Covenant Theology

God rules history through His covenants, which are revealed in the Bible. Reformed Baptist theology, together with all of Reformed theology, understands that the covenants organize Scripture.40 Therefore, interpreters of Scripture need to thoroughly understand the covenants because good exegesis depends on it. Covenant theology arises from the Reformed hermeneutic of New Testament priority and serves as one key element of the Reformed grid for the theological interpretation of Scripture.

The word “covenant,” in both Hebrew (berit) and Greek (diatheke), refers to a sworn oath. A covenant might also be defined as a “guaranteed commitment” or a “divinely sanctioned commitment.”41 Charles Spurgeon expressed the importance of covenant theology when he said, “The doctrine of the covenants is the key of theology.”42 One might say that the essence of Reformed theology is nothing other than covenant theology.

What follows is a brief exposition of the Bible’s overarching covenants that deal with eternal life, including the covenant of works, the covenant of redemption, and the covenant of grace. The moral law of God, studied in a previous chapter, cuts through all of these covenants. In the covenant of works, God required Adam to keep His moral law perfectly for eternal life. In the covenant of redemption, Christ kept the moral law in our place to accomplish His own resurrection to life, and to achieve eternal life for His chosen people. In the covenant of grace, God imputes Christ’s perfect law-keeping to us as the ground of our justification and to serve as the legal basis of the Holy Spirit’s work in us for our sanctification, by which we become more and more conformed to God’s moral law. Therefore, a clear understanding of the law of God is foundational to understanding the overarching covenants of the Bible.

While the Old Testament implies and alludes to these covenants, the New Testament reveals them more explicitly. The three main overarching covenants can be seen in the book of Romans. Chapters 1–3 describe the effects of the broken covenant of works with Adam upon the whole world. Chapters 3–5 teach that Christ fulfills the strict terms of the law in the covenant of redemption. Romans 5:12–21 reveals the overarching covenantal structure of Scripture in the federal, or covenantal, headships of Adam and Christ, in which Adam is the federal head of the covenant of works, and Christ is the federal head of the covenant of grace. Romans 6–8 explains the twofold blessing of union with Christ in the covenant of grace: justification and sanctification.

These same covenants are evident in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 1 reveals the great Trinitarian doctrine of election and the covenant of redemption with Christ. Ephesians 2:1–3 reveals the effects of Adam’s fall in the garden of Eden, which brought about the curse of the covenant of works. Ephesians 2:4–10 expresses the blessings we receive in Christ based on eternal election and applied in the covenant of grace.

Consider a brief summary of the biblical data concerning these covenants of Reformed theology.

The Covenant of Works

The Reformed confessions of faith all affirm that God made a covenant of works with Adam in the garden of Eden. For example, Second London Confession 20.1 explicitly refers to this covenant: “The covenant of works, being broken by sin, and made unprofitable unto life . . .” Second London Confession 19.1 provides a helpful summary of the covenant of works:

God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart, and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it.

Nehemiah Coxe, the early English Particular Baptist, agreed. He writes, “It is evident that God dealt with Adam not only upon terms of a law, but in way of covenant, and that this transaction was of a federal nature.”43 Nevertheless, some aren’t sure this doctrine is found in the Bible. This section will set forth some of the main arguments for the covenant of works found in Holy Scripture.44

Evidence from Genesis

Consider the creation of the first man in Genesis 2:7–8, which says, “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” God created the man before He planted the garden. Then, in Genesis 2:15, God “put” the man in the garden. So God made Adam outside of the garden in a state of nature, outside of any covenant relationship with God. But then God put Adam in the garden, and we will see that God made a covenant with him. From the beginning, God created Adam to be in covenant, but he wasn’t technically in covenant when he was created.

In Genesis 2:16–17, God issued a threat of death for violating the terms of the covenant. These verses say, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” This threat is the curse of the covenant. The fact that Adam could die implies something about Adam’s natural state. Prior to eating from the tree, Adam was mutable. He could have sinned or not sinned. He was able to die or to live.

The Genesis account not only reveals the threat of death in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but it also reveals the promise of eternal life in the tree of life. Genesis 3:22–24 says:

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

This promise of “forever” or “eternal” life shows that Adam might have obeyed God to obtain the blessing of life. The promise of eternal life in Genesis 3 also implies that the death threatened in Genesis 2:16–17 was “eternal” death. The promise of eternal life further shows us that something about Adam’s nature would have changed had he obeyed God. We have already seen that prior to obtaining the promise of eternal life, Adam had a mutable nature that could have sinned or not sinned. But if Adam obtained eternal life, the text tells us that he would have lived forever. That necessarily means that he would be unable to fall or die. He would have obtained an immortal state of glory.

Some say there can be no covenant in Genesis 2 because the word “covenant” (berith) does not appear in the chapter. But that assertion contains some assumptions. It assumes that a word has to be present for a doctrine to be present. This is called the “word-thing fallacy.” A word does not have to be present for a thing to be present. Consider these reductio ad absurdum arguments applied to the idea that a word has to be present in a text for the doctrine to be present. The word “Trinity” does not appear in Genesis 1, but does that mean that the Trinity didn’t create the world? Of course not. We know from later revelation that the Trinity created the world, which means the Trinity is in Genesis 1:1. The word “marriage” does not appear in Genesis 2, but clearly there is a marriage covenant between Adam and Eve. We know that marriage is a covenant from later revelation (Mal. 2:14). The words “sin” and “fall” do not occur in Genesis 3, but we know that Adam sinned and fell in Genesis 3 because later revelation defines sin as a transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4). If a word must be in a passage for the doctrine to be in the passage (a logical fallacy), consistency would demand that people deny the existence of the Trinity in Genesis 1, the existence of marriage in Genesis 2, and the existence of sin in Genesis 3.

There are clearly elements of a covenant in the Genesis narrative. There were two parties: God and Adam. Adam was the federal head of all mankind. There was a command: Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was a test in which Adam was required to obey God. There was a threat: you will surely die. And it had a promise: eternal life.

Evidence from All of Scripture

Hosea 6:6–7 expressly speaks of a covenant with Adam. This is a case of later revelation explaining earlier revelation. It says, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.” Some interpreters translate this to say “like men” they transgressed the covenant, since the Hebrew word for Adam can also be translated “man.” But it makes no sense to suggest that men could sin in a way other than “like men” sin. Can men sin like animals, or like angels? Israel could only have sinned “like men,” since they were men. Other interpreters say that Adam was a city where Israel sinned. There was a city called Adam. But there is no biblical record of Israel sinning at a town named Adam. Therefore, it is best to take Hosea 6:6–7 as teaching that the Israelites transgressed their covenant, just like Adam transgressed his covenant. Job 31:33 does not specifically mention a covenant, but it certainly refers to Adam in a similar way (visible in some translations of the Bible, including the KJV and LSB).

Isaiah 24:5–6 explains that there is a covenantal curse devouring the whole earth, not just the nation of Israel. This passage provides strong evidence of a covenant with Adam, which was broken. The context shows that all nations of the whole earth are in view (see Isa. 24:13). It says, “The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.” Which covenantal curse devours the whole earth? It was not the Israelite covenant, since that covenant was only made with the nation of Israel. Rather, this is the curse of the covenant with Adam.

Romans 3:27–28 teaches that there is a contrast between a “law of works” and a “law of faith.” In theological terms, this contrasts the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The contrast demonstrates that there are fundamentally two different ways of life or justification. Either you rely on your own works for justification and are condemned because you are a fallen sinner in Adam, or you trust in Christ and His works for your life and justification. That is why we call the Adamic covenant a covenant of “works.” Adam’s work was necessary for life, but he sinned, bringing the curse upon all mankind. In the covenant of grace, Christ’s works secure life for us, and in Him we work from life and not for it.

Romans 5:14–19 is also important in the doctrine of the covenant of works. Romans 5:14 says, “Adam . . . was a type of the one who was to come,” and Romans 5:18–19 says, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

Notice that Adam was a type of Christ. Christ is the substance, while Adam prefigured Him. Adam did not do what God commanded. But Christ did. Just as Christ obeyed God perfectly for life, Adam was supposed to obey God perfectly for life.

1 Corinthians 15:21–22 says, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” In Adam all die. Adam’s federal headship brings humanity into solidarity with him and to death through his sin. By contrast, all in Christ are made alive. Those in Christ, in the covenant of grace, will live forever.

Galatians 3:10–12 says, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’” This passage demonstrates two principles. First, the old covenant required obedience to the law for temporal life in the land. In that sense, the old covenant contained types of the original covenant of works. Complete obedience to the law was required for life. But sin brought about the curse. Second, in contrast, these verses show the nature of the covenant of grace, that God gives the blessing of justification and eternal life to those who believe, not because of their works, but by grace alone.

A final proof for the covenant of works is that the old covenant promised temporal life in the land of Canaan for obedience to the law of God (Lev. 18:5). The old covenant promised that if its people outwardly obeyed its law, God would bless them with life in the land of Canaan. To be clear, the old covenant was not itself the covenant of works. Rather, it contained a pattern of the “do this and live” principle of the original covenant of works in its requirement of obedience for life in the land. The apostle Paul knew this, which is why he referred to the old covenant’s works principle in his letters as part of his proof for the covenant of works (e.g., Gal. 3:1–12). The “do this and live” principle of the land inheritance is clearly taught in the old covenant (see Deut. 4:1, 40; 5:33; 6:24–25; 8:1; 11:8–9, 22; 30:1–5).

So if the old covenant was not the covenant of works, what was it for? It was not a covenant that offered eternal life at all. Instead, it was a temporal covenant given to preserve the physical line of the promised seed until the coming of Christ. It was the vehicle through which God would bring Jesus into this world. The old covenant also had a revelatory purpose. It was to reveal, or proclaim, the terms of the original covenant of works—the law—as well as the promises of the covenant of grace, the gospel (Heb. 12:18–29). Therefore, the people of the old covenant could be reconciled to God and eternally saved, but not by virtue of that covenant itself. Rather, those who were saved under the old covenant were saved by the covenant of grace.

Three Aspects of the Covenant of Works

First, the covenant of works provided the context and terms for friendship with God. You can see this from the nature of the garden of Eden. Many have noted that Genesis 2:8–14 describes a temple where God is manifestly present and Adam and Eve could walk in communion with Him. Water flowed from the garden. This indicates that Eden was elevated on a mountain. God’s manifest presence is frequently located on mountains throughout the Bible. Consider Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, and the temple of Ezekiel. The Jerusalem above is a high place, where a river flows from God’s throne.

Scripture also mentions precious stones in the garden. The stones are connected to the aesthetic beauty of the tabernacle and temple, Aaron’s breastplate, and the new Jerusalem, showing that the garden of Eden is a temple. The passage also mentions trees. The trees in the garden are represented by the menorah, which was within the temple and made to look like almond trees with branches and blossoms. We also see the tree of life in the new Jerusalem. God made Adam a prophet, priest, and king in the garden temple.

Adam was the mediator in this temple arrangement. He was the prophet who received revelation from God. He was a priest in that he communed directly with God in the temple as the federal head of His covenant people. He was the king who was to rule and subdue the whole earth. God’s garden sanctuary was to be a place of perfect purity and holiness. Adam had to be perfectly holy and pure to live in communion and joyful relationship with God. God walked with Adam in the cool of the day. It would be unthinkable for the holy God of heaven to commune with someone who lived in sin and rebellion against Him. Adam was also responsible to guard the garden temple, to “work it and keep it,” which in Hebrew are the same two words used of priests in Numbers 3:6–10. So the first purpose of the covenant or works was to set the terms of life and friendship with God.

Second, the covenant of works promised glorification to Adam and his posterity. God created Adam in a state of nature outside of the garden and then put Adam into the garden and graciously made a covenant in which Adam could be glorified and obtain eternal life, and from which he could never fall. In the covenant, Adam was to obey God and be translated into an incorruptible state of nature. Even without sin, Adam needed to enter into a state of glory, or else he would always be in a mutable state, lacking the fullness of life and glory for which God made him. There is a hint of the need for glorification in Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The phrase “the glory of God” in Paul’s writings often refers to glorification. Sin is a problem because we “fall short” of eternal glory, which was the end of the covenant of works. And what is glorification? It is a sinless state in which our souls and bodies become unable to sin and die, while we are in perfect, full communion with God, beholding Him in the beatific vision (1 Cor. 13:12; Rev. 22:4). The saints in the new Jerusalem are glorified and enjoy the glory of God.

We have seen in Romans 5:14 that Adam was a type of Christ. Just as the end of Adam’s covenant of works was to be eternal glory, so the end of Christ’s covenant was to enter into God’s glory. Luke 24:26 says it was necessary for Christ “to enter into his glory.” And 1 Peter 1:11 says that the prophets predicted “the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.” Christ perfectly obeyed the terms of the covenant of redemption to achieve resurrection and eternal life for His people.

As a type of Christ, Adam was also in a covenant that promised final glory. When we look at the Genesis account, we find that Adam and Eve were to populate the world with God’s image (Gen. 1:28), just as Christ would do through the redemption of His people in the new covenant. As an obedient son, Adam was to perfectly obey God and live forever (Gen. 3:22), just as Christ would do later. He was to work in the garden, expand its borders, and turn the earth into a paradise, achieving the glory of God through his work, which is what Christ does in obtaining the new heavens and the new earth for His people. God says, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion” (Gen. 1:28). So in the covenant of works, Adam was to subdue the earth. After Adam had completed this work, he would have obtained eternal life, and he would have entered into the rest and glory of the final state.

Third, the covenant of works threatened death for sin. Adam was the federal head of the covenant of works, which means that he represented all of humanity. If Adam had obeyed, he would have brought the blessing of eternal life to himself and to the whole human race. But since he disobeyed, he brought the curse of sin, misery, and eternal death to himself and the whole human race. All of creation is cursed in Adam. As a result of the curse, natural disasters, including earthquakes, fire, and damaging winds cause great destruction. The waters don’t keep their boundaries and they flood the land. The world doesn’t work as God designed it to work. Everything is corrupted, making it physically impossible for Adam’s race to subdue and rule the whole earth as we were originally designed to do.

An Objection Answered

Could Adam have boasted, if he had obtained eternal life through his obedience? Some object that if Adam had to be personally, perfectly, and perpetually holy to obtain eternal life in the garden, then he would have been able to boast before God. He could say, “See how holy and righteous I am, and look at the life I achieved.”

But Adam could never have boasted before God, for several reasons. First, God created Adam and provided everything for Adam. What did Adam have except what he received? Second, the establishment of the covenant of works was due to God’s kind condescension, even though its terms were of strict justice and works. God freely gave the promise of eternal life to Adam, which means that Adam could never have obtained eternal life apart from God’s promise. Adam’s holiness and works did not induce God to establish the covenant with him. Adam could never have obtained glory apart from the covenantal promise of God. Second London Confession 7.1 says, “The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to Him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.” Third, God providentially upheld and directed Adam in all that he did. Whatever holiness Adam possessed was the result, not the cause, of God’s providence toward him. Adam was dependent upon God to sustain him and provide for him.

Therefore, Adam could never have boasted in his relationship with God or in his own holiness. Adam was only doing what he should have done in obeying God, like a faithful servant. Luke 17:10 says, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

These facts lead some people to identify the covenant of works as a covenant of grace. Yet we should not call this a covenant of grace because Adam’s continuing relationship with God in the covenant, and obtaining the promise of life and glory, depended on Adam’s own perfect works of obedience to God, which is what God’s justice required. God freely and kindly established the covenant of works with Adam, but Adam’s perfect good works were the requirement of the covenant.45 There was no provision for the redemption of sinners in the covenant of works. Therefore, this covenant should not be confused with the covenant of grace.

Maintaining a clear distinction between the covenant of works and covenant of grace is essential for a number of reasons. Adam’s perfect works were the precondition of eternal life in the covenant of works. But our imperfect faithful works of obedience to God are the result of the free gift of eternal life in the covenant of grace. In the covenant of works, Adam was to obey God perfectly by faith in God and His promise of reward for obedience. In the covenant of grace, we are justified freely by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, who satisfied God’s law and gives us His Spirit to sanctify us. The distinction between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace is the distinction between the law and the gospel. The covenant of works commanded Adam: Obey to obtain eternal life. The covenant of grace promises us: God freely gives you eternal life in Christ so you can obey Him.

The Covenant of Redemption

The covenant of redemption is God’s purpose to redeem His chosen people through Jesus Christ.46 Temporally speaking, the covenant of redemption, or “counsel of peace” (Zech. 6:13), among the persons of the Trinity comes before the establishment of the covenant of works with Adam. Thus, the covenant of redemption is an aspect of God’s eternal decree and precedes time and history. But logically speaking, the covenant of redemption comes after Adam sinned and broke the covenant of works. The covenant of redemption is only necessary because Adam broke God’s law of perfect obedience in the covenant of works. In the covenant of redemption, Christ perfectly obeyed God’s law, and He died to pay the penalty deserved by lawbreakers who are under the curse of the covenant of works.

Considered from eternity, in His great mercy the Triune God lovingly and graciously decreed that His chosen people would be redeemed through the blood of Jesus. In this eternal decree, the three persons of the Trinity all willingly agreed, each according to His mode of subsistence, to accomplish the redemption of the elect. As a result of this eternal decree, the eternal Son of God assumed a human nature, was born of a virgin, suffered under Pilate, died on the cross for His people, and rose from the dead. The incarnate Son of God thus accomplished the redemption of His chosen people in obedience to God’s commands in the covenant of redemption.

Second London Confession 8.1 describes the nature of the covenant of redemption:

It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man; the prophet, priest, and king; head and savior of the church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world; unto whom He did from all eternity give a people to be His seed and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.

Nehemiah Coxe said that God’s purpose to redeem a people was “transacted in a way of Covenant between the Father and the Son, even in a Covenant of Redemption.”47 This covenant of redemption reveals God’s gloriously good character, showing us that He is a great and loving Father who was willing to pay the highest price to purchase the freedom of His people. It also reveals the Son’s gracious sacrifice, perfect compassion, and love for the world. It reminds us that God never set aside His holiness or His justice to save us. Our God never saves a sinner in spite of His justice, but always on the ground of His justice. God is not only a tenderhearted Redeemer, but He is also a righteous Judge who never compromises His holy law. He saved us, not at the expense of His holiness and justice, but in a way that puts His holiness and justice on full display. Christ merited the blessing of His holy law. He paid its terrible penalty. In this way, His own uncompromising justice is completely satisfied. Our great salvation exalts God’s worth and glory above all else, and our souls can only rightly respond to this truth with reverent and joyful worship of His holy name, proclaiming that He is eternally righteous, just, and good.

Scriptural Evidence for the Covenant of Redemption

The Old Testament. In Psalm 40:6–8, David rejoices that God rescued him from the pit, blessed him, and filled his mouth with songs of God’s goodness. The writer of Hebrews picks up on David’s words and tells us that they are ultimately spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Hebrews 10:5–7 says:

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”

These words reveal two promises between the two parties in the covenant of redemption. First, God promised Christ a human body in the incarnation, perfectly fitted to identify with human beings so that He could be our representative and substitute, able to identify with our human weaknesses and temptations, and so that He could die for our sins.48 Second, Christ promised to do the will of God; He agreed to do all that God commanded Him to do. The writer of Hebrews says, “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all” (Heb. 10:10). These promises between God and Christ are the very substance of the covenant of redemption. God graciously promises Christ all that is necessary for His redemptive mission, and Christ promises perfect obedience to God to accomplish that mission.

Isaiah 42:1–9 is a Servant Song, where God makes promises to Christ in the covenant of redemption. In Isaiah 42:1, God says, “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him.” God chose Christ to receive certain blessings. He lovingly and graciously promised to uphold Christ in His mission. He promised to delight in Christ as He fulfilled all righteousness. He promised to fill Christ with the Spirit to perform all the duties of the covenant. Here we see the trinitarian nature of the covenant of redemption. God chose Christ, and the Spirit indwelt and upheld Christ in His earthly mission to redeem His people.

Isaiah 49 is another Servant Song of Christ. In verse 8, God says to His Servant, “I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people.” Christ, the Servant, then speaks of God’s promises to Him in the covenant: “He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me” (Isa. 49:2). “I will make you as a light of the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6). This covenant is not merely about national Israel. It extends to all the elect of all the nations for their salvation. Ultimately, this is about the promise, who is Christ Himself, and His covenant that redeems His people from every tribe and tongue. Isaiah 49:15–16 says, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” In the covenant of redemption, Christ not only saves God’s people but preserves them and guarantees that He will never cast them off.

Isaiah 53–54 is a key passage that reveals Christ’s work in the covenant of redemption. Isaiah 54:10 says, “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed.” The “covenant of peace” is the covenant between God and Christ (Isaiah 53), which accomplishes “peace” between a merciful God and His rebellious people. This is the covenant of redemption.

But how does God make “peace”? Isaiah 53:5 explains, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” His death reconciles His people to God so that there is peace between them. Isaiah 53:11 says Christ will “make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” This salvation will extend to all the nations. Isaiah 54:3 says, “Your offspring will possess the nations.” Isaiah 53–54 clearly tells us of a covenant that is about the redemption of God’s people.

The New Testament. In Luke 22:29, Christ says to His disciples, “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom.” The Greek word translated “assign” is related to the Greek word “covenant.” Thus, this passage might be rightly rendered, “I covenant to you as the Father covenanted to me, a kingdom.” Notice that there are two covenants mentioned here. There is a covenant with Christ, and there is a covenant with His people. These are the covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace, respectively. Here is yet another place where the Bible explicitly teaches that there is a covenantal arrangement between God and Christ about the redemption of the elect people.

Many passages in the gospel of John speak of the covenant of redemption, emphasizing the agreement between God and Christ in which Christ agrees to obey God’s commands and willingly keeps them during His earthly mission. In John 4:34, Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” In John 5:30, Jesus says, “I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me,” and in verse 36, He says, “The works that my Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me.” He also says in John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” In John 10:17–18, Christ says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” He says in John 14:31, “I do as the Father has commanded me.” All of these passages show an arrangement between God and the incarnate Christ to save His people from their sins.

Another important text about the covenant of redemption is found in Christ’s high priestly prayer. John 17:1–5 says,

Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. . . . I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

God gave the Son work to do, and the Son will “give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” The Son “accomplished the work,” giving eternal life to God’s chosen people and warranting the Son’s resurrection to glory. These are the elements of a covenant.

Ephesians 1:3–14 is about the blessings that flow to God’s elect people from the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the eternal covenant of redemption. God’s eternal election is appropriated to the Father (Eph. 1:4–5). The Son redeems the elect by His blood (Eph. 1:7). The Holy Spirit seals Christ’s redemption to the elect as a guarantee of their heavenly inheritance (Eph. 1:13–14). Thus we can see the missions of the three persons of the Trinity in the economy of redemption, to God’s great glory, in the covenant of redemption.

The Nature of the Covenant of Redemption

The Parties of the Covenant of Redemption. Second London Confession 7.3 mentions “that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect.” John Owen (1616–1683) wrote that the Father was the “prescriber, the promiser and lawgiver; the Son was the undertaker upon his prescription, law, and promises.”49 The Holy Spirit is also a party to the covenant of redemption in that His mission during the incarnation was to dwell within Christ, strengthening Him in His obedience to God. Thus, the parties of the covenant of redemption include the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But temporally speaking, at the incarnation of the Son, the parties, more properly speaking, include God and Christ.

The Time of the Covenant of Redemption. The time of the covenant of redemption may be considered from two perspectives: timeless eternity and temporal history. From the perspective of timeless eternity, 2 Timothy 1:9 says that salvation came through Jesus Christ “before the ages began.” Titus 1:2 likewise says that God promised life “before the ages began.” In God’s eternal decree, the three persons of the Trinity all willingly agreed to accomplish the redemption of the elect. Thus, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit eternally willed, each according to His eternal relation of origin and mode of personal subsistence, to accomplish the redemption of the elect.

But in time and history, there was a formally established covenant of redemption between God and Christ, according to His human nature, which was indwelt by the Holy Spirit to fulfill the law of God and to accomplish the redemption of the elect. In 2 Timothy 1:10, we see that God’s eternal decree about the redemption of the elect “now has been manifested [in time] through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”50 Similarly, 1 Peter 1:20 says, “He was foreknown [foreordained or chosen] before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.” While God eternally decreed that Christ would come into this world in the covenant of redemption, in time, God established this covenant with the incarnate Christ and blessed His earthly ministry. The Lord Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed God’s commanded will throughout His life, death, and resurrection, all in the power of the Holy Spirit, to accomplish the redemption of the elect for the glory of God.

This distinction between eternity and time in the covenant of redemption is theologically important because, in eternity, there was no relation of authority and submission between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but only perfect agreement among them, each willing redemption according to His mode of subsistence. In time, however, Christ, according to His human nature, submitted to and obeyed God’s commands in the covenant of redemption. This must be carefully articulated because God only has one will, but authority and submission imply two wills, which would imply parts and divisions in God. Therefore, a relationship of authority and submission only exists between the will of God and the will of the incarnate Christ. The Lord Jesus submitted to God’s will, not according to His divine nature, but according to His human nature. In Luke 22:42, Jesus prayed to God, saying, “Not my will, but yours, be done.”

The Promises of the Covenant of Redemption. God made a number of promises to Christ in the covenant of redemption. He promised to appoint Christ to be the Prophet by whom the Father “has spoken” (Heb. 1:2), the Priest who satisfies God’s justice by “making purification for sins” (Heb. 1:3), and the King who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3) and who “loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Heb. 1:9). God promised Jesus a human body (Heb. 10:5) so He could identify with human beings, be tempted like them, sympathetically endure the weaknesses of human nature, and die as their substitute (Heb. 2:14–18). God also promised to anoint Christ with the Holy Spirit (Isa. 42:1). The Holy Spirit equipped Christ in His office as Mediator and strengthened Him for obedience through suffering to fulfill all righteousness (Heb. 5:8) and to accomplish redemption through His death and resurrection (Heb. 2:9–10).

The Essence of the Covenant of Redemption. It is crucial to understand that the terms of the covenant of redemption were not terms of grace, but terms of works that were required to satisfy divine justice for the redemption of the elect. For Christ, the covenant of redemption was a strict covenant of works, though God gave Christ many gifts in this covenant, and it resulted in grace for God’s beloved people. Christ willingly agreed to obey God’s commands in the covenant of redemption to earn its blessing for Himself in His own resurrection to eternal life, and to earn every life blessing for His chosen people. Edward Fisher rightly notes,

And thus did our Lord Jesus Christ enter into the same [terms of the] Covenant of Works that Adam did to deliver believers from it: He was contented to be under all that commanding, revenging authority, which that covenant had over them, to free them from the penalty of it; and in that respect, Adam is said to be a type of Christ, as you have it (Rom 5:14), who was the type of him to come.51

Though the covenant of redemption was a covenant of works for Christ, it was a covenant of free and pure grace to the elect. Christ’s satisfaction of divine justice in this covenant purchased the redemption of the elect, which is the legal ground upon which the Holy Spirit necessarily applies Christ’s redemption to the elect at the appointed times by uniting them to Christ in the covenant of grace. Christ accomplished redemption by His meritorious works, while the elect receive redemption by free grace alone in the covenant of grace.

Paul explains the connection between the covenant of works (with Adam) and the covenant of redemption (with Christ) in Romans 5. Adam failed to merit the blessing of the covenant of works, but Jesus Christ merited the blessings of the covenant of redemption, which include all of His saving graces to His people. Romans 5:18–19 says, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Adam sinned against the covenant of works and incurred condemnation and death for all in him. But Christ obeyed the covenant of redemption, obtaining justification and life for all in Him. This is why Second London Confession 8.5 says,

The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the eternal Spirit once offered up to God, has fully satisfied the justice of God, procured reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father has given unto Him.

The Terms of the Covenant of Redemption. The incarnate Lord Jesus perfectly obeyed the terms of this covenant. The Bible teaches that Christ agreed to keep God’s moral law, summarized in the Ten Commandments and required of Adam in the covenant of works, along with all of the laws of the old covenant. Christ said, “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17–18). After making this statement, Christ proceeded to expound on the Ten Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount.

Christ not only obeyed God’s moral law, but He also obeyed all the unique positive commands of the covenant of redemption, including the commands of the Sinai covenant (since He was an offspring of Abraham and born into the old covenant), as well as God’s command that He die a substitutionary death for His people. Galatians 4:4–5 says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

The Probation of the Covenant of Redemption. Just as God tested Adam in the probation of the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:4–6), so also the Holy Spirit tested Christ in the wilderness and throughout His earthly life. But where Adam sinned, Christ obeyed. Matthew 4:1 says, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 5:7 says, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”

Christ’s probation was crucial to His work of redemption. In order to obey God’s law, Jesus had to be sufficiently tempted to break God’s law, or else He would not have been able to obey it over and against every opportunity to sin against it. Christ’s temptations gave Him the necessary opportunities to break each aspect of God’s law, but they also gave Him every opportunity to keep it. Though Jesus was tempted to break the terms of the covenant of redemption, He never once sinned inwardly or outwardly, but obeyed God in perfect holiness (Heb. 4:15). Indeed, because Jesus is God the Son, the very second person of the Godhead, He was impeccable, which means He could not have sinned. Yet He was truly tempted. Hebrews 5:8–9 says, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation.” Jesus learned the way of obedience through temptation and suffering. He obeyed the fullness of God’s law, and in that way He became a perfect representative for us and so merited our eternal life, accomplishing our redemption.

Why was this probation necessary? In order to obtain justification, eternal life, and glorification, Christ not only needed to die for our sins, but He had to accomplish perfect obedience to the law, which means He had to have every opportunity to break the law, and every opportunity to keep it. Unlike Adam, who failed his probation in the garden of Eden through the temptation of the devil, Jesus passed through His probation during His earthly life in perfect holiness, thus rendering active obedience to the whole law of God. Christ’s active obedience (keeping the law) and passive obedience (suffering), in turn, are together Christ’s whole righteousness and the ground of our total redemption, the substance of our justification before God, and the legal basis and cause of the Spirit’s righteous work in sinful people to make them holy.

The Effects of Christ’s Obedience in the Covenant
of Redemption

Christ Overcame the Curse of the Covenant of Works. Christ’s obedience in the covenant of redemption overcame the curse of the covenant of works. His death on the cross paid the penalty of the covenant of works and satisfied God’s eternal wrath. Christ’s elect people will not go to hell because of His perfect life and substitutionary death. But Christ not only overcame the curse for individuals, He also overcame the curse upon all of creation (Rom. 8:18–22). One day, in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no suffering or misery of any kind (Rev. 21:4) because all of creation will be consummated under Christ (Col. 1:20).

Christ Secured the Blessings of the Covenant of Grace. Christ’s obedience in the covenant of redemption is also the ground upon which God established the covenant of grace and its blessings for His chosen people (Rom. 8:32–39; Gal. 2:20). Because of Christ’s work in the covenant of redemption, God joins His people to Christ in the covenant of grace, in which they are regenerated, converted, justified, adopted, sanctified, preserved, and glorified.52 The covenant of grace bestows Christ’s merited blessings upon His people. But the covenant of grace benefits not only human beings, but also the whole created order. In the new heavens and the new earth, there will be a new and perfect society, which is nothing other than the church triumphant, in a world where the spiritual and material realms are closely joined! This material world will no longer reel with disaster and decay but will be constant and joyful, a means by which God’s people will enjoy Him forever. All of this is the fruit and blessing of Christ’s obedience to the covenant of redemption, which flows from the covenant of grace.

Christ’s Work in the Covenant of Redemption Leads to Worship. God’s people respond to Christ’s great and gracious work in this covenant by worshiping Him. In Romans 8:31–37, the apostle Paul says the following about Christ’s work in the covenant of redemption:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? . . . No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Thanks be to the great God of heaven and earth who accomplished the salvation of His people by His Son’s work in the covenant of redemption and who will certainly apply all Christ’s benefits to them by the Holy Spirit in the covenant of grace. To Him be the glory forever and ever!

The Covenant of Grace

The covenant of grace refers to God’s sworn oath to save His chosen people from the curse of the covenant of works on the basis of Christ’s work in the covenant of redemption. In the covenant of grace, the Holy Spirit applies what Christ accomplished in the covenant of redemption. The covenant of redemption is the legal foundation of the covenant of grace. Every blessing of life God gives to His people in the covenant of grace comes on the basis of Christ’s work in the covenant of redemption. How can God justly give the blessing of life to sinful people through the covenant of grace when all they deserve legally is punishment and death? He can do so because Christ paid their legal penalties and obtained their legal benefit in the covenant of redemption. The only way God can justly pronounce sinners justified (the verdict of life) and make sinners more and more sanctified (the actual gift of life) in the covenant of grace is because Christ satisfied divine justice for them in the covenant of redemption, freeing God from the charge of injustice when He gives life to sinners in the covenant of grace (Rom. 3:26). And because Christ merited eternal life for the elect in the covenant of redemption, God the Spirit is now legally bound and self-obligated to give them every life blessing, including justification (the life verdict), sanctification (inward life), and glorification (life eternal).

The covenant of grace is a doctrine that shows, from Genesis to Revelation, that there is only one gospel, one saving promise, which announces Jesus Christ crucified for sinners and risen from the dead. The Old Testament points forward to Christ in various types and shadows, while the New Testament reveals Him explicitly. The covenant of grace is the doctrine that declares there is only one gracious saving promise in the Bible, the gospel of Jesus Christ, that weaves like a golden thread through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

A Biblical and Theological Argument for One Covenant
of Grace

Scripture teaches that the new covenant saved saints who were under the old covenant. In covenant theology, the new covenant is nothing other than the fullest historical revelation of the covenant of grace. Another way of putting it is that the covenant of grace in the Old Testament was the seed of the new covenant. The new covenant is the covenant of grace in full bloom. The covenant of grace is the new covenant, and the new covenant is the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace is not additional, overarching, or distinct from the new covenant. Rather, in the old covenant, the covenant of grace was nothing other than the power of the new covenant reaching back into history. Membership in the covenant of grace, or the new covenant, is nothing other than saving union with Christ. Hebrews 9:15 helps us to see this when it says, “Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (emphasis added).

Hebrews 9:15 is an important text for understanding the covenant of grace because it explains that Christ’s mediation and death in the new covenant saved believers under the first covenant. Old covenant saints, therefore, were not saved by the Old Testament covenants with Israel (Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic), but by Christ and His work in the new covenant, which is what God promised through the revelation of the old covenant. Another way of putting it is that there was a retroactive application of the redemptive benefits of Christ for the old covenant believer that they received in their day. Old Testament saints, during their earthly lives, were savingly united to Christ as members of the covenant of grace and therefore regenerated, converted, justified, sanctified, and preserved in faith.

The Old Testament covenants with Israel could not save because membership in them was not union with Christ. Their purpose was to sustain the physical line of the promised offspring, preserving the people of Israel, and giving them temporal life until the promised Christ came from them. It was impossible for the Old Testament sacrifices of bulls and goats to take away sins before God for eternal salvation (Heb. 10:4). Old Testament sacrifices did, however, purify the flesh and forgive ceremonial violations against the ceremonial law of the old covenant so that the people of Israel could worship at the earthly temple (Heb. 9:13). The blood of bulls and goats, along with all of the types and shadows of the Old Testament covenants, actually revealed the promise of a different covenant, the covenant of grace, which was not the same as the Old Testament covenants themselves, but was the new covenant proclaimed in the old for the salvation of God’s people. This promise of the new covenant, ratified in the blood of Jesus, has always been the only way of salvation.

Second London Confession 7.3 describes the covenant of grace:

This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.

This paragraph teaches that the promise of the covenant of grace was first revealed in Genesis 3:15, and then “by farther steps” throughout the Old Testament. But the covenant of grace was fully revealed in Christ through the new covenant. Therefore, the elect of all ages have been saved by this one covenant of grace, which is nothing other than God’s saving oath in the new covenant.

Some may wonder how the Old Testament saints could be saved by the new covenant, since the elect of the Old Testament were never required to obey new covenant positive laws about public worship, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, local church government, or the distinctive mission of the new covenant. How could Old Testament saints be saved by the new covenant when they were not under the distinctive positive laws of that covenant? First, because the distinctive laws of the new covenant are not what save us. Second, Hebrews 8:6 says that at the death of Christ, the new covenant “is enacted” (legally established). The positive laws of the new covenant only come into effect at the death of Christ. Prior to its legal enactment at the cross, God did not require the elect to obey new covenant positive laws, but they were saved by its promises by virtue of new covenant revelation in the types and shadows of the old covenant (Heb. 8:5; 10:1; 12:22–24). Old covenant believers were saved by faith in the coming Messiah, whom the types and shadows prefigured and preached.

The New Testament. To understand the promises of the covenant of grace in the Old and New Testaments, we must begin with the promises of the new covenant. This is how we should read the Bible. Later revelation guides our understanding of earlier revelation. Hebrews 8:8–12, quoting from Jeremiah 31:31–34, expresses the unconditional and inviolable promises of the new covenant, the covenant of grace. It is set in contrast to the conditional and breakable nature of the old covenant:

For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

These glorious words say that God made a new covenant “for they did not continue in my covenant” (Heb. 8:9, emphasis added). The old covenant, which God made with Abraham and Israel, was a breakable covenant. Its promises did not guarantee that any individual Israelite would continue in the covenant. That’s why God made a new covenant with better promises, promises that effectually save and preserve every individual member. Hebrews 8:6 says, “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.”

Verse 8 gives a name to the people of the new covenant. It says God makes the new covenant with “the house of Israel,” showing that the church of the new covenant is true Israel. The Bible confirms that the new covenant is made with the church in a number of other places. Jesus said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Since the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the church, we know that the new covenant is made with the church, not with geopolitical Israel (1 Cor. 11:25). God also calls the church “Abraham’s offspring” (Gal. 3:29), showing that the church is true Israel. Galatians 6:16 says, “And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (emphasis added). In other words, those who walk according to “this rule” (the church) are “the Israel of God” because of the case agreement between the pronoun “them” and the noun “Israel.” Thus, God does not have two different peoples, Israel and the church. He only has one people.53 The people of the new covenant, including Old Testament saints and New Testament saints, are true Israel. All the promises of God in the Old Testament find their final and ultimate fulfillment in Christ and in the church, His true people.

Hebrews 8:8–12 tells us that there are four promises in this covenant of grace.

First, everyone in the covenant of grace is effectually called. God unites His people to Christ and so makes them members of the new covenant by virtue of their effectual calling. Every other blessing of the new covenant stems from this initial grace. In verse 10, God says, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This is the covenant formula of the Bible. In the old covenant, there was a shadow of this promise, in that God was king over the nation of Israel. But the formula of the new covenant, unlike the old, refers to the certain salvation of God’s people. Every member of the covenant of grace will be saved and enter into eternal glory. “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3). Second London Confession 10.1 helpfully summarizes effectual calling:

Those whom God hath predestinated unto life, He is pleased in His appointed, and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving to them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.

Second, everyone in the covenant of grace is converted (by faith and repentance). Hebrews 8:11 says that everyone in the new covenant “shall know the Lord.” The word “know” refers to a saving knowledge of Christ, which includes conversion. The old covenant contained believers and unbelievers, saved and unsaved. But the covenant of grace only has believers in it. Everyone in the covenant of grace, in the time of both testaments, knows Christ, communes with Him, and delights in Him. This is Christ’s own interpretation of Jeremiah 31:34. In John 6:45, He refers to this passage and says, “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”

Third, everyone in the covenant of grace is justified. That is because the covenant of grace is based on Christ’s effectual atonement. Hebrews 9:12 explains that Christ “entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (emphasis added). The blood of the new covenant, the covenant of grace, effectually secures redemption for everyone in this covenant and thus secures their justification. Scripture says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Hebrews 8 tells us that every member of the covenant of grace is forgiven of his sins (Heb. 8:12). Second London Confession 11.1 gives a wonderful description of the Reformed and biblical doctrine of justification. It says,

Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.

Fourth, everyone in the covenant of grace is being progressively sanctified. He puts His laws into their minds. He writes (literally “carves”) them on the hearts of the covenant members. The word “law” here refers to the Ten Commandments, which God carved on tablets of stone in the first covenant but carves on human hearts in the second covenant. Under the old covenant, God commanded His people to put His law upon their hearts (Deut. 6:6). But in the covenant of grace, He writes His law upon our hearts so that we freely and willingly obey it more and more (Ps. 110:3). In the covenant of grace, God causes us to want to obey His law because Christ has won our hearts and called us to faithful obedience. Second London Confession 13.1 describes sanctification this way:

They who are united to Christ, effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, are also farther sanctified, really and personally, through the same virtue, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them; the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts of it are more and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, to the practice of all true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

Even though these promises are most fully revealed in the established new covenant, they were first given during the time of the old covenant. Ephesians 2:12 speaks of “the [Old Testament] covenants of [in Greek] the promise.” The Old Testament covenants were not themselves “the promise.” Rather, they were covenants of the promise. They carried the promise of an offspring. They preserved the line of promise. They revealed, declared, and pointed to the promise of Jesus Christ to come in the new covenant. And that promise, or oath, of the new covenant is the only promise by which anyone was ever saved in the Old Testament or New.

The Old Testament. Consider that God first gave the promise of the covenant of grace in Genesis 3:15, after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden. He said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” The ungodly offspring of Satan strive against the godly offspring of the woman. We see this strife played out in Cain’s murder of Abel (Gen. 4). Then we see God providing further offspring in Seth, whose name means “elect.” The woman’s “offspring” include all believers in the Old Testament from whom Christ would ultimately come (Luke 3:23–38). Thus, the woman’s “offspring” ultimately refers to Christ (Gal. 3:16), who will finally deal the death blow to Satan at the cross and undo the curse of sin and condemnation.

There are echoes of this first gospel found in the New Testament as well. Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” And 1 Corinthians 15:25 says, “For he [Christ] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” Hebrews 2:14 says, “Through death he [Christ] might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” Genesis 3:15 is often called the protoevangelium (first gospel) because that is where God preached the gospel (good news) of the covenant of grace for the first time in the Bible. John Owen declared that in this first gospel promise “the whole covenant of grace was virtually comprised.”54

In Isaiah 61:8–10, we read, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them. . . . I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.” Here is God’s promise to establish an “everlasting covenant” with His people in which they will receive Christ’s “garments of salvation” and “robe of righteousness.” This seems to be a clear revelation of the covenant of grace.

In Habakkuk 2:4, the prophet utters some of the most delightful words found in the Bible: “The righteous shall live by his faith.” In its immediate context, this refers to God saving a remnant from Nebuchadnezzar’s razing of Jerusalem. Those who had faith in God’s promise were spared. It would not be their obedience to the law that would save them; rather, they would be saved by faith. Hundreds of years after that, the apostle Paul understood that this passage was an old covenant type of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. Habakkuk’s words point to nothing other than the good news that sinners are justified, or declared righteous, not on the basis of their works, but by grace through faith alone.

Paul used Habakkuk’s words as the thesis of his treatise to the Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:16-17). The book of Romans is about how justification is at the center of the gospel. It teaches that sinners are justified on the ground of Christ’s righteousness alone, received by faith alone.

Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4 again in his letter to the Galatians: “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Gal. 3:11). So we see that the promise of justification by faith alone in the covenant of grace was revealed under the old covenant and every person who was ever saved under the old covenant was declared righteous because of Christ’s righteousness, His obedience and blood, as the mediator of the new covenant. That is the central promise of the covenant of grace.

Some Instances of Personal Salvation by the One Covenant
of Grace in the Old Testament

Noah. In Genesis 6:8–9, God graciously saved Noah through this same covenant of grace. It says, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. . . . Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” Notice the order. First, Noah received God’s grace or favor (v. 8), and then, “Noah walked with God” (v. 9). First comes God’s gracious application of His saving promise, and second Noah becomes holy and walks with God. Throughout the Bible, God’s grace precedes any human response to the covenant of grace.

Hebrews 11:7 also speaks of Noah’s salvation. It says he “became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” Even before Christ came into the world, Noah received Christ’s righteousness by faith alone. He looked forward to Christ’s coming, and Christ’s graces were retroactive to save him (Heb. 9:15), and thus Noah was saved by faith in Christ. Peter calls Noah “a herald [preacher] of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). He lived among a wicked people, but God’s covenant of grace saved him, and he was changed into a man of God.

Abraham. Genesis 15:6 says of Abraham, “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” God forgave Abraham of his sins and clothed him in Christ’s righteousness. The New Testament tells us that God’s promise to Abraham was the “gospel” proclaimed to Abraham in the Old Testament. Galatians 3:8 says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.”

Romans 4:1–5 teaches something similar about Abraham:

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Hebrews 11:10 confirms that Abraham “was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” He was looking for “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16). Not only was Abraham saved by grace through faith, but all of the patriarchs were as well (Matt. 22:32).

Moses. In Exodus 15:2, after God delivered Israel from Egyptian captivity, Moses wrote a song saying, “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God and I will praise him, my father’s God and I will exalt him.” Moses was not only singing about his temporal salvation from Egypt. Hebrews 11:26–27 says, “He [Moses] considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” Moses left Egypt by faith in Christ! He knew and understood the promise of Genesis 3:15. He was looking forward to his eternal reward with the “invisible” Christ. Moses believed God’s promise, and God saved him by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Christ’s righteousness alone, well before Christ came into this world to accomplish redemption.

As the author of the first five books of the Bible, Moses was thoroughly acquainted with the covenant of grace. God had taught Moses the history of salvation, and Moses preached this gospel to God’s people. Sadly, the vast majority of the nation did not believe. Hebrews 4:2 tells us, “For good news [the gospel] came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.”

David. Psalm 32:1–5 is one of the great declarations of the gospel in the Old Testament. It is a psalm of David in which he says,

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. . . . I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

God saved David, not through animal sacrifices of the old covenant or on the basis of his good works. Rather, God saved David by forgiving his sins completely (justification) and by giving him a renewed spirit (sanctification) on the basis of Christ’s work. Paul quotes this psalm in Romans 4 and says that “David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works” (Rom. 4:6). This too is the covenant of grace, which saved God’s chosen people under the old covenant.

Psalm 51:14–17 is also about David’s salvation by grace through faith. It says,

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

David understands that God saves him not by his own righteousness but by God’s righteousness. He understands that animal sacrifices cannot eternally save him. What saves is a humble heart that trusts in God rather than in oneself. David also understood the proper function of the old covenant sacrificial system. In Psalm 51:7, he says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” David knew that no old covenant sacrifice could atone for his sins of murder and adultery, and he appeals to the old covenant sacrificial ceremony of cleansing a leper (purging with hyssop) for God to purge him of his sin. David knew he needed forgiveness beyond the ceremonial cleansing of the old covenant, though that same ceremonial system taught him that he needed atonement of his moral transgressions.

In the Covenant of Grace but Not in the Abrahamic, Mosaic, or Davidic Covenants

Many in the Old Testament were saved by God’s covenant of grace but were never in the covenant of circumcision, or the old covenant. The Old Testament manifestation of the covenant of grace was not limited to the covenants with Abraham, Moses, and David, and membership in those covenants was not necessary to being in the covenant of grace. This fact proves that the covenant of grace in the Old Testament was not identical with or tied to any outward, structural, tribal or national covenant. Consider these examples:

Thus, the covenant of grace reaches far beyond the boundaries of the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants. While those covenants revealed the covenant of grace, and carried the line of Christ, they were not themselves saving covenants.

The Nature of the Covenant of Grace

The Parties of the Covenant of Grace. The two parties of the covenant of grace are (1) God and (2) His elect people. God is the first party, and He lovingly initiates the covenantal relationship. God powerfully joins His people to Christ in their effectual calling and proceeds to give them Christ’s inheritance. God’s elect people are the second party who always willingly respond to God’s initiative. They trust in Christ, receive His righteousness, and keep His commandments, loving God and loving others because God first loved them. The apostle John captures the covenantal relationship between the two parties and shows how the Father initiates, while God’s people certainly respond: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16); “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11); “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16); “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

The Nature of the Covenant of Grace. At the heart of this covenant is grace, which is a free gift from God to His people. The Bible tells us that the covenant of grace has the form of a will or testament (Heb. 9:15–17). Membership in this covenant and the gifts of this covenant do not depend on any preconditions in Christ’s people. Rather, Christ died for His people and willed that His inheritance be given freely to His beloved bride. As a testament, the covenant only has free promises in it. Christ died, and His people receive His inheritance as a promise. The covenant of grace does not have any curses, only gracious blessings (Heb. 8:8–12). In The Marrow of Modern Divinity, Edward Fisher writes,

And in this covenant there is not any condition or law to be performed on man’s part, by himself; no, there is no more for him to do, but only to know and believe that Christ hath done all for him. . . . I beseech you to be persuaded that here you are to work nothing, here you are to do nothing, here you are to render nothing unto God, but only to receive the treasure, which is Jesus Christ, and apprehend him in your heart by faith.55

The covenant of grace is not like the covenant of works or the covenant of redemption. Those were covenants of strict justice. In the covenant of grace, however, God’s sinful people cannot obtain blessings on the terms of strict justice. Rather, Christ alone deserves the blessings of this covenant. Having purchased every blessing in the covenant of redemption, He gives all of them freely to His chosen people in the covenant of grace.

In the covenant of works, God made demands of Adam without ensuring that Adam would obey. In the covenant of grace, however, God freely gives all things necessary for life and godliness, guaranteeing the preservation and perseverance of everyone in the covenant of grace (1 Cor. 1:4–8; 15:10; Phil. 1:6; Heb. 13:20–21). Second London Confession 17.2 says,

This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ and union with him, the oath of God, the abiding of his Spirit, and the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace; from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof.

The Covenant of Grace as Unconditional. The covenant of grace is unconditional. God unconditionally brings His people into it. The Spirit unites them to Christ in their effectual calling, gives them the gift of regeneration (Titus 3:5), and then grants them the free gift of faith (Eph. 2:8; Phil 1:29). He graciously declares them righteous by faith alone (Rom. 3:28; 4:5) and freely gives them the gift of the Spirit who makes them more and more like Christ over time (1 Cor. 15:10) and able to enjoy more and more communion with Him. He preserves them in this great salvation, keeping them from finally falling away (1 Peter 1:5). In the end, He glorifies them, making them into the very image of Christ, incorruptible in soul and body, and dwells with them forever in heaven (1 Thess. 5:23–24). These are God’s certain gracious blessings to His beloved people. We can see these gifts summarized in the “golden chain” of salvation found in Romans 8:29–30: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.”

These blessings, however, come in a definite order, and in that sense alone the later blessings are conditioned upon the previous ones. Faith can be said to be the condition of justification (Rom. 5:1) only because faith, as resting in and receiving Christ, comes before justification. Both faith and justification are given freely by God, but God effectually gives faith before He gives justification. Therefore, “faith” may be said to precede justification as the instrument of justification, but it is not a cause or legal ground of justification.

Similarly, growth in sanctification is the condition of growing in fellowship with Christ (John 14:21). Here again, God effectually gives both sanctification and fellowship with Christ freely and absolutely, but He gives one before the other, logically speaking, such that there is a connection and correspondence between them. Holiness, likewise, comes before we see God in glory (Heb. 12:14). Therefore, holiness can be said to be necessary for eternal glory, but only in the sense that God gives one before the other, grace upon grace, the first grace fitting and preparing us for the second. Scripture says, “He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb. 5:9). That is because our obedience in sanctification precedes eternal life in heaven.

The Bible further teaches that faithful, loving, and humble good works must be present for us to receive God’s favorable verdict on judgment day (John 5:29; Matt. 25:31–36; Gal. 6:8-9; Rev. 20:12) because they are evidence of Christ’s work in us (James 2:18). The good works of a believer do not in themselves deserve God’s favorable verdict of not guilty and righteous on judgment day; rather, they prove and demonstrate our union with Christ and point to and glorify Him and His gracious work in us. God provides each of these graces, powerfully and effectively, in His elect people, but He produces them in a definite order. Only in that sense are there conditions in the covenant of grace. They are not conditions for receiving the blessing of the covenant, but conditions for those who have already received the blessing. It is not a condition that can disinherit us from the blessing. But it is a condition of order and of fitness within the covenant from one grace to the next, though each is an absolute grace from God.

The fact that God gives all of these free blessings does not imply that we are not responsible to exercise our minds and wills to do them ourselves. We should never wait to feel that God is working in us before we obey His revealed commands. God commands us to believe (Mark 1:15), but faith is God’s gift (Eph. 2:8–9). So we must exercise belief, but we do so knowing that God is at work in us. God commands us to repent (Mark 1:15). So we are responsible to repent, but we do so knowing that God gives the gift of repentance freely to His people (Acts 5:31; 11:18), and we deserve no credit for it. God requires us to obey His commandments (John 14:15), but our obedience flows from the work of the Holy Spirit within us (John 14:16; 1 Cor. 15:10). So we are required to strive under grace and exert effort to believe, repent, and obey all of God’s commandments, but when we do, we have no reason to feel proud because we know that God works them all in us. He gets all the glory. Philippians 2:12–13 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

The Effects of the Covenant of Grace

The Free Offer of the Gospel. Though the parties in the covenant of grace are God and His elect people alone, the covenant also extends a free offer of salvation to all men without exception or distinction. The gospel proclaims the promises of this covenant to the children of believers, to our communities, and to every tribe and tongue. God invites, outwardly calls, and commands all men to come to Christ for salvation. In Isaiah 45:22, God says, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” Acts 17:30 says, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” The Second London Confession 7.2 says, “It pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.”

The Salvation of the Elect. The covenant of grace completely saves all of God’s beloved elect people. Not one of them is lost. They are saved, made into Christ’s likeness, and finally given new bodies in the resurrection to eternal life. In John 6:37, Christ says, “All that the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” In John 10:27–29, He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” And 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14 says, “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Thus the covenant of grace ensures the salvation of the elect.

The Establishment of the Church. God not only saves individuals, but He gathers them together into local churches where they will hear His Word proclaimed, worship Him publicly according to His commandments, and fellowship with His people. In the new covenant, God joins His people in individual local churches (Acts 16:5), which are particular expressions of the one universal church (Eph. 5:29).

The New Heaven and New Earth. The final reward of God to His chosen people is found in the new heaven and new earth in which only righteousness dwells. There the curse will be completely lifted. God will give every blessing to His people and dwell with them in perfect fellowship and love. Revelation 21:1–4 says,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

This is the fullest and final blessing of the covenant of grace. In the new heaven and the new earth, God completes His plan to reverse the effects of Adam’s first sin and overturn the curse of the covenant of works. God will make all things new and perfectly restore what was lost in the fall. The new heaven and the new earth are a perfect and glorified creation filled with perfect and glorified saints who will worship Jesus Christ to all eternity.

Conclusion

The Reformed grammatical, historical, and theological hermeneutic, discussed earlier in connection with confessionalism, sees three overarching covenants in the Bible that deal with eternal life. In the covenant of works, Adam broke God’s law and deserved eternal condemnation and death. In the covenant of redemption, Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed God’s law to accomplish the redemption of His chosen people. In the covenant of grace, the Holy Spirit applies Christ’s work, imputing Christ’s perfect law-keeping for their justification (obedience and death) and working in them to keep the law more and more for their sanctification and communion with God.

These three covenants are essential to confessional Reformed orthodoxy as they form the backbone of the Bible and serve as the theological grid through which the Scriptures are to be read. When these covenants are rejected, Reformed theology itself and all of its most cherished doctrines are threatened. As we will see in the next chapter, these theological covenants are the basis of the Reformed law/gospel hermeneutic, which in turn is the basis of Reformed confessional preaching and piety.

  1. 40. There are several excellent book-length Reformed Baptist treatments of covenant theology. For a wonderful comparison of English Particular Baptist covenant theology with paedobaptist covenant theology, see Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism, revised edition (Vestavia Hills: Solid Ground, 2013). For a biblical and theological defense of a Reformed Baptist covenant theology, see Samuel Renihan, The Mystery of Christ: His Covenant and His Kingdom (Cape Coral: Founders, 2019). For a wonderfully well-researched historical discussion of the covenant theology of early English Particular Baptists, see Samuel D. Renihan, From Shadow to Substance: The Federal Theology of the English Particular Baptists (1642–1704) (Regent’s Park College: Oxford, 2018).

  2. 41. Meredith G. Kline, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview (Overland Park: Two Ages, 2000), 2.

  3. 42. As quoted in Peter Golding, Covenant Theology: The Key of Theology in Reformed Thought and Tradition (Scotland, UK: Christian Focus, 2004), 9.

  4. 43. Nehemiah Coxe, A Discourse of the Covenants (London: J.D., 1681), 21.

  5. 44. Three excellent works on the covenant of works include John Colquhoun, The Covenant of Works (Orlando: Northampton, 2021); Richard C. Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right: Adam’s Work and God’s Rest in Light of Christ (Cape Coral: Founders, 2017); John Colquhoun, The Covenant of Works (Orlando: Northampton, 1821, reprint 2021); Rowland S. Ward, God and Adam: Reformed Theology and the Creation Covenant (Wantirna, Australia: Melbourne Press, 2002).

  6. 45. If we define “grace” as God’s demerited favor, then there is no grace before the fall. But if we define “grace” as God’s unmerited kindness, then we can say that God graciously established the covenant of works, even though its terms were terms of strict justice and works.

  7. 46. For a wonderful recent discussion of the covenant of redemption, see J.V. Fesko, The Trinity and the Covenant of Redemption (Fearn: Mentor, 2016). For an older treatment, see Samuel Willard, The Covenant of Redemption (Orlando: Northampton, 1693, reprint 2022).

  8. 47. Coxe, A Discourse of the Covenants, 36.

  9. 48. The original Hebrew of Psalm 40:6 reads “you have given me an open ear,” not “you have prepared for me a body.” But both phrases are found in the Bible, so both are inspired. In the original Hebrew of Psalm 40:6, the Father prepared Christ’s ears so that they would hear all His commandments. When the book of Hebrews refers to Psalm 40:6, we learn that the Father’s preparation was not only limited to Christ’s ears but extended to His whole body as well.

  10. 49. John Owen, Exposition of Hebrews, in The Works of John Owen, D.D. (Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter, 1850–1855), 19:85.

  11. 50. Emphasis added in this paragraph.

  12. 51. Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Scotland: Christian Focus, 2009), 65.

  13. 52. This is why the unconverted elect are still “in Adam” and are not eternally justified. Though Christ paid for our sin at the cross, the Holy Spirit only brings us into union with Christ, in the covenant of grace, at our effectual calling.

  14. 53. While in the time of the old covenant, God did have a typological kingdom in which He reigned over national Israel, that covenant has been fulfilled and abrogated with the coming of Christ. During that time, God had two peoples. He had an outward, physical typological nation, but He also had His true people, the elect, eschatological Israel.

  15. 54. John Owen, Justification by Faith, in The Works of John Owen, D.D. (Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter, 1850–1855), 5:193.

  16. 55. Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Scotland, UK: Christian Focus, 2009), 132.