5. Reformed Baptist Distinctives: Covenantal

The Reformers are covenantal in their theology. In other words, they view the Bible through the covenantal framework that God established in his dealings with mankind.

God deals with mankind through covenants, not periods of time or dispensations.

And this comes into sharp contrast with dispensationalism, which deals with periods or dispensations of time rather than covenants.

So we look and we see the covenant with Adam, the covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Moses, the covenant with David, and then finally the covenant with Jesus and the church.

And we see that God deals with us through covenants. They look at it and they look at Adam and they say, well, that was the age of innocence.

And then Moses is the age of the law. And then David is the age of the kingdom. And now we're in the age of grace.

They see it as different ages where God never talks to us with regards to ages. He talks to us through covenants.

And Jesus doesn't fulfill the ages. He fulfills all those covenants. They all point to him in some way, shape or form.

So we see this as a big distinction. They also see a difference between Israel and the church.

We look at the church and we recognize that within, I'm sorry, we look at Israel and we recognize that within Israel, there were believers, the called out ones.

It's the same thing when we get to the new covenant, we have the called out ones. The church is spiritual

Israel, the Israel of God. Now they were still the nation of Israel. There are still bloodline Jews.

Okay. There's a distinction that way. But as far as the church is concerned, Acts chapter seven, Stephen says, as they stoned him, he talked to them about the church in the wilderness.

There was a church, a call, a set of called out believers in the old covenant that now gets passed on to the new covenant under the new covenant regulations, not the old.

Okay. Enough of that. So they hold a covenant theology, which was also called federal theology or federal headship.

And it's a hermeneutical framework that seeks to understand the Bible according to its covenantal structure.

As Dr. Sproul frequently observed, reformed theology is covenant theology. Every time you hear something in the scriptures, you're hearing you are either in Adam or you are in Christ.

All right. They're the federal heads. Adam is the federal head of the fallen human race.

Jesus is the federal head of the regenerative, a regenerated human race.

Okay. Those born of God's spirit. Reformed theologians have historically identified three overarching covenants in the

Bible, the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. And I don't have enough time to go through all these.

Like I said, we could do sessions on each one of those covenants. Books have been written on each one of those covenants.

So finally, in brief, covenant theology teaches that God has established two great covenants with mankind and a covenant within the

Godhead to deal with how the other two relate. The first covenant in logical order is called the covenant of redemption.

It is the agreement within the Godhead that the father would appoint to his son, Jesus, who would give up his life for mankind and that Jesus would fulfill that.

So what we have is God, the father, God, the son, and God, the spirit covenanting together before the creation of the world.

The father gives the son a group of people. This is in old covenant terms, a way of betrothal, a covenantal marriage or an arranged marriage.

So the father chooses a bride for his son and gives those people to Jesus. Jesus willingly comes into the world, dies on behalf of the bride he loves and takes their wrath upon him.

And the Holy Spirit regenerates them and metaphorically walks them down the aisle in preparation for the wedding, for the wedding supper of the lamb.

It's father, son, and Holy Spirit working together to bring about the salvation of his people.

And it's unbreakable. It's beautiful. It's the greatest love story you'll ever be a part of.

Whereas in other theologies, you have God, the father, who chooses a group of people in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Then you have Christ dying for all of mankind, trying to save them and the Holy Spirit wooing whoever he can to Jesus in hopes that they repent and trust in him.

It's a fractured Godhead. In reformed theology, you have a cohesive Godhead that does not try and fail to save his people.

I never saw the word God and try in the same sentence in the scriptures. God has never tried anything.

You know what God does? Whatever he pleases in the heavens and the earth and beneath the earth and none can stay his hand or say, what have you done?

This is a God who doesn't take no for an answer. He conquers, he subdues your heart and brings you to Christ.