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The Covenant of Grace in Time and Eternity

by Herman Bavinck

Election is not the whole counsel of redemption, but is a part, the first and principle part, of it.  Included and established in that counsel is also the way in which the election is to be actualized - in short, the whole accomplishment and application is redemption.  We know that the election was purposed in Christ, and that the counsel of God is not merely a work of the Father, but also a work of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is a Divine work of ther Holy Trinity. In other words the counsel of redemption is itself a covenant - a covenant in which each of the three Persons, so to speak, receives His own work and achieves His own task.  The covenant of grace which is raised up in time and is continued from generation to generation is nothing other than the working out and the impression or imprint of the covenant that is fixed in the Eternal Being. As in the counsel of God, so in history each of the Persons appears. The Father is the source, the Son is the Achiever, and the Holy Spirit is the one who applies our salvation.  Hence everybody immediately and to the same extent does injustice to the work of the Fsather, the Son, or the Spirit, when he removes the foundation of eternity from time by loosening history from its anchorage in the gracious, almighty Divine Will.  

All the same, though time cannot do without eternity, and although history stands in the closest relationship with God's thought, the two are not in every way the same.  There is a big difference between them that in the history of time the eternal idea of God comes to be revealed and actualized.  The counsel of redemption and the covenant of grace cannot and may not be separated, but they differ from each other in this respect, that the second is the actualization of the first. The plan of redemption is not enough in itself. It needs to be carried out.  As a decision, it carries its implementation and actualization within itself, and itself brings these about.  It would even lose its character as counsel and decision if it did not achieve realization and manifestation.  And so it happens. Immediately after the fall, the covenant of grace is made known to man and is concluded with him, and thereupon it continues itself in history from generation to generation. The thing that is one thing in the decision unfolds itself in the breadth of thr world and develops itself in the course of the centuries.

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From The Wonderful Works of God by Herman Bavinck

Related: Three Characteristics of the Covenant of Grace by Herman Bavinck

Sat, 01/11/2020 - 12:01 -- john_hendryx

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