The Divine Person who made the world and upholds and governs all things that he has made, is the son of God, the second person of the Trinity—Jesus Christ. Being vere homo, vere Deus—truly man, truly God, Jesus is our new federal head. He not only came to restore what we lost in Adam but to guarantee what we can never lose by His death, burial, and resurrection. Christ is now at the right hand of the Father and is the mediator and interceder of the elect as we await the Parousia—His return.
God is a Trinity, He is one God in three Persons. As stated in the Athanasian Creed, “The Father is made by none, nor created, nor begotten. The Son is from the Father alone, not made, not created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is not created by the Father and the Son, nor begotten, but proceeds. Therefore, there is one Father… one Son…one Holy Spirit. And in this Trinity there is nothing prior or posterior, nothing greater or less, but all three persons are coeternal, and coequal to themselves. So that through all, as was said above, both unity in trinity, and trinity in unity is to be adored.” Since eternity past, Christ was living harmoniously and happily as one with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Godhead. Christ has created and upholds all things by the word of his power as John 1 states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (Joh 1:1-3) and Colossians 1, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together…that in everything he might be preeminent.” (Col 1:15-18).
“It is [Jesus] who, at the appointed time, took upon Himself the nature of man, with all its essential characteristics and its common infirmities, sin excepted. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, a woman who belonged to the tribe of Judah, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her and the power of God most High overshadowing her…In this way it came about that the two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the divine and the human, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without the conversion of the one nature into the other, and without the mixing, as it were, of one nature with the other; in other words, without confusion. Thus, the Son of God is now both true God and true man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.” (1689 LBC 8.2). This doctrine is called the hypostatic union of Christ. It is because Jesus is truly God and truly man that he is able to be a mediator between man and God. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1Ti 2:5).
It was necessary for Jesus to be very man to be our representative and obey the law of God in our place. “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Rom 5:18-19) and “For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Heb 2:16-18). From this verse in Hebrews it is clear that Christ had to be very man because He was not concerned with saving or reconciling angelic beings, but He was concerned with reconciling and saving human beings (The offspring of Abraham). Christ was made like his brothers in every respect, so he could be a high priest for God to make a propitiation— “A sacrifice that bears God’s wrath to the end and in so doing changes God’s wrath toward us in favor.” (Grudem). The verse goes on to say, “he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” The only way Christ could have done this is by becoming man because James informs his readers, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” (Jas 1:13). So, in that respect, Jesus had to be a man to represent us on our behalf to be tempted and to endure it perfectly and being a mediator between God and man.
Christ does not act through the human nature as an instrument; rather, Jesus acts according to both natures. If Christ were to mediate solely as human that would logically mean that any man could have been the mediator between man and God before or after Christ. “By anchoring the natures of Christ in the unity of the person, Reformed theologians refused to speak of Christ’s mediatorial work simply the work of a human. Therefore, based on the unity of the person and communication of properties and operations, the church can be said to be purchased by the blood of God (Acts 20:28).” (Joel R. Beeke). Thomas Goodwin said, “We say that God and Man died, though the Manhood only did die, yet it is attributed to the whole, it is called the blood of God, and we say God-Man rose, though his body only rose, yet it is attributed to the whole, Totus Christus [ Christ as a whole person], though not Totum Christ [the whole being of Christ].”
It is obvious from this point that Christ remained very God while He was very man. The only one who could represent mankind is a human and likewise, the only one who can represent God is God. As the Psalms states, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,” (Psa 49:7). “Only someone who is infinite God could bear the full penalty for all the sin of all those who would believe in him—any finite creature would have been incapable of bearing that penalty…only someone who was truly and fully God could be the one mediator between God and man, both to bring us back to God and also to reveal God most fully to us.” (Grudem).
The distance between God and mankind is so great that, although men, endowed as they are with reason, owe obedience to God as their creator, yet they can never attain it and fall short of His glory. Therefore, without a gracious salvific act from God, all mankind, being wicked, would be cast into hell, where they would remain forever in torment and utter darkness.
“Man, as he came from the hand of God, his creator, was upright and perfect. The righteous law which God gave him spoke of life as conditional upon his obedience and threatened death upon his disobedience. Adam's obedience was short-lived. Satan used the subtle serpent to draw Eve into sin. Thereupon she seduced Adam who, without any compulsion from without, willfully broke the law under which they had been created, and also God's command not to eat of the forbidden fruit. To fulfill His own wise and holy purposes God permitted this to happen, for He was directing all to His own glory. By this sin our first parents lost their former righteousness, and their happy communion with God was severed. Their sin involved us all, and by it death appertained to all. All men became dead in sin, and totally polluted in all parts and faculties of both soul and body.” (1689 LBC 6.1-2). God made Adam in such a way that he represented the whole human race. When it came to obeying or disobeying God in the garden his actions represented our actions. Adam was our federal head and, in our case, sinned against God. This incurred the holy and righteous wrath of God against sin.
This fall into sin, guilt, and shame is passed down to all of Adam’s posterity to the point that we are all born, as Ephesians two says, dead in our sins and trespasses following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all live in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Thus, leaving man totally depraved and inclined to sin. That being said, man’s relationship with God was in desperate need of a propitiation and atonement, this is why Christ had to die. As the Canons of Dort state, “God is not only supremely merciful but also supremely just. And as He Himself has revealed in His Word, His justice requires that our sins, committed against His infinite majesty, should be punished not only in this age but also in the age to come, both in body and soul. We cannot escape these punishments unless satisfaction is made to the justice of God.” (C.D. 2.1).
God is not capricious in that God is not “free” from His love, grace, or righteousness and holiness. God cannot and will not forgive someone of their sins without a propitiation because this would be an infringement to His holiness. The wages of sin is death. Four verses from Romans make this clear, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Rom 3:23-26). These verses show that man has sinned and fall short of the glory of God and they are saved by the redemption of Christ as a gift of Grace and received by faith. The weight is on why Christ died. To show His righteousness so that He will be the just and justifier of those who have faith. It was necessary for Christ to die for those who were the elect believers before the incarnation of Christ because as God in His divine forbearance passed over former sins it appeared as though God did not care about His holiness; it appeared that God disregarded His righteousness and wrath against sin.
As the present elect saints look back to what Christ did for salvation the elect saints before Christ looked forward to the Messiah. Those saints of old had their payment of sin pending in the divine forbearance. By Christ dying, it showed the severity of sin in the face of God’s holiness and that it truly does incur the wrath of God. Christ died, not for sins of His own, but for the sins of His elect. In John 10 Christ calls His elect His sheep, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. (Joh 10:14-16). “Christ gives the name of sheep to unbelievers, who in themselves were the farthest possible from being entitled to be called sheep and not only does [Augustine] point out, by this term, what they will be, but rather refers this to the secret election of God, because we are already God’s sheep, before we are aware that He is our shepherd. In like manner, it is elsewhere said that we were enemies, when he loved us, (Rom 5:10) and for this reason Paul also says that we were known by God, before we knew him, (Gal 4:9) Them also I must bring. He means that the election of God will be secure, so that nothing of all that he wishes to be saved shall perish. For the secret purpose of God, by which men were ordained to life, is at length manifested in his own time by the calling, — the effectual calling, when he regenerates by his Spirit, to be his sons, those who formerly were begotten of flesh and blood.” (Calvin).
Christ’s death was a penal substitutionary atonement. The legal aspect of Jesus’ atonement is evident in that He was made under the Law and he obeyed the Law perfectly. He lived a perfect life satisfying the law of God for us. He was also our substitute in that Jesus took our place and taking on the full wrath of God in our stead. Christ’s death was also an atonement as He appeased the wrath of God as a propitiation for the elect unto God.
Not only is the life and death of Jesus necessary for our salvation but the resurrection and ascension of Christ is just as crucial. Just looking in the book of Romans, every aspect of our salvation rests on the resurrection of Christ. Christ proved He was the son of God by His resurrection, “and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 1:4). Our faith is counted towards us as righteousness who believe and are justified by the resurrection “It[faith] will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Rom 4:24-25). We have the ability to walk in newness of life and are guaranteed a resurrection like His by His resurrection, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Rom 6:4-5). Christ resurrected in order that we will bear fruit, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. (Rom 7:4). Our eternal life is sealed by the resurrection of Christ, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Rom 8:11).
In the book of Hebrews the resurrection of Christ is only mentioned one time at the end of the book, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,” (Heb 13:20). The resurrection is implied by the amount of times and emphasis the book places on the ascension and session of Christ. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:12). It was necessary for Christ to not only resurrect from the dead but to ascend and make His session with the Father as our Hight Priest. As Charles Hodges states, “It was necessary that as our High Priest He should, after offering Himself as a sacrifice, pass through the heavens, to appear before God in our behalf. An essential part, and that a permanent one, of his priestly office was to be exercised in heaven. He there makes constant intercession for his people. As He died for our sins, He rose for our justification. All this was typified under the old dispensation. The victim was slain without in the court of the temple; the high priest bore the blood with much incense within the veil and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat. What the high priest did in the earthly temple, it was necessary for the High Priest of our profession to do in the temple made without hands, eternal in the heavens. This is set forth with all clearness in the Epistle to the Hebrews.” (Hodges).
The ascension of Christ was also necessary so that redemption should not only be acquired but applied as He took his session with the Father. Christ ascension was necessary to finish His work to prepare a place for us. Jesus said, ““Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” (Joh 14:1-4). The ascension was also necessary to send us the Holy Spirit, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (Joh 16:7).
There has always been one people of God, the elect and there has always been just one plan of salvation and that is through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. There is also going to be a single Parousia or return of Christ. He will return to resurrect the righteous and the unrighteous in a general resurrection for a single final judgement. “God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom the Father has given all authority and power to judge. At that day the apostate angels will be judged. So too will all persons who have lived upon the earth; they will appear before Christ's judgment throne to give an account of their thoughts, words and deeds, and to receive His award in accordance with what they have done in this earthly life, whether good or evil.” (LBC 32.1)
In conclusion, Christ is the second person of the Godhead with a hypostatic union of two natures yet one person—divine and human. He is the creature and sustainer of all things. Jesus lived a perfect life fulfilling the law of God, died upon the cross to lay down His life for His sheep as a penal substitutionary atonement for the elect, resurrected from the dead to seal their salvation and ascended to heaven to make His session with the Father to not only acquire salvation but to attain it.
Works Cited
A. P. Stanley (Dean of Westminster): The Athanasian Creed . Lond. 1871.
Association at Philadelphia. 1689 London Baptist Confession. Philadelphia : Association at Philadelphia, 1689.
Calvin, John. Calvins Complete Commentary. Public domain, 1555.
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1994.
Hodges, Charles. Systematic Theology. New York, London and Edinburgh: C. Scribner and company, T. Nelson and sons, 1871–1873.
Joel R. Beeke, Mark Jones. A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life. Grand Rapids MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012.
The Synod of Dordrecht. Canons of Dort. November 13, 1618—May 9, 1619.
God is a Trinity, He is one God in three Persons. As stated in the Athanasian Creed, “The Father is made by none, nor created, nor begotten. The Son is from the Father alone, not made, not created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is not created by the Father and the Son, nor begotten, but proceeds. Therefore, there is one Father… one Son…one Holy Spirit. And in this Trinity there is nothing prior or posterior, nothing greater or less, but all three persons are coeternal, and coequal to themselves. So that through all, as was said above, both unity in trinity, and trinity in unity is to be adored.” Since eternity past, Christ was living harmoniously and happily as one with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Godhead. Christ has created and upholds all things by the word of his power as John 1 states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (Joh 1:1-3) and Colossians 1, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together…that in everything he might be preeminent.” (Col 1:15-18).
“It is [Jesus] who, at the appointed time, took upon Himself the nature of man, with all its essential characteristics and its common infirmities, sin excepted. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, a woman who belonged to the tribe of Judah, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her and the power of God most High overshadowing her…In this way it came about that the two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the divine and the human, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without the conversion of the one nature into the other, and without the mixing, as it were, of one nature with the other; in other words, without confusion. Thus, the Son of God is now both true God and true man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.” (1689 LBC 8.2). This doctrine is called the hypostatic union of Christ. It is because Jesus is truly God and truly man that he is able to be a mediator between man and God. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1Ti 2:5).
It was necessary for Jesus to be very man to be our representative and obey the law of God in our place. “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Rom 5:18-19) and “For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Heb 2:16-18). From this verse in Hebrews it is clear that Christ had to be very man because He was not concerned with saving or reconciling angelic beings, but He was concerned with reconciling and saving human beings (The offspring of Abraham). Christ was made like his brothers in every respect, so he could be a high priest for God to make a propitiation— “A sacrifice that bears God’s wrath to the end and in so doing changes God’s wrath toward us in favor.” (Grudem). The verse goes on to say, “he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” The only way Christ could have done this is by becoming man because James informs his readers, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” (Jas 1:13). So, in that respect, Jesus had to be a man to represent us on our behalf to be tempted and to endure it perfectly and being a mediator between God and man.
Christ does not act through the human nature as an instrument; rather, Jesus acts according to both natures. If Christ were to mediate solely as human that would logically mean that any man could have been the mediator between man and God before or after Christ. “By anchoring the natures of Christ in the unity of the person, Reformed theologians refused to speak of Christ’s mediatorial work simply the work of a human. Therefore, based on the unity of the person and communication of properties and operations, the church can be said to be purchased by the blood of God (Acts 20:28).” (Joel R. Beeke). Thomas Goodwin said, “We say that God and Man died, though the Manhood only did die, yet it is attributed to the whole, it is called the blood of God, and we say God-Man rose, though his body only rose, yet it is attributed to the whole, Totus Christus [ Christ as a whole person], though not Totum Christ [the whole being of Christ].”
It is obvious from this point that Christ remained very God while He was very man. The only one who could represent mankind is a human and likewise, the only one who can represent God is God. As the Psalms states, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,” (Psa 49:7). “Only someone who is infinite God could bear the full penalty for all the sin of all those who would believe in him—any finite creature would have been incapable of bearing that penalty…only someone who was truly and fully God could be the one mediator between God and man, both to bring us back to God and also to reveal God most fully to us.” (Grudem).
The distance between God and mankind is so great that, although men, endowed as they are with reason, owe obedience to God as their creator, yet they can never attain it and fall short of His glory. Therefore, without a gracious salvific act from God, all mankind, being wicked, would be cast into hell, where they would remain forever in torment and utter darkness.
“Man, as he came from the hand of God, his creator, was upright and perfect. The righteous law which God gave him spoke of life as conditional upon his obedience and threatened death upon his disobedience. Adam's obedience was short-lived. Satan used the subtle serpent to draw Eve into sin. Thereupon she seduced Adam who, without any compulsion from without, willfully broke the law under which they had been created, and also God's command not to eat of the forbidden fruit. To fulfill His own wise and holy purposes God permitted this to happen, for He was directing all to His own glory. By this sin our first parents lost their former righteousness, and their happy communion with God was severed. Their sin involved us all, and by it death appertained to all. All men became dead in sin, and totally polluted in all parts and faculties of both soul and body.” (1689 LBC 6.1-2). God made Adam in such a way that he represented the whole human race. When it came to obeying or disobeying God in the garden his actions represented our actions. Adam was our federal head and, in our case, sinned against God. This incurred the holy and righteous wrath of God against sin.
This fall into sin, guilt, and shame is passed down to all of Adam’s posterity to the point that we are all born, as Ephesians two says, dead in our sins and trespasses following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all live in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Thus, leaving man totally depraved and inclined to sin. That being said, man’s relationship with God was in desperate need of a propitiation and atonement, this is why Christ had to die. As the Canons of Dort state, “God is not only supremely merciful but also supremely just. And as He Himself has revealed in His Word, His justice requires that our sins, committed against His infinite majesty, should be punished not only in this age but also in the age to come, both in body and soul. We cannot escape these punishments unless satisfaction is made to the justice of God.” (C.D. 2.1).
God is not capricious in that God is not “free” from His love, grace, or righteousness and holiness. God cannot and will not forgive someone of their sins without a propitiation because this would be an infringement to His holiness. The wages of sin is death. Four verses from Romans make this clear, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Rom 3:23-26). These verses show that man has sinned and fall short of the glory of God and they are saved by the redemption of Christ as a gift of Grace and received by faith. The weight is on why Christ died. To show His righteousness so that He will be the just and justifier of those who have faith. It was necessary for Christ to die for those who were the elect believers before the incarnation of Christ because as God in His divine forbearance passed over former sins it appeared as though God did not care about His holiness; it appeared that God disregarded His righteousness and wrath against sin.
As the present elect saints look back to what Christ did for salvation the elect saints before Christ looked forward to the Messiah. Those saints of old had their payment of sin pending in the divine forbearance. By Christ dying, it showed the severity of sin in the face of God’s holiness and that it truly does incur the wrath of God. Christ died, not for sins of His own, but for the sins of His elect. In John 10 Christ calls His elect His sheep, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. (Joh 10:14-16). “Christ gives the name of sheep to unbelievers, who in themselves were the farthest possible from being entitled to be called sheep and not only does [Augustine] point out, by this term, what they will be, but rather refers this to the secret election of God, because we are already God’s sheep, before we are aware that He is our shepherd. In like manner, it is elsewhere said that we were enemies, when he loved us, (Rom 5:10) and for this reason Paul also says that we were known by God, before we knew him, (Gal 4:9) Them also I must bring. He means that the election of God will be secure, so that nothing of all that he wishes to be saved shall perish. For the secret purpose of God, by which men were ordained to life, is at length manifested in his own time by the calling, — the effectual calling, when he regenerates by his Spirit, to be his sons, those who formerly were begotten of flesh and blood.” (Calvin).
Christ’s death was a penal substitutionary atonement. The legal aspect of Jesus’ atonement is evident in that He was made under the Law and he obeyed the Law perfectly. He lived a perfect life satisfying the law of God for us. He was also our substitute in that Jesus took our place and taking on the full wrath of God in our stead. Christ’s death was also an atonement as He appeased the wrath of God as a propitiation for the elect unto God.
Not only is the life and death of Jesus necessary for our salvation but the resurrection and ascension of Christ is just as crucial. Just looking in the book of Romans, every aspect of our salvation rests on the resurrection of Christ. Christ proved He was the son of God by His resurrection, “and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 1:4). Our faith is counted towards us as righteousness who believe and are justified by the resurrection “It[faith] will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Rom 4:24-25). We have the ability to walk in newness of life and are guaranteed a resurrection like His by His resurrection, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Rom 6:4-5). Christ resurrected in order that we will bear fruit, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. (Rom 7:4). Our eternal life is sealed by the resurrection of Christ, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Rom 8:11).
In the book of Hebrews the resurrection of Christ is only mentioned one time at the end of the book, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,” (Heb 13:20). The resurrection is implied by the amount of times and emphasis the book places on the ascension and session of Christ. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:12). It was necessary for Christ to not only resurrect from the dead but to ascend and make His session with the Father as our Hight Priest. As Charles Hodges states, “It was necessary that as our High Priest He should, after offering Himself as a sacrifice, pass through the heavens, to appear before God in our behalf. An essential part, and that a permanent one, of his priestly office was to be exercised in heaven. He there makes constant intercession for his people. As He died for our sins, He rose for our justification. All this was typified under the old dispensation. The victim was slain without in the court of the temple; the high priest bore the blood with much incense within the veil and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat. What the high priest did in the earthly temple, it was necessary for the High Priest of our profession to do in the temple made without hands, eternal in the heavens. This is set forth with all clearness in the Epistle to the Hebrews.” (Hodges).
The ascension of Christ was also necessary so that redemption should not only be acquired but applied as He took his session with the Father. Christ ascension was necessary to finish His work to prepare a place for us. Jesus said, ““Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” (Joh 14:1-4). The ascension was also necessary to send us the Holy Spirit, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (Joh 16:7).
There has always been one people of God, the elect and there has always been just one plan of salvation and that is through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. There is also going to be a single Parousia or return of Christ. He will return to resurrect the righteous and the unrighteous in a general resurrection for a single final judgement. “God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom the Father has given all authority and power to judge. At that day the apostate angels will be judged. So too will all persons who have lived upon the earth; they will appear before Christ's judgment throne to give an account of their thoughts, words and deeds, and to receive His award in accordance with what they have done in this earthly life, whether good or evil.” (LBC 32.1)
In conclusion, Christ is the second person of the Godhead with a hypostatic union of two natures yet one person—divine and human. He is the creature and sustainer of all things. Jesus lived a perfect life fulfilling the law of God, died upon the cross to lay down His life for His sheep as a penal substitutionary atonement for the elect, resurrected from the dead to seal their salvation and ascended to heaven to make His session with the Father to not only acquire salvation but to attain it.
Works Cited
A. P. Stanley (Dean of Westminster): The Athanasian Creed . Lond. 1871.
Association at Philadelphia. 1689 London Baptist Confession. Philadelphia : Association at Philadelphia, 1689.
Calvin, John. Calvins Complete Commentary. Public domain, 1555.
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1994.
Hodges, Charles. Systematic Theology. New York, London and Edinburgh: C. Scribner and company, T. Nelson and sons, 1871–1873.
Joel R. Beeke, Mark Jones. A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life. Grand Rapids MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012.
The Synod of Dordrecht. Canons of Dort. November 13, 1618—May 9, 1619.