New Life Presbyterian Church of La Mesa

As far as sheer volume is concerned, the covenant of grace is the dominant theme of Scripture.  From the third chapter of Genesis to the final pages of Revelation, the Bible chronicles for us the outworking of the covenant of grace in history.

Simply put, the covenant of grace is God’s remedy to Adam’s representative failure in the garden.  Through the first man, humanity’s federal head, all were plunged into the condemnation of sin (cf. Rom. 5:12).  Left to ourselves, we could never reverse the penalty for such an act.  Enter the covenant of grace.  Grace is God’s favor bestowed to the undeserving.  Grace means that he looks upon us to bless and not to curse.  Only Jesus makes this possible.  At the heart of the covenant of grace stands Jesus who lived a perfect life, was judged in our place, and represents us before God’s holy throne.  The covenant of grace is the free offer of salvation in Jesus Christ to those who cannot earn it and don’t deserve it.  This is the heart of the gospel and the Scriptures.

Because there is only one covenant of grace, it follows that there is one people of God.  In contrast, dispensationalism (the popular teaching found in novels like Left Behind) understands that there are two people of God, Israel of the OT and the church of the NT.  Thus, the covenants of the OT are not fulfilled in the NT church, but are waiting to be fulfilled in the future when God once again begins dealing with Israel (hence the political activism related to the modern state of Israel by many churches who confess such a theology).  To be sure, God administered this one covenant differently and progressively.  Under the law, it was offered in the form of “promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews” (WCF 7.5).  Yet, in all of these there was a “foresignifying Christ to come” (WCF 7.5).  Thus, the substance of their faith was Christ as they looked forward to his coming.  Only when we understand the structure of the Bible like this does it make sense.  The covenants of the OT (made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David) and the New Covenant are progressive revelations of the covenant of grace and are fulfilled in Christ and the NT church.  To quote the Confession again, “There are not therefore two covenant of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations” (WCF 7.6).  In the NT, the substance remains the same; but God, having done away with the ceremonies of Israel, now administers the covenant through the preaching of the word, baptism and the Lord’s supper.

While perfect and perpetual obedience was required of Adam, the covenant of grace requires us to look away from ourselves to the second Adam who exacted perfect obedience in our behalf and died as an appeasing sacrifice in our place.  This is just another way of saying that God requires of us faith in his Son, and faith alone. 

Thanking God with you for his grace (I know I need it)