Finding Objectivity (part 3.3): The Covenant Hermeneutic

And so, the covenant position, taking these things in mind found that the Unifying theme of Scripture could be expressed in three ideas, which could be summarized in the statement of one of the three. The three ideas are called the three covenants of Covenantalism and they are:

1. Covenant of Redemption: the eternal agreement within the Godhead in which the Father appointed the Son, Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to redeem the elect from the guilt and power of sin. God appointed Christ to live a life of perfect obedience to the law and to die a penal, substitutionary, sacrificial death as the covenantal representative for all who trust in him.

--Scriptural Support for Covenant of Redemption – Psalm 110

2. Covenant of Works: the covenant made in the Garden of Eden between God and Adam who represented all mankind as a federal head. It promised life for obedience and death for disobedience. Adam, and all mankind in Adam, broke the covenant, thus, they stand condemned. The covenant of works continues to function after the fall as the moral law.

--Scriptural Support for Covenant of Works – Hosea 6:7; Jeremiah 33:20-23 (covenant with creation)

3. Covenant of Grace: The covenant of grace promises eternal blessing for all people who trust in the successive promises of God. Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of these promises. He is the substitutionary covenantal representative fulfilling the covenant of works on their behalf, in both the positive requirements of righteousness and its negative penal consequences (commonly described as his active and passive obedience). It is the historical expression of the eternal covenant of redemption. It finds expression in all the covenant of the Scriptures (Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, New Covenant/Jeremiah 31).

--Scriptural Support for Covenant of Grace – Genesis 3:15

These three covenants can then be summarized under the one covenant, the Covenant of Grace.

The covenant position found that the unifying theme of Scripture is the Salvation of Man, or rather, more accurately, the Salvation of Israel – of which we, the church, are a part.

And since we are the repentant remnant of Israel and Old Testament doesn’t lie, we must be in the kingdom now, because it was prophesied that the New Covenant would be the Kingdom Covenant and that the kingdom would begin when the remnant of Israel repented, and that Christ would be the King of the Kingdom. (to be continued)