Gods Plan of Salvation

GOD'S
PLAN OF
SALVATION
AND
COVENANT
FAITHFULNESS
(2nd edition)
by
IAN LYALL
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GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION AND
COVENANT FAITHFULNESS
(second edition)
by
Ian Lyall
© Ian Lyall
July 2011
Published 2011 by Lulu Enterprises
26-28 Hammersmith Grove
London W6 7BA
ISBN: 978-1409291107
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FOREWORD
This book owes very much to Tom Wright's “Justification
by Faith: God's Plan and Paul's Vision”
I had been much influenced by the teaching of John Piper
on Romans, and read Tom Wright because he was
answering criticism by John Piper.
I could not but be impressed by Wright's careful handling
of the W ord of God, and the breath-taking vision offered
of God's work in our salvation.
Newark-on-Trent, UK
6th July, 2009.
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ABOUT THIS BOOK
Some month's ago, I listened to many sermons by John
Piper, (on his website www.desiringgod.org) .
This gave me a thorough understanding and valuing
afresh of the traditional reformed/protestant teaching on
Justification by Faith.
W ell and good! Then some two months ago I was
browsing a bookshop, looking at the latest fiction and then
turned round to see what they might have in the various
non-fiction departments. I found myself face-to-face with
the religious books, and directly in front of the Christian
ones and,starring be face-on was a book entitled
'Justification by Faith' by Tom Wright. I picked a copy up
and read the back-page blurb. This was a book to read!
I was quite unprepared for what I was to read. Tom Wright
argued very closely, carefully and cogently from the Bible
that the traditional teaching misses the main point of what
(as Wright sub-titled his book), 'God's plan and Paul's
vision' My eyes were opened wide to a new and more
majestic view of God's salvation. In particular, I had some
years ago written an (unpublished) piece on Bible
Covenants and had to ask myself: How does this fit in
with justification?
Tom W right had the answer to my question, and I present
in these page an account of what I now believe on this
subject, beginning with traditional justification teaching,
but then turning to covenants and finally to the fulfilment
of God's plan.
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PREFACE to the Second Edition
Although that book was authored in the flash of
inspiration, I recognise it was put together in haste, and
there is a certain lack of flow in the argument I followed. It
has been borne on me to produce something, not
sanitized but with more forethought.
At the same time, with further reading over the course of
two years, I find there is new material to add.
So: This book has new material, the old material has been
reworked, and in places the sequence changed around.
May this work bring the greater glory to our majestic,
covenant-faithful God, who loved us and gave his Son to
fulfil his purposes.
Ian Lyall
Newark-on-Trent. 25th June 2011
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CONTENTS
1 Creation and Fall-----------------------------------------------------p10
2. Salvation---------------------------------------------------------------p14
3. God's Covenant with Abraham---------------------------------p18
4. The Covenant Fulfilled in the Messiah----------------------p28
5. The Resurrection---------------------------------------------------p35
6. God's People 'in Christ'------------------------------------------p43
7. The Denouement---------------------------------------------------p49
8. What do I do?-------------------------------------------------------p62
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1. CREATION AND FALL
The God who created all there is had to begin his plan
for salvation after the first sin; more resulted from the
Fall than mankind's sin.
1 Creation and Fall.
I propose to start this study by thinking about Creation, I
recall a Sunday morning some years back. It was
February; one of those mornings when you could kid
yourself it was springtime. We were staying the weekend
with some friends in Sheffield, and being such a glorious
morning, our hosts took us out for a run into Derbyshire.
W e made our way out of Sheffield, climbing away from
the city, and then we crested a rise, and there spread out
before us in the sunshine was the Hope Valley. The view
was breath-taking, and I still recall the awe I felt as I took
the scene in, thinking to myself, “This has to be the
handiwork of a creator God”. It is popular nowadays to
scorn the idea that everything around is the work of a
divine Creator. Much easier to see it as the result of blind
evolution. Personally, I find this idea offensive; there is no
want in the pride of evolutionists, who tell us it all began
with a “Big Bang” some 141/2 billion years ago. The
presumption of it!. And it seems likely that before long it
will be a legal offence to teach creation in our schools. So,
let us turn to Genesis, and chapters 1 and 2. It is now
pertinent here to give a complete analysis of these
chapters, but rather to note certain points that are relevant
to our topic.
So we turn and do this point-bypoint. -In verses 14-25,
God creates all plant and animal life, and at the end we
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read “God saw that it was all good” -we then move on to
the creation of mankind. It's worth just reminding
ourselves of the text at this point. 26 Then God said, "Let
us make