...When it comes to the great, defining events of the economy of salvation, it has been God’s direct intention to do these things in order to make Himself known to us.
In the old covenant, the central events were the choosing of Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, and the gift of the Promised Land. In these events God was doing something in history that brought about knowledge of Him. “I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God,” He declares in Exodus 6:7, with the result that “you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the Egyptians.” At the other end of Old Testament history, the Lord promises that He will bring His people back from exile and that this mighty act will result in sure knowledge of His identity and character: “And I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD (Ezek 37:14). Over and over, God links accurate knowledge of His character to recognition of a definite constellation of His mighty acts on behalf of His people.
But those old-covenant events all cry out for their divinely ordained fulfillment in the new covenant, where God completes His intention to make Himself known. The book of Hebrews begins by announcing this breakthrough to a new level of God’s self expression toward us: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He spoke to us by His Son” (Heb 1:1-2). This Son is not simply a messenger who carries God’s words, or an interpreter who explains God’s ways. He is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature” (v.3), and His being sent into the world is itself a mighty act of God to simultaneously save us and reveal Himself.
In the old covenant, the central events were the choosing of Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, and the gift of the Promised Land. In these events God was doing something in history that brought about knowledge of Him. “I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God,” He declares in Exodus 6:7, with the result that “you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the Egyptians.” At the other end of Old Testament history, the Lord promises that He will bring His people back from exile and that this mighty act will result in sure knowledge of His identity and character: “And I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD (Ezek 37:14). Over and over, God links accurate knowledge of His character to recognition of a definite constellation of His mighty acts on behalf of His people.
But those old-covenant events all cry out for their divinely ordained fulfillment in the new covenant, where God completes His intention to make Himself known. The book of Hebrews begins by announcing this breakthrough to a new level of God’s self expression toward us: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He spoke to us by His Son” (Heb 1:1-2). This Son is not simply a messenger who carries God’s words, or an interpreter who explains God’s ways. He is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature” (v.3), and His being sent into the world is itself a mighty act of God to simultaneously save us and reveal Himself.
-Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, Crossway Publishers, 2010, pg. 131
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