Theology E. Covenant Theology Flashcards
What is a covenant?
-It is an agreement between persons. The elements of a covenant consist of parties, obligations/stipulations, promises, oaths/vows, blessings and curses and witnesses. God’s covenant with man is described as a “voluntary condescension on God’s part” (WCF 7).
What is the Covenant of Works? Who are its parties?
- (WSC 12) When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.
- The parties are God and Adam, as well as all the descendants of Adam.
Is there a present validity to the Covenant of Works?
-The present validity of the Covenant of Works is the federal headship of Adam. He is our representative, and his sin and the subsequent effects of the fall are passed down to his descendants. We have sinned, fallen, and reaped the consequences of disobedience in Adam.
What is the Covenant of Redemption? who are its parties?
- (WC 20) God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
- (WLC 31) The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.
Discuss the Covenant of Grace
- Gracious = God had no obligation to enter into covenant and his word is the insurance of its validity.
- Trinitarian = Father elects, Son justifies, Spirit applies effectually
- Eternal = cannot be broken
- Particular = only effectual for the elect, not universal in scope
- One covenant of grace with various administrations (dispensations)
How is the Covenant of Grace related to the Abrahamic Covenant? Mosaic? Noahic?
- The promised Redeemer (seed0 of Gen 3:15 is coming one step closer in the covenant with Abraham. God chooses one man to be the eventual father of the promised Redeemer, the scope of the covenant encompasses all nations (eventually), and the sign of circumcision is added to the covenant as a physical reminder of God’s faithfulness to his covenant.
- The stipulations of the law are given in great detail under this administration of the covenant, regarding sacrifice, worship, and community, as a response to the redemption God achieves on behalf of his people.
- This administration of the covenant underscores God’s intention not to abandon the work of his hands but to sustain, preserve, and redeem his good creation through families, despite the ongoing presence of sin in the world.
Discuss the relationship between the Old and New Covenants. Defend from Scripture
a. WCF 7. 6
b. WLC 32, 33, 34, 35
c. There is one covenant with different dispensations. (Galatians 3:14)
d. There is a distinction between the Old and New (Hebrews 8:13), and the New in this sense replaces the old.
Explain and defend with Scripture proofs the orthodox doctrine of the person of Christ.
- (WSC 21) The only redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.
- Luke 1:35 = birth of Christ, fully man
- Colossians 2:9= fully God
- Hebrews 1:1-4 = the union of both God and man
Briefly discuss the natures of Christ, including:
a. Was Christ a human person?
b. Does Christ have a soul?
(WSC 22) Christ took to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary and born of her, yet without sin.
What is kenosis?
- Kenosis is a theological term from Philippians 2:5-11 which refers to the incarnation of Christ. He is described as having “emptied himself” and taken human form. In taking on human flesh, Christ is spoken of undergoing some manner of self-limitation. The emptying has two aspects to
it: taking on the likeness of sinful humanity and enduring death on the cross. Dr. Bayer underscores the humility of Christ in not exercising all the privileges of the godhead in the incarnation.
Did Christ lay aside any of his divine attributes at the incarnation?
-No, Colossians 2:9 - “in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form”
Docetism
= Christ only appears to become a man, the suffering and other human traits were merely imaginary phenomena - not a true body and a rational soul at the incarnation. John 20 and Thomas touching the nail prints and the wounded side of Jesus.
Arius
= Christ is not the eternal son of God, the first created being. John 1:1-14.
Apollinarius
=Christ lacked a human soul. WSC 22 - “reasonable soul”
Nestorius
= Christ is divided into two persons, a human and divine. Colossians 2:9.
Eutyches
= Christ only had one nature, a mixture of both human and divine. WSC 22- “two distinct natures”.
Are any these early heresies regarding the nature of Christ held today? If so, by whom?
-The Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons hold a form of Arianism.
Explain and defend the doctrine of the “communication of properties.”
- A term within Christology that attempts to account for the way in which each of Christ’s natures’ properties are interchanged in the unity of his personhood. Both the human and divine properties are held in common by the one person of Christ in the incarnation
Define the following names: Jesus
= he will save his people from their sins
Define the following names: Son of Man
= Jesus favorite title for himself, taken from the book of Daniel c. Christ = Messian, the anointed one of God
Define the following names: Son of Man
Son of God= Jesus unique reality as the second member of the trinity
Define the following names: Lord
= New Testament designation for Christ as Yahweh.
Define the following names: Lamb of God
= Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sins of the world 16. How was Christ born?
-WSC 22
Explain and defend the Virgin Birth.
Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul,
1 being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her,
2 yet without sin.
- WSC 22
-Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:16-38
John 1:14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 2:14. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
