Covenant Theology, Scripture, and Reformed Confessions — Unit 3: The Covenant of Grace from Adam to Christ

Key Verse

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define the covenant of grace and explain how it differs from the covenant of works.

2. Trace the covenant of grace through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and the new covenant, naming the promise and the sign of each.

3. Explain why Reformed teachers say the Mosaic covenant belongs to the covenant of grace, and describe the Reformed discussion called "republication."

4. Explain the place of Christ as Mediator and of faith as the way the covenant is received.

5. State the Baptist, Arminian and dispensational objections, and the historians' debate about conditions, and answer them.

Where We Stand

This course is written from inside the confessional Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it. In Unit 2 we saw that Adam broke the covenant of works and brought death on those he represented. This unit asks what God did next. His answer is the covenant of grace, which runs from the garden to the cross and then to the last day. We state the objections of other Christians fairly and answer them. The history of the Reformed churches is told in Course 1. The doctrines of grace (election, atonement and effectual calling) are in Course 2. Baptism, which depends on this unit, is taught in the course on Presbyterian polity, worship and sacraments, in the unit "Baptism of Believers and Their Children."

What Is the Covenant of Grace?

After the fall, Adam and his people could not keep the covenant of works. The Westminster Confession of Faith, 7.3, teaches that God in his mercy made a second covenant, called the covenant of grace. In it he freely offers sinners life and salvation through Jesus Christ. He requires faith in Christ so that they may be saved. And he promises to give his Holy Spirit to all who are ordained to life, to make them willing and able to believe.

Three differences from the covenant of works stand out.

First, the way of life. In the covenant of works, life depends on the obedience of Adam. In the covenant of grace, life depends on the obedience of Christ, given to sinners as a gift.

Second, the Mediator. Adam stood alone as the head of his people. In the covenant of grace we have a Mediator: "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Hebrews calls Jesus the surety of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22). A surety is one who promises and pays on behalf of another.

Third, the response. Faith is how the covenant is received. Faith is not a payment. It is the empty hand that takes the gift. And the covenant provides even this, since "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

One Covenant, Many Administrations

The Confession teaches that this one covenant of grace was "administered" differently in the time of the law and in the time of the gospel (7.5, 7.6). In the time of the law it was given by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the Passover lamb and other ordinances, all pointing to the Christ who was to come. In the time of the gospel it is given by the preaching of the Word and the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. The substance is the same: Christ, and salvation by grace through faith in him. Only the form changes. We now walk through the main stages.

Adam: the first promise

Immediately after the fall, before any curse falls on Adam and Eve themselves, God speaks a promise: the Seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). Christians have called this verse the first announcement of the gospel. A Redeemer will come from the woman's own family, and he will suffer in doing his work ("you shall bruise His heel"). God then clothes the guilty pair with garments of skin (Genesis 3:21), which Reformed teachers have seen as a sign that sin is covered by a sacrifice and not by the sinner's own efforts. The line of the promised Seed then runs through Seth, and Abel's offering, made by faith, is commended in Hebrews 11:4.

Noah: grace in judgment

"Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8). The flood judged the world, but God saved Noah and his household in the ark. Afterward God made a covenant with Noah and with every living creature, promising never again to destroy the earth by flood, and gave the rainbow as its sign (Genesis 9). The Noahic covenant is a covenant of preservation for all creation. It secures the stage on which the covenant of grace is carried out, and Peter sees the ark as a picture of salvation (1 Peter 3:20-21).

Abraham: the covenant of promise

With Abraham the covenant of grace becomes clearer. God promises a seed, a land and blessing for all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3). In Genesis 15 Abraham "believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). God then seals the promise with the pieces of sacrificed animals and himself passes between them while Abraham sleeps (Genesis 15:12-17). Reformed teachers see in this a picture of a covenant kept by God's faithfulness. In Genesis 17 God gives the sign of circumcision and says the covenant is "to be God to you and your descendants after you" (17:7). Infants were included: every male was to be circumcised on the eighth day (17:12).

Paul reads this story as the gospel itself. He says the Scripture "preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand" (Galatians 3:8). He says that circumcision was "a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised" (Romans 4:11). And he says that the law, which came 430 years later, does not cancel a promise already made (Galatians 3:17). Abraham is the father of all who believe, whether Jew or Gentile (Romans 4:11-12).

Moses at Sinai: law within grace

At Sinai God gave Israel the law, the tabernacle and the sacrificial system. Reformed teachers hold that this belongs to the covenant of grace and does not return to the covenant of works. Three reasons are given. First, redemption came before law. The Ten Commandments begin, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2). God saved first and commanded afterward. Second, the sacrifices and priesthood were provided because Israel was a sinful people. They pointed to Christ, as Hebrews 9 and 10 explain. Third, Paul says that the law was a tutor "to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24), and it does not offer a second way of life.

A discussion within our own churches. In recent decades some conservative Presbyterian teachers have used the word republication. They hold that Sinai in some way "republished" the principle of works, in a limited, typical sense, in connection with Israel's life in the land, while still belonging to the covenant of grace. Others reply that this blurs the line between law and grace and that the Mosaic covenant is simply an administration of the covenant of grace, in which obedience is the grateful response of a redeemed people. Both groups hold that no one is saved by keeping the law, and both reject the idea that Sinai was a second way of salvation. Our churches have allowed some range here. We mention the discussion so that you will not be surprised by it.

David: the king

God promised David that his house and throne would last forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Psalm 89). The promise reached its fulfillment in Jesus, the Son of David, to whom God gives "the throne of His father David" (Luke 1:32-33). The prophets also looked beyond the failures of Israel's kings to a coming King (Isaiah 9:6-7).

The prophets and the new covenant

Israel broke the covenant again and again, and the nation went into exile. Yet the prophets announced a better day. Through Jeremiah, God promised a new covenant, in which he would write his law on the hearts of his people and forgive their sins (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Through Ezekiel he promised to give a new heart and put his Spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:26-27). On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took the cup and said, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you" (Luke 22:20). The book of Hebrews, chapters 8 to 10, explains that Christ's sacrifice fulfills what the old shadows pointed to. The new covenant is the covenant of grace in its fullest administration. It is better, not because the earlier believers were saved differently, but because the Savior has come.

Old Testament Believers

A common question is how people were saved before Christ. The Reformed answer is that they were saved by grace through faith in the promised Redeemer. Hebrews 11 lists Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses and many others as people of faith who saw the promises "afar off" and welcomed them (Hebrews 11:13). Jesus said that Abraham "saw" his day and was glad (John 8:56). David describes the blessing of the one whom God forgives (Psalm 32; Romans 4:6-8). They did not have the full light of the New Testament, but they had the same Savior.

Objections and Our Answers

Objection 1 (Baptist): The new covenant is made only with the regenerate, so the covenant of grace cannot include infants.

Our Baptist brothers, among them Reformed Baptists who hold the doctrines of grace and the covenants of redemption, works and grace, point to Jeremiah 31:34: "they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them." They teach that the old covenant included physical descendants, while the new covenant includes only those who truly believe. Therefore the sign of the covenant, baptism, should be given only to those who profess faith.

Our answer. We agree that the new covenant is better and that its blessings are real and spiritual. But we hold that the covenant of grace has always had an outward side, in which the sign is given to believers and to their children, and an inward side, in which only the elect receive its full saving benefits. Paul shows this with the olive tree in Romans 11: some branches are broken off for unbelief, though they were once in the tree. Peter's words at Pentecost, "the promise is to you and to your children" (Acts 2:39), echo Genesis 17:7. And Paul links circumcision and baptism in Colossians 2:11-12. For the full discussion of baptism, see the course on Presbyterian polity, worship and sacraments. Here we say only that we do not make the promise to the children of believers smaller than it was under Abraham.

Objection 2 (Arminian and others): If the covenant has a condition, then salvation depends on us.

Our answer. The covenant of grace requires faith, but faith is the gift of God. The Confession (7.3) says God promises his Spirit to make the elect willing and able to believe. A condition may be a means and not a cause. A beggar's open hand is a condition for receiving bread, but it did not buy the bread. Ephesians 2:8 says plainly that faith is not of ourselves. Christ fulfilled the covenant's work, and he gives its benefits.

Objection 3 (dispensational): God has dealt with human beings by different covenants, with different ways of salvation and different peoples.

Our answer. This is taken up in the next unit. Briefly, we say that Scripture shows one way of salvation (Acts 4:12; Hebrews 11) and one people of God, and that the covenants are stages in one story.

Objection 4: The old covenant was a covenant of law and wrath, and the new covenant one of love. God changed his character.

Our answer. God described himself to Moses as "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6). The Old Testament is full of mercy, and the New Testament speaks seriously of judgment. The change is in the revelation of Christ, and not in the character of God.

A debate among historians

Some historians argue that there were two emphases among the early Reformed. The Zurich tradition, shaped by Bullinger, spoke of a mutual covenant in which God promises and the people have duties as well. The Genevan tradition, shaped by Calvin, stressed the covenant as God's free promise. On this reading, the later Reformed confessions combined or struggled with both emphases. Our answer is that Scripture itself holds both. God takes the initiative, gives the Mediator and the Spirit, and the covenant people are still called to faith and obedience. The Westminster Confession holds them together: faith is required (7.3), and God makes his people able to believe. The two emphases need not be set against each other.

Pastoral Application

A new believer in your church grew up in a strict, fearful religion. He says, "I read the Old Testament and see an angry God. In the New Testament God changed and became kind. I am afraid of the first God." He asks you if he can trust God.

A wise pastor first listens, and does not hurry to correct. Then he leads the man through the story in three short readings over several weeks. First, Genesis 3:15 and 3:21: God's first words after the fall are a promise, and he clothes the guilty pair. Second, Exodus 20:2 and Exodus 34:6: God rescued Israel before he gave the law, and he describes himself as merciful. Third, Luke 22:20: the cup of the new covenant is the same mercy, fulfilled. He tells the man, "God has not changed. His promise is the same from the garden to the cross, and today it is yours." He encourages him to pray with the promise of Jeremiah 31:33, "I will be their God," as a sentence he can say back to the Lord.

Summary

The covenant of grace is the covenant God made with sinners after the fall, in which he freely offers life through Jesus Christ, requires faith, and gives the Spirit to the elect so that they believe. Its Mediator is Christ, who is also its surety. It is one covenant under different administrations: the first promise to Adam, the covenant of preservation with Noah, the covenant of promise with Abraham with circumcision as its sign, the covenant at Sinai with its law and sacrifices, the covenant with David and the new covenant in Christ's blood. Old Testament believers were saved by grace through faith in the coming Redeemer. Baptist, Arminian and dispensational objections are answered from Scripture, and the historians' contrast between the Zurich and Geneva emphases does not require us to choose between God's initiative and our duty.

Further Reading

• The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapters 7 and 8 (1646).

• The Westminster Larger Catechism, Questions 30 to 36 (1647).

• The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions 18 to 19 on the Mediator and the gospel.

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, chapters 6 and 7 (Beveridge translation, 1845).

• Herman Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man (1677).

• Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1872-73), on the covenant of grace.

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