Covenant theology captures the unity of the Bible. It reveals how the Bible’s central message—the salvation of sinners by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ—involves expression throughout the Scriptures. God’s plan of salvation unfolds in historical past by way of the various covenants that he has made with human beings. This plan, actually, is anchored in an everlasting covenant among the many three individuals of the Godhead.
On this survey of covenant theology, we are going to first make clear what covenant theology is. Subsequent we are going to have a look at the best way wherein covenant theology arranges and pertains to the varied covenants of Scripture, underscoring the theological themes and motifs that this association serves to emphasise. After this, we are going to probe the similarities and variations among the many covenant theologies of the Westminster Requirements, the Second London Baptist Confession, and progressive covenantalism. Then we are going to discover among the salient variations between covenant theology and dispensationalism. Lastly, we are going to have a look at a number of sensible implications of covenant theology for religion and follow.
What’s—& isn’t—covenant theology?
It’s useful on the outset to consider what covenant theology is and isn’t.
1. Not merely the acknowledgment of biblical covenants
First, covenant theology shouldn’t be the identical factor as merely recognizing that there are “covenants” in Scripture. Each reader of the Bible acknowledges the presence of covenants in Scripture, however college students of the Bible disagree in regards to the nature of those covenants and their relationship to at least one one other.
2. Not synonymous with Reformed theology
Second, covenant theology shouldn’t be synonymous with Reformed theology. There may be, to make sure, appreciable overlap between the 2. Covenant theology has flourished within the Reformed custom. With antecedents within the considered the Genevan Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564), covenant theology blossomed within the writings of Calvin’s youthful contemporaries, Zacharius Ursinus (1534–1583) and Caspar Olevianus (1536–1587), and, within the subsequent century, the theology of Herman Witsius (1636–1708) and Francis Turretin (1623–1687). In Britain, William Perkins (1558–1602), David Dickson (1583–1663), and Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) superior a theological system explicitly structured across the covenants of Scripture. However covenant theology didn’t originate with the Reformed custom—one might converse of the covenant theology of the early Church Fathers and of the medieval church. Neither is covenant theology restricted to the Reformed custom.
But when covenant theology shouldn’t be synonymous with Reformed theology, it’s however interwoven with Reformed theology to such a level that to look at the one is invariably to look at the opposite.
It isn’t shocking, then, to search out the intramural variety represented inside Reformed theology current inside covenant theology.
- The Westminster Requirements (1647–1648) are a full and mature confessional expression of covenant theology (particularly WCF 7; cf. WLC 20–36; 16–20).
- The Second London Confession (1689) is, in lots of respects, a revision of Westminster’s covenantal theology from the standpoint of credobaptist convictions.
- Extra not too long ago, progressive covenantalism is yet one more try by Reformed credobaptist theologians to articulate the covenantal construction and content material of Scripture’s teachings.
3. Not a uniform, singular theology
Thus, one might not converse of a single Reformed covenant theology.
Even so, the covenant theology of the Westminster Requirements serves as an historic and theological baseline for subsequent Reformed reflection on the covenants of Scripture. Because of this, we are going to spotlight Westminsterian covenant theology on this survey, with out shedding sight of the best way wherein credobaptist covenant theologies put their very own stamp on covenant theology.
What’s the biblical foundation for covenant theology?
A “covenant,” in short, is a solemn divinely instituted settlement with guarantees and obligations.
Which covenants does covenant theology see within the Bible, and the way does it perceive their relationship to at least one one other?
The historic covenants with Adam & Christ
To start, covenant theology understands God to have made two primary covenants inside human historical past. There may be the primary covenant that God made with Adam within the backyard (typically referred to as the covenant of works), and there’s the second covenant that God made with Christ (typically referred to as the covenant of grace). In every of those covenants, Adam and Christ are consultant individuals. That’s to say, every stands because the divinely appointed consultant of a large number of human beings. Adam is the consultant of all human beings descending from him by strange era. Christ is the consultant of the entire variety of these individuals whom God has eternally and sovereignly chosen to salvation. In these respects, we might converse of individuals as being in covenant with God.
Within the backyard of Eden, God commanded Adam to chorus from consuming of the tree of the information of fine and evil, threatening Adam (and all who’re in Adam) with demise ought to he accomplish that (Gen 2:17). As the remainder of Scripture reveals, this demise is multi-dimensional. It’s bodily, religious, and everlasting in character. However by implication, had Adam continued in obedience to God and to all his commandments, he would have acquired life for himself and for all whom he represented. This life would have been confirmed everlasting life in fellowship with God.
What Christ has completed is twofold: It’s the undoing of what Adam had executed and the doing of what Adam had didn’t do. By his accursed demise on the cross, Christ bore the legislation’s curse for his individuals (Gal 3:13; 4:5). Thus, there’s for individuals who are in Christ no condemnation (Rom 8:1). For them, the document of debt has been cancelled (Col 2:14), and demise has been abolished (2 Tim 1:10). Christ has executed what Adam didn’t do. He obeyed the legislation completely within the stead of his individuals. On the premise of his righteousness alone, they’re counted righteous in Christ (Rom 5:19; cf. Rom 8:4) and subsequently entitled to everlasting life (Rom 5:17, 21; 2 Tim 1:10).
Christ has completed the undoing of what Adam had executed and the doing of what Adam had didn’t do.
It’s typically objected that the phrase “covenant” doesn’t seem in Scripture earlier than Genesis 6:18. This statement is true, but it surely have to be remembered that the idea of covenant could also be current even the place the phrase “covenant” shouldn’t be. What’s the proof that the association described in Genesis 2 is, actually, a covenant? There are passages later within the Previous Testomony that probably discuss with the presence of a covenant in Genesis 2 (see Hos 6:7; Isa 24:5). Genesis 2, furthermore, comprises all the weather of a covenant:
- there are two events (God and Adam) in solemn settlement,
- with God giving to Adam a promise of everlasting life,
- a selected command,
- and a risk of everlasting demise for breaking that command.
Moreover, the Apostle Paul testifies to a covenant that God made with Adam earlier than his fall into sin. In 1 Corinthians 15:20–23, 42–49, and Romans 5:12–21, Paul makes a working comparability between Adam and Christ. These two males are parallel to at least one one other in a single essential respect. Every is a consultant man whose work is imputed to these whom he represents. However they differ vitally in one other respect. Adam’s disobedience led to demise, Christ’s obedience led to life. Elsewhere, Paul explicitly speaks of Christ and his work as covenantal (see 1 Cor 11:25; Rom 11:27; 2 Cor 3:6). Given the structural similarities between Adam (and his work) and Christ (and his work), it follows that, if Christ’s work is covenantal, then Adam’s work isn’t any much less covenantal. We should subsequently converse of the association in Eden as a covenant.
The historic covenants in between Adam & Christ
The intervening interval of historical past between Adam and Christ isn’t any much less covenantal in character.
God made a promise to Adam and Eve earlier than he exiled them from the backyard (Gen 3:15). God pledged to boost up from Eve an “offspring” who would “bruise” the pinnacle of the serpent (who, in flip, would “bruise [the] heel” of that offspring). That promise, Paul tells us, finds its meant and supreme achievement within the particular person and work of Christ (Rom 16:20; cf. 2 Cor 1:20).
This promise of an offspring is the thread that runs by way of the entire of the Previous Testomony.
- The covenant that God makes with Noah serves to protect this offspring from the existential threats of violence and corruption (Gen 6:1–7).
- The Abrahamic covenant administers God’s promise to Abram that his offspring will bless the nations, a promise that Paul insists finds its substance and its meant and supreme achievement in Christ (Gal 3:6–29; Rom 4:9–25).
- The Mosaic covenant orders the lifetime of Abraham’s descendants, directing their gaze to the particular person and work of the promised messiah in whom alone they’ll discover their salvation (Gal 3:19–25).
- The covenant that God made with David (2 Sam 7:1–17) pledges to David a descendant who can be God’s son and whose reign will endure eternally, which the New Testomony confirms discovered its meant and supreme achievement within the demise and resurrection of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt 22:41–46; Acts 2:34–36).
- Lastly, the brand new covenant promised by Jeremiah (31:31–34) has now been realized within the life and ministry of Christ (Heb 8:8–13).
Importantly, every of those successive covenants builds upon and extends what precedes them. However they aren’t solely progressive. They’re additionally organically associated. As a seed matures to a sapling after which to a tree, so the redemptive covenants of the Bible tender the promise of Christ to the individuals of God till that promise arrives at historic maturation. Because of this, these covenants are actually administrations of a single, gracious covenant, inaugurated in Genesis 3:15 and dropped at consummation within the incarnate life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
The everlasting covenant previous Adam & Christ
Many covenant theologians have insisted on one extra covenant. This covenant doesn’t fall inside historical past however stands outdoors historical past, in eternity. As such, it serves to undergird the 2 nice covenants of historical past (i.e., the covenant of works and the covenant of grace).
This “covenant of redemption” is the settlement among the many three individuals of the Godhead to safe the salvation of the elect. The Father agrees to ship the Son into the world to avoid wasting sinners and to reward his Son for his completed work. The Son consents to imagine our humanity and, in obedience to the Father, to endure and die on the cross. Because the reward of his accomplished mission, the God-man Christ Jesus is glorified by the Father. The Spirit expresses his concurrence by agreeing to be despatched to equip and empower the Son for his redemptive work on earth. Moreover, it’s by the Spirit that the Father exalts the Son within the Son’s wonderful resurrection from the lifeless.
Though Scripture doesn’t denominate this association as a “covenant,” there are ample biblical causes for talking of it as such. Jesus, as an example, testifies to his having been “despatched” by the Father into the world (John 17:3) to do “the need of him who despatched me” (John 6:39), even the “works that the Father has given me to perform” (John 5:36). That mission considerations the entire and remaining salvation of “all that [the Father] has given” Christ (John 6:39; cf. 6:37). In step with the “cost” that he has “acquired from [the] Father,” Jesus lays down his life for the sheep on the cross (John 10:18, 15). Talking proleptically of this mission as accomplished, Jesus claims his reward from the Father, particularly, glory (John 17:4–5). Jesus doesn’t hoard this glory for himself, however shares it with those whom the Father has given to him (John 17:24). This glory, after all, will come into the possession of the elect by way of the ministry of the Spirit.
How does covenant theology perform?
1. Explains the unity of Scripture
Taken collectively, the covenants of Scripture (redemption, works, and beauty) serve to anchor the historic work of God within the everlasting plan of God. In so doing, covenant theology explains how it’s that the Bible is one story.
The redemption of sinners in Jesus Christ unites the entire of the biblical narrative. The needs of God for human beings at creation haven’t been derailed by the autumn of humanity in Adam. Quite the opposite, they are going to be realized by way of the saving work of the Final Adam, Jesus Christ. On the consummation, God can have gathered to himself a totally redeemed humanity, Jew and gentile.
Underlying the wealthy variety of the biblical books is a grand unity expressed by the divine dedication, “I can be their God they usually shall be my individuals” (Jer 31:33).
2. Underscores salvation by divine grace
Covenant theology’s account of Scripture’s unity underscores main considerations and emphases of biblical educating:
- Salvation is solely the work of the sovereign triune God.
- The Father freely and unconditionally elects some individuals to everlasting life.
- The Son accomplishes all that’s vital for the salvation of the elect.
- The Spirit applies that salvation to the elect in God’s appointed time.
For these causes, salvation is by grace alone and to the glory of God alone.
3. Facilities the particular person & work of Christ
Covenant theology additionally reveals the Christocentricity of Scripture.
Christ is the Savior of all God’s elect. The one covenant of grace, though administered in varied covenants throughout redemptive historical past, has supplied one Savior and a method of salvation for individuals in all ages (Rom 3:25; 4:1–12; Heb 9:14). There may be, consequently, a single individuals of God. For all their formal variations, Israel and the church are the one firm of the redeemed in Christ (1 Pet 2:9; Heb 3:1–6; cf. Rom 11:16–24).
What variations exist between covenantal theologies?
This sketch of covenant theology has up to now harassed what many (if not all) Reformed covenant theologians maintain in widespread. There are, nevertheless, some essential variations between college students of Scripture who establish themselves as covenant theologians.
Many Reformed Baptists, as an example, maintain to the covenant theology articulated by the Second London Baptist Confession or to the system that has come to be generally known as progressive covenantalism. Every system argues for a prevailingly covenantal theology of the Bible. However every does so in a method that differs from the covenantal theology of the Westminster Requirements, and even from each other.
The covenant theology of the Second London Baptist Confession
Reformed Baptists within the custom of the Second London Baptist Confession have seen the covenant of grace as “revealed progressively” below the Previous Testomony, however solely “formally concluded” within the new covenant. Thus, this custom equates the covenant of grace with the brand new covenant.
Consequently, the ecclesiology and sacramentology of the Previous Testomony doesn’t presumptively convey to the New Testomony. The brand new covenant, these proponents urge, whereas steady with the previous covenant, marks a big change within the composition of God’s individuals and within the administration of divine ordinances. Not like Israel, the church below the brand new covenant consists solely of “explicit congregations” of “seen saints” (LBC 26.2). Whereas the initiatory ordinance of the previous covenant (circumcision) was administered to the offspring of believers, the initiatory ordinance of the brand new covenant (baptism) is to be administered solely to these professing repentance, religion, and Christian obedience (LBC 29.2).
Progressive covenantalism
Progressive covenantalism is a type of covenant theology that’s newer in origin and has not presently come to confessional expression. Its main proponents, Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum, argue for a succession of covenants starting within the backyard and concluding with the brand new covenant. Whereas they don’t argue for the bi-covenantal theology of the Westminster Requirements or the Second London Baptist Confession, they single out these first and remaining covenants as having structural prominence within the Bible’s covenantal succession.
Like Reformed Baptists within the custom of the London Baptist Confession, Gentry and Wellum argue for a ample measure of distinction between Israel and the church as to confess of credobaptism throughout the church. Not like these Reformed Baptists, they don’t consider that the Decalogue is formally binding upon new covenant believers.
At root in these variations
One option to interrelate these three expressions of covenant theology is alongside the strains of unity and variety.
Credobaptist covenant theologians argue that paedobaptist covenant theologians flatten the variety among the many redemptive covenants of Scripture and yield an under-realized eschatology. In different phrases, paedobaptists’ understanding of the brand new covenant is alleged to be insufficiently “new.”
Paedobaptist covenant theologians, nevertheless, argue that credobaptist covenant theologians threat severing the unity among the many redemptive covenants of Scripture and yield an over-realized eschatology. In different phrases, credobaptists’ understanding of the brand new covenant fails to understand the diploma to which the ecclesiology of the church stays in continuity with the ecclesiology of Israel.
How does covenant theology evaluate to dispensationalism?
Standing athwart all expressions of covenant theology is dispensationalism.
Dispensational distinctives
As with covenant theology, it’s hazardous to generalize dispensational techniques of thought. One might, nevertheless, safely affirm some commonalities that carry throughout many dispensationalists’ understandings of the construction of Scripture.
Dispensationalists perceive biblical historical past to be ordered by what are referred to as “dispensations.” The variety of these dispensations can fluctuate from one dispensationalist writer to a different, however there’s common settlement {that a} dispensation is a time frame wherein God significantly checks human beings. Human failure serves because the event for God’s introduction of the following dispensation. Thus, dispensations are progressive in nature however not organically united to at least one one other.
One other attribute of dispensationalism is its historic insistence that Israel and the church are two peoples (not one individuals, as most covenant theologians preserve). To these two peoples correspond two divine functions and destinies. Previous Testomony Israel is given earthly guarantees (offspring, land, the Davidic reign of Jesus) that may come to final achievement sooner or later occasions previous the ultimate return of Christ on the finish of historical past. The New Testomony church receives religious guarantees which have been fulfilled in Christ. Most dispensationalists confess that salvation has all the time been on the premise of the work of Christ alone and thru religion in him alone. However dispensationalists have additionally insisted that God is doing greater than saving particular person individuals. He’s bringing glory to his identify by making and conserving particular earthly guarantees for Israel.
Covenant theology’s disagreement
Covenant theologians level out that the entire guarantees that God made to Israel discover their meant and supreme achievement within the particular person and work of Jesus Christ.
- The offspring that God promised to Abraham, Paul tells us, is Christ and, consequently, those that are in Christ (Gal 3:16, 29). Because of this, Paul can inform the largely gentile church in Corinth that the Israelites of the wilderness era are “our fathers” (1 Cor 10:1).
- The land that God promised to Abraham pointed past itself. Because of this, Paul speaks of Abraham as “inheritor of the world” (Rom 4:13), and Hebrews tells us that Abraham “was trying ahead to the town that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God,” particularly, “a greater nation, that’s, a heavenly one” (Heb 11:10, 16).
- The restoration of the temple promised within the prophets has reference to Christ, the Temple of God (John 2:18–23; Rev 21:22). Christ is the cornerstone of the eschatological temple of God, the church (Matt 21:42; 1 Pet 2:4–8; Eph 2:20–22).
- God’s promise concerning the Davidic reign of Jesus was finally fulfilled on the resurrection and ascension (Acts 2:30–36).
God, subsequently, doesn’t have two peoples with two units of guarantees corresponding to every. He has one individuals and one set of guarantees. In every, God brings glory to himself by way of his Son, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Dispelling misunderstandings
You will need to handle a few misunderstandings that typically floor in relation to covenant theology.
First, covenant theology doesn’t entail the binding of an unwilling God. Quite the opposite, it’s the sovereign God who’s happy to bind himself and to commit himself to his individuals and their everlasting well-being.
Neither does covenant theology perceive the connection between God and human beings to be such that God will fulfill his obligations to us on the situation that we first fulfill our obligations to him. Reasonably, covenant theology insists that, for sinners, any obligations that God lays upon human beings in his gracious covenant with them are obligations that he allows them to meet by the assets of the grace that he freely offers in Christ. The communion between God and his individuals is basically gracious in nature. All that the sinner wants so as to stand in proper relation with God and to take pleasure in fellowship with God is richly provided by God himself.
What are the sensible implications of covenant theology?
To conclude this survey of covenant theology, it’s useful to consider its implications for the best way wherein Christians perceive the Bible and apply its teachings to their lives.
1. People
Covenant theology teaches us how one can view ourselves and different human beings.
For all of the strains of variety that run by way of the human race, each particular person is both “in Adam” or “in Christ.” In Adam, an individual stands justly condemned earlier than God and estranged from him. In Christ, an individual stands justified by God and adopted into the household of God.
The church, subsequently, longs to see those that are in Adam get into Christ, and to see those that are already in Christ mature in Christ.
2. Salvation
Covenant theology furnishes a window into our salvation.
- God takes the initiative in salvation. In a method that gloriously displays his triune being, God plans, accomplishes, and applies the redemption of the sinner.
- Justification is predicated solely upon the work of God in Christ, and by no means upon an individual’s works.
- The pursuit of holiness is an obligation that rests upon each Christian, however God furnishes the Christian with every little thing that she or he must pursue Christlikeness.
- As a result of salvation shouldn’t be suspended upon the naked train of the human will, the believer has a positive basis to persevere in grace—she or he will neither completely nor lastly fall away from the state of grace.
- This actuality no much less affords grounds for the believer’s assurance—a Christian might know that she or he is really saved and can subsequently persevere to the top.
3. The Bible
Covenant theology helps us to be higher readers of the Bible. It reminds us that the entire Bible is in regards to the particular person and work of Jesus Christ (Luke 24:44–49).
For all its variety, the Previous Testomony was all the time gesturing to Christ. The entire Bible, and each a part of the Bible, is authored to point out us Christ.
As Hebrews reminds us, there’s a real variety to the Previous Testomony, “way back, at many instances and in some ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets” (Heb 1:1). However, Hebrews continues, “in these final days he has spoken to us by his Son.” For all its variety, the Previous Testomony was all the time gesturing to Christ and to God’s “final days” speech in Christ. The shadows of the Previous Testomony discover their substance in Christ, Paul tells us (Col 2:17). The entire Bible, and each a part of the Bible, is authored to point out us Christ.
4. Worship
Covenant theology helps us to understand the character and significance of the church’s worship.
- In worship, the individuals of God draw close to to the God who has entered into and retains covenant with them.
- In God’s Phrase, they’re reminded of his covenant guarantees and of their excessive calling to reside and to stroll in shut fellowship with their covenant God.
- Within the administration of the sacraments—covenant ordinances for the covenant individuals of God—believers witness tangible indicators and affirmation of the reality of God’s guarantees.
- Within the benediction, God sends his individuals out into the world together with his covenant blessing.
5. Mission
Lastly, covenant theology helps us to understand the church’s mission.
As God is a “going” God, so the church is a “going” church (John 20:21; Matt 28:19; Luke 24:47). From the start, God has blessed his individuals in order that they might go and be devices of blessing to others (Gen 12:2–3). The church does this by going into the world, proclaiming the excellent news of Jesus Christ, and gathering into its fellowship all those that put their belief in Christ.
The excellent news is really good—God in covenant mercy has saved a individuals for himself and can hold them to the top. Armed within the confidence of God’s steadfast covenant faithfulness, the church gladly goes out into the world till “the earth [is] crammed with the information of the glory of the LORD because the waters cowl the ocean” (Hab 2:14).
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Covenant theology captures the unity of the Bible. It reveals how the Bible’s central message—the salvation of sinners by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ—involves expression throughout the Scriptures. God’s plan of salvation unfolds in historical past by way of the various covenants that he has made with human beings. This plan, actually, is anchored in an everlasting covenant among the many three individuals of the Godhead.
On this survey of covenant theology, we are going to first make clear what covenant theology is. Subsequent we are going to have a look at the best way wherein covenant theology arranges and pertains to the varied covenants of Scripture, underscoring the theological themes and motifs that this association serves to emphasise. After this, we are going to probe the similarities and variations among the many covenant theologies of the Westminster Requirements, the Second London Baptist Confession, and progressive covenantalism. Then we are going to discover among the salient variations between covenant theology and dispensationalism. Lastly, we are going to have a look at a number of sensible implications of covenant theology for religion and follow.
What’s—& isn’t—covenant theology?
It’s useful on the outset to consider what covenant theology is and isn’t.
1. Not merely the acknowledgment of biblical covenants
First, covenant theology shouldn’t be the identical factor as merely recognizing that there are “covenants” in Scripture. Each reader of the Bible acknowledges the presence of covenants in Scripture, however college students of the Bible disagree in regards to the nature of those covenants and their relationship to at least one one other.
2. Not synonymous with Reformed theology
Second, covenant theology shouldn’t be synonymous with Reformed theology. There may be, to make sure, appreciable overlap between the 2. Covenant theology has flourished within the Reformed custom. With antecedents within the considered the Genevan Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564), covenant theology blossomed within the writings of Calvin’s youthful contemporaries, Zacharius Ursinus (1534–1583) and Caspar Olevianus (1536–1587), and, within the subsequent century, the theology of Herman Witsius (1636–1708) and Francis Turretin (1623–1687). In Britain, William Perkins (1558–1602), David Dickson (1583–1663), and Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) superior a theological system explicitly structured across the covenants of Scripture. However covenant theology didn’t originate with the Reformed custom—one might converse of the covenant theology of the early Church Fathers and of the medieval church. Neither is covenant theology restricted to the Reformed custom.
But when covenant theology shouldn’t be synonymous with Reformed theology, it’s however interwoven with Reformed theology to such a level that to look at the one is invariably to look at the opposite.
It isn’t shocking, then, to search out the intramural variety represented inside Reformed theology current inside covenant theology.
- The Westminster Requirements (1647–1648) are a full and mature confessional expression of covenant theology (particularly WCF 7; cf. WLC 20–36; 16–20).
- The Second London Confession (1689) is, in lots of respects, a revision of Westminster’s covenantal theology from the standpoint of credobaptist convictions.
- Extra not too long ago, progressive covenantalism is yet one more try by Reformed credobaptist theologians to articulate the covenantal construction and content material of Scripture’s teachings.
3. Not a uniform, singular theology
Thus, one might not converse of a single Reformed covenant theology.
Even so, the covenant theology of the Westminster Requirements serves as an historic and theological baseline for subsequent Reformed reflection on the covenants of Scripture. Because of this, we are going to spotlight Westminsterian covenant theology on this survey, with out shedding sight of the best way wherein credobaptist covenant theologies put their very own stamp on covenant theology.
What’s the biblical foundation for covenant theology?
A “covenant,” in short, is a solemn divinely instituted settlement with guarantees and obligations.
Which covenants does covenant theology see within the Bible, and the way does it perceive their relationship to at least one one other?
The historic covenants with Adam & Christ
To start, covenant theology understands God to have made two primary covenants inside human historical past. There may be the primary covenant that God made with Adam within the backyard (typically referred to as the covenant of works), and there’s the second covenant that God made with Christ (typically referred to as the covenant of grace). In every of those covenants, Adam and Christ are consultant individuals. That’s to say, every stands because the divinely appointed consultant of a large number of human beings. Adam is the consultant of all human beings descending from him by strange era. Christ is the consultant of the entire variety of these individuals whom God has eternally and sovereignly chosen to salvation. In these respects, we might converse of individuals as being in covenant with God.
Within the backyard of Eden, God commanded Adam to chorus from consuming of the tree of the information of fine and evil, threatening Adam (and all who’re in Adam) with demise ought to he accomplish that (Gen 2:17). As the remainder of Scripture reveals, this demise is multi-dimensional. It’s bodily, religious, and everlasting in character. However by implication, had Adam continued in obedience to God and to all his commandments, he would have acquired life for himself and for all whom he represented. This life would have been confirmed everlasting life in fellowship with God.
What Christ has completed is twofold: It’s the undoing of what Adam had executed and the doing of what Adam had didn’t do. By his accursed demise on the cross, Christ bore the legislation’s curse for his individuals (Gal 3:13; 4:5). Thus, there’s for individuals who are in Christ no condemnation (Rom 8:1). For them, the document of debt has been cancelled (Col 2:14), and demise has been abolished (2 Tim 1:10). Christ has executed what Adam didn’t do. He obeyed the legislation completely within the stead of his individuals. On the premise of his righteousness alone, they’re counted righteous in Christ (Rom 5:19; cf. Rom 8:4) and subsequently entitled to everlasting life (Rom 5:17, 21; 2 Tim 1:10).
Christ has completed the undoing of what Adam had executed and the doing of what Adam had didn’t do.
It’s typically objected that the phrase “covenant” doesn’t seem in Scripture earlier than Genesis 6:18. This statement is true, but it surely have to be remembered that the idea of covenant could also be current even the place the phrase “covenant” shouldn’t be. What’s the proof that the association described in Genesis 2 is, actually, a covenant? There are passages later within the Previous Testomony that probably discuss with the presence of a covenant in Genesis 2 (see Hos 6:7; Isa 24:5). Genesis 2, furthermore, comprises all the weather of a covenant:
- there are two events (God and Adam) in solemn settlement,
- with God giving to Adam a promise of everlasting life,
- a selected command,
- and a risk of everlasting demise for breaking that command.
Moreover, the Apostle Paul testifies to a covenant that God made with Adam earlier than his fall into sin. In 1 Corinthians 15:20–23, 42–49, and Romans 5:12–21, Paul makes a working comparability between Adam and Christ. These two males are parallel to at least one one other in a single essential respect. Every is a consultant man whose work is imputed to these whom he represents. However they differ vitally in one other respect. Adam’s disobedience led to demise, Christ’s obedience led to life. Elsewhere, Paul explicitly speaks of Christ and his work as covenantal (see 1 Cor 11:25; Rom 11:27; 2 Cor 3:6). Given the structural similarities between Adam (and his work) and Christ (and his work), it follows that, if Christ’s work is covenantal, then Adam’s work isn’t any much less covenantal. We should subsequently converse of the association in Eden as a covenant.
The historic covenants in between Adam & Christ
The intervening interval of historical past between Adam and Christ isn’t any much less covenantal in character.
God made a promise to Adam and Eve earlier than he exiled them from the backyard (Gen 3:15). God pledged to boost up from Eve an “offspring” who would “bruise” the pinnacle of the serpent (who, in flip, would “bruise [the] heel” of that offspring). That promise, Paul tells us, finds its meant and supreme achievement within the particular person and work of Christ (Rom 16:20; cf. 2 Cor 1:20).
This promise of an offspring is the thread that runs by way of the entire of the Previous Testomony.
- The covenant that God makes with Noah serves to protect this offspring from the existential threats of violence and corruption (Gen 6:1–7).
- The Abrahamic covenant administers God’s promise to Abram that his offspring will bless the nations, a promise that Paul insists finds its substance and its meant and supreme achievement in Christ (Gal 3:6–29; Rom 4:9–25).
- The Mosaic covenant orders the lifetime of Abraham’s descendants, directing their gaze to the particular person and work of the promised messiah in whom alone they’ll discover their salvation (Gal 3:19–25).
- The covenant that God made with David (2 Sam 7:1–17) pledges to David a descendant who can be God’s son and whose reign will endure eternally, which the New Testomony confirms discovered its meant and supreme achievement within the demise and resurrection of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt 22:41–46; Acts 2:34–36).
- Lastly, the brand new covenant promised by Jeremiah (31:31–34) has now been realized within the life and ministry of Christ (Heb 8:8–13).
Importantly, every of those successive covenants builds upon and extends what precedes them. However they aren’t solely progressive. They’re additionally organically associated. As a seed matures to a sapling after which to a tree, so the redemptive covenants of the Bible tender the promise of Christ to the individuals of God till that promise arrives at historic maturation. Because of this, these covenants are actually administrations of a single, gracious covenant, inaugurated in Genesis 3:15 and dropped at consummation within the incarnate life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
The everlasting covenant previous Adam & Christ
Many covenant theologians have insisted on one extra covenant. This covenant doesn’t fall inside historical past however stands outdoors historical past, in eternity. As such, it serves to undergird the 2 nice covenants of historical past (i.e., the covenant of works and the covenant of grace).
This “covenant of redemption” is the settlement among the many three individuals of the Godhead to safe the salvation of the elect. The Father agrees to ship the Son into the world to avoid wasting sinners and to reward his Son for his completed work. The Son consents to imagine our humanity and, in obedience to the Father, to endure and die on the cross. Because the reward of his accomplished mission, the God-man Christ Jesus is glorified by the Father. The Spirit expresses his concurrence by agreeing to be despatched to equip and empower the Son for his redemptive work on earth. Moreover, it’s by the Spirit that the Father exalts the Son within the Son’s wonderful resurrection from the lifeless.
Though Scripture doesn’t denominate this association as a “covenant,” there are ample biblical causes for talking of it as such. Jesus, as an example, testifies to his having been “despatched” by the Father into the world (John 17:3) to do “the need of him who despatched me” (John 6:39), even the “works that the Father has given me to perform” (John 5:36). That mission considerations the entire and remaining salvation of “all that [the Father] has given” Christ (John 6:39; cf. 6:37). In step with the “cost” that he has “acquired from [the] Father,” Jesus lays down his life for the sheep on the cross (John 10:18, 15). Talking proleptically of this mission as accomplished, Jesus claims his reward from the Father, particularly, glory (John 17:4–5). Jesus doesn’t hoard this glory for himself, however shares it with those whom the Father has given to him (John 17:24). This glory, after all, will come into the possession of the elect by way of the ministry of the Spirit.
How does covenant theology perform?
1. Explains the unity of Scripture
Taken collectively, the covenants of Scripture (redemption, works, and beauty) serve to anchor the historic work of God within the everlasting plan of God. In so doing, covenant theology explains how it’s that the Bible is one story.
The redemption of sinners in Jesus Christ unites the entire of the biblical narrative. The needs of God for human beings at creation haven’t been derailed by the autumn of humanity in Adam. Quite the opposite, they are going to be realized by way of the saving work of the Final Adam, Jesus Christ. On the consummation, God can have gathered to himself a totally redeemed humanity, Jew and gentile.
Underlying the wealthy variety of the biblical books is a grand unity expressed by the divine dedication, “I can be their God they usually shall be my individuals” (Jer 31:33).
2. Underscores salvation by divine grace
Covenant theology’s account of Scripture’s unity underscores main considerations and emphases of biblical educating:
- Salvation is solely the work of the sovereign triune God.
- The Father freely and unconditionally elects some individuals to everlasting life.
- The Son accomplishes all that’s vital for the salvation of the elect.
- The Spirit applies that salvation to the elect in God’s appointed time.
For these causes, salvation is by grace alone and to the glory of God alone.
3. Facilities the particular person & work of Christ
Covenant theology additionally reveals the Christocentricity of Scripture.
Christ is the Savior of all God’s elect. The one covenant of grace, though administered in varied covenants throughout redemptive historical past, has supplied one Savior and a method of salvation for individuals in all ages (Rom 3:25; 4:1–12; Heb 9:14). There may be, consequently, a single individuals of God. For all their formal variations, Israel and the church are the one firm of the redeemed in Christ (1 Pet 2:9; Heb 3:1–6; cf. Rom 11:16–24).
What variations exist between covenantal theologies?
This sketch of covenant theology has up to now harassed what many (if not all) Reformed covenant theologians maintain in widespread. There are, nevertheless, some essential variations between college students of Scripture who establish themselves as covenant theologians.
Many Reformed Baptists, as an example, maintain to the covenant theology articulated by the Second London Baptist Confession or to the system that has come to be generally known as progressive covenantalism. Every system argues for a prevailingly covenantal theology of the Bible. However every does so in a method that differs from the covenantal theology of the Westminster Requirements, and even from each other.
The covenant theology of the Second London Baptist Confession
Reformed Baptists within the custom of the Second London Baptist Confession have seen the covenant of grace as “revealed progressively” below the Previous Testomony, however solely “formally concluded” within the new covenant. Thus, this custom equates the covenant of grace with the brand new covenant.
Consequently, the ecclesiology and sacramentology of the Previous Testomony doesn’t presumptively convey to the New Testomony. The brand new covenant, these proponents urge, whereas steady with the previous covenant, marks a big change within the composition of God’s individuals and within the administration of divine ordinances. Not like Israel, the church below the brand new covenant consists solely of “explicit congregations” of “seen saints” (LBC 26.2). Whereas the initiatory ordinance of the previous covenant (circumcision) was administered to the offspring of believers, the initiatory ordinance of the brand new covenant (baptism) is to be administered solely to these professing repentance, religion, and Christian obedience (LBC 29.2).
Progressive covenantalism
Progressive covenantalism is a type of covenant theology that’s newer in origin and has not presently come to confessional expression. Its main proponents, Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum, argue for a succession of covenants starting within the backyard and concluding with the brand new covenant. Whereas they don’t argue for the bi-covenantal theology of the Westminster Requirements or the Second London Baptist Confession, they single out these first and remaining covenants as having structural prominence within the Bible’s covenantal succession.
Like Reformed Baptists within the custom of the London Baptist Confession, Gentry and Wellum argue for a ample measure of distinction between Israel and the church as to confess of credobaptism throughout the church. Not like these Reformed Baptists, they don’t consider that the Decalogue is formally binding upon new covenant believers.
At root in these variations
One option to interrelate these three expressions of covenant theology is alongside the strains of unity and variety.
Credobaptist covenant theologians argue that paedobaptist covenant theologians flatten the variety among the many redemptive covenants of Scripture and yield an under-realized eschatology. In different phrases, paedobaptists’ understanding of the brand new covenant is alleged to be insufficiently “new.”
Paedobaptist covenant theologians, nevertheless, argue that credobaptist covenant theologians threat severing the unity among the many redemptive covenants of Scripture and yield an over-realized eschatology. In different phrases, credobaptists’ understanding of the brand new covenant fails to understand the diploma to which the ecclesiology of the church stays in continuity with the ecclesiology of Israel.
How does covenant theology evaluate to dispensationalism?
Standing athwart all expressions of covenant theology is dispensationalism.
Dispensational distinctives
As with covenant theology, it’s hazardous to generalize dispensational techniques of thought. One might, nevertheless, safely affirm some commonalities that carry throughout many dispensationalists’ understandings of the construction of Scripture.
Dispensationalists perceive biblical historical past to be ordered by what are referred to as “dispensations.” The variety of these dispensations can fluctuate from one dispensationalist writer to a different, however there’s common settlement {that a} dispensation is a time frame wherein God significantly checks human beings. Human failure serves because the event for God’s introduction of the following dispensation. Thus, dispensations are progressive in nature however not organically united to at least one one other.
One other attribute of dispensationalism is its historic insistence that Israel and the church are two peoples (not one individuals, as most covenant theologians preserve). To these two peoples correspond two divine functions and destinies. Previous Testomony Israel is given earthly guarantees (offspring, land, the Davidic reign of Jesus) that may come to final achievement sooner or later occasions previous the ultimate return of Christ on the finish of historical past. The New Testomony church receives religious guarantees which have been fulfilled in Christ. Most dispensationalists confess that salvation has all the time been on the premise of the work of Christ alone and thru religion in him alone. However dispensationalists have additionally insisted that God is doing greater than saving particular person individuals. He’s bringing glory to his identify by making and conserving particular earthly guarantees for Israel.
Covenant theology’s disagreement
Covenant theologians level out that the entire guarantees that God made to Israel discover their meant and supreme achievement within the particular person and work of Jesus Christ.
- The offspring that God promised to Abraham, Paul tells us, is Christ and, consequently, those that are in Christ (Gal 3:16, 29). Because of this, Paul can inform the largely gentile church in Corinth that the Israelites of the wilderness era are “our fathers” (1 Cor 10:1).
- The land that God promised to Abraham pointed past itself. Because of this, Paul speaks of Abraham as “inheritor of the world” (Rom 4:13), and Hebrews tells us that Abraham “was trying ahead to the town that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God,” particularly, “a greater nation, that’s, a heavenly one” (Heb 11:10, 16).
- The restoration of the temple promised within the prophets has reference to Christ, the Temple of God (John 2:18–23; Rev 21:22). Christ is the cornerstone of the eschatological temple of God, the church (Matt 21:42; 1 Pet 2:4–8; Eph 2:20–22).
- God’s promise concerning the Davidic reign of Jesus was finally fulfilled on the resurrection and ascension (Acts 2:30–36).
God, subsequently, doesn’t have two peoples with two units of guarantees corresponding to every. He has one individuals and one set of guarantees. In every, God brings glory to himself by way of his Son, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Dispelling misunderstandings
You will need to handle a few misunderstandings that typically floor in relation to covenant theology.
First, covenant theology doesn’t entail the binding of an unwilling God. Quite the opposite, it’s the sovereign God who’s happy to bind himself and to commit himself to his individuals and their everlasting well-being.
Neither does covenant theology perceive the connection between God and human beings to be such that God will fulfill his obligations to us on the situation that we first fulfill our obligations to him. Reasonably, covenant theology insists that, for sinners, any obligations that God lays upon human beings in his gracious covenant with them are obligations that he allows them to meet by the assets of the grace that he freely offers in Christ. The communion between God and his individuals is basically gracious in nature. All that the sinner wants so as to stand in proper relation with God and to take pleasure in fellowship with God is richly provided by God himself.
What are the sensible implications of covenant theology?
To conclude this survey of covenant theology, it’s useful to consider its implications for the best way wherein Christians perceive the Bible and apply its teachings to their lives.
1. People
Covenant theology teaches us how one can view ourselves and different human beings.
For all of the strains of variety that run by way of the human race, each particular person is both “in Adam” or “in Christ.” In Adam, an individual stands justly condemned earlier than God and estranged from him. In Christ, an individual stands justified by God and adopted into the household of God.
The church, subsequently, longs to see those that are in Adam get into Christ, and to see those that are already in Christ mature in Christ.
2. Salvation
Covenant theology furnishes a window into our salvation.
- God takes the initiative in salvation. In a method that gloriously displays his triune being, God plans, accomplishes, and applies the redemption of the sinner.
- Justification is predicated solely upon the work of God in Christ, and by no means upon an individual’s works.
- The pursuit of holiness is an obligation that rests upon each Christian, however God furnishes the Christian with every little thing that she or he must pursue Christlikeness.
- As a result of salvation shouldn’t be suspended upon the naked train of the human will, the believer has a positive basis to persevere in grace—she or he will neither completely nor lastly fall away from the state of grace.
- This actuality no much less affords grounds for the believer’s assurance—a Christian might know that she or he is really saved and can subsequently persevere to the top.
3. The Bible
Covenant theology helps us to be higher readers of the Bible. It reminds us that the entire Bible is in regards to the particular person and work of Jesus Christ (Luke 24:44–49).
For all its variety, the Previous Testomony was all the time gesturing to Christ. The entire Bible, and each a part of the Bible, is authored to point out us Christ.
As Hebrews reminds us, there’s a real variety to the Previous Testomony, “way back, at many instances and in some ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets” (Heb 1:1). However, Hebrews continues, “in these final days he has spoken to us by his Son.” For all its variety, the Previous Testomony was all the time gesturing to Christ and to God’s “final days” speech in Christ. The shadows of the Previous Testomony discover their substance in Christ, Paul tells us (Col 2:17). The entire Bible, and each a part of the Bible, is authored to point out us Christ.
4. Worship
Covenant theology helps us to understand the character and significance of the church’s worship.
- In worship, the individuals of God draw close to to the God who has entered into and retains covenant with them.
- In God’s Phrase, they’re reminded of his covenant guarantees and of their excessive calling to reside and to stroll in shut fellowship with their covenant God.
- Within the administration of the sacraments—covenant ordinances for the covenant individuals of God—believers witness tangible indicators and affirmation of the reality of God’s guarantees.
- Within the benediction, God sends his individuals out into the world together with his covenant blessing.
5. Mission
Lastly, covenant theology helps us to understand the church’s mission.
As God is a “going” God, so the church is a “going” church (John 20:21; Matt 28:19; Luke 24:47). From the start, God has blessed his individuals in order that they might go and be devices of blessing to others (Gen 12:2–3). The church does this by going into the world, proclaiming the excellent news of Jesus Christ, and gathering into its fellowship all those that put their belief in Christ.
The excellent news is really good—God in covenant mercy has saved a individuals for himself and can hold them to the top. Armed within the confidence of God’s steadfast covenant faithfulness, the church gladly goes out into the world till “the earth [is] crammed with the information of the glory of the LORD because the waters cowl the ocean” (Hab 2:14).
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