The Covenant of Salvation According to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit

We have one God who manifests Himself through three roles: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each role plays a different part in the covenant of salvation, all of which are focused on completing the will of God because of His love for us. The role of the Father is to judge. The role of the Son is to atone and to mediate. And the role of the Spirit is to make man sufficient to serve God.

God the Father’s role in the covenant of salvation is to be the judge. God is completely sovereign and therefore is qualified to make this sort of judgment. Jesus said, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal” (John 6.27 NASB). Jesus provides the ‘eternal food,’ the way to eternal life, but it is God who judges and places His seal of approval on each soul which is to be saved. According to John Owen, “The sovereignty of God acting itself in infinite wisdom…is the sole foundation of the covenant of grace [covenant of salvation]” (1676). The sovereignty of God the Father is the sole foundation because He alone will determine who will enter into eternal rest or suffer eternal damnation.

To judge is not the only role of the Father. He also loves. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3.16 NASB). Jesus’ role in the covenant of salvation, as the “only begotten Son” of God, is to carry out the will of the Father according to His love. At the last supper, Jesus said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22.20 NASB). He was establishing the sacrament of communion so we would remember that Jesus poured out His blood, providing forgiveness for our sins if we trust in Him. Phillips writes, “…His [Jesus’] blood causes God’s wrath to pass over all those who trust in Him” (2007). The reason God’s wrath passes over those who trust in Jesus is not because Jesus has caused God to forget our sins; rather Jesus is “the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 12.24 NASB). His death on the cross paid the penalty of death which God the Father requires as payment for sin. Jesus comes before God the Father on our behalf to show us as blameless, even though we have sinned, because He has paid the penalty of death for us.

The Holy Spirit’s role in the covenant of salvation is critical. In short, legalism is sin and without the Holy Spirit, legalism is about the best anyone will accomplish. The Apostle Paul wrote, “…our sufficiency is from God; who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3.5, 6 WEP). God the Father has made us sufficient as servants of the new covenant, the covenant of salvation, through the Holy Spirit, not through the letter, “a shallow, external conformity to the law,” legalism (Mac Arthur, 2005). In other words, we can only truly serve the new covenant, which is serving Jesus Christ, through the Spirit. Since “faith without works is dead” we must serve and serve through the Holy Spirit if we are to be saved (James 2.26).

The Father, Son and Spirit all play different roles in the covenant of salvation, but the purpose is unified. We have one triune God whose love for mankind is so great that He would suffer death on our behalf. The Father judges, the Son atones and the Spirit makes us sufficient to do the work of God.

References
MacArthur, J. (2005). The MacArthur Bible commentary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc.
Owen, J. (1676). The works of John Owen (Vols. 7). New York: Robert Carter & Brothers.
Phillips, R.D. (2007). Jesus the evangelist. Florida: Reformation Trust Publishing.

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