Classic Reformed Covenant Theology

When one hears the words "covenant theology" in a Reformed context, one generally thinks of infant baptism. After that, we hear nothing more of covenant theology. However, in classic Reformed theology, covenant theology provides a structure for the whole of God's dealings with mankind, both before and after the fall. I would like to give here a brief summary of classic Reformed covenant theology. I will not provide many citations, but I would encourage the reader (if anyone does read actually read this!) to look at the Westminster Confession as well as Reformed theologians such as Witsius, Brakel, Turretin, Watson, Ussher, and others for confirmation. I offer the following theses:

1. The term covenant does not mean relationship. Its meaning is contractual. That is, covenant is about new or strengthened obligations. Thus, the Israelites made a covenant with the Gibeonites that created new obligations between them. The term covenant can also have the sense of a testament or bequeathal, both in Hebrew and in Greek.

2. The first covenant that God made with man is a covenant of works. Man by his very nature owed God all love and obedience. No covenant was needed to create that obligation. However, God owed man nothing in return but bound Himself by covenant to give life on the condition of the obedience that Adam already owed to God. In this covenant, God also arranged that Adam would represent the human race. Adam's obligations were also strengthened by Adam's assent to the covenant and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

3. Adam broke the covenant by sinning against God. Because of this sin, Adam died spiritually and became liable to the bondage of sin and all misery. At this point, the story would have ended apart from God's grace and mercy.

4. In the Garden of Eden, God announced another covenant, the covenant of grace. This covenant is made with a new covenant head, Jesus Christ, as the last Adam.

5. Because this covenant is ratified in Christ, the covenant of grace is dependent on Christ's obedience for its fulfillment and not ours. Christ fulfilled this obedience by becoming man, suffering the penalty of the law, and fulfilling the obligation of the broken covenant of works.

6. This covenant is made with Christ and with His elect as His seed. The covenant of grace offers salvation freely on the condition of faith in Christ. However, since no man is able to believe by nature, God also promises in this covenant to give regeneration and perseverance to His elect. Thus, in the covenant of grace all the conditions are also promised and guaranteed to all those who are in this covenant.

7. Thus, the covenant of grace has both its contractual side ("Believe, and you will be saved") and its bequeathal side ("I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me"). The covenant of grace is both an offer and a gifting of salvation to all those who are in the covenant. This latter side is generally called "the testamentary aspect of the covenant of grace." Some Reformed theologians based this testamentary aspect on a covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son distinct from the covenant of grace.

8. Non-elect children of believers and non-elect members of the visible Church cannot be said in the most proper sense of the word to be in the covenant of grace. To say that they are is only a loose and improper sense of the word. "Improper" here does not mean "false," it only means that it is true in only some respects. For example, Jesus called Herod a fox. He was using this term in a loose sense because Herod had some characteristics like that of a fox. He did not mean that Herod was literally the animal "fox." This follows the usage of the Bible "out of us but not of us" and "not all Israel who are of Israel."

9. Even though the covenant of works can never bring life to sinners, the works principle continues to be articulated throughout Scripture. The purpose for the revelation of this principle is to drive men to their need for Christ and the covenant of grace. All Reformed theologians agree that in some sense the works principle is restated at Sinai. However, there is disagreement as to whether the covenant at Sinai is a republication of the covenant of works itself, another covenant of works promising now life in Canaan (Saumur), a political covenant that reflects the covenant of works, or the covenant of grace with a simultaneous restatement of the works principle subservient to the covenant of grace.

10. The covenant of grace is set forth to man in different ways in different eras. It culminates in its ratification on the cross and publication of the Gospel to all nations by the Apostles with the simple administration of that covenant provided for in the New Testament. However, in all ages, the covenant of grace is substantively the same and the only way in which anyone is ever saved in history.

11. The primary goal of Reformed covenant theology is to explain that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. It does this by a clear explanation of the works principle so that all ways of gaining salvation by man's own efforts or obedience are shut and, on the other hand, showing that the only way of life is found in the covenant of grace secured by the perfect work of Jesus Christ for all His people.