“If the sacraments are thought of a covenant actions between persons, rather than as static, ontological realities contained within the font or resting on the Table, we do two things. We avoid the swamp-like superstitions of true sacerdotalism, as well as the arid rationalism that detaches all of our actions from what they are meant to seal for us.”
The Vows Bind
“Put another way, there is no such thing as a merely nominal Christian any more than we can find a man who is nominal husband. There are many faithless husbands, but if a man is a husband at all, then is as much a husband as a faithful one.”
The Decree Encompasses All
“The decree is not independent of means because is it a decree concerning those means.”
No Diluting Agent
“Moderns who are stuck with the language of Westminster want to say that we actually have to understand this as a sacramental union, with the word sacramental being understood as some sort of diluting agent. But I want to say it is a sacramental union, with union meaning union.”
Central Identity
“The Reformation began with a striking emphasis on the center of the covenant, which was Christ and Him crucified . . . The Reformers said you recognize a man by looking at his face, not the ends of his shoelaces, and if you want to recognize the Church, then you must look straight at her Head, who is Christ.”
A Defining Function
“At the end of history, the eschatological Church will be comprised of all the elect and none of the reprobate. The eschatological Church serves the same defining function as the invisible Church, but with one advantage. It is necessarily the same Church that we are members of now, it is a Church grounded in historical reality, and it does not tempt us to think in terms of a Hellenistic upper story and lower story.”
More Than Meets the Eye
“The Church of yesterday is just as invisible as the heavenly Church. We lose the communion of the saints if we depend upon what we can see.”
Grace in the OT
“The Old Covenant is not the time in which God attempted to save His people through law, but, finding this to be a failure, decided to use grace and forgiveness in the New Covenant . . . the contrast in the New Testament is not between Old and New; the contrast is between Old distorted and Old fulfilled.”
An Actual Covenant, In Other Words
“This covenant of grace does not float above human history in some kind of ethereal way. The history of the covenant is intertwined with the rest of human history, including kings, battles, dates, and of course promises and sacraments.”
This, Plus Nothing
“We cannot make a distinction between the saints of the Old Testament and the saints of the New in this respect. They may and do differ with regard to gifts and graces, but individual justification is the sine qua non of being a genuine saint of God. In all this we are discussing, and reaffirming, the traditional Protestant doctrine of the righteousness of Christ imputed to those individuals who are elect. This, plus nothing, constitutes the ground of their final acceptance before God.”