The Covenant of Grace

Previously, we saw the importance of understanding a covenant as an agreement in Scripture, and that the Covenant of Works existed with Adam before the Fall with the promise of life for obedience (which we qualified typologically as temporal, not eternal—earthy, not heavenly). All these details were to fully appreciate God’s plan for Jesus Christ to fulfill the Covenant of Works as eternal God and earn Christians eternal life. Now the Confession transitions into the Covenant of Grace stressing that the only possibility for anyone's everlasting security is Solus Christus (in Christ Alone).

WCF 7.3:  Man by his fall having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second,(e) commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein He freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him that they may be saved,(f) and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto life His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.(g)[1]

After the Fall, the Covenant of Works is still binding on all Adam’s posterity, but it only condemns. Adam became “incapable of [maintaining] life.” E. Clark Copeland explains, “… that the covenant of grace brings to consummation the covenant of life and confirms its principle of perfect obedience to the Lord God is confirmed through the Scripture in the command to be perfect as He is perfect, and in man’s accountability at the judgment …”[2] The Covenant of Grace is gracious in terms of what it bestows to us, but it is a reward for perfect obedience in relation to Jesus Christ on our behalf. 

Still, the Confession teaches that this salvation does have a condition: the requirement of faith (see WLC 32).[3] Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and thus to be saved. Copeland writes, “The gospel offer is made in covenant terms.”[4] Wayne Spear instructs, “In one sense, then, the Covenant of Grace may be said to be conditional. Its command is to believe, and the promised salvation is given only to those who believe … those whom God has chosen from eternity are enabled to fulfill the condition of the Covenant of Grace.”[5] Indeed, faith is a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). God ordains our salvation, and He meets His condition by making us “willing and able to believe”—so it is all His sovereign grace.[6]   Still, as Watson emphasizes, “Faith is the condition of the covenant of grace; without faith, without covenant; and without covenant, without hope.”[7]

Some add a distinction of the “Covenant of Redemption” as the Trinity’s eternal commitment to the Covenant of Grace for the redeemed realized in time.  However, A.A. Hodge instructs that our standards

“...say nothing of two covenants … but assume that there is but one covenant contracted by Christ in behalf of the elect with God in eternity, and administered by him to the elect in the offers and ordinances of the gospel and in the gracious influences of his Spirit … The Confession of Faith in these sections teaches how that same covenant is administered by Christ to his people.”[8]

So the Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 31 reads, “The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.”[9]

WCF 7.4: This covenant of grace is frequently set forth in Scripture by the name of a Testament, in reference to the death of Jesus Christ the Testator, and to the everlasting inheritance, with all things belonging to it, therein bequeathed.(h)[10]

The Greek word for “testament” is usually translated as “covenant” in Scripture, but it is appropriately rendered by the Confession here reflecting Hebrews 9:15 with Christ passing on our inheritance to us through His “last will and testament” enacted by the cross.[11] O. Palmer Robertson points out that “the theme of Hebrews 9:15ff is covenant inauguration,”[12] and explains that the idea of “testament” here relates to Christ agreeing to take on the death penalty of the Covenant of Works and so put it and its curse to death, thus bequeathing us His righteous life in the Covenant of Grace (see Rev. 21:7).

WCF 7.5: This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the gospel:(i) under the law, it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all fore-signifying Christ to come:(k) which were, for that time, sufficient and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah,(l) by whom they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation; and is called, the Old Testament.(m)[13]

The Old Testament believers had types, shadows, and signs looking ahead to the Messiah and were sufficiently saved by faith in Him just as we are. Sproul helpfully qualifies, “The big difference between the old and new covenants is the difference between promise and fulfillment … they trusted in promises that had not yet been realized. We, on the other hand, trust in promises that have been fulfilled.”[14]

The Confession’s teaching here disallows the likes of modern dispensationalism.[15] There is only one way of salvation, and that is the same Messiah of the Old and New Testaments, for He was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). And He has only one body of believers who are all sealed by and abiding under His same blood as He so eternally covenanted.

WCF 7.6: Under the gospel, when Christ, the substance,(n) was exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper:(o) which, though fewer in number, and administered with more simplicity, and less outward glory; yet, in them, it is held forth in more fulness, evidence, and spiritual efficacy,(p) to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles;(q) and is called the New Testament.(r) There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations.(s)[16]

While we have less outward religiosity, now we have more inner spiritual reality. This is why our worship is simpler; the Old Testament types and signs of the saints then saved in the same way by the same Savior are fulfilled in the coming of Christ and thus are no longer necessary (nor allowed). Ceremonies and elements in worship that have either been fulfilled or never prescribed have no true spiritual power in them and thus no real benefit (regardless of the nostalgia and emotion they may conjure).

* * *

Concluding Remarks

Fesko points out that this bi-covenant distinction by the Westminster Assembly is nothing novel:

“By the time of the Confession, the divines do not create doctrinal categories but merely codify doctrines that have already been in the theological air for quite some time … The twofold covenant structure cannot be said to be unique to the Confession.”[17]

The Confession simply makes more explicit what already existed behind earlier creedal statements, while, “standing on the shoulders” of earlier church fathers, more maturely developing the doctrine of the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace.

Most importantly, R.C. Sproul writes, “The covenant of grace, rather than annihilating the covenant of works, makes provision for someone else to fulfill the covenant of works for us … We are still justified by works—the works of Jesus, not our own.”[18] Fesko also notes,

“The doctrine of the covenants sets the stage for everything else that follows in the Confession … In many ways the Confession’s doctrine of the covenants, especially the covenant of grace, illustrates why the soteriology of the Westminster Standards can be summarized as a redemption that comes through Christ and covenant … the divines introduce the covenant concept to frame the relationship between Christ as Mediator and the elect.”[19]

This distinction sets up the following chapter of the Confession, “Of Christ the Mediator,” which is the heart of the Gospel.

It would be fitting to close with some of Thomas Watson’s excellent summary explanations and applications of God’s covenant with man:

“What a vast difference is there between the first covenant and the second! In the first covenant it was, if you commit sin you die; in the second covenant it is, if you confess sin you shall have mercy. In the first covenant no surety was allowed; under the covenant of grace, if we do but confess the debt, Christ will be our surety.”[20]

“In the first covenant we had a posse stare, a power of standing; in the second we had a non posse cadere, an impossibility of falling finally. I Pet i 5.”[21]

“Under the first covenant, the justice of God, as an avenger of blood, pursues us; but if we get into the second covenant we are in the city of refuge, we are safe, and the justice of God is pacified towards us.”[22]

“The great proposition I shall go upon is, that there is a new covenant ratified between God and the elect. What is the new covenant? It is a solemn compact and agreement made between God and fallen man, wherein the Lord undertakes to be our God, and to make us his people.”[23]

“The least failing would have made the covenant with Adam null and void, but many failings do not annul the covenant of grace … The first covenant ran all upon ‘working,’ the second is upon ‘believing.’ Rom iv 5.”[24]

“In the first covenant, works were required as the condition of life; in the second, they are required only as the signs of life.”[25]

“Will you look to Christ for help? He is a mediator only for such as are in covenant … Till you are in covenant with God, there is no mercy.”[26]

“The covenant of grace brings preferment. Our nature now is more ennobled, we are raised to higher glory than in innocence, we are advanced to sit upon Christ’s throne. Rev iii 21.”[27]

“If thou seest thy sins and loathest thyself for them, God will take thee into covenant … Isa. xliii 24, 25. As the sea covers great rocks, so God’s covenant mercy covers great sins. Some of the Jews that crucified Christ had their sins washed away in his blood … it is God’s design in the new covenant to … accept us through Christ’s worthiness. Therefore let not unworthiness discourage you; it is not unworthiness that excludes any from the covenant, but unwillingness.”[28]

“You that are in covenant with God, all your sins are pardoned … You may upon all occasions plead the covenant.”[29]

“Now, the union between Christ and the saints being so inseparable, it can never be dissolved, or the covenant made void; so that you may die with comfort.”[30]

Let us praise the Lord our God, that through Christ He “keepest covenant” (1 Kings 8:23) with His Church and never allows it to be removed (Isaiah 54:10). For it is an “everlasting covenant” as Charles Spurgeon extols regarding 2 Samuel 23:5:

“This covenant is divine in its origin … God, the everlasting Father, has positively made a covenant with you … He, stooping from His majesty, takes hold of your hand and makes a covenant with you … If God the Holy Spirit gives me this assurance, then His salvation is mine, His heart is mine, and He Himself is mine. An everlasting covenant means a covenant which had no beginning and which will never, never end. How sweet, amid all the uncertainties of life, to know that ‘the foundation of God standeth sure’ (2 Timothy 2:19). How blessed to have God’s own promise, ‘My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.’ (Psalm 89:34).”[31]
 

Grant Van Leuven has been feeding the flock at the Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church in San Diego, CA, since 2010. He and his wife, Fernanda, have six covenant children: Rachel, Olivia, Abraham, Isaac, Gabriel, and Gideon. He earned his M.Div. at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA.