To Christ, For Us: The Savior And The Saved

Therefore, one can also say that the sacraments have sealed to Christ what is depicted in them for the elect. The Father promised and assured Him that, on the basis of His merits, everything represented in the sacraments would occur in the members of His body.

Not saving faith, which there could not be in the Mediator, but faith in the broader sense as a holding to be true, and a trust in the promise of the Father, can, through the use of these signs, provide strength in Christ with respect to His human nature (cf. Matt 3:16, 17 with Matt 4:11; 17:1ff.; John 12:28; Luke 22:43).

—Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, ed. Richard B. Gaffin and Richard de Witt, trans. Annemie Godbehere et al., vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013), 54.

    Post authored by:

  • R. Scott Clark
    Author Image

    R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He is professor emeritus of church history and historical theology at Westminster Seminary California, where he taught for 29 years. He also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007 and the Heidelcast since 2009.

    More by R. Scott Clark ›

Subscribe to the Heidelblog today!


One comment

  1. “Not saving faith, which there could not be in the Mediator, but faith in the broader sense as a holding to be true”

    In this line, is Vos saying here that Christ’s faith differs from ours?

Comments are closed.