download - Sekolah Tinggi Theologia Aletheia Lawang

132
United to Christ in faith, man now can approach God in trust and
peace because of the mercy and intercession of Christ.
Thus, as Prophet, Priest and King, Christ has overcome the
tragedy of the first Adam and reopened the path to trust, obedience,
gratitude and glorification. In each of these offices, Christ as
God‘s Word represents God to man: His judgment, His
sovereignty, and his redemption. As man, Christ represents
redeemed humanity before the Father as the obedient Son who
establishes God‘s sovereignty in trust and obedience by taking on
the penalty that was due sinful humankind in order that God and
man might once again dwell together in peace.
Regeneration by the Spirit:
Calvin held creation, the fall, God‘s Word and redemption all
in view so as to appreciate the full grace and glory of God revealed
in Christ. Without appreciation of creation and the fall, the full
measure of salvation could never be fully appreciated. Without an
appreciation of the role trust and obedience were to play in the
perfection of man, one cannot appreciate the horrible consequences
of man‘s distrust and disobedience of God. Without an
appreciation of the Word of God in Creation, once cannot fully
grasp the manner in which Christ‘s rectitude and mediation
restored the Word of God to humankind.
Because in Calvin‘s view the image of God is not a natural
property of the soul, but an active response and reflection of the
holiness and righteousness of God, even with Christ‘s incarnation,
sacrificial death, resurrection and ascension, there remained the
matter of the full restoration of fallen humankind to their original
destiny prior to the Fall. Though salvation had been made
available in Jesus Christ, man‘s former distortion remained.
Without the Spirit of God, man remained carnal and subject to
disorder, despair and death. Thus, the influence of God‘s Spirit
must be restored if man is to attend to the God‘s Word in trust and
obedience.