In each of the individual, historical covenantal administrations, the intended end of God’s covenantal work is stated in terms of “the Immanuel principle”—“I shall be your God and you shall be My people.” With these words, God promises to be Immanuel (which means “God with us”) to His people. God first articulates this principle to Abraham in Genesis 17:7. He has Moses reiterate it to the Israelites prior to the exodus in Exodus 6:7. The Immanuel principle then is connected with the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7:14 and, after the exile, gives shape to the new covenant that the prophets proclaim to Israel in Ezekiel 36:28 and Jeremiah 31:33. Finally, 2 Corinthians 6:16 uses it to articulate what God is doing in the New Testament church, even as Revelation 21:3 proclaims it as the glorious bliss of the new heavens and the new earth. Running throughout all of the biblical covenants, there is this striking unity of purpose. God will have His people.

STEPHEN G. MYERS, GOD TO US – COVENANT THEOLOGY IN SCRIPTURE, 163.

In Romans 16:20, Paul uses the specific imagery of Genesis 3:15 to describe what God is doing, right that moment, in and through His church. In 1 John 3:8, John speaks of Jesus as coming specifically to destroy the works of the devil. In Hebrews 2:14, the Scriptures speak of Jesus Christ as the destroyer of the devil himself. In Revelation 12, John uses the imagery of Genesis 3:15 to encapsulate and represent the entire progress of redemptive history. Repeatedly, the Scriptures evoke Genesis 3:15 to crystallize what God has been doing, and what He presently is doing, in His redemptive work.

STEPHEN G. MYERS, GOD TO US – COVENANT THEOLOGY IN SCRIPTURE, 162.

As for us, we prefer to listen to Augustine, when he says: “To declare publicly what you have received is not arrogance, but faith; it isn’t haughtiness, but devotion.” (On the Words of the Lord according to Luke, Sermon 28).

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 369.

But the object of perseverance are the promises of divine grace. The certainty of these promises rests not only in the one who makes the promises, and in the promises themselves, but they are also certain to the persevering person.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 368.

It is clear enough from what Paul states in Rom 8:30 that reprobates are never justified. . . . And although there are some among the reprobates who are reported somehow to belong to Christ because they confessed their faith, shared in the sacraments, and used the name of the Church and associated with it — they were not, in actual fact, in Christ. They appeared to be within the boundaries of faith, but they were believers in appearance only, “adhering only to professing Christ, but not binding themselves with cords of love” (Cyril, On John, book 10, chapter 24).

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 367.

And that saving faith is a firm assent — based on the certain knowledge of divine revelation — ingenerated in our minds by the Holy Spirit through the word of the Gospel, an assent to everything that God has revealed to us in his Word, and especially the promises of life that were made in Christ; hereby each and every believer, relying with constant confidence in God, steadfastly determines that forgiveness of sins was promised not only to believers generally but also granted to him in particular, and that he himself has received eternal righteousness and from it, life, out of God’s mercy because of the merit of Jesus Christ alone.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 353.

Along with Scripture itself we willingly grant that when one hears the Word of God it is “the power of God for those who are being saved” (1 Cor 1:18), that it “is the seed that has been sown in our hearts” (Luke 8:11), and that it “is a two-edged sword piercing the soul” (Heb 4:12). Nevertheless, we disagree with those who ascribe a power of the following sort to the outward preaching of the Gospel as it strikes the ears: that ingenerating faith is a property inherent in the preaching, as though the very performance of that action achieves it, and as though the operation of the Holy Spirit is bound up in it. Even though by God’s command the outward preaching is a necessary prerequisite of faith for adults, nevertheless the outward act of preaching is not sufficient for faith if it is not accompanied by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit as he reveals the meaning of the Gospel inwardly and as he presents and seals it upon the ‘ears’ of the heart. For “neither he who plants is anything, nor is he who waters, but he who grants the increase — God” (1 Cor 3:7). We must therefore see to it here that we not go head over heels to the extremes and pull apart what belongs together, or mix up what should be kept apart, but attributing to the instrument what belongs properly to the primary cause, and with the same sense. Nor should we do so by looking for the Spirit apart from the Word, or by looking for an understanding of the Word apart from the internal revelation of the Spirit; or, once the Word is understood, by looking for the assent and true confidence form the Word itself (or from the one who administers it) apart from the internal revelation by the Spirit, and to do so by the light of our understanding.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 355-356.

Because of the variety in the concurrence of the internal call with the outward one, hypocrites mingle among the true people of Israel within the visible Church (which is the gathering of those who have been called). It is with regard to this mixture that both the good and the evil are said to be invited to the wedding banquet of the Son, the Lamb of God (Matt 22:4), and that many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 20:16).

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 347.

The way of calling, when we examine it from opposing perspectives, is divided into external and internal. The former is achieved outwardly through the administration of the Word and sacraments, the latter inwardly through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 347.

For the Son, as the Mediator between God and men, and as Head of the Church, calls these people to himself through the Holy Spirit and the Word of truth (Matt 11:28). The Holy Spirit equips the preachers of the Word with gifts that are needed to draw those people — to whom the Father sends them in the name of the Son — into communion with Christ by His summons (1 Cor 12:4; Heb 2:4).

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 343.

Human reason has never been able to answer to its own satisfaction, or to the assurance of others, the vital questions, What is God? What is man? What lies beyond the grave? If there be a future state of being, what is it? and How may future blessedness be secured? Without the Bible, we are, on all these subjects, in utter darkness. How endless and unsatisfying have been the answers to the greatest of all questions, What is God? The whole Eastern world answers by saying, “That He is the unconscious ground of being.” The Greeks gave the same answer for philosophers, and made all nature God for the people. The moderns have reached no higher doctrine. Fichte says the subjective Ego is God. According to Schelling. God is the eternal movement of the universe, subject becoming object, object becoming subject, the infinite becoming finite, and the finite infinite. Hegel says, Thought is God. Cousin combines all the German answers to form his own. Coleridge refers us to Schelling for an answer to the question, What is God? Carlyle makes force God. A Christian child says: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” Men and angels veil their faces in the presence of that answer.

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, 172-173.