Core Doctrine: Covenant Theology

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Good afternoon apologia. How are you? Is it afternoon? Is it evening? I don't know.

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Hope it'll be Somewhere in between when we're done here tonight. I suppose so As I was coming into this if you look at your handout for today, you'll see we are continuing in the core doctrine series

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We've covered the Trinity. We've covered apologetics. We've covered a lot of really important things That we had apology a hold near and dear some of those things are absolutely

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Definitional of what it means to be Christian some of those are tenets that we as a church hold too dearly

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This is the latter There are many good brothers and sisters who are not Covenantal and they're thinking we love them.

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They have the same Lord, but at apologia when you come here, you're going to have Covenant theology and I thought when

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I was asked on Wednesday night To do this, I thought it would be really fun

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To just open up the book of Galatians chapter 3 and say let's exposit this Or that's open

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Romans 5 and let's exposit this and that'll be fun, but we're not doing it I didn't have time to prepare for that.

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But I think that would be valuable for you But for the purpose of this series, it's going to be a two -part series

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I want to lay some foundations for you tonight I want to show what we all should agree on as a church tonight and then next week we'll get into some

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Some disagreements some things that we might not be as positive on So if you would turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 1 on the topic of covenant theology

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There's not like a single verse you can go to and say ah, this is it this is this is the verse

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We're gonna go to this is a biblical theology that has its root from Genesis 1 all the way through the entirety of Scripture but Ephesians 1

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Comes as close as you can come to say in a here's a section that that tells us what covenant theology is.

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Okay Ephesians 1 starting in verse 3 If I can find it, there we are

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This is the Word of God Blessed be the God and Father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him

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In love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself

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According to the kind intention of his will To the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved in him

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We have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace

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Which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention which he purposed in him

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With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times that is the summing up of all things in Christ Things in heavens and things on the earth

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In him also we have obtained an inheritance Having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will

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To the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory in him you

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Also after listening to the message of truth of the gospel of your salvation having also believed

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You were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of?

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his glory Let's pray. Shall we? Heavenly Father we do come before you tonight.

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So thankful Lord for the opportunity to worship you We come before you knowing

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Lord that you hear our prayers on account of another Knowing Lord that you hear us and that you're pleased to give good gifts to your children because of Christ Lord it is our prayer tonight that you would give us good gifts

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Lord that you would apply your truths and your word to the hearts of your people that you would conform us into the image of your son

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To your glory. It's in the name of Christ that we pray. Amen All right.

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So as I mentioned tonight, we are going to continue in our core doctrine series and we'll be touching on Covenant theology.

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This is a big topic. Okay. This is a very big topic It's a topic that I've been studying myself for something like 10 years much to the chagrin of my lovely wife

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But it's something I've been studying for a long time and I got to be honest that I am still finding new things about it

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All the time. It's beautiful I'm still finding new truths about covenant theology on a regular basis

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Now you've probably heard the term covenant theology before but you might not understand what that means

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Okay, and so because of this I'm gonna be spending quite a long time tonight providing background and definitions before we actually dive into the spirit

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The scriptural analysis of this topic. So if you can tough it out for just a little bit Okay, we're gonna lay some foundations that are gonna make the rest of tonight and next week understandable in in one sense

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Covenant theology. It's nothing more than than the evangelical faith expressed by way of God's covenant action in history

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More than this it's the principle of biblical interpretation that Necessarily leads to what we call

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Calvinism, right? Have you ever wondered? Why all of those old guys who wrote of the

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Reformed confessions were all Calvinists? Was this is there a mystery here? No, there's no mystery.

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It's because the covenant theology that they hold to Naturally results and what we know today as Calvinism But as you'll see it leads to so much more than that it doesn't just lead to Calvinism This is an entire worldview

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It's an entire way of looking at the scriptures and it applies to every area of life And I think you'll see how over the course of the next two weeks

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In that time in these next two weeks, we're gonna be covering this from a couple of different vantage points if you will today

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We need to establish some baseline Characteristics of covenant theology that are true.

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No matter what variation you hold to Baptist Presbyterian congregational.

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It doesn't matter tonight. We should all have Agreement on these topics, right?

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Today we're gonna spend most of our time looking at the overarching framework of theological covenants by which

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God governs and guides Redemptive history and then next week

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We're gonna zoom in to what I like to call the historical covenants that God made with man and look at the nuances that set

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Us as Baptists apart from other confessional Protestants as well as the practical implications

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That has on how we live our lives how we run our churches how we manage our affairs in every area of life

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Okay, so from the beginning here. We need to understand a few things I think you all understand this but we need to grasp this.

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Okay, the Bible is not a collection of Random works. Okay. It's a single story

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Written by the Spirit of God Through the hands of various men as such because of this because the scriptures

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Repent by men who were carried along by God the spirits. We ought to expect a singular story

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God can't lie God doesn't change his mind. God is not surprised by the suffering in the world

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God has established that's to say God has determined the end from the beginning and he's telling one story

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One story about the one God who has one plan for one people with one unified purpose

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And God has advanced this story by revealing various covenants throughout history

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That's worth mentioning that much like any good story The story of redemption is told through the use of different genres and oh, excuse me different literary styles

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Oftentimes covenant documents are their own unique style You might not have known that a great example of this is the book of Deuteronomy The entire book of Deuteronomy is one giant covenant treaty that excites me and like probably two other people

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In the room, but it is it's its whole genre at other times, right the concept of covenant.

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It's integrated It's woven into the narrative within as an element with another genre.

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So when reading the Bible Okay, rather than reading it in some hyper literalistic fashion where Jesus says

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I'm the door and now we think oh He must have hinges and a handle, right? We don't do that We also don't go to the book of Revelation and actually expect a blasphemous woman in purple garments riding the seven -headed dragon

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Right. We don't read the Bible that way we read the Bible according to its genre and according to its literary style

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You could say we read the Bible literary only right we read the Bible literary only

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Oftentimes believers of a more dispensational persuasion will criticize us for the way that we handle the scriptures, right?

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We're accused of what they call replacement theology or super session ism That's to say that we're accused of wrongly dividing the word in such a way

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Whereas we no longer see a special covenantal existence for the nation -state of Israel On top of this unlike the popular theology that many of you probably came out of but the popular theology of the day

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We're not waiting for a third temple. We're not waiting for the re -institution of animal sacrifices

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Right most of the criticism covenant theology most of the criticism y 'all are gonna receive today for the beliefs

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You hold is going to come from the dispensational friends, right? They accuse us like I said of replacement theology, but but that's not an accurate term.

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It's not an accurate descriptor We're not saying that the church has replaced Israel We're saying and you got to get this we're saying that the church is the

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Eschatological Israel that the Old Testament was waiting for. Okay, we're the fulfillment of what they were looking towards We're not denying the need for a priest

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We're not denying the need for a sacrifice or a temple we acknowledge that the final and the eternal priest and the final and the eternal sacrifice the final and the eternal temple has come in the person in the work of Jesus Christ When push comes to shove right back against the wall all of the differences that we have come down to how

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We read the Bible and how we understand the Old and the New Testaments in light of one another once again remember one story

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Now even dispensationalist will acknowledge the existence of biblical covenants, right and not just that like I said up front

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But they place their trust in the same God as we do by the same faith and all of those who trust in Christ Have the faith of Abraham.

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Okay, so brothers and sisters remember when we're dealing with our dispensational friends They're probably your brothers and sisters, too.

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Okay, however We also need to acknowledge that there are vastly different conclusions

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That we come to and this all comes down to how we interpret the scriptures It comes down to our methodology of interpreting the scriptures

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The study of the topic of covenant is not unique to those within the reformed tradition in a sense

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Anybody any believer who reads the Bible and aims to model their life after its teachings

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Must have a theology of covenant. It's all over the scriptures Covenant is the organizing principle that God uses to advance and reveal his work in history

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Let's get a couple definitions out of the way when I speak of covenant theology

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What I'm talking about is that The theological framework that views all of redemptive history through the lens of three theological covenants

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Some would say two three though if you pushed them There's the covenant of redemption the covenant of works and the covenant of grace

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But what is this term? I'm using I'm saying a theological covenant Okay, I see a theological covenant broadly speaking as I'm using the term here can be

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Differentiated from a historical covenant and that while historical covenants can be pointed to directly in the scriptures, right?

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covenant with Abraham covenant with Moses covenant with David etc a Theological covenant is more of a biblical theology type of understanding

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We take all of the Bible and we look at this message that God has given us throughout the scriptures This is an explanation of the overarching teachings that are found throughout the scriptures

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Listen it would be nice. It would be very nice to be able to pretend that there's always some nice tidy distinction between theological covenants and historical covenants

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That distinction just isn't as tidy as we'd like it to be There's overlap there's communication between these categories, but but for the sake of understanding such a broad topic

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I'm gonna be using those categories as we go throughout the next two weeks. Okay? Now I mentioned that there's three overarching theological covenants

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That need to be identified if you're a note -taker here You are okay the covenant of redemption the covenant of works the covenant of grace the covenant of redemption involves that covenant between the members of the

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Trinity before creation The covenant of works is that covenant made with Adam wherein he represents all of his people and they either fall in Adam Or they succeed in Adam.

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We know how that went The covenant of grace is Christ's covenant of works kept on behalf of his people

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If we get these topics wrong, okay, if we get this wrong, we risk we risk getting everything wrong

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Understanding the interplay of God's covenants and history spells out in no uncertain terms

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The relationship between law and gospel the relationship between grace and works

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Okay, listen, I'm not the guy that's gonna stand up here and tell you that that there's no relationship between these two there is a relationship

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Ephesians makes this clear, right? We are most definitely saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but does

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Ephesians stop there? No, it does not Ephesians doesn't stop there. Ephesians goes on to tell us what should come from that type of grace

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What should come from that type of faith? Works do come from that faith and they come from that faith by necessity

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Grace, okay true grace that that type of grace that actually justifies you before God Will change you brothers and sisters

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Grace will cause you to love God Grace will cause you to love your neighbor and we need to understand that relationship correctly

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Okay, covenant theology helps us to do that Now it's also worth mentioning that there's a difference.

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This is a bit of a minutia point, but this is important there's a difference when we talk about the covenant of grace or the

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Covenant of works versus a covenant of grace or a covenant of works.

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Listen for the article when I'm using that I'm gonna be very intentional about that and you'll see why later But all strands of covenant theology should have large agreement on these three points

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There are minutia that different camps will fill in differently. Okay, but the broad structure remains the same

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Reform Baptists Presbyterians congregate Congregationalists we have very very broad agreement on this topic yet Yet we do have differences and those differences matter and we shouldn't pretend that they don't matter they matter

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Are these differences definitional of the faith No, not necessarily

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Getting this topic wrong does not in and of itself Condemn you as a damnable heretic, right?

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But what we believe about this topic Will have downstream ramifications for how we live out the

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Christian faith and how we operate as a local church and within our households On more than one occasion on many occasions,

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I've heard I've heard people say that Baptists can't be covenantal Baptists can't be covenantal because Baptists don't practice patel baptism

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Michelle inside joke. That's one that one's for you It's true that we don't practice patel baptism

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But does that mean does that mean that we are not covenantal? I'd argue that us reformed

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Baptists do not baptize infants precisely because we are covenantal and Because our understanding of covenant theology leads us to that conclusion.

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Okay, there's many systems who practice patel baptism Many systems who practice patel baptism and many of those systems.

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They're not reformed. They're not Calvinistic. They're not covenantal, right reformed or Roman Catholics Eastern Orthodox Lutherans Methodists all of them practice patel baptism

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Yet, none of them are reformed nor are they covenantal and they don't claim to be More than this the reason that each of these traditions practices patel baptism is different So where we land on that topic is not necessarily

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Determinative of whether or not we are covenantal on the contrary It is our view of covenant theology that ultimately leads to our view on Baptism and church membership and various other topics and I would say that our view on this topic.

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You got to get this Okay, if you tuned out you got to get this our view on this topic must be consistent our view of the covenants should

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Carry across to every area of faith and life Right our theology proper what we believe about the nature of God our view of the

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Trinity, right? our view of God's decree in eternity past our view of salvation the church the

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Household the church's mission in the world our view of apologetics our view of eschatology all of this should be consistent if it's not there's a problem somewhere and The question we should be asking ourselves as we move forward in this is this right is our view of covenant theology

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In history, is that view consistent with and does it flow from God's decree in eternity past?

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Has God always had the same plan and the same people in view or has he changed his mind on who the

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Trinity has decreed to justify Sanctify glorify and dwell with in perfect unity for all eternity church.

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Did God change his mind on that topic? The answer is no Does Christ intercede for people who were not elected and then fail to save them or Do we have a perfect high priest who lives forever to make intercession for those who were given to him and whom he?

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represents perfectly as a federal head The study of covenant theology answers these questions as well and brothers and sisters, it's glorious At apologia, we're covenantal right we believe in the unchanging unified plan of the triune

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God to unite a particular people with his son to the praise of his glory and We believe that God has set forth that plan from before the foundation of the world and he's revealed it step by step by step in history

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Here's the main premise for today. Okay, if redemptive history is a story

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Covenant theology is the framework that tells that story covenant theology is how we make sense of this fallen world and it is also how

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God is Restoring and advancing the cosmos to their eschatological culmination.

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It's how the problem it's how the world was broke But it's also how God is fixing it

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You see we take passages such as the one that Jerry read earlier in Psalm 24. We take this very seriously

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Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear

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Deceitfully he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation

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Do you want to stand on the true mountain of God? Do you want to be in his presence? Do you have clean hands?

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Do you have an upright heart in and of yourself is that you if not brothers and sisters you have a problem

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If not, you have a huge a cosmic an eternal problem But you see the good news of covenant theology is this that the

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God has made a representational world and there is one Who does have clean hands and a pure heart and you can be found in him and counted as clean

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That's the good news Now to this question, what is a covenant when

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I use this word, right? We can throw this term around so often that it loses meaning a lot of people do

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And that's a shame it really is a shame because this term is vital It's vital to understanding the greatest story that has ever been told

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Generally speaking broadly speaking a covenant Could just be defined as an arrangement between two or more parties where every party has certain obligations

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No, that's a fine. That's a fine definition. But for the purpose of this sermon I'm gonna zoom in on that just a little bit and give you a little bit more precise

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Okay, a covenant is an oath bound arrangement of blessing or cursing imposed and enforced by God upon particular parties an oath bound arrangement of blessing or cursing imposed and enforced by God upon particular parties

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Now here's the problem with using a strict definition like this, right? Well, I do think that this is an accurate definition

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I think it can be used as a faithful lens to view the biblical covenants I believe this because I studied those historical covenants on their own and then

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I came to Exegetical and redemptive conclusions that created this definition, right? This is how we should

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Evaluate traditions, isn't it? We hold those traditions up against the scriptures that which is derived from the scriptures

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We hold on to for dear life That which is against the scriptures must be abandoned

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Brothers and sisters we have traditions We are informed by history and by great teachers of the past and we should be

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But at the end of the day At the end of the day our theology must be determined by this

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At the end of the day, this is our standard and that's even what the confessions themselves say This is the standard if your tradition is not in conformity with this ditch it

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Now some people would accuse me of biblicism for what I just said, right? But listen if what

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I just said is biblicism so be it I don't care sign me up Okay, this is the way we should do things

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Tradition itself is not bad Everybody here who has kids is handing a certain tradition down to their children

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Tradition can actually be very very good when it aligns with the scriptures But if a person simply accepts a tradition because it's a tradition

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They may be in very grave danger Right, we mustn't blindly accept unevaluated traditions or theological categories and then seek to fit scripture into the confines of that definition

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That leads always that leads to a flattening out of the truths that God has revealed

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We must we must we must draw our covenant theology from the text not impose it upon The text we must allow biblical exegesis to determine our covenant theology

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Not the other way around now rather than spend Forever on the nature of a covenant.

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Let me just present my conclusions. Okay? First I want to give you a brief definition of what a covenant is

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I did that and then I'll explain how I came to that conclusion and my hope is that by the time we get through the entire history of redemption next week

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This concept will click right this concept will click as you see the grand narrative of God played out step -by -step in history

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In the past hundred and fifty two hundred years or so. There's been all kinds of archaeological and historical research that's been done on this topic

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They studied the ancient biblical world. They studied the surrounding nations and listen this can help give us a deeper understanding of Interesting topics it gives more context for analyzing and identifying biblical covenants, but Brothers and sisters, it's not necessary, right?

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The Reformers came to the same conclusions from the Bible alone hundreds of years before that archaeological research surfaced, okay, but here's the conclusion that both the archaeological research and the

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Reformers came to Biblical covenants can be understood as treaties Between Yahweh and men and those treaties contain within them some hallmark elements that are always present

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It's possible to break a covenant treaty into seven distinct parts. Okay, there's a preamble historical prologue stipulations blessings curses

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Ratification witnesses succession. Okay, but listen, I think we can get just as much benefit out of this by dividing the covenant into four elements

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When the term covenant is present when we're looking at the scriptures and the term covenant is present We can conclude that the structure is present and when the structure is present we can conclude that a covenant is present

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Let me say that again When the term covenant is present in the text We can rightfully conclude that the covenantal structure is present and when the covenantal structure is present

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We can conclude that a covenant is present. Even if the term is not expressly there If an arrangement doesn't fit into these categories, then there's simply no way to justify classifying it as a covenant.

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It might be a promise, okay? It might be some other sort of arrangement, but without that, we can't justify calling it a covenant.

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These elements are vital to creating and defining biblical covenants, and those four elements, as I'm teaching them tonight, in no particular order, ranking, rules, rewards and or retribution, and ratification.

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That would be oaths, vows, witnesses, et cetera. Ranking rules, rewards, retribution as one, and ratification, ranking, okay?

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There's different types of covenants. Not all covenants are created to serve the same purpose.

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Some covenants, for example, are created between equals, and each party has obligations towards their equal.

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A modern example of this would be a business arrangement, for example, business partners. Each partner is obligated to obey certain rules, and as a result, they receive certain rewards from that business arrangement.

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If either partner breaks the terms of that arrangement, they will receive penalties. Some covenants, other covenants, are created between a greater party and a lesser party, right?

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Think of a conquering king coming in and subjugating another nation, right? A great king and a lesser king.

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That great king might impose obligations upon that lesser king as a, for their continued existence, shall we say.

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But no matter the type, right, get this, here's what you gotta get, no matter what type of covenant we're talking about, every covenant has a pecking order, it has a hierarchy that defines who is who in that relationship.

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Covenants have ranking. Covenants also have rules, right?

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This could be equals obligating themselves to do certain tasks. It may be that greater king imposing rules on the lesser king, or it may be the greater party assuming the responsibility for the good of that lesser party.

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But just like ranking, every covenant has rules that must be obeyed. If there's no rules, it's not a covenant.

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Covenants have rewards for obeying those rules. They also have retribution for violators.

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Do this and live. Do this and die. When a covenant between equals is violated, there are penalties for the one who breaks the covenant.

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This could be open warfare, for example, it might be financial penalties, it could be something else. When a covenant's made between a greater party and a lesser party, get this, if the lesser party violates the terms, you can be certain of something.

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Judgment's coming. Judgment is coming. But the process of that judgment is going to be determined by the terms of that covenant, right?

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It depends on if the greater party chooses to take that judgment upon himself or if he chooses to pour it out upon that covenant breaker.

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Lastly, covenants contain this element called ratification, right? Witnesses, oaths, vows, etc.

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Most of you in this room have seen this, right? If you've been married or you've been to a wedding before, marriage is a great example of this, okay?

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Before, think about this, before a wedding ceremony, there's typically an engagement or a betrothal period, right?

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This period carries with it certain responsibilities and duties for all parties. But when does that marriage start, right?

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A marriage does not exist until the wedding. The parties are introduced, the rules are lined out, the rewards and the penalties till death do us part are explained.

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Then there's vows that are taken before God and witnesses. Until those vows and oaths are pronounced and accepted, a marriage doesn't exist.

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But once a marriage is ratified by way of oaths before witnesses, a marriage covenant has been enacted, right?

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This is true of biblical covenants as well. Often we'll see in the scriptures, we'll see

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God promise future blessing or he's going to promise a future covenant, but those promises are not in and of themselves a covenant.

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Only when the witnessed oaths and vows take place does a covenant properly exist in history.

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Up until that point, it's a promise, not a covenant. And on top of this, we have to, you got to get this too, man.

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We got to allow each biblical covenant to define its own terms. This is really important actually, right?

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You got to get this. We must allow each biblical covenant to define its own terms. We don't get, for example, to treat a marriage covenant as if it was a greater king conquering a lesser king.

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Can you imagine what marriage would look like if it was treated that way? A greater king imposing his force upon this conquered party.

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Not good. Likewise, we can't treat a covenant of grace as if it is a covenant of works, right?

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We can't impose aspects from one covenant upon another covenant without explicit biblical warrants for doing so.

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Covenants define their own terms. It's written in stone. Does not God say this can't be annulled? This can't be changed.

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It defines its own terms. And we actually won't understand what God is accomplishing in history if we don't allow a covenant to define its own terms.

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By looking at the covenants that God has imposed upon man, we can see each one of these covenantal elements present.

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Each one of them has a ranking, rules, rewards and retribution and ratification.

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But get this, okay? What's truly amazing about our God is that he not only has condescended, he's not only come down to make covenants with his creatures, something we neither deserve nor could we merit nor demand, by the way.

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Not only has God done that, but the members of the Trinity actually made a covenant among themselves before the world began to fulfill

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God's eternal plan for the cosmos. This agreement amongst the members of the

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Trinity is often called the pactum salutis. There's your $20 word for the evening. Pactum salutis or the covenant of redemption.

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Now what is this? What is the covenant of redemption? It's that eternal agreement among the members of the

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Trinity and in it the father gives a certain people to the son, the son takes on human flesh, he redeems them and he accomplishes the required work on their behalf and the spirit applies

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Christ's finished work to those for whom he died. We've got to see the beautiful unity in this agreement.

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Every person whom the father elects is given to the son. The son accomplishes perfectly redemption and intercedes for those who were given to him only and the spirit applies that work to the elect alone and he keeps them until the end.

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Every step of the way. Here's why this is beautiful. Every step of the way, each member of the

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Trinity is dealing with the exact same group of people. The term covenant of redemption, if you were to turn to the back of your

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Bible, it's not in the glossary of your Bible, right? This is a theological term, kind of like the term Trinity, that's used by theologians and others to describe the covenant relationships of the members of the

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Trinity. Also, unlike every other covenant that we're going to talk about, the covenant of redemption was not imposed upon man by God.

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It's an agreement between the co -equal, co -eternal divine persons. Much of what we know of this plan comes from a few passages that speak on God's actions in eternity past.

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This has led a lot of people to question the relevance of the covenant of redemption or to view it as speculative and unnecessary.

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Now, on the one hand, I agree, right, with the sentiment that where Scripture is silent, we should shut our mouths.

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That's true. But I disagree on how silent the Scriptures actually are on this point.

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Still, nevertheless, this is a theological term that's not used in Scripture, but we can see its substance in the

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Scriptures, right? And because of this, it's important to understand the eternal purpose of God before we evaluate how he actually brought that purpose to pass in history.

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In the book of Isaiah, right, in chapter 53, verse 10, in the book of Isaiah, in the heart of one of the most beautiful prophecies of Christ, right, the suffering servant, we read the following.

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It was the will of Yahweh to crush him. To crush who? It was the will of Yahweh to crush him.

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He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.

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Apparently, Christ has offspring. I might ask, who are Christ's offspring? Continuing, he shall prolong his days.

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The will of Yahweh will prosper in his hands. Right, if Christ is the suffering servant, we can see that it's the

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Father who willed to crush the son. This was his plan, and as Christ tells us in John 6,

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Christ has come to do his Father's will. But listen, it wasn't just the Father's will.

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Later in John 10, Christ tells us, no one takes my life for me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

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I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up. Again, we can see, once again, the unity between the

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Father and the Son. The Father wills and sends. The Son wills and accomplishes.

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But perhaps the most beautiful passage illustrating the unity of all three members of the

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Trinity can be found in that verse that we read before I started, Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 to 14.

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I'm going to read this again, but what I want you to do, listen, read along, listen for a few things.

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Listen for what the Father is doing. Listen for what the Son is doing. Listen for what the

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Spirit is doing. Listen who it is that benefits from this. And listen to when it was that God determined he was going to do it, okay?

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

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That we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

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In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

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In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

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In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

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Who is doing what to whom? Do you see the Father has a certain task, the Son has a task, the

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Spirit has a task, and you are beneficiaries of this unified work of the Trinity only if you are in the beloved, only if you are in Christ.

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We see the Father's eternal plan, we see the Son's willing accomplishment, and here we see the

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Holy Spirit's work, a work which seals those who have believed in Christ.

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Who has been sealed? Those who believe in Christ, those who heard the truth and believed the gospel.

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Might it be, side question, might it be that these believing ones are the children of the suffering servant?

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We'll think about that next week. All of this, okay, here's why this matters, all of this should give us immense hope as Christians.

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Listen, your salvation, your standing before the thrice -holy God has been willed by every single member of the

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Trinity. And if the Father has given you to the Son, if the

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Father has given you to the Son, then his work has been applied to you by the

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Spirit. Covenant theology is how we understand the assurance that is ours in Christ.

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But how? How so? How does this give us assurance? Because your salvation was never up to you.

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Our salvation is not up to us. Your salvation, dare I say, was never even about you.

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It includes you, it includes you, and it most certainly is glorious, okay? It includes you, but it isn't about you.

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It's about Him. It always was. To the praise of God's glory, according to His purposed will.

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Please don't lose the beauty of this. This is glorious. If you are in Christ, nothing can stop that.

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You can't stop that. Your neighbor can't stop that. God is holding you secure because of the work of another.

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This is the source of our greatest hope. This is the source of true peace. This is the source of our assurance.

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It's because of this reality that our Lord can say these words in John 10, right?

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My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

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I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand.

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My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the

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Father's hand. I am the Father, we are one. These, and so many other passages of scripture, teach us about the eternal plan of God, the covenant of redemption, right?

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We've seen the covenantal ranking, right? Members of the Trinity, they're co -equal, they're co -eternal.

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They agreed among themselves that the Son would humble himself. He would do this by taking on human flesh, becoming a servant, and being murdered on a

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Roman tree. Thereafter, returning to the glory that he shared with the

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Father before the world began. We've seen the rules of this relationship. The Father elects and gives.

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The Son accomplishes that work, and the Spirit applies it perfectly. But what of those other hallmark elements that I mentioned, right?

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What are those other hallmark elements of a covenant? What of rewards? What of ratification? If we're gonna call this eternal agreement between the members of the

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Trinity a covenant, we must see either an explicit mention of that term, or we've got to see all of these elements present in that relationship, right?

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That's how we can warrant calling this a covenant. Do we see covenantal rewards and ratifications?

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Absolutely, yes. Yes, we do. Psalm 110, verses one to four.

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It's a section of scripture that Christ directly attributed to himself, touches both of these topics, right?

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Christ was to rule at the right hand of the Father. Also from the

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Psalms, right? What did he come to get? We learned this a few weeks ago. What did Christ come to get?

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He came to get the nations, to gather the nations. This was his reward. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.

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There's a reward. And Christ is to rule at the right hand of the Father. Now, obviously, as co -equal with the

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Father, this is something that was true of him from eternity past, because he's divine, right?

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But as the Son, as the one who humbled himself and took on human flesh as that second Adam, right, and submitted himself to the

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Father, he needed to be given this reward as our human representative. And he got it after doing the work that the

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Father gave him. And then in verse four of Psalm 110 there, we read this. We see

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Yahweh seal this with an oath, saying, Yahweh has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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So not only was there a plan, brothers and sisters, not only was there a plan before the world began between the

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Trinity, but that plan had a ranking. It had rules, it had a reward, and it had ratification.

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And because of this, we're warranted, right, we have every reason to call that agreement a covenant. If the structure of the eternal agreement's not enough to convince you, there's a additional spot

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I'm going to take you to, it's worth mentioning. Because I'm a nerd, I think this is fascinating, so bear with me.

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But in Luke 22, okay, at the institution of the Lord's Supper, right? This is in the context amid a covenant meal celebrating the

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Passover on the eve of being presented as the sacrificial lamb that will take away the sins of his sheep.

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Christ utters these famous words. What does he say? He says, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, right?

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So there's no question, stick with me, there's no question that the context of this entire scene is all focused upon the concept of covenant, right?

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But here's where it gets interesting. Luke 22, verses 28 through 30, Christ says to his disciples, he says, you are those who have stayed with me in my trials.

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And I assign to you, as my father assigned to me, a kingdom. That you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

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Now, why is this interesting, Eric? This is interesting because the term translated there as a sign may also be translated as covenant, right, when it's used in a covenantal context.

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And because of this fact, there's a whole lot of reformed thinkers from the 17th century onward who believe it's totally appropriate to render the passage this way, right, you are those who have stayed with me in my trials.

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And I covenant to you as my father covenanted to me a kingdom.

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At the last supper, Christ was presently covenanting a kingdom to the disciples in the same way that the father had covenanted, past tense, a kingdom to him.

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The agreement in eternity past meets all those hallmark boxes of a covenant, and also

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Luke 22 makes at least a passing reference to the fact that there's a covenant between the father and the son.

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At the end of the day, though, right, why does this matter? We get it, Eric, we get it, okay, why does this matter?

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The covenant of redemption, while it's not the same thing as the covenant of grace, or the covenant of works, or any other covenant in scripture, it's not the same thing, but the covenant of redemption is the foundation that existed before the world that paves the way for everything else that we're going to be studying.

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If you remember, I identified three theological covenants that make up covenant theology, the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace, right, now we've established the covenant of redemption from scripture.

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This brings us now out of eternity past and into human history. This brings us to what is called the covenant of works, or some would call it the covenant of life.

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Something we've got to understand is that covenant theology is federal theology.

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Covenant theology is representational. It recognizes that God has ordered the cosmos and governs everything by way of hierarchical representation.

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Listen, as goes the leader, so go those whom the leader represents. Now this is either terrible news for you, or it is your only hope in life and death.

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If you're represented before God by a covenant head who has fallen, you likewise are seen as fallen.

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But if you're represented by a federal head who is perfect, you likewise are counted as perfect.

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And make no mistake about this, brothers and sisters, make no mistake, the standard is perfection.

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If you want to ascend that mountain and you want to truly be in the presence of God, the standard is perfection.

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Nothing else will do. Absolute, spotless perfection. Personally and perpetually, forever and ever, without end.

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Amen. This is why nobody can be right with God outside of Christ.

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Nobody can do enough good works to earn anything from God. If you are in Adam, you're dead.

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And this message smacks worldly religions in the face. They hate it.

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The carnal man hates this message. After the fall, man -made religion says, do this and live.

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Can you? Can you actually do what you need to do to be right with God? That's what the world and the false religions of the world will tell you.

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Go ahead and work it out. Make sure your good works outweigh your bad. Not going to do it.

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You're dead. But the true gospel says, Christ did it.

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It's finished. Therefore, live in light of that and work from there.

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Worldly religion wants to insert the effort of the individual into their salvation. Right? Some will say that it's all up to the individual.

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Some will say it's a mixture of grace and a mixture of works. But all of them neglect this fundamental reality.

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In Adam, all have sinned. In Adam, you're condemned and there is absolutely nothing that you can do to avoid it.

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You see, covenant theology simultaneously tells us how the world got into the mess that it's in and how the world is being rescued out of it.

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Without this concept of federal representation, we cannot meaningfully explain the world we are in.

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Nor can we meaningfully explain the hope that is in us. Without federal theology, we have no hope.

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Either Christ has accomplished righteousness on your behalf or you are still in your sin.

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Now this is seen clearly in Romans chapter 5 verses 12 to 19.

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If you want to follow along, I'll give you just a minute to get there. Romans 5 verses 12 to 19.

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Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

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But sin is not counted where there's no law. Yet, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

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But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by that grace of that one man,

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Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin.

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For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. But the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

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For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man,

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Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

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For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

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Within human history, right, Paul sets up this bi -covenantal framework. It's centered upon two public persons.

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You are either in Adam or you're in Christ. Either Adam is your federal representative before God, or Christ is your federal representative before God.

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There's no middle ground. Everybody loves the idea that they can be in Christ.

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But the world is far less keen on the idea that you were born in Adam. That's unfair.

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That's unfair, they'll tell you. But listen, these go hand in hand. If you abandon the idea of Adam as a federal representative, you have to abandon the idea that Christ is a federal representative.

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If you abandon the idea that Adam was the head of a covenant, you're going to get the law wrong.

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And if you get the law wrong, you're never going to grasp the beauty of the true gospel.

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The gospel is only good news because of that bad news.

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If there's no bad news, there's no need for good news. So how do we understand that bad news?

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We understand it covenantally, right? It's at this point that a lot of otherwise solid believers want to kick back against us, right?

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They'll claim that there's no scriptural warrant for understanding the relationship between Adam and God and the garden as a covenant.

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They'll tell us rightfully so, by the way, that the term covenant has never even used in the garden and that the first mention of covenant in scripture doesn't come until Genesis 6.

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That's true. This is all correct, but ask the same person when the first sin happened and they'll tell you it was in the garden, even though the term sin isn't mentioned until chapter 4 with Cain, right?

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The distractor rightfully understands that even though a term is not used, even though the term sin is not used in the garden narrative, that there was still a sin that took place in the garden.

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They allow the context, the structure, and the rest of scripture to answer that question.

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We should do the same thing when determining if there was a covenant in the garden. So on what grounds can we say that God made a covenant with Adam?

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Remember that paradigm that I set up earlier, right? If the word covenant is used, we can rightfully conclude that a covenant exists.

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But also, if all of the pieces of a covenant are present, even though the term isn't explicitly used, we can also call this relationship a covenant.

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Think of it like this, right? If I was to tell you that I traveled to church today going 65 miles per hour in a metal box with four rubber wheels and an internal combustion engine, would any of you be confused what

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I was talking about? You'd know that I meant a car, right?

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You'd know exactly what I was talking about by my description of the elements of that thing that made me move here at 65 miles an hour.

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You'd know because it was described. In the same way, we know that a covenant was made with Adam by the description of that relationship.

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The relationship clearly consists, clearly consists of three of those four elements of a covenant, ranking, rules, rewards, retribution.

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The fourth point, ratification, it's also there, but it's not as easily identifiable at first glance.

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So let's look briefly at this preponderance, right? We're gonna look at a preponderance of related areas to prove that point.

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In the creation narrative, we see a clearly delineated ranking, right? God is the transcendent creator who spoke the universe into existence.

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He's the one who created stars to govern the light and who gave beavers those little teeth so that they could chop down trees and redirect the course of rivers, right?

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He's also the one who created Adam and breathed the breath of life into Adam's nostrils. God is the original and Adam is his image.

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And God placed the whole earth under this hierarchical authority of Adam. The relationship contains rules, right?

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Positively, Adam is commanded to be fruitful and multiply and take dominion over the earth.

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Negatively, Adam is forbidden from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There's the rules.

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The relationship has rewards and it has retribution, right? If Adam obeys, he lives.

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If Adam obeys, he can take from the tree of life and live forever just as we will do in eternity when

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Christ allows those who conquer to take from the tree of life in Revelation 2, verse 7. If Adam disobeys, dying, he will die, right?

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The reward and the retribution aspects on clear display. No question there. And then lastly, there's that ratification element.

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This seemingly less clear point. This might be hinted at by looking at God's covenant with creation mentioned in Jeremiah 31 and Jeremiah 33.

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We're not going to turn there, but you can look later. But more than this, Hosea 6, 7 strongly points to this fact as well.

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There's some that debate this verse's meaning, but I'd argue that it explicitly identifies a covenant that Adam broke when it draws a parallel between Israel's covenant transgression and Adam's transgression of a covenant.

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What does it say? It says, but like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. I'm not hanging my argument on that.

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That verse is in question by some, but it's interesting. Like Adam, they transgressed the covenant.

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How could Adam have transgressed a covenant if a covenant didn't exist? There's also linguistic clues in the

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Noahic covenant. We might get to that next week that would indicate that there was a covenant relationship present between God and Adam in the garden.

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But the strongest proof, okay, the strongest proof of a covenant in the garden comes from understanding the structure of biblical covenants.

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I mentioned up front that this isn't necessary, but it can be helpful at times. This is one of those times.

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It can be helpful to understand the structure of biblical covenants. When we understand that Adam was given a task to take dominion over the earth and we see the other elements present, we actually find a ratification element present with Adam's very first recorded words, right?

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This might not be clear to us, but it would have been very clear to those familiar with the covenant treaty format.

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When Adam starts reciting poetry at the sight of his newly made wife, and he says, this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

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She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. This is Adam's ratification, if you will, of the task before him, right?

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Be fruitful and multiply by becoming one flesh. Genesis 2 verses 4 to 14 shows the ranking.

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Genesis 2 verses 15 to 17 shows the rules. Genesis 2 verse 17 shows the covenant retribution.

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And Genesis 2 verses 18 to 25 shows this ratification. Right in order.

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It's very clear. And more than this, Genesis 1, 1 through 2, 3 actually touches on some of those other seven points that I mentioned up front.

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The covenant one, or Genesis 1, 1 through 2, 3 actually shows a covenant preamble and a historical prologue.

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Once you're familiar with, you're gonna have to take me at my word if you haven't studied this, but once you're familiar with the covenant treaty genre, it's actually impossible to miss.

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Was there a covenant with Adam in the garden? Most certainly, yes. Was Adam a public person who represented his people as a federal head?

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Absolutely. Paul's entire argument in Romans 5 hinges upon this fact.

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Now the question we must ask is this, what was the nature of the covenant with Adam?

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And it's here that we need to be extremely careful with how we think about covenants.

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There is a difference between, like I said, the covenant of grace and the covenant of works or a covenant of grace and a covenant of works, okay?

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What type of covenant was made with Adam? Was it a covenant of grace or a covenant of works?

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There's been debate over this by some, but understanding this fact is vital. What was

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Adam to do first, right? Before he inherited eternal life? Was Adam to obey first and then inherit eternal life?

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Or was he to inherit eternal life and then obey? Adam was to obey first and then he would receive the reward of the covenant.

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This means that the nature of the covenant with Adam was a covenant of works. Now, does this mean that there was no grace present in the garden?

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Absolutely not. There was enormous amounts of grace present, right?

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We have to understand this fact. God was under zero obligation to hold out the possibility of eternal eschatological life to Adam.

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God didn't have to do that, but he did. That was gracious.

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God was under zero obligation to communicate with Adam or to walk with him in the garden, yet he did.

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This was gracious. And God was under no obligation to make a covenant with Adam.

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Yet he did. And this too was gracious, right? If Adam had obeyed

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God apart from a covenant, would that have earned him anything? Can we earn something from God?

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That's simply what you owe as a creature. But God was gracious to hold out to Adam the possibility of this eternal life for doing what he was supposed to do anyways.

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How gracious is that? Yet he received it by obedience.

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The way Adam was to receive the covenant blessing was by his own perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience.

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That's how the Westminster Confession puts it. That's not so with us, right? We receive it by the obedience of another.

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Adam's covenant blessing was earned by his own works. Our covenant blessing was earned by another.

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Now how did Adam do with that? How would you do with that?

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God says, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

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And you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

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For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. There's the rules.

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Here's your rules. Do this and live. Fail and die. How did

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Adam do? Genesis 3 verses 1 and verses 6 and 7.

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Now the serpent was more crafty, more arom than any other beast of the field that the

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Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

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So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

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And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked.

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They knew that they were arom. Different word, but the way it sounds, if you were to hear this right, it's going to sound pretty much identical.

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The arom one, the crafty one. And now you know that you are arom. You've become like the one that you were worshiping.

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You're naked. You've taken upon yourself the image of that serpent. Image bearer of God, you have clothed yourself with the image of the devil.

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And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. How'd Adam do?

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How did the image of God do? He listened to the crafty one, the arom one, and he and his wife recognized that they were arom.

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They'd become like the serpent. No longer were they imaging God, they were imaging the evil one.

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Adam, the image of God on earth, the one who was created with true knowledge and true holiness and true righteousness, rather than worshiping

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God, took upon himself the image of the serpent. He became like the one he worshiped as a result.

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So will you. So will all of us. We become what we worship.

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And as a result of this, what does the Apostle Paul say in Romans 5, right? Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man.

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And again, in 1 Corinthians, 15, 22, in Adam, all die because of Adam's sin, not

01:09:16

Eve's, because of Adam's sin, all of humanity was now under the just wrath and condemnation of God.

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Genesis 3, 7 to 8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool, in the wind, the spirit, the ruach of the day.

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They hear the thundering of God marching in the ruach of the day, in the spirit of the day, the day of the

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Lord has come. And it is coming in covenant judgment upon that man.

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And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

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Humanity toast. Judgment is here.

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And Adam knows it. Why else would he be hiding? Adam knows it. I think so often we hear the cool of the day and we can think of this blissful walk of God coming along to say, hey,

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Adam, naughty, naughty, naughty. No, no, no, this is a judgment scene of thunder and peals of lightning, right?

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They were terrified because they knew what was coming. This should have been the end of the story.

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This should have been the end of the story. Covered with these brittle garments of fig leaves to cover their new devilish image.

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That should have been it. The covenant of works broken. Humanity has been cursed. Sin and death have entered the world and we stand condemned before the almighty

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God. We stand condemned before him in Adam, our federal representative, our covenant representative.

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That should have been the end of the story, but that's not the end of the story, is it? There's good news. That's not exactly what happened, right?

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God did not leave man to his condition of misery. Remember, remember the beginning here.

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The Trinity had already covenanted amongst themselves. They were going to accomplish this task. The father has given a people to his son and the son will be victorious and collect those who were given to him by the father.

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Who could possibly thwart the eternal purposes of God? Adam can't, you can't.

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God has established the end from the beginning. How does Isaiah say it? The Lord of hosts has purposed and who will annul it?

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His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back? This is the purpose of God. They've covenanted amongst themselves.

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Who can stop that? You see, we know the end of the story.

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We know the end of the story that God wrote from before the foundation of the world. God has told us. He's accomplishing it in history.

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What does that story, what is that plan that the Trinity covenanted together, right? It says in Revelation, then

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I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

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And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

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And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

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He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their

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God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.

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Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.

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And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.

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Also, we said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it's done.

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I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Brothers and sisters,

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God will dwell with his people. God will dwell with you.

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He's already dwelling in you in the person of his spirit, but he will dwell with you in a way that we cannot even begin to comprehend.

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And it's sure it's happening. And the way that he's accomplishing that work is by means of the covenant of grace in history.

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After Adam's fall, right? After the image of God became the image of the serpent,

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God would have been totally just and holy to leave man in that state of condemnation.

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Would he not? But that's not what he did. God promised a redeemer.

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God promised a new Adam who would succeed where that first Adam failed.

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And God said to the serpent in Genesis 3, 14 and 15, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.

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On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

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He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. The seed of the woman is coming and he will crush the enemy beneath his feet.

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God set forth the promise of a coming redeemer. He set forth the promise of grace in that redeemer.

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And any person who would ever be saved, get this, any person who would ever be saved would be saved by the virtue of the covenant that that Messiah would accomplish in history.

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Eve should have been the mother of a dead and dying race, but that's not what we see.

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And Adam called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

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Got to tell you, it sure sounds to me like Adam believed God's promise.

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And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them. God sacrificed an animal if it were and clothed his people in the skin of that sacrifice.

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Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

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Now, lest he should reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. He drove out the man.

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And at the east of the garden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

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God placed an angel with a symbol of death and fiery judgment on the pathway to the tree of life.

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If you were going to collect eternal life, if you were going to collect eternal life, you were going to have to pass through the judgment of God and come out victorious.

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This is something that none of us can do. This is something that Adam could no longer do.

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But brothers and sisters, here's the beauty of the covenant of grace. Because of the reality of federal headship, we too can obtain life from that tree.

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Because we worship the seed of the woman. Because we worship the one who in eternity past covenanted to accomplish salvation on behalf of his people.

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We worship the one who passed through that fiery judgment of God and he was victorious over sin and death.

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Brothers and sisters, because we are under the headship of Christ and because he accomplished the work necessary to obtain eternal life, and then he ascended into heaven and victory.

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Because we've been united with him and sealed by the Holy Spirit, we have life and hope and peace and assurance by the virtue of another.

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And at this moment, at this very moment, if you're in him, he's interceding for you at the right hand of the majesty on high.

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Your salvation is accomplished in him. Victory is his and he will never let you out of his grasp.

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As Martin Luther famously said, and we'll be closing with this, when

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I look at myself, I don't see how I can be saved. But when

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I look at Jesus, I don't see how I could be lost. This is the beauty of covenant theology.

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And I pray that this never grows old nor does it just become some lofty exercise of the mind apart from the heart.

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This is beautiful. This is your hope. This is your peace. This is your salvation. This is your assurance.

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And it's all found in our federal head, Jesus Christ. And we'll pick up on that beautiful reality of the covenant of grace next week, as we see how that was accomplished in history.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you,

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Lord, that we are found in Christ. We thank you,

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Lord, for your grace and for your mercy. And for the reality that you have set this universe up in such a way that we can be found in another, that we can have the righteousness of another.

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And that you, along with your Son and your Spirit, made a treaty, made a covenant in eternity past.

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And nobody can thwart your hand. It is sure. It is happening. And you have grafted us into that promise by uniting us with your

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Son. Lord, it's in Him that we hope. It's Him that we praise to the glory.