The WESTMINSTER LARGER Catechism

WLC 57. What benefits hath Christ procured by His mediation?

A. Christ, by His mediation, hath procured redemption,1
with all other benefits of the covenant of grace.2

Proofs

1Heb 9:12; 22 Cor 1:20

Comments

We have seen how Christ is our Mediator, or more specifically, our Prophet, Priest and King both in the estate of humiliation and exaltation. He stood between His Church and God as a representative of God for our sakes, and a representative of the Church before God.

But why? To what purpose did Christ serve as our Mediator? What did Christ accomplish on behalf of His Church by His mediation? Or, as our catechism, what benefits or what good did Christ procure or secure for us by His mediation?

This question will be dealt with in detail over the next thirty questions or so (until WLC 88 or WLC 90, depending on how you look at it), but here, the short answer is that Christ "procured redemption, with all other benefits of the covenant of grace."

The astute student of the Catechism will at first find this answer to be somewhat tautologous. What is the difference between ‘redemption’ and ‘benefits of the covenant of grace’? Are they not the same?

Well, in the broad sense of the word, ‘redemption’ encompasses all the benefits of the covenant of grace, but in the narrower sense of the word, ‘redemption’ is part of the benefits of the covenant of grace.

Our catechism is using the word in the narrow sense, which in Scripture refers to the payment of a ransom price to recover something. More specifically, it refers to Christ rescuing elect sinners from sin and death by dying on the Cross on their behalf. That is, He paid for their sin to turn the wrath of God from them, by taking God’s wrath due to them upon Himself. Thus, the apostle Peter encourages us:

"…ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet 1:18-19).

Elsewhere in Scripture, however, the word ‘redemption’ is used particularly to refer to the resurrection of the body (Rom 8:23; Eph 1:14). This is so because that is the final instalment of the benefits of redemption. Our personal redemption in other words begins at our initial conversion, but is completed only when our bodies are raised at the Last Day (When you see this to be the case, you will realise that the expansion of this question stretches to WLC 90).

What are the other benefits of the covenant of grace, apart from our ransom from sin and death? Our Shorter Catechism gives us a good summary. It comprises "justification, adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them" (WSC 32), including "assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end" (WSC 36). All these will be expounded in the following questions.