The title question is sometimes asked of those who hold to Calvin/Turretin's view of Covenant Theology. I respond that the question seems to contain two flawed premises.
First, a mediator is a person who reconciles two parties. Christ does not serve as a mediator for the non-elect, only for the elect.
On the other hand, the non-elect members of the church should expect to receive something from Christ. It is written, "the Lord will judge his people." (Deuteronomy 32:36; Psalm 135:14; Hebrews 10:30) So, those who are merely outwardly part of the covenant should expect Christ to serve not as mediator, but as judge.
But Christ does not "mediate wrath" to those people, because that is not a mediatorial role. In his role as judge of all the Earth, Christ does not stand between God and man, but simply stands as God against man.
My emphasis on "outwardly," above, brings me to the second flawed premise. There are no non-elect members of the covenant of grace, under either the Mosaic administration or the NT administration. Those non-elect people who are part of the assembly/congregation/ekklesia but never believe are only outwardly members. Thus, they may bear the signs of the covenant (i.e. circumcision and/or baptism) but they lack the cleansing, forgiveness, and regeneration that those symbols represent.
The true Jew or true Christian is one who is one inwardly. Circumcision is of the heart.
-TurretinFan
Friday, October 23, 2015
3 comments:
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Great article! As Calvin basically said, "You taught with clarity and brevity."
ReplyDeleteHere are two great truths Calvinist's do not understand. Jesus is the Mediator by the means of death.(Heb.9:15) He does not plead our case before the Father! He is the father in flesh and the sacrifice he made is our mediator. There is one mediator between God and man,the man Christ Jesus. God jr. cannot plead our case as he is not our kinsmen redeemer.
ReplyDeleteGreetings,
ReplyDeleteThe Bible says Christ shed his blood for all men. If Christ came only for the elect, what does that say about his death? It says his death did not actually save those elect as they were already saved due to some eternal decree. The elect were never really lost in the first place. His death was merely a rubber stamping of what was previously determined.