1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 7.3 The Preaching of the First Gospel

Table of Contents

The Text

Ephesians 1:3-8 (CSB) Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.

The Chapter

This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.

The Confession

This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman

Adam and Eve, who were perfect in the righteousness of God because they were created in the image of God, disobeyed God and sinned against God.

God approaches. God calls out to his children. They hid because they will filled with shame and guilt instead of joy and pleasures which they once knew.

Adam blames his wife. Eve blames Satan.

God does not address the blameshifting because his kids are now in dead in sin. He understands that they come from dust.

But instead of undoing Creation, destroying Satan, or disintegrating Adam and Eve, God preaches for the first time this incredible good news.

Genesis 3:15 (CSB) I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

What just happened? In the midst of our shame and guilt and sin, God declares war on Satan. God does not threaten but promises that he will defeat Satan once and for all.

But he will do it with the son of Eve.

and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament

God speaks:

Matthew 4:4 (CSB) He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

And gives us the Old Testament:

Luke 24:27 (CSB) Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.

Hebrews 1:1–2 (CSB) Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him.

And the New Testament:

John 5:39 (CSB) You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.

And

2 Peter 3:15–16 (CSB) Also, regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.

In other words, he gives us the Bible:

2 Timothy 3:16 (CSB) All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,

and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect

2 Timothy 1:9 (CSB) He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

Titus 1:2 (CSB) in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

Listen, this salvation might sound new to some but this was at work way before the creation of the world. In other words, before you could have sin, God saw you and loved you and chose you to be his child. For:

Ephesians 1:3–6 (CSB) Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

And:

Romans 5:8 (CSB) But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency

Hebrews 11:6 (CSB) Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:13 (CSB) These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

Romans 4:1–2 (CSB) What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God.

Acts 4:12 (CSB) There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

John 8:56 (CSB) Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

Our original parents failed and fallen. They introduced sin into our existence and broke everything. The cosmos descends into ruins. Murder, rape, abuse, trauma, stealing, disobedience and a myriad of other negative words will become familiar in our world as the air we breath.

But our God was not phased by this. Not shook. Not scared. Not angry. Not frightened. He took his stand in the garden, stared Satan right between the eyes, and proclaimed defiantly, "My Son is coming and he will smash your head."

Then his Son did come. Not with legions of angels and a sword but rather, as the tiniest baby--helpless, dependent, and feeble. And this Son grew in wisdom and stature and love unto God--perfectly obeying his Father's law and his given parents. And the Son of God, also stood face to face with Sin that hovered over the grave of his friend. He stared Death right between the eyes, and proclaimed defiantly, "Lazarus, come forth!"

I tell you these things so that your joy may be full.