God’s Covenant and the Cross
God demonstrated His permanent promise to His people, His covenant of grace, in the cross of Jesus. Our Baptist Confession states (7.3): “This covenant is revealed in the gospel. It was revealed first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman. After that, it was revealed step by step until the full revelation of it was completed in the New Testament.” This eternal covenant, founded in the eternal counsel of the Godhead, is not something far away from us, but deeply personal. When Jesus willing went to the cross, He did so not by accident or by inevitability from the perspective of man. Christ went to the cross because He always purposed to reveal His faithfulness to His people.
God’s Mediator and the Cross
At the cross, Jesus lived out most perfectly His three offices as Prophet (who speaks to His people), Priest (who intercedes and satisfies what is due in His people), and King (who protects and rules over His people). This, again, is articulated beautifully in our confession (8.8): “To all those for whom Christ has obtained eternal redemption, He certainly and effectually applies and imparts it. He intercedes for them, unites them to Himself by his Spirit, and reveals to them in and by His Word the mystery of salvation. He persuades them to believe and obey and governs their hearts by His Word and Spirit. He overcomes all their enemies by His almighty power and wisdom, using methods and ways that are perfectly consistent with His wonderful and unsearchable governance. All these things are by free and absolute grace, apart from any condition for obtaining it that is foreseen in them.” Have you considered the extent of Christ’s work for His people in that one foul and faithful moment? Consider all the inheritance proven in that single precious work!
God’s Assurance and the Cross
Jesus is no longer on the cross. This permanent promise can only truly be assured if Jesus does not stay on the cross. His rising again from the empty tomb attests that all the promises of God are yes and amen. He has indeed accomplished His counsel, and is proving it even now in our daily walk with Him. He shows Himself sufficient and satisfactory for every prayer we plead, every longing need, and every care we cling to Him for. This is why He proclaims to us through Peter the chosen and preciousness of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4). We recognize—not a Savior bruised any longer, not a crownless king, not a priest with nailed hands any longer—but a Just and Righteous Sovereign who is resurrected to the Right Hand of God (1 Peter 3:22). He is proven worthy to receive all our trust because He alone can give all of these assurances.
This Resurrection Sunday we celebrate the one who is not only our substitute for the forgiveness of sins, but the mediator from whom we receive far greater inheritances, riches, mercies, and graces all more than we could have ever earned or received apart from His divine and eternal right.
Our Christ, our ever-sovereign Head
Bore our wrath due with awful dread
That we may call Him ours in sin
By Spirit’s power born again,
He gave it all and gives it still,
not for our worth but by His will.
His gracious hand has calmed the sea,
into His love He calls us free.
Pastor Chris
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