Lesson 4 Flashcards
- How does Macleod answer the question of the Lord’s Supper being a means of grace?
1) When accompanied by teaching of its meaning and significance (which requires limiting its administration to ordained clergy), it coveys assurance of God’s love and our forgiveness (peace of conscience)
2) We receive the same sanctifying grace through the sacraments as we do through the word, only through the other senses and it is the same joyful presence of Christ as in the gathering, the preaching, baptism, etc, all of which helps us die to sin and live to righteousness.
3) Not the physical substances, but the faith of the communicant in Christ AND His sign/seal, and the power of the Holy Spirit operating upon him.
- According to Macleod what is happening during communion in the mind and heart of the participant?
1) Commemorating Christ (remembering Him)
2) Proclaiming His death and second coming
3) Give thanks to Him for what He did for us
4) Confess Christ to each other and unbelieving spectators
5) Have communion with Christ and the Church
6) Feed upon Christ by faith, being nourished by Him.
- How is Jeremiah 34 significant for better understanding covenants, especially the “pledge-to-death” motif?
1) In Jeremiah 34, King Zedekiah of Judah performs a covenant-renewal ceremony. Much of it echoes the form and language of the Abrahamic covenant that God made with Abram in Genesis 15. However, King Zedekiah and his people fail to uphold the basic terms of the covenant, and they are sentenced to death by God. This is further evidence that the killing of the animals in the covenant ritual was meant to symbolize what would happen to those who failed to uphold it.
2. A renewal involving the reading of the law (the conditions of the previous covenant) (Hebrew slaves 1st after the 10 commandments).
3) Passing between the pieces was somehow a part of the Mosaic Covenant, not just the Abrahamic. Probably the sprinkling of blood stood in its place: “pledge-to-death”.
4) No diminishing of consciousness occurred between Abraham and Jeremiah about covenants.
- According to Robertson, how is God’s covenant with Abraham to be characterized?
1) A bond in blood sovereignly administered.
2) A covenant of promise - God promises redemption by passing through the pieces Himself without Abraham.
3. His sovereignty and the many promises that He graciously makes to Abraham.
- Has the Adamic Covenant been set aside? Why or why not?
1) No. It included the moral law. Man’s disobedience does not annul God’s demands for obedience.
2) Christ has fulfilled the requirements on our behalf, however, and so the Adamic Covenant is no longer valid as a means of eternal life apart from grace.
3) Rom 3:31 “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law”
- What promises and obligations are found in the Abrahamic Covenant?
Promises
1) “I will make you a great nation” (so shall your descendants be)
2) God will bless Abram
3) “I will make your name great”
4) God’s blessing on those who bless Abraham, and God’s curse on those who curse Abraham.
5) All the families of the earth will be blessed
6) The Land given to Abraham’s descendants
The requirements / obligations
1. Leave your country
2. Leave your people
3. Leave your father’s house
4, Go to a Land
- Explain whether circumcision is the covenant or the sign of the covenant.
1) The covenant is that God will be their God and they will be His people.
2) Circumcision is the sign of this covenant (Gen 17:11 says so explicitly).
3) The promise is so sure, that the sign itself can even be said figuratively to “be” the covenant.
- What scriptural support is there for the relationship between circumcision and baptism?
1) Genesis 17 -> Acts 2 -> Gal 3:14 says the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham
2) Rom 4:11
3) Colossians 2:11-12
- What are the reasons for baptism being a covenantal sign?
1) In Acts 2, Peter draws a connection between baptism and circumcision in Genesis 17.
2. Not to save,
3) Not to replace our faith
4) But to aid our faith which is weak.
