The Circle of Salvation

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:4-6).

In From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective, Jonathan Gibson comments on these verses:

This passage provides an excellent example of the “Trinity-in-unity” at work in our salvation. The repetition of the phrase [“God sent”] with the respective objective clauses [“his Son”] and [“the Spirit of his Son”] (vv. 4, 6) reveals the profound Trinitarianism in Paul”s economy of salvation. God the Father sends his two Emissaries to accomplish and apply redemption: the Son to redeem us from under the law in order “that we might receive adoption as sons”; and the Spirit to be in our hearts. The obedience of Son and Spirit to the Father ensures harmony of purpose: the “circle” of salvation that starts with the Father in sending the Son and the Spirit closes in communion with him as newly adopted sons cry, “Abba! Father!”

That our salvation is a Trinitarian work is one of the important threads in a wholistic argument for definite atonement. In definite atonement all three persons are working in harmony, and “the goals and purposes of each person in the Trinity are the same,” so there is no “discrepancy between the extent of redemption accomplished and that of redemption applied.”

Previously posted quotes from this book:

• Someone for Some People
• Death Is the Penalty
• Election Is the Spring
• Election Circumscribes the Atonement