Origin of a Believer’s Union to Christ¹

2. The Covenant Relation Between Christ and His People

Peter MacBride

1. This union flows from the covenant relation formed between Christ and his people in the covenant of grace from eternity. It is commonly called the legal union, inasmuch as he is their surety in virtue of it, and undertook for them. This blessed covenant is then to be regarded as the source of this union, next to redeeming love, the love of Christ – for the covenant itself is the fruit of his love. It was in his love that he entered into this covenant for their deliverance, and this connection was formed between him and them. In regard to this covenant we have to observe:

2. This covenant was framed for the salvation of sinners of this world. It arose from the sovereign, redeeming love of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Hence they all agreed as to the great plan of salvation, but especially God the Father entered into this covenant with Christ for this end. We have to notice this in particular, though it is also true that the Spirit is concerned in it. God the Father entered into this covenant with his Chosen One in his love – his electing, redeeming love.

3. This covenant was made with Christ for the salvation of sinners. This is evident from various things:

(1.) Because Christ is called “the last Adam”; that is, the last covenant head of sinners of this world; not of all, but of such as were given to him. David was in one sense the covenant head typically of his particular descendants, as the covenant was made with him in respect of them. “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1 Cor 15:45). “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of

¹A further part of a chapter of “The New Creature”, in MacBride’s Remains. “The New Creature” is a series of sermons on: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17). MacBride (1797-1846) was a minister in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, latterly in the Free Church. The first part dealt with the point that a believer’s union to Christ flows from His love.

Him that was to come” (Rom 5:14). This clearly shows that God made this covenant with Christ, as the covenant Head of His elect.

(2.) Because he is the surety of his people, which implies that he has engaged for them in this covenant. In him all its provisions are ratified, as is clear from Hebrews 7:22: “By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament”. And again: “Now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Heb 8:6). “For this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Heb 9:15).

Here Christ and the priests of old are compared. They were types of Him and, as it were, typical sureties of a typical covenant. This covenant could avail nothing of itself, but derived all its value from what it signified and from holding that forth. But Christ is the real surety of the real covenant. What the priests only typified, he actually is; yea, more than is, for he exceeds all types. Here we see clearly how the covenant was made. It is called “a testament” in its reference to the elect, but it is also fulfilled as a testament to them. But it was a strict covenant with him, in whom the fulfilment of its promise is secured to them.

(3.) It is evident that God made this covenant with Christ for this purpose, because Christ is said to be “given as a covenant”, which can only mean that, as someone engages to do a something, in a covenant, on a certain condition, so God engages to do good to sinners, in Christ, on a certain condition also – the condition of his finished work. For though the covenant is actually free to sinners in him, it was by no means free to him. “God spared not his own Son.”

(4.) This is clear further from the type. Thus we see, “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant” (Ps 89:3). That these words are to be understood of Christ is beyond all doubt, as the words of the covenant to which they refer are applied to him in Hebrews 1:5, “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son”. “I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son” (2 Sam 7:14). Here we see that the words were spoken primarily as to Solomon, yet they truly refer to Christ. So we see the covenant was made with Christ. This is also clear from the establishment of the priesthood, already referred to (Heb 7:22). This shows that the covenant was made thus with him.

(5.) If it is necessary to enlarge, the fact of this covenant being made with Christ might be further shown from God being the God of Christ. “Then I said, I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nought, and in

vain; yet surely my judgement is with the Lord, and my work with my God” (Is 49:4). “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory” (Eph 1:17). “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

(6.) It might also be shown from Christ being the servant of the Father. “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.”

(7.) And it might be shown from the reward promised to him: “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand” (Is 53:10). “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth . . .” (Phil 2:5-11). Thus we see this covenant was actually made as to the salvation of sinners, and we may notice its gracious titles, as: (1.) It is an everlasting covenant (2 Sam 23:5). (2.) It is a sure and ordered covenant (2 Sam 23:5). (3.) It is a better covenant (Heb 7:22). (4.) It is a new covenant of promise.

Gilbert Tennent¹

Archibald Alexander

It is doubtful whether George Whitefield has ever expressed so high an opinion of any other preacher of any denomination as Gilbert Tennent. Indeed it is probable that he never met with a man of a more congenial spirit with his own. As Whitefield was doubtless honoured to be the instrument of the conversion of more souls than any other preacher of his age, or perhaps of any age since that of the apostle Paul; so Tennent, among orthodox preachers, undoubtedly deserves to be placed next to him, both in the abundance of his labours and the wonderful success of his ministry.

When in the year 1740, Whitefield returned from Boston, he persuaded and urged Gilbert Tennent to make a preaching tour through New England as far as Boston, to water the good seed which he had sown there by his preaching on his recent visit. At that time, there was little contact between the middle and eastern colonies. Whitefield’s preaching, attended by the mighty power of God, was not only the means of the conviction and conversion of many of his hearers, but he also excited a host of enemies, who pursued him with unrelenting hostility. Among his opposers were reckoned, both in America and in Great Britain, the majority of the clergy

¹An edited extract from The Log College, reviewed on page 56.

and of professors of religion. This verified the words of our Lord, “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings they will keep yours also.”

Tennent must have been inflamed with a very ardent zeal, when as the pastor of a church and the father of a family, he set off in the depth of winter to preach to a strange people, among whom he probably knew no one, either among the clergy or the laity. But unconquerable resolution was a prominent trait in his character. Whitefield made no journeys without several men who cheerfully ministered to him, as did Timothy and others to Paul. But Tennent appears to have gone on this self-denying and evangelistic tour alone.

As Whitefield’s preaching had kindled a considerable flame in Boston, Tennent went there immediately and arrived on 13 December 1740. He stayed for nearly three months, preaching almost every day, with extraordinary power and success. There were many who were ready to welcome him; several excellent ministers of the town cordially received this zealous preacher, and opened their pulpits to him; among such ministers Thomas Prince, the author of “The Christian History”.

From his pen we are favoured with an account of Tennent’s manner of preaching during his ministry in Boston. “It was”, says he, “both terrible and searching. It was for matter, justly terrible, as he, according to the inspired oracles, exhibited the dreadful holiness, justice, law-threatenings, truth, power and majesty of God, and his anger with rebellious, impenitent and Christless sinners: the awful danger they were in at every moment of being struck down to hell and damned for ever, with the amazing miseries of that place of torment.

“By his arousing and scriptural preaching, deep and pungent convictions were wrought in the minds of many hundreds of people in Boston; and the same effect was produced in several scores of people in neighbouring congregations. Now was such a time as we never knew. William Cooper, one of the Evangelical ministers in Boston, used to say that more came to him in one week, in deep concern, than in the whole 24 years of his preceding ministry. I can say the same also, as to the numbers who came to me.”

By a letter from Cooper, it appears he had about 600 different people to visit him about the concerns of their souls, in three months’ time. And Webb, another of the pious Boston ministers, stated that he has had, in the same space of time, more than a thousand.

He who is in covenant with God is a holy person, for this . . . is its first promise: “I will put My laws in their minds, and in their heart will I write them”. It found him a sinner, but it has made him a saint.

John Dick