The Covenant of Grace
Update: 2025-03-12
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From the beginning of the world, God has promised one way of salvation: by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Today, J.V. Fesko introduces the covenant of grace that unites all redemptive history.
Request J.V. Fesko’s new book Signed, Sealed, Delivered: An Introduction to Covenant Theology, the companion teaching series on DVD, and lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3940/donate
Meet Today’s Teacher:
J.V. Fesko is the Harriet Barbour Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS, and a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He is author of many books, including Word, Water, and Spirit: A Reformed Perspective on Baptism, The Need for Creeds Today, and Justification.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
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Transcript
00:00:00
If we approach the Mosaic covenant apart from faith in Christ, we only find the law rather than the gospel of grace.
00:00:08
We only find Sinai and slavery rather than promise and salvation.
00:00:14
You might have heard people refer to the Old Testament as law and the New Testament as grace.
00:00:27
Is it true that we first see God's grace in the pages of the New Testament?
00:00:32
Well, as you'll hear later today on renewing your mind, God's covenant of grace is found all the way back in Genesis.
00:00:40
I'm glad you're with us today as we wrap up a three-day introduction to Covenant Theology from J.V.
00:00:46
Fesco's brand new series and book, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered."
00:00:51
For the final day, you can request the DVD and hardcover book along with digital access to the Messages and Study Guide when you make a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or by calling us at 800-435-4343.
00:01:08
But don't delay as this offer ends at midnight.
00:01:13
From the Covenant of Works in the fall of Adam yesterday, here's Dr.
00:01:17
Fesco on the Covenant of Grace and the work of Christ.
00:01:21
In the wake of Adam and Eve's fall, they stood trembling before the presence of God, but God announced that there would be a hope of salvation.
00:01:33
We read in Genesis 315, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.
00:01:41
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel."
00:01:47
So God promised that one like Adam would come to redeem Adam and Eve and redeem their offspring from the ravaging effects of the fall.
00:01:56
This is what theologians call the Proto-Evangelium or the first promise of the gospel.
00:02:03
Or we could read the summary that comes to us from the seventh chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, paragraph three, "Man by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant,
00:02:15
the Lord was pleased to make a second commonly called the Covenant of Grace, wherein he freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him that they may be saved and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life,
00:02:33
his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe."
00:02:38
Now here we want to talk about the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Grace stands in stark contrast to the Covenant of Works.
00:02:47
In the Covenant of Works, God gave Adam the ability and the possibility to secure eternal life through his obedience, as we said when we talked about the Covenant of Works through his personal,
00:03:01
perpetual, and perfect obedience.
00:03:04
Now keep in mind this important point, God does not change Adam's vocation.
00:03:11
He doesn't change the nature of the work, but he instead sends one who will faithfully complete it.
00:03:18
In this case, his son, where Adam failed, Christ succeeds.
00:03:23
But the blessings of Christ's faithfulness only come to those who trust in his work by grace alone through faith alone.
00:03:34
And this we can say is the substance of the Covenant of Grace.
00:03:38
So what we want to do is we proceed.
00:03:40
As first, we want to look at the historical origins of the Covenant of Grace.
00:03:45
How is it that theologians throughout the history of the church came to understand the Covenant of Grace, the Covenant of Salvation in this manner?
00:03:54
Secondly, we'll look at some of the biblical evidence that shows us and reveals onto us the existence of the Covenant of Grace.
00:04:02
And then third and finally, we'll give a statement of the doctrine where we explain it in its chief points.
00:04:09
So historical origins, the biblical evidence, and then a statement of the doctrine.
00:04:14
So let's give thought first to its historical origins.
00:04:18
Even though we can say that the term itself, Covenant of Grace, hasn't always been used, we can say that theologians from the earliest days of the church have stressed the substance of what informs this concept.
00:04:36
Namely, Salvation has always been by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
00:04:44
A theologian from the early church, a theologian by the name of Irenaeus of Lyons.
00:04:49
He lived in the second and third century.
00:04:51
He opposed the false teaching of a theologian by the name of Marcian, who Marcian said that there were two gods of the Bible,
00:05:01
a god of the Old Testament, and then a separate god of the New Testament.
00:05:08
Irenaeus among many others objected to this false teaching and said, no, there's one god of the Bible, and it is one god who stands behind both the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.
00:05:22
So in other words, one god, one plan of redemption, one savior, one doctrine of faith, one doctrine of salvation.
00:05:33
We don't wanna pit the two testaments against one another, and this is what Irenaeus argued against.
00:05:40
The theologians, I think of the Middle Ages, arguably lost sight of this teaching to a certain extent, but the theologians of the 16th century reclaimed it.
00:05:52
The reformers, such as Holdrikes Wingley and Heinrich Bowlinger, pressed the unity of the covenants in opposition to the anabaptists who largely argued that the Old Testament was irrelevant for New Testament Christians.
00:06:08
Then when we get to the 17th century in a similar vein as Irenaeus, we see for example, in the seventh chapter of the Westminster Confession, chapter seven paragraph five,
00:06:20
it says that from the Old Testament to the New Testament, there's one covenant of grace.
00:06:26
And under the Old Testament, they say that the covenant of grace was administered through promises, through prophecies, through sacrifices,
00:06:37
through circumcision, through the Passover, and then they say through other types, we can say things that prefigure the person in work of Christ,
00:06:47
and they say of all of these things that they all foreshadow Christ, the seed of the woman.
00:06:54
Conversely, Westminster Confession seven six says that under the New Testament, Christ, the substance, was revealed.
00:07:05
A simple way to think about this is to say that in the Old Testament, Old Testament believers were looking forward to Christ, eagerly anticipating His advent,
00:07:16
His incarnation and ministry, and in the New Testament, we as New Testament Christians look back upon the ministry of Christ, but notice both Old and New Testament believers equally look to Christ alone for salvation.
00:07:33
Now, this is essentially a brief historical overview, and now we want to look secondly at the biblical evidence.
00:07:41
We want to survey a number of key passages of Scripture that help us to see the substance of the covenant of grace in both the Old and New Testament,
00:07:53
so that when we look, for example, to Genesis three in the fall, and God's initial promise in Genesis three 15 to save Adam and Eve through the seed of the woman,
00:08:05
we can see that in that very promise, and in those events that fell after Adam and Eve's sin, that there are other clues that show us that God's grace is at work,
00:08:20
that the covenant of grace is itself at work, in that in spite of our parents' first sin, as well as their continued sin,
00:08:31
you remember what happened in the wake of the fall, Adam, blame Eve, Eve, blame the serpent, essentially blaming God.
00:08:39
In other words, everybody was pointing the finger at one another, so the fall didn't just mean they ate from the tree when they weren't supposed to, but rather, they continued sinning by accusing one another for the wrongdoing,
00:08:53
but in spite of that, notice that the passage still uses in Genesis three, the covenant name of God.
00:09:01
Though there was a breach of the covenant of works, God still graciously was administering his mercy and his forgiveness to them.
00:09:11
God made garments for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness, which involved the sacrifice of animals, which we could say was a blood sacrifice to cover them and their sin,
00:09:23
as well as God preserved his communion with them.
00:09:26
He didn't just simply cast them off, never to see them again, but rather, he continued to commune with them though it was through the sacrifice of animals.
00:09:39
Adam and Eve, of course, we know could no longer secure eternal life through their obedience, but instead they had to trust in God's promise to save them through the seat of the woman.
00:09:51
And I don't know if this is something that we initially register, but Adam made a profession of faith in Genesis chapter 3, verse 20.
00:10:02
Eve's name was originally woman for she had been drawn from man, but yet on the heels of God's covenant promise that I will save you through the seat of the woman,
00:10:14
what does Adam to say?
00:10:16
In Genesis 3, 20, we read this, the man called his wife's name, Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
00:10:25
In other words, God announces that the redeemer will come through the seat of the woman, and so Adam says, I believe in this promise, I have to change your name, your name is now Eve because salvation will come through you.
00:10:39
So there we see the biblical evidence of the covenant of grace, God's gracious provision of salvation for sinners coming to the fore in the unfolding events after the fall of Adam and Eve.
00:10:54
In his covenant with Noah, which we see there in Genesis chapter 6, 7, 8, and 9, God saw in Genesis 6,
00:11:05
5 that humans were only evil continually.
00:11:08
And so God took measures to preserve the line of the seat of the woman evident by Noah's inclusion in the line of Christ,
00:11:19
which you see in Luke 336.
00:11:22
Now when the floodwaters receded and Noah emerged from the ark, God renewed the covenant with him in terms that were evocative of that initial covenant that God made with Adam and Eve.
00:11:35
Be fruitful, multiply, fill all the earth and subdue it, but God did not readminister the covenant of works.
00:11:41
That's an important observation to make here.
00:11:44
Rather, as the book of Hebrews remind us, Noah trusted in the promised redemption to come.
00:11:52
What do we read of in Hebrews 11, 7?
00:11:55
By faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as of yet unseen in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
00:12:04
By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
00:12:11
So Noah doesn't receive this status of righteous by his obedience, but rather by trusting in the promises of salvation through the seat of the woman.
00:12:22
And so here in this covenant, though, with Noah, God not only makes a covenant with Noah, but with the entire creation, because we can say that what God was doing was preserving the stage,
00:12:36
if you will, upon which the covenant of grace would subsequently unfold.
00:12:42
The creation would act as the stage upon which the Son of God would come forth to save his people.
00:12:50
We know, of course, though, that God's covenant with Noah was not the final covenant because in a similar way to Adam, Noah fell in a vineyard,
00:13:02
not in a garden, but in a vineyard as he became drunk.
00:13:06
In Genesis chapter nine, verses 20 and 21.
00:13:09
So we have the initial activity between Adam and Eve and God, the no way at covenant.
00:13:15
Thirdly, we also have the Abrahamic covenant.
00:13:19
And that God continues his salvific purposes through Abraham.
00:13:24
And this is evident through a couple of clues.
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First, if you remember from the Genesis narrative, it is not Abraham who seeks God, but rather it is God who graciously reaches out and saves Abraham.
00:13:40
He calls Abraham and he promises to make him a great nation in Genesis 12, 1 and 2.
00:13:48
And he promises to bless him and conversely to curse anyone who dishonors him.
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So here's the theme of covenant blessings and curses.
00:13:59
But a second theme that we want to note here.
00:14:01
And I think that this is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle that we can pick up here to see that the covenant of grace is at play.
00:14:12
In Genesis chapter 17, I want to read some excerpts from verses 1 and 2 and then 5 and 6, where God says to Abraham, "I am God Almighty,
00:14:23
walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly."
00:14:32
That's an important phrase, keep that in mind.
00:14:35
"No longer shall your name be called Abraham, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
00:14:44
I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you."
00:14:52
Think back to the original covenant of works.
00:14:55
Be fruitful, multiply, fill all the earth, and subdue it.
00:15:00
God gives that work to Adam and Eve as command.
00:15:04
But now he tells Abraham, "I'm going to multiply you greatly.
00:15:11
I'm going to make you exceedingly fruitful.
00:15:15
It's no longer command, rather it's promise.
00:15:19
God himself will make Abraham fruitful and will multiply him.
00:15:26
Command has now become promise.
00:15:29
Work has now become the gift of salvation."
00:15:34
Beyond the Abrahamic covenant, we also want to look briefly at the mosaic covenant, the fact that God continues the covenant of grace that he first promised to Abraham,
00:15:45
Isaac, and Jacob, as well as to Adam and Eve, our first parents, is evident from a couple of statements in Scripture.
00:15:53
Notice, first in the opening chapters of Exodus 2.24, why does God go to save Israel out of Egypt?
00:16:04
Because he remembered his covenant with Abraham with Isaac and Jacob.
00:16:09
And notably here, I don't know if you've noticed this one before, but this is important, is that even though the people of God were under Pharaoh's thumb, yet the text quietly whispers to us that God is faithfully fulfilling his covenant promises,
00:16:25
we read in Exodus 1.7, but the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly.
00:16:33
They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them.
00:16:40
The Exodus narrative is quietly insisting God is fulfilling his promise.
00:16:45
The people are multiplying.
00:16:47
They're being fruitful, but it's not because of them and their faithfulness or their obedience, but rather it's because of God's faithfulness to his covenant promises.
00:16:59
And so here we also note that the Mosaic covenant, therefore, is certainly a part of the covenant of grace, but there are some added features to it.
00:17:09
The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 3.19 that the Mosaic covenant was, quote, "added because of transgressions until the seed should come to whom the promise has been made."
00:17:22
So in other words, God gave Israel the Mosaic covenant, but it was to preserve them from pagan influence, from around the surrounding nations to ensure the preservation of the seed of the woman.
00:17:36
It was to show Israel the impossibility of climbing the Everest of the law, if you will, by them trying to offer their own perfect obedience to the law,
00:17:48
he was showing them no, that can't be done.
00:17:51
And it was to show them that only Christ could fulfill the law on their behalf.
00:17:57
Galatians 3.24 and following, so then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
00:18:05
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
00:18:14
So this is an important reminder that we can look upon the Mosaic covenant and learn much about who God is and what he calls us to be as his people.
00:18:24
But if we approach the Mosaic covenant apart from faith in Christ, we only find the law rather than the gospel of grace.
00:18:34
We only find Sinai and slavery rather than promise and salvation.
00:18:39
We have the Davidic covenant, which is yet another covenant, in that God continued the covenant of grace by making his covenant with David and promising to seat one of his heirs permanently upon Israel's throne.
00:18:55
We see that, of course, in 2 Samuel, chapter 7, and we see the divine commentary on that promise in Psalm 89, where the Psalmist says,
00:19:05
this is God's covenant with David.
00:19:08
We want to note here that like Abraham's covenant and God's promise that he would bless all the nations, here in this covenant, God says that David's air will bless all the nations.
00:19:21
We can also say that unlike the Mosaic covenant, which in some sense was breakable because Israel broke it, that's evident, of course, by Israel's exile from the land,
00:19:33
the Davidic covenant was not.
00:19:35
God says in Psalm 89 in verses 26 and following that he will never remove his steadfast love or his covenant love from David's children.
00:19:46
Last but not least, in terms of the biblical evidence is the new covenant, and that the prophet Jeremiah wept over God's judgment that he was going to visit upon the people of Israel,
00:20:00
but he still held out hope.
00:20:02
In Jeremiah 31, 31 and following, we read of the new covenant, behold, the days are coming to clear as the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
00:20:13
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband declares the Lord.
00:20:23
So Israel broke the Mosaic covenant, and the author of Hebrews, and Hebrews chapter 8 verse 7 says where if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second,
00:20:35
i.e., the new covenant.
00:20:38
So here we can see that the covenant of grace is at work with our first parents on the heels of the fall.
00:20:45
It's at work in the no-way at covenant, in the Abrahamic covenant, in the Mosaic covenant, and the Davidic covenant as well as in the new covenant.
00:20:54
So this brings us to our last and final point, and that we just want to hit some highlights so that we can understand the nature of the covenant of grace.
00:21:04
I think the biggest thing that we could walk away with as we look at the covenant of grace is the truth that Jesus is the last Adam.
00:21:14
He calls him this in 1 Corinthians 15, 45, in that he takes up the failed and abandoned work of the first.
00:21:23
Notice here, you have to understand the covenant of works, the work of Adam, so that we can understand what it means for Jesus to be the last Adam.
00:21:34
He both fulfills what Adam was supposed to do, but he also pays the penalty for the broken covenant of works.
00:21:43
That's significant.
00:21:44
He pays the penalty that is due to us.
00:21:47
In one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible, the Apostle Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15, 47, "As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust,
00:22:00
and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
00:22:05
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man from heaven."
00:22:14
Or in the beautiful words of 16th century poet John Donne, we think that paradise and Calvary, Christ's cross and Adam's tree stood in one place.
00:22:26
Look, Lord, and find both Adam's met in me as the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face, may the last Adam's blood,
00:22:37
my soul, embrace.
00:22:40
It's only the divine gift of faith by God's grace that allows us to participate in the covenant of grace.
00:22:48
Unlike Adam, who had obeyed to receive eternal life, we can only receive the blessing of eternal life in the covenant of grace by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
00:23:01
Or in words that I love to repeat to myself in moments of doubt, or in moments where I lack assurance, or perhaps even on the heels of sin,
00:23:12
it's those familiar words to us that come to us from Augustus' top, ladies, him, "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross, I cling.
00:23:23
"Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace, "fowl I to the fountain fly, wash me, save your or I die."
00:23:32
The biggest thing that we could walk away with regarding the covenant of grace is that Christ does the work for us, and he pays the penalty for us so that we can enjoy the blessings of eternal life.
00:23:46
In this, we can say the covenant of grace is the outpouring of love of the triune God upon undeserving sinners brought about through the work of the Son of God,
00:23:57
the last Adam, and applied to us graciously by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
00:24:04
Christ does the work for us, what a great covenant,
00:24:15
and what an incredible Savior.
00:24:17
This is a truth we need to remember and preach to ourselves when we doubt, when we're tempted to look at our own works.
00:24:25
You're listening to the Wednesday edition of renewing your mind on your host, Nathan W.
00:24:31
Bingham.
00:24:32
J.V.
00:24:33
Fesco has been our guest teacher on renewing your mind, teaching from his new series, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," an introduction to covenant theology.
00:24:42
We'd love for you to have today's important message on the covenant of grace, along with all the messages in this six-part study.
00:24:50
When you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org, or when you call us at 800-435-4343, we'll unlock all of the messages and the study guide in the free Ligonier app.
00:25:03
We'll also send you the series on DVD, along with the companion hardcover book, also called "Signed, Sealed, Delivered."
00:25:11
Today is the final day of this offer, only hours remain.
00:25:15
So go online at renewingyourmind.org, or by using the link in the podcast show notes, and we'll get these resources to you and unlock the messages and study guide in the app.
00:25:26
Thank you.
00:25:27
Did you know that at the time of the American Revolution in 1776, some 90% of the American colonial population was basically Calvinistic in their understanding of Christianity?
00:25:43
Well, we'll be changing gears tomorrow as W.
00:25:45
Robert Godfrey joins us to explain what happened and what changed in the new world.
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Don't miss tomorrow's episode here on renewing your mind.
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