God's covenant with man
"Covenant" - an explanation
God is God, and we are His creatures - there is a great distance between us.
even if we lived perfectly, we should only have done our duty. Luke 17 vs 10.
we can never claim anything from God as a right.
yet God undertakes to give certain things to us, upon certain conditions.
this is a great act of condescension on His part.
He chooses the gifts; He decides the terms.
it is not an agreement between two equal parties, each imposing conditions on the other. It is GOD binding Himself to graciously do certain things for His undeserving creatures, upon whom He lays certain conditions and obligations (conqueror and conquered).
such an undertaking by God is called a "covenant" or "testament".
The covenant of works - Genesis 2 vs 15 - 3 vs 24
at the beginning of history God clearly held before Adam two alternatives :-
obedience and life.
disobedience and death.
God alone decided that there should be such a covenant; and its terms.
it was a covenant of life - for this is what God held out to Adam.
it was a covenant of works - because God required Adam to obey Him before He confirmed him unchangeably in his original state.
yet Adam fell - with all the consequences we studied last week.
in theory the covenant of works is still in operation. Gal 3 vs 12.
but in practice it is no good to us. We are all sinners. We cannot possibly meet the conditions. If we are to have eternal life, it must be by some other way.
The covenant of grace
God has mercifully instituted another covenant - "the everlasting covenant". Heb 13 vs 20.
in it GOD HIMSELF meets the conditions required to save HIS people.
God did not consult man to see if he would like such a covenant.
He consulted nobody but Himself - it was an eternal act of grace.
so we call it "the covenant of grace"
it is plain from the Scriptures that there is a covenanted agreement between the Three Persons of the Trinity regarding the salvation of sinners :-
it was God the Father who eternally gave a chosen people to His Son, and sent Him into the world to save them. John 6 vs 37-40.
it was God the Son who lived a perfect life on their behalf, and died in their place. John 10 vs 11, 14-15, Romans 4 vs 24-25.
it is God the Holy Spirit who brings them into the enjoyment and benefit of what Christ has obtained for them. 1 Cor 2 vs 1-5, 1 Thess 1 vs 5-10
This covenant was announced in an old way (Old Testament).
the promises, prophecies, sacrifices, types and ordinances of the Old Testament all pointed forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, and spoke of salvation obtained by God's doing, not ours. Luke 24 vs 27, 45-46, Romans 1 vs 1-3, 3 vs 20-22, 16 vs 25-27.
This covenant was announced, and is announced in a new way (New Testament).
by preaching ( 2 Cor 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5); baptism (Col 2 vs 12-14); and the Lord's Supper (1 Cor 11 vs 23-25); in which the truth comes over more clearly, yet more simply, and with less outward glory.
Only ONE covenant
Not even the covenant of works and the covenant of grace are different. Both are gifts of Gods grace. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the terms of the first, that we might benefit from the second!
there is only ONE way by which salvation becomes ours. Dispensationalists believe that God dispenses His saving benefits in different ways at different times, and are therefore in error.
Armenians believe that Christ did not actually accomplish anything on the cross, but only made salvation possible. The work is not complete until we do our part, and accept Christ. They thus hold that in the final analysis, salvation depends upon something we do, and preach a form of salvation by works. This error springs up wherever people do not properly understand the covenant of grace.
Once grasp the Bible's teaching about the covenant, and the whole of the Bible makes sense - it is "the unifying principle of Scripture". Until you do, the Bible will appear to you to be a muddle.