We Believe In Jesus: The RedeemerSample

The Covenant of Redemption: John 6:39

The covenant of redemption is important to our understanding because it explains and outlines the things Jesus has already done and continues to do in his incarnation. The promises involved in the covenant of redemption are mentioned in places like Psalm 110, and Ephesians 1:3-6. And they’re assumed in places like 1 Peter 1:20, and Revelation 13:8. As just one example, consider Jesus’ words in John 6:38-40:

I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Redemption is an issue that relates to an eternal purpose that was formed in God, before the creation of the world. We can’t plumb the mysteries of all of this. Obviously, God is infinite so some things remain hidden from us and God has not revealed them, but we want to understand everything that God has revealed about this, and we have indications throughout scripture that there was a covenant that was formed within the triune God, that would be a manifestation of his glory, in eternity. So beings other than God would be enjoying his glory, and it would be a never-ending increase of enjoyment. And it appears from Scripture that the way God did this is through a redemptive purpose, to take sinful human beings who were deserving of punishment and to redeem them. And so as far as we can tell from scripture, before the foundation of the world, before the world was ever created, this covenant arrangement was made in which the Father would elect a people, the Son would come to die and redeem the people, the Holy Spirit would then draw that people removing the corruption of sin from them so that they would repent and embrace Christ. – Dr. Thomas J. Nettles