Why Dispensationalist Are NOT Reformed | Theocast

The Covenantal Framework of Reformed Theology

Of scripture. I'll start with the first one and I'll let you guys unfold it. I would say probably the biggest one historically would be covenantalism, a covenantal perspective of the Bible. There was a debate a while back, and we did a short podcast on this, is can you be Calvinistic and dispensational?

Yeah, I think there's a lot of guys who probably would fit that, but I do not think you can be Reformed and dispensational because the background of Reformed is legitimately covenantal. Guys, when we say that, what do we mean by covenantal for someone who might be brand new to Reformed theology or even to covenant theology?

What's a quick overview of that? We actually hope to dive into this.

Further very soon. Even within that, I can hear some of our other Reformed brethren on the other side of the mic right now saying, oh boy, I can't wait to see what they say. There are differing views, but at its core, there are three major covenants of covenant theology.

You have the covenant of redemption, which is the eternal covenant made between the three persons of the Godhead to redeem sinners. We see that clearly in places like Ephesians chapter one. And then you have the covenant of works, and then you have the covenant of grace.

The covenant of works being that which is the covenant that God has with man that in order to have a righteous standing before God, you need to have perfect works. You need to have perfect righteousness on your own account.

The Covenant of Grace and Imputed Righteousness

But you also have the covenant of grace, which is the covenant that God also makes with man that is mediated by Jesus Christ, where God does not look to the works of man. God does not look to the works of Adam, so to speak, that we see in the garden, but rather he looks to the works of Christ and by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, imputes that perfect righteousness to his people.

Those are the three major covenants. Here's why it's important. If you don't see these categories in Scripture, particularly covenant of works and covenant of grace, what happens is when you don't have these categories is as a pastor or preacher, you will typically try to lay a covenant of works back on your people.

Here's what I mean by that. If you don't make these categories, particularly of the covenant of grace, talking about how it's all of God's sheer, boundless, unmatched, wonderful, beautiful grace, what you'll do is you'll lay a covenant of works back on people to say, in order to be blessed, in order to have this kind of standing with God, you must have this.

You must do this. You must pray like this. You must read this much. You must repent this much. In essence, it's all contingent upon the works that you do. We'll get into that a little bit more when we begin talking about the means of grace, but I want to let you guys come in and help fill out some of those edges as well on covenant.

Christ Fulfills the Covenant of Works

Theology. Justin Perdue. I would summarize covenant theology this way, that Jesus fulfills the covenant of works in the covenant of grace in order to accomplish the covenant of redemption. That is critical, and I hope the listener can understand and maybe connect the dots as to how that is inextricably linked from the rest in Christ that we talk about all the time.

We will talk about Jesus being sufficient. We'll talk about him being adequate. We'll talk about him having done everything that's necessary for salvation and how there's nothing left to contribute. That not only redemptive historical understanding of Scripture, but that covenantal framework of Scripture dovetails so beautifully with all of these understandings.

If you start to pull these things apart, you kind of kill the whole thing. And so the sufficiency of Christ and a covenantal framework go together. When we will point people outside of themselves to the work of Christ in their place, when we will point people to Christ's faithfulness, not their own faithfulness, what we are doing is we are teaching the Bible in a redemptive historical covenantal way.

You'll notice that amongst many of the guys in evangelicalism who would claim to be Reformed, who are Calvinistic at least in their understanding of salvation, they will deny the covenantal framework of Scripture.

In particular, they will deny the covenant of works. When you deny the covenant of works and you don't understand that Jesus has fulfilled that covenant in the place of the redeemed in the covenant of grace, this is where, to Jimmy's point, you get guys coming back in, putting burdens upon the Christian and giving them things that they must do in order to secure their salvation.