Bullinger and the Covenant of the Most High God with Sinful Mankind

At the end of this first section of De Testamento (folio 4b) Bullinger alludes to the fact and reality that the Most Holy God, who is immortal and the creator of the universe, can indeed enter into a relationship with sinful mankind when he states, “… it was God Himself who deigned to name this mystery of divine union (unitatis) and partnership (societatis) with a human title. The same also conformed to human foolishness on account of the weakness (imbecillitatis) of our nature in the striking of the covenant or the arranging of the testament” (Peter Lillback, The Binding of God, Dissertation, p501) .

This is further elaborated in folio 6b of De Testamento where Bullinger emphasizes, “For what greater deed than this has ever been heard in the world, that ….. God….. joined himself in covenant with miserable mortals corrupted by sin (Charles S. McCoy and J. Wayne Baker, Fountainhead of Federalism, p105)” . Garcia has correctly concluded that “this is no bilateral covenant between equal partners (Aurelio A. Garcia, “Bullinger’s De Testamento: The Amply Biblical Basis of Reformed Origins”, pp674,675)” but, rather, a concrete example of the accommodation of God to initiate a relationship with humans .