Do we realize what we're saying?
A bite-sized lesson in doctrine: 1 Concept, 2 Definitions, 3 Passages...
Welcome back to Theology Thursday!
Here is your bite-sized lesson in orthodox biblical doctrine in 3 simple steps:
ONE concept explained
TWO concise definitions that must be kept distinct
THREE Scripture passages to meditate on
Concept: God’s Covenant
When speaking of the Christian religion, we often emphasize a “relationship” with God. Do we realize what we’re saying? Think about it. How does that happen exactly? Last I checked, no creature can see Him and live to tell the tale, let alone dwell with Him. In the first verse of the Bible, we’re struck with an infinite gap. How can we know that we have a relationship or communion with the King of Creation? If the gap between creatures and the Creator looms large, what guarantees His promises to us, or any meaningful relationship, for that matter? The Bible answers this with one word: Covenant.
Covenant Theology teaches two things: 1) how God enters into a relationship with mankind, and 2) an interpretive framework (hermeneutic) that unites the entire story of Scripture, which details God’s relationship with man through the man Christ Jesus. A Covenant speaks of an agreement, a sworn oath, or a promise between two parties. When made by God, they are sovereignly imposed, congeal with “you will/I will” statements, are secured by divine sanctions or threats to ensure unbreakability, and are typically accompanied by physical signs (Rainbow, sacrifice, circumcision, baptism, communion, etc.). Most importantly, they reveal God’s faithfulness. The word "covenant” should point you to a God who never ceases to fulfill His oaths or promises to His people, though His people continually break theirs. What God says, He will do, and our relationship with Him, therefore, will be unbreakable.
Definitions/Distinctions:
Overarching Covenants: The Bible’s own superstructure or system for interpreting the whole redemptive story, which climaxes in Christ. More clearly taught in Paul’s letters, redemptive history can be categorized under the three overarching covenants: the Covenant of Works, the Covenant of Grace, and the Covenant of Redemption. These covenants span the entire Bible and help us conceptualize the unfolding plan of redemption through the other Biblical covenants.1
Historical Covenants: The covenants laid out explicitly in Scripture between God and various covenant heads or representatives. These include the covenants made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and King David. These covenants serve to preserve the line of promise that brought us our Messiah, and unfold the one covenant of grace secured by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
Passages:
“When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.’ Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, ‘Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations…’”
Genesis 17:1–4
“Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of [the] promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
Ephesians 2:11–12 (Emphasis mine)2
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:12–17 (Emphasis mine)3
I am writing from the perspective of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 7:
“7:1 Though rational creatures are responsible to obey God as their Creator, the distance between God and these creatures is so great that they could never have attained the reward of life except by God’s voluntary condescension. He has been pleased to express this through a covenant framework.
7:2 Since humanity brought itself under the curse of the law by its fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace. In this covenant He freely offers to sinners life and salvation through Jesus Christ. On their part He requires faith in Him, that they may be saved, and promises to give His Holy Spirit to all who are ordained to eternal life, to make them willing and able to believe.
7:3 This covenant is revealed in the gospel. It was revealed first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman. After that, it was revealed step by step until the full revelation of it was completed in the New Testament.6 This covenant is based on the eternal covenant transaction between the Father and the Son concerning the redemption of the elect. Only through the grace of this covenant have those saved from among the descendants of fallen Adam obtained life and blessed immortality. Humanity is now utterly incapable of being accepted by God on the same terms on which Adam was accepted in his state of innocence.”
Stan Reeves, Confessing the Faith: The 1689 Baptist Confession for the 21st Century (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2012), 22–23.
Notice, covenants of promise or, more literally, covenants of the promise. This indicates that the historical covenants in the Old Testament are unfolding the promise of the covenant of grace in Christ, first revealed in Genesis 3:15.
This text is important as it points to this dual covenant that spans all of Scripture. A covenant of works under our first covenant head or representative, Adam, and the covenant of grace, promised and fulfilled by our covenant head, Jesus Christ.