Of God’s Covenant with Man Ch 7
May 2nd 2025
This section has developed my understanding of covenant theology in a significant way. I’ve always perceived a clear delineation between the old and new covenants, a dispensation of law and grace, but here we have a more robust understanding of covenants that are more alike than different. Under Adam’s covenant of works, grace underlined it, and under Jesus’ new covenant in His blood, there is a clear expectation of loving obedience.
Sproul identifies that evangelical Christians have long held a false dichotomy, that Christianity is not rules and regulations but is a relationship. He clarifies, “But that relationship, because it is a covenant relationship, is defined by rules and regulations. It is based on promises and conditions: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).”[i] Christians have long advanced the idea that in the new covenant we are free from the law, and it is true that we’re free from the moral obligation to keep the law perfectly; only Christ has done that. However, our new grace covenant includes clear expectations. John Piper wrote a book entitled “What Jesus Demands from the World,” where Jesus gives His followers over fifty imperatives.
Jesus effectively fulfilled the covenant of works — none of Adam’s children could. So are we justified by works or faith? Well, Jesus met the conditions of the covenant of works perfectly; our response is to appropriate His righteousness by faith. This is not any different from Abraham, who also was justified by faith (Rom 4:14).
What’s new for me is looking at the covenants of works and grace as similar and not fundamentally contrary but iterative — a substantive improvement. Pardon the longer quote, but Sproul says it clearly:
“The covenant of grace is not so called because God no longer requires obedience and now negotiates His holiness and righteousness. God does not repudiate the covenant of works or His own righteousness. He does not change the standards. In the covenant of grace, it pleased the Lord to provide a substitute, a champion to obey His law perfectly and personally for us. God loved the world enough to send His only begotten Son and to place Him under the law, having Him do for us what Adam failed to do. The Son performed the terms of the covenant of works perfectly. God will accept us on the basis of what His Son has done, on the condition that now, in the covenant of grace, we put our faith in Him.”[ii]
It is clear that “the law is not only in the Old Testament, nor is grace only in the New.” A loving God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, had a gracious plan with Adam. He created a garden where there could be loving, close, unashamed communion and connection with God. He offered Adam eternal life with the stipulation to “stay in loving obedience.” Adam and Eve chose disobedience. So God sent His one and only Son, the only one who could and did perfectly obey. Jesus, in fulfilling the old, offers a new covenant, which looks very much like the old—loving, close, unashamed communion with God and eternal life. The stipulation is to abide in Him and follow Him in loving obedience. The essential distinction between the old and new is that the Old Testament saints looked forward to what the Messiah/Redeemer achieved, while we look back.
Question to ponder: How are the old and new covenants different, and how are they similar?
[i] Sproul, R.C.. Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith (p. 175). (Function). Kindle Edition.
[ii] Sproul, R.C.. Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith (p. 182). (Function). Kindle Edition.
Dave Young 
Your Comments