The Covenant With Abraham (1)
Scripture clearly teaches that the covenant with Abraham is the same covenant later established with Israel. When God made His covenant with Abraham, He established it also with his seed (Gen. 17:7—“thy seed after thee in their generations”). Likewise, when God established His covenant with Israel, He made plain that He was remembering and maintaining the covenant He had already made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Ex. 2:23-25).
This is important because it means that what was true of Abraham in the covenant was also true of Israel. And since all believers are the true seed of Abraham, what was true of Abraham is true also for us.
Several important features of the covenant with Abraham must therefore be noted. The first and most important is that the covenant with Abraham—and therefore also with Israel—was a covenant of grace. This is beautifully revealed in Genesis 15.
To understand Genesis 15 properly, it is necessary to remember that in those days covenants were not confirmed by written contracts and legal signatures, but by a solemn ceremony in which the parties walked together between the divided pieces of slain animals. Jeremiah 34:18 describes the same practice.
This ceremony was reserved for matters of great seriousness. It signified that anyone who broke the covenant deserved to be cut in pieces like the slain animals and cast out as food for the birds and beasts. In Jeremiah 34:19-20 God threatens covenant-breaking Israel with precisely such judgment.
Because human covenants are made between equals, they are bilateral or two-sided agreements. Thus both parties ordinarily walked together between the divided pieces. God’s covenant is altogether different, however, because God and man are never equals in the covenant. The covenant God established with Abraham demonstrates this clearly.
According to Genesis 15, this covenant was entirely one-sided, that is, unilateral. It was established by God alone. When God passed between the divided pieces, Abraham was in a deep sleep. Abraham contributed nothing to the establishment of the covenant. In no sense did the covenant depend upon him. It was truly a covenant of grace.
More than this, by passing between the pieces Himself, God symbolically declared that He alone would bear the curse and punishment of covenant breaking, as indeed He did in the death of His Son (cf. Isa. 53:8; Gal. 3:13). For the sins of His covenant people, God, in Christ, endured the covenant curse Himself: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). In this way also the covenant was revealed to be a covenant of grace in Christ. Rev. Ron Hanko
Names Blotted Out (2)
“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels” (Rev. 3:5).
We continue here the article begun in the previous issue of the News. That article addressed the question: “If believers’ names are written in the book of life from the foundation of the world (Rev. 17:8), and if God preserves His people to the end, how can Revelation 3:5 speak of names being blotted out of the book of life?”
The earlier article showed that Revelation 3:5 does not teach the falling away of saints. Rather, the passage is a promise to the faithful in Sardis that their names will not be blotted out of the book of life. It is at that point that we now continue.
Yet that explanation alone is not entirely sufficient. There is more in the passage that must be considered.
Although the text is indeed a promise to those who overcome, it also contains an implied warning to the unfaithful—and there were many unfaithful in Sardis.
This reminds us that the gospel comes not only with promises, but also with threats. The promises are addressed to those who walk in faithfulness, while the threats stand over against the unfaithful.
Why does God speak in the gospel by means of threats? That is an important question.
The answer has to do with what is often called the address of the gospel, a subject about which there is frequently much confusion.
First, the address of the gospel means that the gospel is preached indiscriminately to elect and reprobate alike. It must be proclaimed broadly and without respect of persons. All who hear are commanded to hear and repent.
Second, the address of the gospel means that the gospel is not a well-meant offer dependent upon the sinner’s acceptance. It is not a pleading invitation in which God attempts to persuade men to receive something merely offered to them. Rather, the gospel comes as a divine command with the authority of heaven itself: “Thus saith the Lord!” And that means men are obligated to obey.
To that command God joins the promise of salvation and eternal blessedness to all who obey by faith. At the same time He joins the warning of eternal judgment to all who refuse.
Thus the gospel proclaims that faith in Christ brings peace, joy and everlasting blessedness, while unbelief brings misery, condemnation and eternal death.
Yet all men by nature are totally depraved, and no man is able of himself to believe the gospel. Left to themselves, all men would reject it—and can only reject it.
Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit works through the preaching of the gospel to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. Through that same preaching the Spirit works faith in the hearts of the elect, while hardening the wicked in their unbelief and rebellion.
Thus the wicked hear both the promises and the warnings and despise them alike.
The elect, however, hear those same promises and warnings and are humbled by them. Through the warnings they are driven to repentance and to flee for refuge to the cross of Christ. Through the promises they are comforted and strengthened in faith.
In this way the wicked are left without excuse, for their unbelief and hardness of heart reveal the dreadful character of their sin. The elect, on the other hand, are brought consciously and experientially into the enjoyment of God’s salvation.
God deals with His people as rational and moral creatures who consciously receive and enjoy His salvation. He leads them in the way of prayer, struggle, repentance, fleeing from sin, trembling at His warnings and finding comfort in the glorious promises of the gospel.
And through it all God works sovereignly, so that the salvation freely given to His people remains entirely His work alone. Prof. Herman Hanko
How Can a “Dead” Heart Be “Hardened”? (2)
We are considering the following question: “If the heart of the unbeliever is already dead, how can God harden a heart of stone?”
We have already shown that this question cannot be answered by denying or weakening the doctrine of total depravity. The fact that a wicked person’s heart may be hardened does not mean that he is not already dead in trespasses and sins or unable to do any spiritual good. Man by nature is totally depraved. In that sense he cannot become more depraved than he already is.
How, then, does hardening take place?
This hardening involves several things.
1) First, it means that the testimony of a person’s conscience is increasingly silenced. Scripture speaks in I Timothy 4:2 of those “having their conscience seared with a hot iron,” like scarred and unfeeling flesh hardened by a severe burn.
As this takes place, a person finds it easier and easier to indulge himself in wickedness. The inclination toward every kind of evil is always present in the natural man, but the conscience still restrains, to some extent, the outward practice of sin. In hardening, even this restraint is progressively removed as a person gives himself over to evil.
It must not be supposed that the existence of conscience in man is evidence of spiritual goodness. Conscience remains because God does not leave man without witness, even within his own heart. Indeed, because man still possesses a conscience and knows the difference between good and evil, he is left wholly without excuse before God.
2) Second, hardening involves the actual increase of outward wickedness. Romans 1 speaks of this in terms of God “giving men over” to uncleanness, vile affections and a reprobate mind. According to Romans 1:28, the result is that men practice those things which are “not convenient,” that is, offensive and perverse. I Timothy 4:1 also speaks of men giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
Again, it must be remembered that depravity is fundamentally a matter of the heart. The wicked are thoroughly corrupt within (Jer. 17:9). Yet, as noted previously, not every man commits every possible sin. Nevertheless, as judgment upon wickedness, God increasingly removes those providential restraints that hinder the outward expression of evil, both in individuals and in society generally. As a result, both men and societies grow increasingly corrupt.
Hardening, therefore, does not mean that man’s nature becomes more depraved in itself. Rather, it means that his already totally depraved nature manifests itself more fully in his thoughts, words and deeds. In this way the wicked “fill up” their iniquity and become ripe for judgment (Gen. 15:16; Matt. 23:32).
3) Third, hardening involves a person becoming increasingly stubborn against all reproof, correction and chastisement, whether from men or from God Himself. Nabal is a striking example of this. God turned his physical heart to stone, corresponding to the spiritual hardness that already characterized him. Scripture describes him as “such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him” (I Sam. 25:17).
This aspect of hardening is often most evident in those who have sat under the preaching of the gospel and perhaps even shown some outward response, yet afterwards return to their former unbelief and wickedness. Such persons often become almost impossible to reach or reason with concerning spiritual things. Rev. Ron Hanko
