Notes: Section I. — Of The Eternal Purpose Of Grace.
Notes: SECTION I. — OF THE ETERNAL PURPOSE OF GRACE.
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“How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you, Israel? How shall I make you as Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.” Hosea 11.8.
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Mercy requires an object in misery.
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That is, Favour and Compassion said to God.
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As Man lay in ruins by the fall, guilty and unclean, there stood in the way of his salvation, designed by mercy, 1. The justice of God, which could not admit the guilty creature; and, 2. The holiness of God, which could not admit the unclean and unholy creature to communion with him. Therefore, in the contrivance of his salvation, it was necessary that provision be made to satisfy God’s justice, by payment of the double debt mentioned above; namely, the debt of punishment and the debt of perfect obedience. It was also necessary that provision be made for the sanctification of the sinner, repairing the lost image of God in him. And man being as unable to sanctify himself so as to satisfy justice (a truth which proud nature cannot digest), it was necessary that the Saviour not only obey and suffer in his stead, but also have the fulness of the Spirit of holiness in him to communicate to the sinner, that his nature might be repaired through sanctification of the Spirit. Thus the groundwork of man’s salvation was laid in the eternal counsel; the sanctification of the sinner, according to our author, was as necessary to his salvation as the satisfaction of justice; for indeed the necessity of the former, as well as the latter, arises from the nature of God, and is therefore an absolute necessity.
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That is, the debt which the elect owe to me. Thus the covenant was made between the Father and the Son for the elect, that he should obey for them, and die for them. [This is known as the Redemptive Covenant]
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David Pareus (1548-1622) – German Protestant theologian and reformer.
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That is, they struck a bargain, agreed on it, and in effect, shook hands to seal the covenant.
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The Son of God consented to put himself in man’s place in obeying his Father, and to do all for man that his Father would require, so that satisfaction would be made: further, he consented in man’s nature, to satisfy and suffer the deserved punishment, so that the same nature that sinned might satisfy for it; and still further, he undertook to bear the very same penalty that lay upon man by virtue of the Covenant of Works, to undergo it — thus making himself a proper surety for them; as the author observes, he must pay the sum of money that the debtor owes. I take this to be the author’s meaning, but the expression, “he undertook this under the penalty,” etc., is harsh and unguarded.
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Our Lord Jesus Christ became surety for the elect in the second covenant, Heb. 7.22; and by virtue of that suretyship whereby he put himself in the place of the principal debtors, he came under the same Covenant of Works that Adam did; in so far as fulfilling that covenant in their stead, this was the very condition required of him, as the second Adam in the second covenant. Gal. 4.4, 5, “God sent forth his Son; made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.” Thus Christ put his neck under the yoke of the law as a Covenant of Works, to redeem those who were under it as such. Hence he is said to be the “end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes,” Rom. 10.4; namely, the end for consummation, or for perfectly fulfilling it by his obedience and death, which presupposes his coming under it. And thus the law as a Covenant of Works was magnified and made honourable; and it clearly appears how “by faith we establish the law,” Rom. 3.31. How then is the second covenant a Covenant of Grace? In respect to Christ, it was most properly and strictly a Covenant of Works, in that he made a proper, real, and full satisfaction in behalf of the elect; but in respect to them, it is purely a covenant of richest grace, in as much as God accepted the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded from them; he provided the surety himself, and he gives all to them freely for his sake.
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And so, in relation to them, he is called the “first man.”
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Thus Adam represented all mankind in the first covenant, and Christ represented all the elect in the second covenant. — See the first note in the Preface – [Memoirs of Halyburton].