Is there a biblical basis for the Covenant of Redemption?

Although the term “Covenant of Redemption” is not a biblical designation, the teaching that, from before the creation of the world, the persons of the Trinity entered into a solemn pact to accomplish the work of redemption, the Father promising to give a people to the Son as his inheritance, the Son undertaking to accomplish their redemption, and the Spirit covenanting to testify to Christ, and apply his redemption to his people's hearts, is most evidently biblical. Thus, according to the divine testimony, the Lamb was already considered as “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8) so certainly was the agreement to accomplish redemption established before history.

Several biblical passages give clear testimony to the concept of the Covenant of Redemption. One of the primary is Psalm 2, which depicts Christ relating the terms of the Covenant that the Father had established with him. Isaiah 53:10-12 also speaks of the covenantal agreement between the Father and the Son in the accomplishing of redemption; and Ephesians 1:3-14 gives a trinitarian picture of the roles that each person of the godhead undertook from eternity to perform. However, the clearest and best passages depicting the Covenant of Redemption are to be found in the Gospel of John. There, Jesus repeatedly speaks of the work that the Father gave him to do, the glorious reward that he was promised, and the sending of the Spirit to apply the benefits of his redemption and bring about in fact the promised reward of a redeemed people, that was merited by the Son's unerring obedience to the Father (see John 5:17-31, 36-37, 43; 6:37-40, 57; 7:28-29, 38-39; 8:16-19, 26-29, 38, 42, 49-54; 9:4; 10:14-18, 25-30, 36-38; 12:23-28, 44-50; 13:3, 20, 31-32; 14:9-14, 16-20, 24-26; 15:8-15, 24-27; 16:7-16, 27-28; 17).

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