TiL- Reformed Covenant Theology part 1

Welcome to the truth and love podcast. We enjoy being with you. We appreciate you being here with us. Tonight we're going to be talking about Covenant theology reform covenant theology from a Presbyterian perspective and Reform Baptist perspective.

We're gonna be looking at a particular book and Dan is going to help walk us through that book together. Stick with us. Are.

You doing Dan. I'm doing fantastic better than I have been for days I've been. Allergy season comes late up here in New York. And so I've been struggling for like the last two weeks and finally today I hadn't had to struggle so hard so Absolutely thrilled.

I Might still be a little bit puffy, but I'm nothing like I was. Oh.

Well, that means you could be with us with me tonight doing this so absolutely so there's drawbacks to everything. Well, we're gonna be talking about covenant theology for a while. We don't know how long this series is gonna last but we'll see.

We'll see how it goes as I Have been growing. I know some people can say He's being a toss to and fro, but I don't think just because I haven't Completely landed means I'm being tossed to and fro. I'm still learning.

I'm still growing becoming Presbyterian. I'll let you hold on to that. I'll let you hold on. No, I would I would lean and I would have consider myself for a while reformed Baptist. I know you and one thing that I've learned you you are Presbyterian now and One thing that I've learned studying this covenant theology and and also listening to you guys and having these conversations is that Kind of redundant.

Would you agree with that? Some people say it's kind of redundant to say Presbyterian covenant theology or Reformed president reformed and Presbyterian are almost like saying the same thing is what I'm hearing.

They they can be. Reformed has to do with the theology and Presbyterian has to do with church polity. So I don't know reformed Presbyterian is actually different than reformed or Presbyterian. So that those good that goes back specifically to the Scottish Covenanters and that's that's our guys the the reformed Presbyterians RPC and a yeah our PC and a the in fact, we've got a whole international conference coming up.

Where you're gonna have the the reformed Presbyterians from Ireland Scotland. I believe there's some coming from over from Australia Japan come from all over the world. They're gonna meet with meet together.

So while our synod for the RPC and a is meeting Tomorrow actually starts tomorrow. That's gonna take place in July where the international guys come together and everybody talks. So if I could pray for our synod because they're going over some Some pretty pretty intense stuff they'll be discussing whether or not we're gonna keep women deacons.

They're gonna go over. Bunch of stuff think somebody's bringing up wine and communion. We've got somebody talking about. What do you do when you're in a church that? Doesn't sing the Psalms. There's a One of them's about the the meditorial kingship of Christ, so all of our all of our big Distinctives are kind of being discussed in some way form or fashion.

So be well be fun for him at this time.

Don't know when whoever listens or watches will listen or watch this unless you're listening. They're watching live right now. But the one or two of you. At The time we're doing this live. The Southern Baptist Convention is happening this week and oh, that's right.

I saw their their Formula One car.

Yeah, how about that? We're spending our money wisely right. Well. I'm hoping what happened is and I don't know. But I could see a situation Where somebody who's involved in Formula One or or any car?

I don't really know which one said hey, we've got a test car. Somebody said hey, we can wrap it. Wouldn't that be cool if we had it there. And it wasn't actually a lot of money, and it was just something that would look cool and everybody donated their time and stuff.

Best case scenario worst case. Your cooperative fund money got blown on some ridiculous stuff, so hold your judgments till you figure out which one it is. But. No. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah. Wait for the body cam footage to come out before you.

We make any decisions on that one. One of the biggest things I've heard that's supposed to be going on is a law amendment that we that there's there's a law amendment coming up that that we're supposed to be but or the folks in attendance is supposed to be voting on and it's about Making the the wording more clear on women or elder position.

We would not be in friendly cooperation with the church that has a woman in Any. I think there's any past or elder position. Sure I think they're gonna vote on that.

I think think they're also going to vote on Whether or not to amend the Baptist faith and message to. This isn't a joke. There's a bunch of jokes I could have gone but to to add the Nicene Creed as a part of the Baptist faith and message I think from what I've been hearing, but yeah, I'm once again not Baptist so right I.

Still don't know how. Very good places to keep up with all this stuff. That's supposed to be happening. I'd like to find that place other than hearing about it later. From Thomas.

Good place to start. Who's the other guy. Rod Martin from the executive committee, he's a pretty good guy to follow on it. Who's the fell out in Texas? I think it's Texas Tom Buck. Good good. That's how to listen to.

They'll be opinionated, but they'll steer you in the right direction anyway. Yeah, I think so.

Good suggestions. All right. Well and one more thing before we jump into the book and Dan is gonna lead us in this discussion, but he's gonna introduce the book and start the conversation, but one other thing that I thought about Dan and We kind of have two perspectives and that's where I was going with this earlier about Baptist and then Presbyterian reform.

Baptist perspective. Presbyterian perspective, but there's there's one other perspective and I was just curious what your thoughts are on this. When it comes to covenant theology You you've got a camp that would call themselves new covenant theology some with Somewhat described them as progressive covenant theology.

Would they have a say. You and I are having this discussion looking at it from different perspectives. If we had a third party and their new covenant theologian would would they have a different perspective in this conversation or.

With a big time. Okay. Yep. Yep, pretty much the first oh I don't know half of this book would be going over wouldn't even matter, right? Well, and that would be something good to hear.

Hear about. And maybe you can enlighten us along the way.

But I can give you a broad brushstrokes, of course like that camp is. It's say fairly new it's there hasn't been a ton of literature put out so. They're still kind of finding their way on on how to actually say stuff.

So I Don't know it'd be really easy to misrepresent them. Yeah, that's true.

Well, I have some dear brothers that that hold to the new covenant theology and sure. So I respect them and I respect their opinion. So that's yeah, I'm not trying to bring in some some crazy new ideas just.

Because I have respect for my brothers that that hold to that. I thought it'd be interesting to hear their perspective on what we're talking about. But yeah, yeah a.

Baptist covenant theology and a Presbyterian or Reformed covenant theology. Are going to look they're going to be much they're gonna be much more Closely much more closely aligned than a new covenant perspective would be.

Okay. Anyway. So I guess that brings us to our our book that we're gonna kind of go be going through. We're not gonna do like a solid review or I mean we may reference it from time to time do little quotes here and there.

But mainly we're just gonna go over the ideas in the chapters. Maybe a chapter at a time or if the chapters are dense maybe a couple episodes at a time. The book is by an OPC pastor named Harrison Perkins.

It's called reformed covenant theology. Yeah, so one of the one of the things I liked about it is they had it Had Reviews by both Baptist and Presbyterian types. Who found it very helpful? He comes at it from a slightly different perspective and what I mean by that is instead of a lot of works on covenant theology approach the situation from a From a biblical theology standpoint so they trace the.

They trace the covenants throughout the scripture. Biblically taking it as a whole. To arrive at their conclusions, which I think is great. This fella. Wow, of course, he's building biblically through through there.

He he Understands it to be more of a more of a he presents his material more of a systematic way. So so it's it reads more like a systematic theology, but it's talking about biblical theology themes. Which I thought was neat so it kind of gets into some stuff where he examines some scripture and looks at different parts of.

Especially in the in the later chapters, it'll look at different different things and how they relate as far as How the theology works together as a system. It's pretty pretty neat approach to it. But I guess Rob doesn't have any Questions or thoughts on the on the start we'll just Dive right into the first chapter a little bit which is pretty basic.

Just talking about covenant theology.

In opposition to covenant theology, I guess folks. And I'm not gonna presume anybody's background that may be watching this. I do. I do hope that our conversations reach. Folks in the pew folks folks that That I interact with now folks that I've interacted with in the past folks that I interact with in the future but but folks in the pew and sometimes they Like me growing up.

There's terminology didn't know existed That that helps describe what you're being taught. And I would say I would say growing up. I Was taught from a dispensational point of view. Yeah, that's kind of the opposition to covenant theology and what we're looking at.

Now I'll say this when I when I was in certain dispensational churches growing up I heard some wild things about covenant theology. Especially from our independent fundamental Baptist friends. Wild stuff.

It's where you get the term replacement theology. It's from from from them. They'll talk about how we say that the church has replaced Israel and somehow we've replaced God's promises and we're. And they say all sorts of wild stuff.

So if you are a dispensationalist or you don't really know you maybe just go into your church. And you've heard the phrase covenant theology, you know before you tune us out. Give it a listen. We're not gonna be hitting hard and trying to Step on any toes or anything.

We're just gonna present the material as it comes talk about it you know questions that we had and things that we're going through and all from from a biblical perspective as We we use this this book of the God.

I'm hoping we'll be going through you know, at least in In Later episodes we'll be going more through scripture than than anything.

So in a nutshell, would you agree that this dispensational theology or These two things dispensationalism and covenantalism are ways of interpreting scripture way way we view scripture, right? Or Men.

Um. More so dispensationalism than then covenant theology because dispensationalism is a It's an interpret interpretive method. Covenant theology is I don't want to sound uncharitable by saying that they just read the Bible.

It'd be kind of but it it's less of a grid to View things through and more of a storyline to follow if that makes any sense.

And then the dispensationalism. They're gonna look at how how God has dealt with man in different Dispensations and and that could have been in different forms or means.

Right. See you you have to go back to the system itself In order to figure out how you should read the Bible. So if okay, I mean This is taking place during this period of time, which means I have to put this set of rules on it so that means that This doesn't apply to me because it was to that people at that time.

So it only means this and it just it gets wild.

Which you know to a degree, you know, I can I can see I Can see where some people can make that case because I mean we don't We don't follow. Yeah, I mean just like you and I were talking about before We went on the air.

We were talking about, you know Romans chapter 7 and how Our relationship with the law is different. Mm-hmm, and So I I can I can sympathize with somebody who's saying well we God deals with us You know differently because our relationship with the law is different but.

Yeah, I think we'll as we go through this this reform covenant theology book we'll make a case for a covenant theology and maybe See see why it it's a more biblical perspective than the dispensation. Yeah, I think so.

It is interesting to break that did you bring that up? Because one of the things he brings up in the book like I think it's like I'm a first page. In fact, it's the first sentence. This is covenant theology quite how many words can I say without copyright and I'm gonna say a sentence and hope that's Quoting Harrison Perkins on page one of this book.

There you. Covenant theology quite simply concerns our relationship with God making about our understanding of ultimate matter. So How are we with God? Look couple pages later. He says no. What is our standing with God.

Our standing with God is based on covenant. It's based on covenant because covenant is just a. It's a formal relationship between two folks or multiple folks. So, how do we stand before God? We stand before God on basis of our relationship with him.

That relationship is severed and there's sin in between then. That sin must be dealt with if we stand in Relationship with God in the basis of Jesus Christ and his shed blood then we have full communion with God.

So that's how that's how he starts. He starts off the book that we are. Here's another quote from we are Creatures made for communion with God and covenants are the way that God facilitates that communion with us.

I.

Look to me, it's a bold sin. I mean it's a bold sentence. It's a bold claim, but It's hard to argue what you're talking about. How does God relate to man? When you read scripture, you see that he is he is he makes covenants.

He has made covenants, right?

Right right from the very beginning. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I know some don't like to call the the covenant with with Adam about the. Yeah, I know they don't like to call that the the covenant in the garden a covenant.

But the the Old Testament in other places calls it a covenant. So yeah, I'm just gonna go with that. All right. So if covenant theology is is just how we stand with God then it's kind of as far as our relationship goes is it'd be helpful to look at the The covenants as they come up in scripture, and so he kind of divides them up into two different Categories, there's the historical covenants, which are the ones that you find written listed out in In in scripture, so you've got the covenant with Adam with Noah Moses David the New Covenant the ones are actually written out in in history.

Formally written out in history so so you see them as they come up. These are the ones that God made with mankind in history the recorded for us in scripture as they as they happen. That makes sense Rob.

Yeah, all right, so he puts that in distinction to two doctrinal covenants now that these didn't happen in history. But these are covenants that are made. That They kind of set a framework for the reference for the rest of our doctrine.

So what you do?

Would you say those doctrinal covenants were made? Amongst the Trinity.

Well some. Some not. He gives us three doctrinal covenants, so he gives us three three covenants that there are a framework for the whole of History of relational history between God and man so he gives us three of them.

And then within those three you find all of the other covenants Existing in history, so he says that two of them are covenants between God and man. And one of them is a covenant between the members of the Godhead, so here's what here's what they are.

First you have the covenant of works. Covenant of works is a covenant that took place between God and man. Between God and Adam specifically when he told him in the garden. Here is all the trees of the garden.

There is a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do not eat it. You eat it you'll die. So he gave him a. Here's our relationship. You're here with me. You're made in my image. I've said everything is good.

You're naming all of the the animals out here. We're walking together in the cool of the day. Here's the only thing you can't do if you're gonna be in good standing with me. Here's the only thing you can't do don't eat that tree cool.

The thing behind it was. There was gonna be a reward for Adam listening. But he didn't. That we're gonna bring that all out a lot more in the in the Next few episodes as we go through, but that's the basics basis of the covenant of works so that covenant Robbed you know if that covenant was kept or not.

It was it was not kept.

Well half of it. Well actually. And see this is this is gonna come up probably much later on but as I'm studying covenant theology I veer off a little from from the norm when I said half of it, especially in this instance specifically what we're talking about.

You've got God in and Adam in a relationship here. Adam didn't keep his but God was faithful with his in. Sure, and still that's it still is and that's one of the things that he brings out. Let me give Harris Harrison Perkins.

I just read it. Believers should find immense comfort in knowledge in knowing that God has not determined his faith Faithfulness to us by how he might feel at any given moment. But has made infallible promises to his people of ages past has kept those Promises even to believers today, so it doesn't.

His faithfulness doesn't depend on us. Right. And his faithfulness doesn't depend on you know feelings, but his faithfulness depends on his promise.

Which he's gonna keep right. His word is sure and he's on cheese unchangeable, and he is good. Yeah, yeah.

Um where where I kind of drift off from the norm, I believe that the Covenant of works was kept in Christ.

Well We'll get to that Discussion on it, but let's let's give the framework first. The second doctrinal covenant is a covenant of redemption. Covenant of redemption is that covenant between the persons of the Godhead where they Decided To redeem fallen man.

So the the persons of the Godhead Decided that the the father was going to decree that that Salvation was going to be made possible in Jesus Christ. Jesus took on the Responsibility of actually coming being born of a virgin living a perfect life dying as a sacrifice for sins taking those sins upon himself Laying in the grave for three days rising again and being exalted in order to purchase salvation for mankind.

And the Holy Spirit took on the role of Applying that salvation to fallen man so that way they would actually have the redemption goes purchased by Christ. So the covenant of redemption is the covenant between the members of the Godhead to save mankind through their various dealings in the world especially the dealings that that led to Christ's death burial and resurrection.

So that means that in the Old Testament when the children of Israel about to be wiped out and God's promises couldn't have moved forward. That the children of Israel when you see them being miraculously saved by like angel armies over on the the tops of the mountains where they confuse people go down and they don't Have to actually fight but folks are killed on their behalf.

That's God's faithfulness to his promise to redeem mankind because he had promised further to redeem them through The nation of Israel through the Ascendant of Israel. So he kept his promises the whole way through The the the covenant that he made with the Persons of the Trinity kept it all the way through history to where they all accomplished The one goal of God in salvation as well as what we call the covenant of redemption that God Chose to save.

And he did.

There's one thing I want to bring up about the covenant of redemption and one thing about and one thing about the covenant of grace when when we get to it next and Both of them relate to both covenants a little bit.

So let me throw the first first one at you since you were talking about the covenant of redemption. Mm-hmm. So help explain this to me. We talked about the coming of works first and we talked about the fall of man through Adam.

The one man all man's sin and then we talk about the covenant of redemption. I know I know the covenant of redemption comes second in the book and I know nothing surprises God. But but it almost comes across you know, if you're the reader trying to learn this stuff it almost comes across as a Reaction to the fall of Adam.

So we've got to formulate this covenant of redemption because there's been a fall a breach in contract. But I know that's not how the Trinity is eternal. And and Christ is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

So it's it's not a reactionary thing. No.

You're exactly right when it says the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The plan that Jesus Christ would die for the sins of men came about in in that inner Trinitarian Covenant before we were ever created.

So so God created knowing that that the fall would occur knowing that someone would He would need to redeem us. And so the covenant of redemption was Was made before Before we were even created, you know.

Before the foundations of the world. Before let there be light was God's promise within himself to do this for a people. He hadn't even made yet, right. And.

That has a lot of implications to God's sovereignty. Sure does. Like a lot of it. Oh Yeah, it really does. So it's something to look into. Oh, yeah, even decent.

Yeah, the third doctrinal covenant is a covenant of grace. Which is that covenant between God and man that he would redeem us through Jesus Christ that it was no longer because of the Though we had fallen and Broken the covenant of works that we would then be saved through Christ who would come and redeem humanity.

So it was no longer on the basis of the works of the law Because we had broken the law is now on the basis of the grace of God giving to us what we didn't deserve in Christ. So you've got those those three Covenants the the covenant works which was broken by mankind kind of a redemption Within the Godhead that he would save people in the covenant of grace, which is God saying to mankind If you wish to be in right relationship with me, it must be on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Well now you you forced it out of me. I have two questions now on the covenant of grace. We're out of time. Well, yeah, we're out of time we have to come back later that there was a teaser. No, um, I Would like to ask you these questions and and see how off track I am in my thinking.

Because I I believe in covenant theology. I believe in the covenants and that's how God has determined and chosen to interact with man with with covenants. I agree with these covenants but how they're how they're fleshed out how they work out Maybe a little bit different a little bit differently.

And so I'm wondering how far off track I am from historic Covenant Reform Covenant theology, so so with the covenant kind of works and And how you explained it is how I understand traditionally it's explained explained here in the book, but kind of works Ended with Christ after Christ.

It's coming to grace. That's how we Obtain a right relationship with God is it's through his grace don't know grace. I Wouldn't I wouldn't.

Say that okay. Mankind is still under the Covenant of Works. Okay, the broken and failed covenant. That is the that is the way that mankind is still. And I'm gonna have to say more than one thing to not sound completely heretical here so just give me a chance.

The Covenant of Works is still in place in that we are still covenant breakers before God because of sin. God has told us do not send we with Adam reach up and grab the fruit and send ourselves. We are all breakers of the Covenant of Works.

So that's still there. However Covenant of Grace. Like it says in Romans that we would die to the law as We were buried with Christ as we as Christ has come to make a new humanity on the basis of his obedience so that would be where where Covenant of Grace comes in.

So Covenant of Grace then is salvation promise to mankind through Christ which happens Right after the fall when you when we see that the first Promise to to crush the head of the serpent and then we see the the clothes of Animal skins as the animal was slaughtered in front of them and then they were given the clothes of animal skins.

So I had to stop you right there because it didn't really it's not like a they're running together we are all guilty of breaking the Covenant of Works. But the Covenant of Grace is the only way that someone has ever been saved because it is God's promise to mankind that he will save us through Jesus Christ and.

That's kind of where I was going with it that I see them running parallel see them running together. And that's why I mentioned earlier that that I see that Christ. Where Adam failed Christ? Um. Succeeded in fulfilling the Covenant of Work.

Sure. That's why that's why Christ is called the second Adam, right? And and in the Old Testament We we know that Abraham is kind of righteous because of faith so so we see. We see faith happening granted in the Old Testament.

Sure, and and so I see them running parallel and I don't I don't see them ending just Fulfilled in Christ. All right.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what you mean by that, but I can see several ways where I would agree with you. So we'll say okay until we get there.

So so if you say the Covenant of Works is is the You you got to obey God perfectly to be in right relationship with God. Well I'm in a right relationship with God because The the law was kept perfectly.

It wasn't me. It was Christ. Sure. And so I am in a right relationship with God because of the Covenant of Works. But not because of me but because of Christ. Well not. Kind of yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, because because of on the basis of Christ.

Obedience right on his obedience not mine. Yep, and because I couldn't obey it He extends grace as a gift to me Based on what he's accomplished. Yep. Yeah so so we're saved by the Covenant of Works and by the Covenant of Grace and in Christ is The I.

Understand what you're saying, but it might be a little theologically gymnastics, no. Fuzzy to say it that way, okay. Yeah, cuz cuz it's not. Because we're not saved through the covenant made with Adam in the garden.

We're saved through the covenant made between God and mankind on the basis of Christ's righteousness. So while that obedience that we didn't do in the Covenant of Works caused our downfall and our damnation.

The obedience that does exist in Christ is what's given to us as our righteousness for salvation. So it's not the Covenant of Works that Properly speaking. But it is the obedience that was required in the Covenant of Works that Christ accomplishes for us.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just worded a lot better. That's the But. But in either case Christ gives the credit.

Yeah, yeah, you have to yeah.

We're credited with his righteousness, you know, it's an alien righteousness to us. It's his doesn't belong to us. We didn't earn it couldn't earn it. Yep. Yep. So here's my second question. Okay, here's my second question on the Covenant of Grace.

So this seems like you're talking about the the covenant between the Trinity when it comes to the covenant of redemption about saving man redeeming man and Part of that here is the the covenant of grace.

God extends grace to us or grants that Gives us grace so that we may be saved. So this sounds real individualistic to me. From my understanding Post-millennialism is popular most popular probably in the Presbyterian Presbyterian realm or denomination and When it comes to post-millennialism We see a success Eventually in the world and so here in these covenants, I'm seeing a more individualistic aspect and That that kind of I see a separation.

I Don't see where where that Success of his covenant his gospel is is discussed here in covenant theology. That success that he's gonna have in the entire world where he is authority in all spheres of Authority.

Well, I see a disconnect. I don't see how how it could be disconnected.

Okay, because you're starting at the very beginning where there was just God in man. All of the government that needed to be was there every all the family structure government the way the things were run work.

Everything was all There in the Covenant of Works. All that was was there. It was in small form because there's just a couple folks, but it was all there. So when we fell We as as as mankind fell and that relationship what was broken.

So in the redemption of mankind you see all those things put back together. So. Because he did he's not just redeeming the the the soul of man. He's redeeming mankind as a whole. Okay, because he's he's redeeming his creation that the creation that he had the purpose that he had for us in.

The very beginning is what he's redeeming us for and what he's redeeming us to. In fact the the the blessings that that the Adam would have had As he kept the Covenant of Work had he kept the Covenant of Works is blessing that we have to look forward to today only I would say even greater because We have we've been so linked with Christ through through our adoption as sons that were in the even greater communion that we would have been if Adam it would have been Would have been faithful.

So, so would it would it be okay if I stated like this that even though it may not be specifically Addressed in this section that we're talking about. Let's say Adam Adam and Eve before the fall. They had they had a mandate.

They had a duty go and go and do this fill the earth Subdue it. They fell therefore. They they didn't and they couldn't fulfill that obligation. So with within that covenant of redemption Not only are we saved for glory or for heaven, but we're we're saved and that Ability to Fulfill that duty is reignited.

We we are saved.

By grace we were saved through faith. And we are his workmanship creating Christ Jesus for good works. What other works would there be that are good except for the ones that God had given us to do? And especially the ones that God had given us to do as his creatures in the unfallen state.

So it's kind of understood that we we are redeemed so that we can.

Fulfill those good works. It's yeah, it's it's not just a Imagine imagine you're a Well imagine you're the prodigal son you have everything. And you fall you go into sin you're over there eating pig pods you come home and When you get home The father gives you know the ring the the the robe Over here, and you're brought right back into where you were before.

And so his redemption wasn't just okay you can live now. His redemption was that he was restored to his place in relationship with the father and that's that's what redemption is and that's why the Pharisees were ticked off that all these old sinners were able to You know have have their place.

They're right standing with the father restored.

And that's why an understanding of the covenant of grace Makes it so amazing.

Yeah, well it shows us where we stand with God and then it gives us the covenants unite the whole storyline. Throughout the whole Bible so you can see from one end to the other. This is what God is doing.

This is how we understand our relationship with him. And this is how we know what God is doing throughout history because he's told us. This is what I'm doing now that looks different to us in different situations.

But it's still God doing the same thing throughout history right. God looks kind of jacked up at some points, but God being faithful to his promises, but God is. God is still being faithful to everything that he is.

He's ever done. Yeah, he's still being perfect and flawless. Yeah. Yeah, so I mean I guess we we covered. That's basically the first chapter we covered. Law and grace. That was the the two basic other principles that he brought up.

But he did he did kind of kind of put it put it to you at the end. And I don't know if he actually came out and said it. But this is what I took from it kind of made you kind of made you ask yourself.

Or at least me. You know. Where do I stand? Mm-hmm. Am I am I under this covenant of works that's been broken by me, or do I have? Or am I under the covenant of grace where I have the promise of salvation secured by Jesus Christ?

The salvation that's only brought by by by the his power his grace and received by faith. So That's kind of what I took away from this first chapter. That's where I was left. No saying, you know, where do I stand and if I stand I stand either alone because of my own sin.

Or I stand in Christ because Christ has done some amazing work on my behalf. Yeah, absolutely and.

Two sentences from from Perkins to to conclude The end of that chapter he says so the law shows us how we need need the promise because sinners cannot obtain God's blessing but by grace and then post grace post salvation.