Introduction⤒🔗

We wish to devote some time to a topic which has received an increasing degree of attention in church discussions today: the covenant and its role in the Christian life. With this title I wish to retain a more practical focus. I will not give an elaborate treatment of the doctrine of the covenant, but shift the attention to the question as to which way the covenant functions in the life of faith and the daily life of the believer.

This has been a problem for an increasing number of people in the Reformed world in recent years. The real question is whether or not the covenant is becoming a well-known cliché which really does not say too much for us today. It functions as little more than as a hallmark of orthodoxy. Is this the impression we wish to give? Is this the picture that the Canadian Reformed give to the outside world? If so, where does the misunderstanding arise? Are we projecting a skewed image of the faith?

In order to look more closely at these questions I have isolated three areas for consideration.

1. The covenant and faith, specifically concerning the personal dimension of the Christian life;

2. The covenant and assurance, and

3. The covenant and election.

Looking at all three areas, we hope to see the importance of the role of the covenant and its promises and obligations in our daily Christian life.

Covenant and Faith (the Personal Aspect)←⤒🔗

One of the more critical questions that arises in many of our discussions today concerns the issue whether we have forgotten the personal dimension of faith in our view of the covenant. Does not the doctrine of the covenant at times form a hindrance to the very integral aspects of personal faith and experience that are so important in the Christian life?

Now I am among those who believe that the question of personal involvement and personal experience of faith is a legitimate one. The church has never promoted a faith that comes across as a cold, lifeless set of rules and dogma and that one must blindly and arbitrarily accept. On the contrary, the life of faith reflects a certain warmth and should also reflect a spirit of happiness and joy! After all, we share a rich gift! Christ gave his life on the cross for us, and the fruit of that cross is being worked in us through his Spirit. What greater reason for joy and thanksgiving could one find?

The real issue then is not whether we can speak of personal experience, but what kind of personal experience must we speak about? In our approach to doctrine, we often distinguish between redemption accomplished and applied. When we speak of the latter term, application, we are definitely moving in the personal realm. The other term used for this area of God’s work is appropriation, a term focusing more on the human side of this work. Christ applies His salvation to his chosen people one by one. And from our side, appropriation is a personal activity. But what kind of personal experience are we referring to? How must this personal appropriation in the covenant be qualified?

Personal Appropriation←⤒🔗

Appropriation is dealt with in a number of places in our confessions. One can notice in our confessions a remarkable connection between application and appropriation.¹ In Article 22 Belgic Confession it is clear that the Holy Spirit applies and appropriates salvation.

For there we read:

the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith which embraces Jesus Christ with all his merits, makes Him our own and does not seek anything beside Him. 

However, later the article says:

Meanwhile, strictly speaking, we do not mean that faith itself justifies us, for faith is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ our righteousness.

Here we confess appropriation as something we do! So in the one article we have the same act confessed as from God’s side and from our side.

This same theme is carried on in Lord’s Day 23, Heidelberg Catechism. After confessing the righteousness which Christ obtained for us by his death, question and answer 60 adds: “...if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.” And in question and answer 61 the same point is made: “I can receive this righteousness and make it my own by faith only.” Notice the element of personal appropriation. We must do it, or even better: I must do it. The call is personally directed. Appropriation is a human work, and it is a personal work. At the same time, it is a divine work. Lord’s Day 25 asks: “...where does this faith come from?” And the answer is clear: (65): “From the Holy Spirit who works it in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel...”

So we have this structure in the confession: personal appropriation is both the work of the Holy Spirit, and our work. We can say that the work of the Spirit is prior, while our work is a fruit, a result (see Philipians1:29). We can never act without the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:8). But our role is by no means insignificant or secondary! It is postulated as a living element of our faith, and it even receives extra attention. This does not mean that we contribute to our own salvation. Rather, it means that through the working of the Holy Spirit we are co-workers with God in being made partakers of Christ’s merits. Essentially the Spirit’s work and our work go hand in hand, and you should not emphasize the one without the other.

The Liturgical Forms←⤒🔗

The same line is found in our liturgical forms for the sacraments. In the Form for the Baptism of Infants, we confess that the Holy Spirit promises us that: “He will dwell in us, making us partakers of that which we have in Christ.” We also pray that God in his infinite mercy will “incorporate by his Holy Spirit this child into his Son Jesus Christ.” Here we confess that the Holy Spirit makes us partakers of Christ. He appropriates salvation for us. But at the same time, we must do it. For the same Form says: “we are called and obliged by the Lord to a new obedience ... We must not love the world but put off our old nature and lead a God-fearing life.”

In the Form for the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper, we confess that by the grace of the Holy Spirit “we are heartily sorry for our shortcomings and desire to fight against our unbelief and live according to all the commandments of God.” And in the so-called epiclesis or prayer for the Spirit at the table, we plead: “Work in our hearts through the Holy Spirit so that we may entrust ourselves more and more to thy Son Jesus Christ.” The Holy Spirit appropriates! Yet we too must appropriate salvation! For the same form says:

For the sake of Christ, who so exceedingly loved us first, we shall now love one another, and shall show this to one another, not only in words, but also in deeds.

Now despite the differences in wording, and despite the two sides of appropriation that we confess in our creeds and forms, they have one thing in common. The appropriation is never directed to oneself, but always directed outside of oneself. We are to cling to nothing else besides Jesus Christ.² 

This is the line of Art. 22, Belgic Confession:

This faith embraces Jesus Christ with all his merits, makes Him our own, and does not seek anything beside Him.

And Lord’s Day 23 says:

by faith we are righteous in Christ, and heirs to eternal life. (emphasis added).

The Form for the Baptism of Infants says that we must seek our “cleansing and salvation outside of ourselves.” The Form for the Celebration of the Lord Supper says: “On the contrary, we seek our lives outside of ourselves, and in doing so we acknowledge that we are dead in ourselves.”

Look to Christ!←⤒🔗

Here then is the hallmark of personal appropriation in the Reformed sense. We are personally involved! But the direction or focus is always on Christ, and not ourselves. To be sure, as Calvin says, to know God we must turn into ourselves.³ But one can never turn into oneself without first looking at the cross. On the cross redemption is accomplished for us. From the cross we turn to ourselves. Then we are accused of sin! But in the act of the appropriation of Christ’s righteousness we are also acquitted of guilt!

If in the consideration of the personal aspect we begin to focus on ourselves we will end up in dangerous waters. In the history of Reformed Protestantism one meets with the danger of perfectionism on the one hand and defeatism on the other.⁴ Perfectionism sets in when we focus inordinately on ourselves and tend to be positive with what we see. Perfectionism does not build on the promises of God or the merits of Christ, but builds on certain experiences through which we have gone, whether it be a second blessing, a special experience of God’s presence, the sense of new life, and so on. The danger here is that we believe we can come to some form of freedom from sin above and beyond what God has promised, and over and beyond what He gives in Jesus Christ.⁵

The other danger is defeatism. We look to ourselves and see how weak we are, and how small our faith is, and end up disqualifying ourselves, becoming totally discouraged, and laying down our armour. Carelessness with the things of God and an easy attitude are also the hallmarks of defeatism. For people who say to themselves: “what is the sense of trying?” end up showing that they are giving up the struggle. The elements of precision and urgency are cast aside and we take the real situation for granted. We all too easily feel that we are not good enough, we stand under the judgment of God, and we are in danger of eternal condemnation. We are then looking to ourselves, not to the cross!

From Personal to Communal←⤒🔗

Do we then need to think about a personal element, and a personal dimension in the life of faith? Indeed, we do! – but in the right spirit and in the right attitude. The focus must be Christ-centred, not man-centred. As soon as that focus is adopted one will invariably come to the communal aspect as well. For we all share the same riches and the same gift! How can one be focused on Christ, and not on His body? How can one look to Him, and not on those for whom He died?

So we have every reason to highlight a personal element in order to guard ourselves against a dead orthodoxy. But as we do so, we realize we cannot isolate the personal aspect from its communal framework. We should not speak of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ with a neglect of the communal aspect, as if that personal aspect has the primary or all-encompassing significance in one’s life. The relationship with Christ has a personal aspect, but in that personal aspect you invariably come to the communal aspect. Indeed, conscious personal appropriation leads at the same time to growth in the communal bonds, and in the realization of communal obligations in the service of the Lord. You then see the communal aspect as the key element! That is the heart of the relationship we share and live for! Is not this what church life is all about: the fellowship, the communion we have in Christ, and in the riches and treasures found in Him?

In Scripture one will find distinct personal admonitions and exhortations. Paul warns that each one should examine himself to see whether he is holding to the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). He warns each not to boast in himself, but in the Lord. Each must make it his aim to please God “so that each may receive commendation for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). But these personal directives find their place within the room of God’s specific admonitions and encouragement to the entire congregation. Within the context of the address to the church as a whole, more specific admonitions are directed to each one of the members. Therefore, for those in the church the road of personal appropriation normally takes place in the room of communal fellowship, and in the end you are drawn through personal appropriation to communal sharing and mutual giving in Christ!