Covenants between God and Man

Frank C. Thomsen | Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Copyright © 2011, Frank C. Thomsen

(based on Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, ch. 25)

From the beginning, God’s relationship to man has been defined has been defined by certain requirements and promises. God tells man what he requires of him, what he expects man to do, and God tells man how God will respond when His commands are met with obedience and how He will respond when his commands are met with disobedience. This arrangement is called a covenant, which Dr. Grudem defines as an unchangeable, divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man that stipulates the condition of their relationship.

Dr. Grudem is careful to explain this definition a little, and we need to do that carefully and perhaps a bit more closely than he does. A covenant is anunchangeable, divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man that stipulates the condition of their relationship.

It is unchangeable because God does not change. He is infinite, eternal, unchangeable. “I, the Lord, do not change.” Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And praise God that it is unchangeable! He will not change it, and we cannot change it. We cannot alter it to our liking, tweak it here and there to get our way. Whatever covenant God makes with man, the heart of it is “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

A covenant is an unchangeable, divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man that stipulates the condition of their relationship. It is not subject to negotiation. We do not have collective bargaining rights. The Greek word used for covenant in both the Septuagint and the New Testament indicates that the provisions are set by one party only. We have heard of the suzerain treaty wherein the great king, the overlord, sets the terms of the covenant because he has the right and the power to do it. It is not consensus-building. There is no focus group to see “how it plays.” God does not take a survey to see how he can get buy-in. He is the Lord. He made the earth and all that is in it. He formed us. He sets the terms.

So then, why does the definition of “covenant” use the term “agreement”? Only to show that there are two parties: God and us. We can accept His terms and submit to them, or we can reject them and declare war, but we cannot bargain, pick and choose, alter, or in any way craft a different covenant from that which God has established. Perhaps instead of agreement we could say a divinely imposed mandate, or, to get a sense from our perspective, a means of grace, or a divinely imposed mercy, by which we can glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

The first covenant we want to address is the Covenant of Works. There are those who do not speak of this as a covenant God made with Adam and Eve in the garden because the Genesis accounts do not use the word “covenant.” Why, then, refer to this covenant? First, the elements of a covenant are present. If not the word, then the work of a covenant is surely there. Furthermore, consider Hosea 6:7: “Like Adam,they have broken the covenant—they were unfaithful to me there.” They couldn’t have broken a covenant like Adam unless Adam had broken a covenant, and Adam could not have broken a covenant if there had not been one in the first place. And in Romans 5:12-21 we see Adam and Jesus Christ each representing a people as would a covenant head.

Let’s take a look at the Garden of Eden. There are two parties: God and man. God is giving commands, requirements, and conditions to Adam and Eve. In Genesis 2:16, 17 God says, “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” There is a direct requirement with a consequence: if you disobey, you will surely die. Separation from God—physical, spiritual, eternal. If Adam and Eve had obeyed, the reward would have been ongoing life—physical, spiritual, eternal. Fellowship with God, unbroken—glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.

Romans 7:10: the very commandment that was intended to bring life…

Leviticus 18:5: Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.

What makes it important to view this as a covenant? The reasons are pretty compelling. For one thing, it shows that the relationship between God and man, wherein He stipulates what we are to do, then gives the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience, is not automatic. It does not exist with any of the other creatures. God is independent. That is, He does not need us, and nothing in us makes Him require our fellowship. This is all the divine mercy of a God whose fatherly love toward those He had created in His own image motivated Him to reach down to them. It also shows the relationship between this and the subsequent covenant agreements God has made with His people. This covenant with Adam and Eve is most commonly referred to as the Covenant of Works, because the blessings of it depended on the works, the obedience of Adam and Eve.

Is this covenant of works still in effect? Our immediate response would be to say no, but let’s consider. Are we still bound to keep God’s commands—all of His moral law? And what is the punishment for breaking those commands? “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Can we keep the law? Can we attain salvation through the covenant of works? Never! It is written:”All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’Clearly no one is justified before God by the law” (Gal. 3:10, 11). This covenant, then, can only bring death, because we are unable to keep it, to fulfill its terms. Adam was posse peccare, able to sin. Since the Fall, we are non posse non pecarre, not able not to sin. We have lost the ability Adam originally had to keep the covenant. What shall we do? Who will rescue us from this body of death? The good news is that there is One who kept the covenant of works on our behalf. And He did this on the basis of another covenant.

This next covenant is not actually between God and man but between the members of the Trinity. It is called the Covenant of Redemption. In it the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit agreed on a specific plan to provide for the redemption of the elect.

The Father gave the Son a people, as in John 17:1-6:

Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. I have revealed youto those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

God the Father sent the Son to be our representative: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:18, 19).

The Father would prepare a body for the Son:

Colossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…and

Hebrews 10:5: Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,but a body you prepared for me;”

The Son agreed that he would come into the world as a man, born under the Law: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,to redeem those under law” (Gal 4:4). The Son agreed to be obedient to the Father: “Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second.And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:9).

The Holy Spirit agreed to empower Jesus to complete the work: “For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit” (John 3:34). The Spirit will apply the benefits of redemption to His people: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16, 17).

It is unlike any covenant between God and man, in that this is a covenant of equals. Each is fulfilling a role, but they are entering into this of one substance and purpose. This is something entered into voluntarily, at God’s own initiative, out of mercy. And it is important to note when this happened: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph 1:3, 4). This was not Plan B. God was not surprised by the fall of man into sin, and He did not have to improvise a solution. God knows the end from the beginning, and His purposes are sure. As Paul tells us, “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:9, 10).

As Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “Thus we begin to see why Paul says, ‘The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’. God before time, and before the world, saw our predicament and entered into this agreement with His own Son. He has taken an oath, He has signed, He has pledged Himself in a covenant, He has committed Himself. Everything is in Christ. He is our Representative, He is our Mediator, He is our Guarantor — all blessing comes in and through Him. Who can realize what all this meant to the Father, what all this meant to the Son, what all this meant to the Holy Spirit? But that is the gospel and it is only as we understand something of these things that we shall begin to praise God.”

This Covenant of Redemption, then, led to the Covenant of Grace. Since man broke the Covenant of Works, God graciously presented a new covenant through His plan of redemption to bring sinful people to fellowship with Himself and thereby gain glory. That is the central story of the Scriptures.

The parties to this covenant are God and man, but now there is a mediator, Jesus Christ, who fulfills the terms of the covenant for us, on our behalf, and reconciles us to God: “But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises…. For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Heb 8:6; 9:15).

The condition for entering this covenant is faith in Christ: “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (Rom. 1:17). Paul goes on to say, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand”(Rom. 5:1). This was the same condition for the Old Testament saints, as shown in Romans 4, Galatians, and elsewhere.

The condition for continuing in the covenant, though, is obedience to God. This obedience does not gain us merit, it does not earn any degree of salvation, but it is the natural and necessary consequence and evidence of being in the new covenant. In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:17). And John says, “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:4-6).

The Puritan Thomas Watson comments, “Yes. ‘This is a faithful saying, that they which believe in God, be careful to maintain good works.’ Tit 3: 8. But the covenant of grace does not require works in the same manner as the covenant of works did. In the first covenant, works were required as the condition of life; in the second, they are required only as the signs of life. In the first covenant, works were required as grounds of salvation; in the new covenant, they are required as evidences of our love to God. In the first, they were required to the justification of our persons; in the new, to the manifestation of our grace.” Paul tells Timothy, “(God) has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” 2 Tim. 1:9, 10).

The promise is eternal life with God, eternal fellowship with God. This begins in Genesis 17:7: “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” This motif is continued throughout Scripture, most notably in Jeremiah 31, 32, Ezekiel 34, 36, 37, 2 Corinthians 6, 1 Peter 2, and Hebrews 8. It finds its ultimate fulfillment in the age to come: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’” (Rev 21:3).

Thomas Watson makes the following applications:

Use one:

(1.) See the condescension of God, who was pleased to stoop so low as to make a covenant with us. For the God of glory to make a covenant with dust and ashes; for God to bind himself to us, to give us life in case of obedience; for him to enter into covenant with us was a sign of friendship, and a royal act of favor.

(2.) See what a glorious condition man was in, when God entered into covenant with him. He was placed in the garden of God, which for the pleasure of it was calledparadise. He had his choice of all the trees, one only excepted; he had all kinds of precious stones, pure metals, rich cedars; he was a king upon the throne, and all the creation did obeisance to him, as in Joseph’s dream all his brethren’s sheaves bowed to his sheaf. Man, in innocence, had all kinds of pleasure that might ravish his senses with delight, and be as baits to allure him to serve and worship his Maker. He was full of holiness. Paradise was not more adorned with fruit, than Adam’s soul was with grace. He was the coin on which God had stamped his lively image. Light sparkled in his understanding, so that he was like an earthly angel; and his will andaffections were full of order, tuning harmoniously to the will of God.

Adam was a perfect pattern of sanctity. Adam had intimacy of communion with God and conversed with him, as a favorite with his prince. He knew God’s mind, and had his heart. He not only enjoyed the light of the sun in paradise—but the light of God’s countenance. This was Adam’s condition when God entered into a covenant with him; but this did not long continue; for “man being in honor abides not,” lodged not for a night. His teeth watered at the apple, and ever since it has made our eyeswater.

(3.) Learn from Adam’s fall, how unable we are to stand in our own strength.If Adam, in the state of integrity, did not stand, how unable are we now, when the lock of our original righteousness is cut. If purified nature did not stand, how then shall corruptnature? We need more strength to uphold us than our own!

(4.) See in what a sad condition all unbelievers and impenitent persons are.As long as they continue in their sins they continue under the curse, under the first covenant. Faith entitles us to the mercy of the second covenant; but while men are under the power of their sins, they are under the curse of the first covenant; and if they die in that condition, they are damned to eternity!

(5.) See the wonderful goodness of God, who was pleased when man had forfeited the first covenant, to enter into a new covenant with him. Well may it be called a covenant of grace; for it is bespangled with promises—as the heaven with stars. When the angels, those glorious spirits, fell, God did not enter into a new covenant with them to be their God—but he let those golden vessels lie broken; yet has he entered into a second covenant with us, better than the first. It is better, because it is surer; it is made in Christ, and cannot be reversed. Christ has engaged his strength to keep every believer. In the first covenant we had a power of standing; in the second we have an impossibility of falling finally.

(6.) Whoever they are, who look for righteousness and salvation by the power of their free will, or the inherent goodness of their nature, or by virtue of their merit… they are all under the covenant of works.They do not submit to the righteousness of faith, therefore they are bound to keep the whole law, and in case of failure they are condemned. The covenant of grace says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and be saved”; but such as will stand upon their own inherent righteousness, free-will and merit, fall under the first covenant of works, and are in a perishing estate.

Use two: Let us labor by faith, to get into the second covenant of grace, and then the curse of the first covenant will be taken away by Christ.If we once get to be heirs of the covenant of grace, we are in a better state than before. Adam stood on his own legs, and therefore he fell; we stand in the strength of Christ. Under the first covenant, the justice of God, as an avenger of blood, pursues us; but if we get into the second covenant we are in the city of refuge, we are safe, and the justice of God is pacified towards us.