November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Protestant Reformed Theological Journal
mals in an assumed human form—but it was designed to establish the
purely spiritual relation of a living fellowship between God and
Abram, of the deep inward meaning of which, nothing but a spiritual
intuition and experience could give to Abram an effective and permanent
hold. 15
In his valuable book on the church, The Glorious Body of
Christ, Christian Reformed theologian R. B. Kuiper begins the
chapter “God’s Friends,” by stating,
The church consists of God’s covenant people. This is a way of saying
that it consists of God’s friends. For the covenant of grace spells
friendship between God and His own. In essence the covenant of
grace was established when, immediately after the fall of man, God
said to the serpent: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Enmity with Satan implies friendship
with God. 16
After explaining the covenant (Gen. 17:7) in terms of friendship,
with appeal to II Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, and James
2:23, Kuiper continues,
The Psalmist equates the covenant of grace with friendship between
God and His people in the words: “The friendship of Jehovah is with
them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14,
ASV). Inasmuch as the believers of all ages are Abraham’s seed
(Galatians 3:7, 29), they are God’s covenant people, God’s friends. 17
Kuiper further develops the church’s covenant relationship
with God under the headings: “Sovereign Friendship,” “Intimate
Friendship,” “Devoted Friendship,” and “Everlasting Friendship.”
18
15. Keil, Commentary on the Old Testament, p. 210; italics mine.
16. R. B. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1966), p. 330.
17. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ, pp. 330-331.
18. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ, pp. 331-338.
38
Vol. 41, No. 1