Dear BPCWA worshipper, What is our Reformed Faith? As we heard in last week’s sermon, even when someone claims to hold to “Calvinism”, it is not necessarily an indication that the believer or church holds on to the same beliefs as what historical Calvinism propounded. Although one may be a 5-point Calvinist (i.e., holds on to TULIP), the person or church may still not be of the same system of beliefs as we are as Presbyterians. A website that includes the word “reformed” may not be talking about the same Reformed Faith that we hold on to. Another identifying mark of our Reformed Faith is on the matter of God’s covenant with man. Reformed Theology is Covenant Theology. But yet again, “covenant” is another area where there are differences in understanding even amongst those who today call themselves “reformed”.

Why is Covenant Theology important? God deals with man through covenants. The word “testament” we use for Old Testament and New Testament literally means “covenant”. Covenant theology expresses the core of Christianity because it describes God’s relationship with His people in Christ. Asexpressed by the Westminster Confession point 7.1, “The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.” Since it is about God’s relationship with man, covenant theology will affect our preaching, teaching, and practices. For example, it affects how we understand, view, and practice baptisms and the Lord’s Supper, both of which are integral parts of church life. Together with other biblical doctrines, the historic Westminster Confession of Faith defines our system of Christian beliefs. The system of theology (including Covenant Theology) that we hold to is not just a matter of hollow words in our Constitution. The historic Reformed Faith played an important role in expressing Covenant Theology, which provides the Biblical structure for our Reformed system. To move toward a theological system held by another denomination is to change a key point of what makes us a Bible-Presbyterian Church. Understanding our faith will give the church peace without being harangued from within by those who hold contrary views.

Covenant Theology. Perfect filial obedience to all of God’s laws is required under the Covenant of Works. In the Garden of Eden, Adam failed the Covenant of Works when he disobeyed God’s command “Do this and live”. As a result of Adam’s fall, man inherited Adam’s sinful nature. God provided salvation for man by instituting the Covenant of Grace immediately in Gen 3:15 with the promise of Christ the Messiah. Christ would satisfy the Covenant of Works fully with His perfect obedience to God’s law throughout His life without sin. As a result, His righteousness is graciously imputed to us in the Covenant of Grace. Christ’s atoning work was completed through His active obedience in living a perfect life and passive obedience in His sacrifice on the cross. In doing so, He purchased redemption for all who would trust in Him by faith, as our Head and the last Adam (1Cor 15:45).

The Covenant of Grace. To fulfill the redemptive plan of the Covenant of Grace which God provided for His people immediately after the fall, God the Father graciously gave Christ, God the Son, as the Sacrificial Lamb to atone for our sins. Hence, Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is the central focal point of man’s redemptive history. Both the Old and New Testament saints are saved by this Covenant of Grace. The Old Testament saints looked forward to Christ’s first coming to accomplish His redemption work. Even those who died without witnessing Christ’s coming believed by faith that He would, and trusted in His saving grace, not in their obedience to the commandments. They obeyed the commandments because having been saved and reconciled to God through their faith, they obeyed God as His children to please Him and have fellowship with Him. Likewise, we, the New Testament saints who did not witness Christ’s 1^st coming, look backward with faith at His finished redemptive work. This is why both the Old Testament and New Testament saints are all saved by faith through the same Covenant of Grace. No one can be saved by the Covenant of Works because none can obey God perfectly anymore after the fall. Old and New Testament saints depend upon the same Covenant because there is only “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1Ti 2:5). In the Old Testament, when God gave the Ten Commandments to the Hebrews through Moses, it was not so that they could be saved by obedience to the Covenant of Works. Even Abraham was saved through faith in God’s promised Messiah as Christ told the Jews that “Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” (Jn 8:56). Noah, Abraham, the Patriarchs, Moses, and other believers in the Old Testament were all saved under the Covenant of Grace.

The continuity and unity of the covenant. When Christ spoke of “the new testament in my blood” (Lu 22:20), He was not saying that only saints from that time onward would be saved by faith through His finished work. He was affirming the continuity of the same Covenant of Grace and at the same time telling them that henceforth after His bodily sacrifice, there will be a new way of administrating this covenant. The old and the new covenant (Heb 8:13) refers to different methods of administering to believers the same spiritual blessings of the Covenant of Grace through Christ. Old and new do not mean different covenants. It refers to the unity of the Covenant of Grace, continuing in different ways of administration – the old by sacrifices, the new by the Holy Communion.  In the old, God used figures to instruct and build up their faith to look forward to the coming Messiah.  In the new, the promises of the same covenant are seen in its clarity in Christ, the Lamb of God (Jn 1:36). For example, the offerings required by ceremonial laws through the mortal and sinful Aaronic priesthood were only a “shadow” (Heb 8:5) to point to and make them yearn for the infinitely superior mediatorship of the eternal sinless high priest, Jesus Christ. In his Institutes II.10.2, Calvin explains this by saying “The covenant made with all the fathers is so far from differing from ours in reality and substance, that it is altogether one and the same: still the administration differs.” This is further explained in WCF 7.6 “There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations”. There is only one and the same Covenant of Grace stretching from Genesis 3 to Revelations. This same Covenant of Grace is referred to as the old covenant and the new covenant (called the new testament in Lu 22:20), separated by Christ’s coming. The different terminology used is because God teaches man about the Covenant of Grace in very different ways during these 2 periods of time. “The covenant of grace was administered under the Old Testament, by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the passover, and other types and ordinances, which did all foresignify Christ then to come, and were for that time sufficient to build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they then had full remission of sin, and eternal salvation” (Westminster Larger Catechism Question 34). After Christ came, God “taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:9). Animal sacrifices offered ceremonial cleansing but “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb 10:4). They were ultimately to point us to the reality that God has appointed that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1Jn 1:7). The new covenant is better because we see things a lot clearer now that Christ has come and there is no further need for shadows.

These are important understandings of the Covenant of Grace that we must be very clear about regarding our salvation in the Bible, not just because of Calvinism or the Reformed Faith’s definitions. Parents, I hope you will study this pastoral carefully and teach them to your children as you are expected to, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deu 6:7).  God willing, we will look at the covenantal signs and seals in the next pastoral, which are indispensable aspects of a covenant.

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor