Where Does The Reformed Camp Stand in Complete Agreement?

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Everyone who would claim to be Reformed and Covenantal, whether you are Continental Reformed Tradition, or the

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English Reformation broadly, or you're a Presbyterian, or you're a Baptist, how would you articulate? All right, here's what we all agree on when it comes to Covenant theology.

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And we'll begin this by saying we all would affirm the three historical

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Covenants, the tri -Covenantal framework of Scripture. To be historically Covenantal, we affirm the

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Covenant of Redemption, the Covenant of Works, and the Covenant of Grace. We'll just start with the Covenant of Redemption.

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There really is no disagreement here. I mean, we herald and are so thankful for Biblical theology and believing that the arc of the story of God is that before the foundations of the world, the

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Pactum, right? He made a covenant that he would save sinners. Shout out to the

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Pactum podcast. I love those guys. That's why Pat named it the Pactum. That's right. It's because of the

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Covenant of Redemption, the Pactum Salutas. That's right. And there are even dispensationalists who are starting to acknowledge the

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Pactum Salutas, which is amazing to hear. But we would agree with our Pentecostal friends, our

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Westminsterian friends, that before the foundations of the world, our salvation was not a response, but was planned, right?

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Amen. It was planned. Amen. So yeah, every person who would claim to be historically

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Covenantal agrees on this eternal covenant that was made amongst the persons of the

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Godhead before time and space were a thing. That's right. Where in the mind and heart of God, in the plan of God, it was always the design that he would save a people for himself.

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And in particular, this people would be saved by the work that God, the Son, would uniquely accomplish.

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Let's move on now to the Covenant of Works. So Covenant of Redemption happened before time and space, before history, before the world.

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The Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace, both are actually given and made in time and space once God has created all things.

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And so the Covenant of Works is made between God and Adam. And this is where God makes this arrangement with Adam, where contingent upon Adam's obedience or no,

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Adam can either earn eternal life for himself in all of his posterity, or through disobedience, can plunge himself in all of his posterity into death.

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Spiritual, temporal, eternal death. There's this intentional arrangement, even how

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God creates man and then plants the Garden of Eden, and then puts man in the garden for a particular purpose to work and keep it, and then makes, announces the sanction that you shall not do this, and in the day that you do this, this is what will happen.

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Thereafter, very clear that Adam represented the entire human race in that covenantal arrangement.

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That's right. Our fate, I mean, we are with him. We are with Adam. We were, we are in Adam in this, like whatever his works resulted in, that we would also reap that.

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His guilt and his sin because of his failure are counted to us. It's very plain. I mean, think Romans 5, 12 to 21 stuff.

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To affirm the Covenant of Works and Adam's representation of us all, contingent upon his obedience, he could earn life or plunge us into ruin.

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That's a big deal theologically, and it has a lot to do with assurance and peace and the work of Christ and his sufficiency.

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And there are a number of people, I'm going to tee you up on this too, that would claim to be reformed or would even claim to subscribe to the

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Westminster Confession or something, who will not affirm the Covenant of Works in this way.

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Yeah. That's a problem, yeah? That is. When I learned the Covenant of Works, it really made a half gospel a whole gospel.

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Jesus didn't just pay for my sins. Yeah. He is my righteousness. He accomplished everything you need.

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Yeah, that's right. I mean, Corinthians, it says, you know, for as in Adam all died, also, also in Christ shall all be made alive.

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Right? So what we lost in Adam, we have not only gained in Christ, but we've gained more because we gained all of Christ's righteousness.

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And it's an invincible righteousness. That's right. I don't care if you say you subscribe to the Westminster Confession or whatever, but if you start saying that Adam would have attained eternal life through faith and obedience, and then you lay that paradigm over onto what it means to be a

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Christian, we have all kinds of problems. And that is no longer an historically covenantal understanding. And it also conflates the law and the gospel.

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And it's really, really detrimental. And so now let's talk. We've done covenant of redemption, covenant of works.

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Now, the question is, if Jesus, if God the Son incarnate is going to accomplish work that's going to save his people, if he's going to be the new and better Adam, and he's going to fulfill a covenant of works in the place of his people, how is his merit applied to his people?

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That's where the covenant of grace comes in. So the covenant of grace is where the merits of Christ in terms of everything that he did to atone for our sins, to satisfy the wrath of God for our sin, to fulfill all of the law's requirements for righteousness, where all of that, everything that he's accomplished is applied to sinners.

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And it is not by merit, it is by grace, hence the name. And it is not attained by works, but it is received by faith.

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So that's the covenant of grace, where by faith, God in his grace gives us the merit, the righteousness, the satisfaction, the holiness of Jesus Christ.

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He is our representative in the covenant of grace. And so we now have peace with God forever.

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So you see how these hang together. They go together and they beautifully help us to see as well how all of the scripture is a cohesive whole, and how it all centers on Jesus, on who he is and what he did and how he's always been the plan, his love for us, you know, the joy that was set before him, right, to inherit us forever, like Hebrews 12 too.

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You know, he endured the cross, despising the shame because of that joy that was set before him. It's beautiful, man.

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And everybody in the reformed tradition broadly would affirm these things and would affirm that the covenant of grace is this.