Stephen J. Wellum > Quotes

“What a glorious Savior he is! Once again consider Christ in his entire identity, life, and work. In his birth, he is the divine Son and Lord who chooses to become our Mediator in obedience to his Father’s will. In his life, as the incarnate Son, he is still the sovereign King who willingly and gladly chooses to die for us. In his death, he does not die as a victim or martyr but as one who is fully in control, choosing to die for us. By his death, he pays for our sin, destroys death, and defeats Satan by putting him under his feet in triumph. In his resurrection, which is inseparable from his life and death, the Father by the Spirit exalts the Son and inaugurates the glorious new covenant age of the new creation. From that posture of authority, the glorified and exalted Son pours out the Spirit, once again proof that he is Lord and Messiah/King. From that same posture of authority, the exalted and ascended Lord rules over his people, governs history, and will return in power to consummate all that he has begun in his first coming.”
― Stephen J. Wellum, Christ Alone---The Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters

“In Scripture, the human problem of sin before God is a serious one. Our only hope is that God himself acts to redeem by satisfying his own righteous demands against us. Scripture is clear: we don’t need a man indwelt by or joined in some kind of union with God the Son to redeem us; what we need is the divine Son to assume our human nature in his own person so that he can represent us and act on our behalf as our new covenant head and substitute.”
― Stephen J. Wellum, The Person of Christ: An Introduction

“Who is Jesus? He is God the Son, who has always subsisted, along with the Father and the Spirit, in the divine nature. But now, for our salvation, the Son has become human and, as a result, now subsists in two natures.”
― Stephen J. Wellum, The Person of Christ: An Introduction

“Whenever we look at the life of Christ and ask, Who said or did this? or, Who died for us? the answer is always the same: God the Son. Why? It’s not the divine or human nature that acts and does things; rather, it’s the person of the Son who acts in and through both natures. It’s the Son who was born, who was tempted, who died for us, and who rose from the dead. It’s the Son in whom all God’s righteous demands are met so that our salvation is truly of God.”
― Stephen J. Wellum, The Person of Christ: An Introduction

“As for Christ, he has the ability to will as a human and the ability to will as God. Yet it’s the person (the Son) who does “concrete acts of willing.” By this distinction, Maximus could speak of both a person who wills and his will similarly to how we speak of both a person who thinks and his ability to think, given his intellect and mind.39 In Christ, there is one willer (the Son) who has two wills, hence the ability to will as a human and as God.40 Also, because it’s the Son who is the subject of his human nature, it’s the Son, in and through his human nature, who wills as a human, thus rendering human obedience.”
― Stephen J. Wellum, The Person of Christ: An Introduction

“Fourth, I conclude, then, that the appeal to creation in Exodus 20:8–11 functions as an analogy. 335 The writer sees an analogy between God’s resting on the seventh day and Israel’s rest every Sabbath. Seeing the reference to creation as analogous fits with the fact that the NT never appeals to creation relative to the Sabbath. The Sabbath rest points back to creation rest and is consummated in our rest in Christ.”
― Stephen J. Wellum, Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Course between Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies

“Some are surprised to learn that the Sabbath is not mentioned in the creation narrative ( Gen 1:1–2:3), 313 but silence regarding the Sabbath in Genesis 2:1–3 explains why nothing is said about the patriarchs ( Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) keeping Sabbath. Nor is there any evidence that Israel kept the Sabbath before they were liberated from Egypt.”
― Stephen J. Wellum, Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Course between Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies

“Typology is the study of how OT historical persons, events, institutions, and settings function to foreshadow, anticipate, prefigure, and predict the greater realities in the new covenant age. The”
― Stephen J. Wellum, Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Course between Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies

“The Sabbath was a new command, unknown before Exodus 16, and hence the penalties at the outset were not as strict. The newness of the Sabbath ordinance in Exodus 16 constitutes another piece of evidence supporting the notion that the Sabbath was not given at creation and that it is not intended to last forever. Many Sabbatarians contend that”
― Stephen J. Wellum, Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Course between Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies