, we have traditions.

We are informed by history and by great teachers of the past, and we should be. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, our theology must be determined by this. At the end of the day, this is our standard, and that's even what the confessions themselves say.

This is the standard. If your tradition is not in conformity with this, ditch it. Now some people would accuse me of biblicism for what I just said, right? But listen, if what I just said is biblicism, so be it.

I don't care. Sign me up. Okay, this is the way we should do things. Tradition itself is not bad. Everybody here who has kids is handing a certain tradition down to their children. Tradition can actually be very, very good when it aligns with the Scriptures.

But if a person simply accepts a tradition because it's a tradition, they may be in very grave danger, right? We mustn't blindly accept unevaluated traditions or theological categories and then seek to fit Scripture into the confines of that definition.

That leads, always, that leads to a flattening out of the truths that God has revealed. We must, we must, we must draw our covenant theology from the text, not impose it upon the text. We must allow biblical exegesis to determine our covenant theology, not the other way around.

Now rather than spend forever on the nature of a covenant, let me just present my conclusions, okay? First, I want to give you a brief definition of what a covenant is. I did that, and then I'll explain how I came to that conclusion.

And my hope is that by the time we get through the entire history of redemption next week, this concept will click, right? This concept will click as you see the grand narrative of God played out step-by-step in history.

In the past 150, 200 years or so, there's been all kinds of archaeological and historical research that's been done on this topic. They studied the ancient biblical world, they studied the surrounding nations, and listen, this can help give us a deeper understanding of interesting topics.

It gives more context for analyzing and identifying biblical covenants, but, brothers and sisters, it's not necessary, right? The Reformers came to the same conclusions from the Bible alone, hundreds of years before that archaeological research surfaced, okay?

But here's the conclusion that both the archaeological research and the Reformers came to. Biblical covenants can be understood as treaties between Yahweh and men, and those treaties contain within them some hallmark elements that are always present.

It's possible to break a covenant treaty into seven distinct parts, okay? There's a preamble, historical prologue, stipulations, blessings, curses, ratification, witnesses, succession, okay, but listen, I think we can get just as much benefit out of this by dividing the covenant into four elements.

When the term covenant is present, when we're looking at the Scriptures and the term covenant is present, we can conclude that the structure is present, and when the structure is present, we can conclude that a covenant is present.

Let me say that again. When the term covenant is present in the text, we can rightfully conclude that the covenantal structure is present, and when the covenantal structure is present, we can conclude that a covenant is present, even if the term is not expressly there.

If an arrangement doesn't fit into these categories, then there's simply no way to justify classifying it as a covenant. It might be a promise, okay? It might be some other sort of arrangement, but without that, we can't justify calling it a covenant.

These elements are vital to creating and defining biblical covenants, and that those four elements, as I'm teaching them tonight, in no particular order, ranking, rules, rewards and or retribution, and ratification.

That would be oaths, vows, witnesses, etc. Ranking, rules, rewards, retribution as one, and ratification. Ranking, okay? There's there's different types of covenants. Not all covenants are created to serve the same purpose.

Some covenants, for example, are created between equals, and each party has obligations towards their equal. A modern example of this would be a business arrangement, for example, business partners. Each partner is obligated to obey certain rules, and as a result, they receive certain rewards from that business arrangement.

If either partner breaks the terms of that arrangement, they will receive penalties. Some covenants, other covenants, are created between a greater party and a lesser party, right? Think of a conquering king coming in and subjugating another nation, right?

A great king and a lesser king. That great king might impose obligations upon that lesser king for their continued existence, shall we say. But no matter the type, right? Get this, here's what you got to get.

No matter what type of covenant we're talking about, every covenant has a pecking order. It has a hierarchy that defines who is who in that relationship. Covenants have ranking. Covenants also have rules, right?

That this could be equals obligating themselves to do certain tasks. It may be that greater king imposing rules on the lesser king, or it may be the greater party assuming the responsibility for the good of that lesser party.

But just like ranking, every covenant has rules that must be obeyed. If there's no rules, it's not a covenant. Covenants have rewards for obeying those rules. They also have retribution for violators.

Do this and live. Do this and die. When a covenant between equals is violated, there are penalties for the one who breaks the covenant. This could be open warfare, for example. It might be financial penalties.

It could be something else. When a covenant's made between a greater party and a lesser party, get this, if the lesser party violates the terms, you can be certain of something. Judgment's coming. Judgment is coming.

But the process of that judgment is going to be determined by the terms of that covenant, right? It depends on if the greater party chooses to take that judgment upon himself or if he chooses to pour it out upon that covenant breaker.

Lastly, covenants contain this element called ratification, right? Witnesses, oaths, vows, etc. Most of you in this room have been a part, have seen this, right? If you've been married or you've been to a wedding before, marriage is a great example of this, okay?

Before, think about this, before a wedding ceremony, there's typically an engagement or a betrothal period, right? This period carries with it certain responsibilities and duties for all parties. But when does that marriage start, right?

A marriage does not exist until the wedding. The parties are introduced, the rules are lined out, the rewards and the penalties till death do us part are explained. Then there's vows that are taken before God and witnesses.

Until those vows and oaths are pronounced and accepted, a marriage doesn't exist. But once a marriage is ratified by way of oaths before witnesses, a marriage covenant has been enacted, right? This is true of biblical covenants as well.

Often we'll see in the scriptures, we'll see God promise future blessing or he's going to promise a future covenant. But those promises are not in and of themselves a covenant. Only when the witnessed oaths and vows take place does a covenant properly exist in history.

Up until that point, it's a promise, not a covenant. And on top of this, we have to, you got to get this too, man. We got to allow each biblical covenant to define its own terms. This is really important actually, right?

You got to get this. We must allow each biblical covenant to define its own terms. We don't get, for example, to treat a marriage covenant as if it was a greater king conquering a lesser king. Can you imagine what marriage would look like if it was treated that way?

A greater king imposing his force upon this conquered party. Not good. Likewise, we can't treat a covenant of grace as if it is a covenant of works, right? We can't impose aspects from one covenant upon another covenant without explicit biblical warrants for doing so.

Covenants define their own terms. It's written in stone. Does not God say this can't be annulled? This can't be changed. It defines its own terms. And we actually won't understand what God is accomplishing in history if we don't allow a covenant to define its own terms.

By looking at the covenants that God has imposed upon man, we can see each one of these covenantal elements present. Each one of them has a ranking, rules, rewards, and retribution, and ratification. But get this, okay?

What's truly amazing about our God is that he not only has condescended, he's not only come down to make covenants with his creatures, something we neither deserve nor could we merit nor demand, by the way.

Not only has God done that, but the members of the Trinity actually made a covenant among themselves before the world began to fulfill God's eternal plan for the cosmos. This agreement amongst the members of the Trinity is often called the Pactum Salutis.

There's your $20 word for the evening. Pactum Salutis, or the Covenant of Redemption. Now what is this? What is the Covenant of Redemption? It's that eternal agreement among the members of the Trinity, and in it the Father gives a certain people to the Son.

The Son takes on human flesh, he redeems them, and he accomplishes the required work on their behalf, and the Spirit applies Christ's finished work to those for whom he died. We've got to see the beautiful unity in this agreement.

Every person whom the Father elects is given to the Son. The Son accomplishes perfectly redemption and intercedes for those who were given to him only, and the Spirit applies that work to the elect alone, and he keeps them until the end.

Every step of the way. Here's why this is beautiful. Every step of the way, each member of the Trinity is dealing with the exact same group of people. The term Covenant of Redemption, if you were to turn to the back of your Bible, it's not in the glossary of your Bible, right?

This is a theological term, kind of like the term Trinity, that's used by theologians and to describe the covenant relationships of the members of the Trinity. Also, unlike every other covenant that we're going to talk about, the Covenant of Redemption was not imposed upon man by God, it's an agreement between the co-equal, co-eternal divine persons.

Much of what we know of this plan comes from a few passages that speak on God's actions in eternity past, right? This has led a lot of people to question the relevance of the Covenant of Redemption, or to view it as speculative and unnecessary.

Now, on the one hand, I agree, right, with the sentiment that where Scripture is silent, we should shut our mouths. That's true, but I disagree on how silent the Scriptures actually are on this point.

Still, nevertheless, right, this is a theological term that's not used in Scripture, but we can see its substance in the Scriptures, right? And because of this, it's important to understand the eternal purpose of God before we evaluate how he actually brought that purpose to pass in history.

The Covenant of Redemption in Eternity Past

In the book of Isaiah, right, in chapter 53 verse 10, in the book of Isaiah, in the heart of one of the most beautiful prophecies of Christ, right, the suffering servant, we read the following, it was the will of Yahweh to crush him.

To crush who? It was the will of Yahweh to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring interesting. Apparently Christ has offspring. I might ask, who are Christ's offspring?

Continuing, he shall prolong his days. The will of Yahweh will prosper in his hands, right? If Christ is the suffering servant, we can see that it's the Father who willed to crush the Son. This was his plan, and as Christ tells us in John 6, Christ has come to do his Father's will.

But listen, it wasn't just the Father's will, right? Later in John 10, Christ tells us, no one takes my life for me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up.

Again, we can see, once again, the unity between the Father and the Son. The Father wills and sends. The Son wills and accomplishes. But perhaps the most beautiful passage illustrating the unity of all three members of the Trinity can be found in that verse that we read before I started.

Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 to 14. I'm gonna read this again, but what I want you to do, listen, read along, listen for a few things. Listen for what the Father is doing. Listen for what the Son is doing.

Listen for what the Spirit is doing. Listen who it is that benefits from this, and listen to when it was that God determined he was going to do it, okay? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

That, we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.