Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful for a fun day spent with my youngest granddaughter. It’s the first time I’ve taken care of her for longer than a few minutes while her parents walk their dog. Everything went perfectly, and for that I’m thankful. I’m thankful God gives me enough energy to take care of my grandbabies.

I’m thankful for book to read on dark winter nights and candles to light the darkness. I’m thankful that January is over.

I’m thankful that God gives us rest — rest from work and rest from striving. I’m thankful that God provides what I need, and more. I’m thankful that my future is in his hands. I’m thankful that all God’s promises find their yes in Christ. 

Purposes of Christ's Death: 2 Corinthians 5

This is another updated and reposted piece from an old series of posts examining the purpose statement that scripture gives us regarding the death of Christ. 

This post looks at two texts from 2 Corinthians 5. The first is text is this: 

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; [15] and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15 ESV)

The second is just a few verses away:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

The purpose statements in these two texts are different, but I’ve to put them together because they come from the same passage of scripture.

The purpose statement in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15  is “that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” One of the purposes of Christ’s death is to produce people who no longer live in the old way of life, but in the new way; who no longer live self-centered lives, but live lives centered around Christ. Or to put it another way, Christ died to create people who are controlled, not by self-love, but by love of Christ. 

The second purpose statement is found in 5:21. Christ died “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” In The Atonement: It’s Meaning and Significance, Leon Morris explains the mysterious phrase “righteousness of God”:

….the expression signifies the righteousness or ‘right standing’ that God gives….Paul is clearly referring to a legal status, a standing before God. A status can be given, and the apostle says that this status is given.

You will probably recognise the term “right-standing” before God (or the “righteousness of God”) as another way of expressing justification. In a parallel — but an opposite kind of parallel — to Christ being counted as sinful, we are counted as righteous. This is another of the many purposes of Christ’s death: Christ died so that we would be justified, or given a right legal status before God.

The two purposes for Christ’s death found in these texts are so that we would live for Him rather than for ourselves, and so that we would be justified.

Theological Term of the Week

pactum salutis
An agreement made in eternity past among the persons of the Trinity in which they plan to save a people; also called the covenant of redemption.

• From scripture:

[God] chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. [7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, [8] which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight [9] making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

[11] 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, [12] so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. [13] 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, [14] who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:4-14 ESV)

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. [38] For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. [39] And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. [40] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:37-40 ESV)

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

Scripture clearly points to the fact that the plan of redemption was included in the eternal decree or counsel of God, Eph. 1:4ff; …. Now we find that in the economy of redemption there is, in a sense, a division of labor: the Father is the originator, the Son the executor, and the Holy Spirit the applier. This can only be the result of a voluntary agreement amont the persons of the Trinity….

• From Salvation, Past, Present, and Future by Sinclair Ferguson:

God has a plan. It has been called the covenant of redemption, or the covenant of peace (pactum salutis). Theologians as great as Thomas Boston and Jonathan Edwards have disagreed as to whether the plan should properly be described as a covenant at all. But the debates over nomenclature are incidental to the thing itself.

The triune God had a plan, involving the mutual commitment of Father, Son and Spirit to save a people. About this the reformed theologians speak with one voice.

Before all time; prior to all worlds; when there was nothing “outside of” God himself; when the Father, Son and Spirit found eternal, absolute and unimaginable blessing, pleasure and joy in their holy triunity — it was their agreed purpose to create a world which would fall, and in unison — but at infinitely great cost — to bring you (if you are a believer) grace and salvation. This deeper grace from before the dawn of time — pictured in the rituals, the leaders and the experiences of the Old Testament saints (cf. Heb. 11:39–12:3) — is now ours. These are the dimensions of what the author of Hebrews calls “such a great salvation” (Heb. 2:3).

Learn more:

1. Sinclair Ferguson: Salvation, Past, Present, and Future
2. John Samson: The Pactum Salutis
3. Against Heresies: The Covenant of Redemption
4. R. B. C. Howell: The Covenant of Redemption
5. Charles Hodge: Covenant of Redemption

Related terms:

• covenant
• decree(s) of God
• order of God’s decrees
• ordo salutis

Filed under God’s Nature and His Work

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.