~ Cross Examination: -- Covenant-Theology (2) ~
God reveals Himself in the pages of Scripture specifically as the covenant-keeping God. To understand His person and works properly, we must see Him in light of the covenant He has made and fulfills with His people.
We have already seen that God's relationship with man from the very beginning was covenantal in nature. His covenant with Adam was gracious in character, sovereignly imposed, mutually binding, called for trust and submission on Adam's part, and carried sanctions (blessings or curse). When Adam fell into sin, God mercifully re-established a covenantal relationship with him, one in which the gracious and promissory character of the covenant was accentuated even further. God's grace was magnified in promising to send a Savior who would destroy the Tempter, Satan (Gen. 3:15). As we know, this was the first promise of the coming of Christ to set things right between God and man (cf. John 12:31-32; 1 John 3:8). In the subsequent pages of Scripture God expands upon and explains this promise, particularly in the further covenants into which He entered with His people.
These covenants were thoroughly gracious, being established by God for the undeserved benefit of sinful and unworthy men. Their aim was that He would be their God, and they would be His people -- for instance: "Hear the words of this covenant.... So shall you be my people, and I will be your God" (Jer. 11:2-4). These covenants were not based upon the accomplishments, worthiness, or righteousness of God's people, but instead stemmed from His own lovingkindness. "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people... but because the Lord loves you.... Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with them that love Him and keep His commandments" (Deut. 7:7-9).
The various covenants of which we read in the Old Testament were all covenants of promise, including the covenant of law established through Moses. They were not legalistic or ungracious. In Galatians 3 Paul categorically and clearly declares "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.... The law [Moses] does not set aside the covenant previously established by God [Abraham] and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends upon promise.... Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not!" (3:15-22). From the perspective of Paul, all of the Jewish covenants -- whether made with Abraham, Moses , or David -- were elaborations of the one, single, basic promise of God. He wrote in Ephesians 2:12, "You [Gentiles] were at that time separate from Christ..., strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world."
Therefore, although there were many covenants made throughout the Old Testament, it is Biblically accurate to view them as explanations of a single promise of God. They were all part of what we call "the covenant of grace" -- all administrations and applications of God's gracious promise of salvation. The provisions of God's promise were progressively made known through redemptive history as we read of it in the Bible. Each and every one of these provisions pointed to the person and work of Jesus Christ, the coming Savior. "For however many may be the promises of God, in him [Christ] is the yes, wherefore also through him is the amen unto the glory of God through us" (2 Cor. 1:20). Every promise in the covenants was affirmed and confirmed in Christ.
Thus when the resurrected Lord encountered His downcast disciples on the road to Emmaus, "beginning from Moses and from all the prophets he interpreted for them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). All of the Old Testament -- that is, the "Old Covenant" -- was about Christ the coming Savior. Jesus said "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; these scriptures testify about me" (John 5:39).
As the "Mediator of a New Covenant" which God promised through Jeremiah (31:31-34), Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant's anticipation or promise, and He is the one who grants God's people the benefits which were previously promised -- "that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9:15). Christ gained the inheritance promised to Abraham (Heb. 11:8-10; Gal. 3:16; Eph. 1:14; 1 Peter 1:4). In Him all nations will be blessed, as God promised Abraham (Luke 2:32; Matt. 12:21; Acts 13:47-48; Gal. 3:14). Christ is the model of that righteousness revealed in the Mosaic law (Matt. 5:17; Heb. 4:15; 1 John 2:5-6), as well as the true and perfect, atoning sacrifice for sinners which required in the Mosaic covenant (Heb. 9). He is the long awaited King which was promised in the Davidic covenant (Luke 1:32-33; Acts 5:31; 1 Tim. 6:15; 1 Cor. 15:25).
(1) Because all of the post-fall covenants were gracious in character, being elaborations upon God's promise of salvation, and (2) because subsequent covenants do not conflict with each other but complement and expand upon previous ones, and (3) because all of the promises of God's covenants center on Christ and His redemptive work, we must recognize the unity and continuity of God's covenantal administrations. This is what is meant by speaking of "the covenant of grace."
Dispensational theology has enjoyed widespread endorsement among twentieth-century evangelical schools and churches, and its influence has been felt even among a number of Reformed preachers. At the heart of dispensationalism is the denial of "the covenant of grace." It is denied when dispensationalists claim that God has two plans (not one) revealed in the Scriptures: a plan regarding Christ and the church (a mixed Gentile and Jewish people for whom Christ is the Redeemer), and a distinct plan regarding the Jewish people themselves and the land of Palestine (where Christ will yet become the Davidic King). Dispensationalists sometimes refer to these distinct plans and peoples of God as His "heavenly" and "earthly" programs. Thus dispensationalists insist on drawing a dichotomy between Israel and the church.
This is contrary to Paul, who called the mixed Galatian congregation "the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16), and who said that Gentiles who are saved by Christ have now been incorporated into "the commonwealth of Israel" (Eph. 2:12).
Likewise, dispensationalists deny the unity of Old Testament covenants, for they teach that there was a root difference between the gracious character of the Abrahamic covenant and the (alleged) legalistic character of the Mosaic covenant. They maintain that God granted His blessings to Abraham on the basis of promise, but in the Mosaic era God held out -- hypothetically -- the offer of blessing based on meritorious obedience to the law.
This too is contrary to Paul, who wrote in Romans 9:31-32 that Israel did not arrive at the righteousness of the law because "they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works." The Mosaic law itself would have taught them not to be legalists! (Gal. 2:19). The covenant God made with Abraham could not be disannulled 430 years later by the covenant made with Moses, making the promise of no effect (Gal. 3:17). Was the law, then, against the promises of God? Paul declared "Absolutely not!" (3:21).
Finally, dispensationalists deny the covenant of grace by teaching that the benefits of the Abrahamic covenant, which come to Jewish and Gentile believers in the church (Gal. 3:7, 29), are to be viewed as tandem or parallel with the benefits of the Mosaic and Davidic covenants, which come to the literal Jewish children of Abraham -- and which will be fulfilled when Christ returns to establish an earthly kingdom in Palestine.
We are now in a position to define "covenant theology," which is the major opponent and alternative to dispensationalism within the evangelical church. Covenant theology is based squarely upon the Biblical teaching regarding the covenant of grace. Covenant theology is the position that all of the post-fall covenants made by God are essentially one, centering on God's gracious promise in Jesus Christ, with each successive covenant expanding on previous ones, rather than disregarding them or running parallel to the others; the covenants prior to Christ were marked by anticipation and administered by foreshadows of the Savior, while the fulfillment or substance came in person and redemptive work of Christ, who established the New Covenant today in the international church of Christ.