Posting 17 WHAT ADVANTAGE DO COVENANT MEMBERS HAVE?
Four infants were baptized at the morning service in the church I attend. What a tremendous advantage these four infants have over thousands of other infants throughout the world who were also born about the same time. The parents of these baptized infants, and all the members of the congregation with them, took a vow to instruct these infants in the things pertaining to their relationship to God. God is one and they are to love him with all their soul, heart, and being. These truths are so important that parents are to:
“Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut. 6:7).
God's attitude of grace toward these infants will be made known to them. Before long they will understand the meaning of the words from the song: “Jesus loves me, this I know —for the Bible tells me so.” These children will be "entrusted with the very words of God." Baptism, the sign and seal of God’s attitude and disposition of grace toward them, was administered to them. These are “covenant children” and as such they inherit the promise already experienced by their parents or guardians:
“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and
you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your
God and the God of your descendants after you” (Gen. 17:7).
God established his covenant with Abraham and ever since there has been an externally identifiable community to whom the testimony concerning the one true God has been made known. This covenant continued with Abraham’s descendants and was sealed with the sign of circumcision: “You will undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between you and me” (Gen. 17:9–11). This “covenant line" is known today as the “visible” church, that is, those people to whom God has made known his attitude of favor and grace. “We are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:3). This social group has advantages not shared by the rest of mankind.
Referring to the visible church, the covenant community, as a “social group” emphasizes the fact that all covenant members are not necessarily “born again” Christians who are certain to come to salvation. There are hypocrites and pretenders within this group. It is fitting and necessary that members of this community make their “calling and election sure.” What all members of this group have in common is that God has made his Word of grace known to them.
EXPRESSED GRACE
The Jews, the Old Covenant people of God, could say "In the past God spoke [i.e. established his covenant] with our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken [i.e. established his covenant] with us by his Son" (Heb. 1:1). "The Word [from God] became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14). Jesus, as the Word from God, is "the mediator of the new covenant." Through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God expressed his attitude of favor and grace to Gentiles as well as Jews.
In light of that, it is no wonder that much has been said and written about the meaning and implications of the covenant between God and his people. Much more ought to be said about it. It is understandable that some students of the Scriptures find evidence of this covenant relationship on most pages of the Bible.
Does this mean that salvation is found only among those either born or brought into "the line of the covenant"? There are those who say that Evangelical Inclusivism, as espoused in this study, obliterates the distinctive covenant relationship between God and his people because it allows that salvation may be found among some people who are not members of this “covenant line.” We must answer the question: “Will only covenant members be saved?”
In responding to this question, I do not wish to detract from what has been said about the importance of the covenant relationship between God and his people. I will, however, call attention to one essential characteristic of “the covenant.”
In a post-graduate course, the late Dr. John Murray (Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia), reviewed with us every instance where the word "covenant" is used in both the Old and New Testament. Murray concluded that the following definition applies to every one of these uses: "A covenant is an oath-bound commitment or promise, usually accompanied with a sign." The act of putting into words belongs to the very essence of the biblical idea of covenant. The Bible, unlike modern legal codes, knows nothing of an unexpressed or implied covenant.
Thus there are two distinct and essential elements in God's covenant of grace. First, there is the disposition or attitude of grace, that is, God granting favor and blessing (salvation) to those who are not deserving of his goodness. Second, there is the matter of expressing (putting into words) his disposition or attitude of grace to this group of people. It is only when both of these elements are present that God's covenant of grace is established with some people and not with others.
UN-EXPRESSED, IMPLIED GRACE
It is possible that God’s attitude of favor and grace toward some people exists even though he has not expressed this grace to them. Although not expressed, God’s saving grace is implied in the words spoken to the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed" (Gen. 3:15). The "seed of the woman" is all persons. She is "the mother of all living" (Gen. 3:20). There is "enmity" (hostility, antagonism) placed there by God between Satan and "the seed of the woman," that is, all persons. Satan seeks to destroy all those created in the image of God.
This "enmity" comes to its ultimate expression in the doing and dying of the "last Adam" who, like the "first Adam," stands in the place of the "seed of the woman" (all persons). “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). "He [Jesus Christ] will crush your head" (Gen. 3:15). All persons are ultimate beneficiaries of this crushing blow except those who willfully, persistently, and finally choose to align themselves with Satan and to live apart from God (see Chapter 2). They are "the seed of Satan;" they will be lost. They will share in his fate.
GOD'S ATTITUDE OF GRACE IS TO BE EXPRESSED OR PROCLAIMED TO ALL PERSONS EVERYWHERE
"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against
them. And he committed to us the message of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19).
During the Old Covenant, God expressed his “Word of grace” to Abraham and his descendants and to others who were joined to this covenant community. This does not mean that God had an attitude of indifference or ill will toward all those who were not associated with the covenant community. It is not the case that through the coming of Jesus Christ, God’s attitude toward the vast stretches of humanity was suddenly and dramatically changed from one of ill will to one of favor and grace. Until the appointed time Gentiles were “. . . excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenant of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). In the Old Covenant, God’s attitude of grace was not expressed in words to the world at large.
What changed with the coming of Jesus Christ was the proclaiming of God’s favor and salvation to Gentiles as well as to Jews. This is evident in Eph. 3:1–10.
The very words of God “ought to be announced and declared without differentiating or discriminating, to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel" (Canons of Dort II, 5). Paul preached "to the Gentiles [non-covenant people] the unsearchable riches of Christ, and [made] plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things." He did so because God's "intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known . . ." (Eph. 3:8–10). “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:14).
As members of the New Covenant, it has been made known to Gentiles that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.” And that God “committed to us the message of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19). God is not, and the church ought not to be, pleased to leave any people in their despair (living apart from “the very words of God”), keeping from them the fact that in Christ God has reconciled “the world to himself.” New Testament (covenant) members have been given the “good news of great joy that [is] for all the people" (Luke 2:10). They may—and are obligated to—communicate this good news “without discrimination” to all people everywhere.
Paul says that Christ "came and preached peace to you who were far away [Gentiles, "non-covenant people"] and peace to those who were near [Israelites, those who were in "the covenant line"] because through him “we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Eph. 2:17, 18). God’s attitude and disposition of grace is, in the New Testament, to be made known to covenant members and those outside the covenant line, thereby bringing them into a covenant relationship with God.
This grace is only made known by "the very words of God" being spoken to those outside the covenant line. “Therefore go and make disciples [students] of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). This baptism, whether of infants or adults, is never administered without the anticipation of further nurturing those baptized in the things pertaining to their salvation.
COVENANT AND NON-COVENANT MEMBERS TREATED SIMILARLY
The basic theme running through Rom. 1 and 2 is that there is no substantive difference between Jews and Gentiles. This fact is reflected in God’s attitude toward and dealing with Jews (covenant people) and the rest of mankind. This is evident in Rom. 1:5, 6, 14, 16; 2:1, 4, 6–29. In the closing portion of Rom. 2, Paul speaks of the fact that both those who were circumcised (Jews) and those not circumcised (Gentiles) could either break the law or be praised by God. Both covenant people and those outside that covenant fellowship (the covenant line) are treated in the same way (Rom. 2:25–29). We do no injustice to these verses if we substitute the word “baptism” for “circumcision” and the term “church member” for “Jews.”
“[Baptism] has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have
become as though you had not been [baptized]. If those who are not [baptized]
keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were
[baptized]? The one who is not [baptized] physically and yet obeys the law will
condemn you who are a lawbreaker, even though you have the written word
and [baptism].
“A man is not a [church member] if he is only one outwardly, nor is [baptism]
merely outward and physical. No, a man is a [church member] if he is one
inwardly; and [baptism] is [baptism] of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written
word. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:25–29).
WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE?
Rom. 2:25–29 tells us that God’s attitude towards and dealing with church members (those in the covenant line) is no different than his attitude towards and dealing with those who are not members of the church. That is an astonishing truth! Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, realizes that what he has said up to this point in his letter to the Romans will make his readers ask:
What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in
circumcision?” (Rom. 3:1)
Or, as we may say:
What advantage, then, is there in being a [member of the church], or what
value is there in being [baptized]?
It appears in Paul’s exposition, as it does in Evangelical Inclusivism, that the distinction between being a member of the church and not being a member of the church is lost. The question is: “What advantage is there in either being born into, or as an adult participating in, the covenant community?” In responding to this question, Paul does not say, “Much in every way! It is only among them (covenant members, church members) that salvation can be found.” If salvation is found only among church members, this would have been Paul’s answer to his own question.
Paul is very clear in the answer he gives to the question he asked: "First of all” ["chiefly" or "most importantly"] the Jews (the covenant people, church members) "they have been entrusted with the very words [the “oracles”] of God" (Rom. 3:1).
That is the advantage the four infants who were baptized that Sunday had over thousands of other infants throughout the world who were also born about that time. They were going to be nurtured “with the very words of God.” Paul did not say, and the Bible never says, that the advantage of being "in the covenant line" is that God’s saving grace is found only among covenant people and all others remain the objects of God’s wrath.
