Monday 19 September 2016

Baptism and continuation of the church from generation to generation

For [a Reformed believer] that continuity is assured by the faithful promise of God. Hence, in back of Word and sacrament he places the covenant as the strongest expression of how the unbroken work of grace from generation to generation rests, as all grace, on the sovereign pleasure of God. The church does not abide because we baptize or work regeneration by baptism; rather because God establishes His covenant from generation to generation, therefore, the church remains and we baptize. Since it is God’s covenant and not man’s, it is appropriate for the Christian to recognize this goodness of God in quiet gratitude and in faith and to be strengthened by its sealing.  -- p261, Vos, Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology in Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation 

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