God's Covenants

Covenant theology reads the whole Bible as the story of God's covenants with man. A covenant is a solemn bond God makes, with promises and conditions. Because the distance between God and His creatures is so great, we could never enjoy Him "but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant" (Westminster Confession 7.1).

Our church speaks of three covenants:

• The covenant of works. God made it with Adam. In it "life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience" (7.2). His posterity means all who descend from him. Adam broke it, and "in Adam all die" (1 Corinthians 15:22).
• The covenant of redemption. Before the world began, the Father appointed the Son to be the Mediator. He gave Him a people "to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified" (8.1). Christ said, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do" (John 17:4). While the Standards do not use the name "covenant of redemption", they teach its substance (8.1), and the Sum of Saving Knowledge, printed with the Confession, does use the name. It speaks of "the covenant of redemption, made and agreed upon between God the Father and God the Son, in the council of the Trinity, before the world began" (The Sum of Saving Knowledge, Head II.1).
• The covenant of grace. After the fall, God made "a second, commonly called the Covenant of Grace" (7.3). In it He "freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved" (7.3).

The covenant of grace runs through both Testaments. "There are not therefore two covenants of grace differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations" (7.6). Paul sums it up. It is "as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). Adam failed; Christ succeeded for His people.

Read: The Covenant of Redemption, Wilhelmus à Brakel; An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Robert Shaw; The Sum of Saving Knowledge; Therapeutica Sacra, David Dickson.

Both ways of speaking describe the same gospel. The difference is mainly in how the teaching is arranged and named.

Two covenants. Some speak of two covenants.

• The first is the covenant of works, made with Adam.
• The second is the covenant of grace, in Christ. On this view, the eternal agreement, or pactum salutis, between the Father and the Son is part of the covenant of grace.

Three covenants. Others, including our church, speak of three: works, redemption and grace.

• The covenant of works promised life to Adam "upon condition of perfect and personal obedience" (Westminster Confession 7.2).
• The covenant of redemption is the eternal agreement between the Father and the Son. In it the Father chose His Son "to be the Mediator between God and man" (8.1). He also gave Him a people, "to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified" (8.1).
• The covenant of grace is that same salvation made known to sinners in time. In it God "freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ" (7.3).

The Scottish minister David Dickson set out the three plainly: "The First is, the Covenant of Redemption, past between God, and Christ God appointed Mediator, before the World was, in the Council of the Trinity. The Second is, the Covenant of Works, made between God and Men, in Adam in his Integrity" (Therapeutica Sacra, Book I, ch. 4). The third, he says, is "the Covenant of Grace and Reconciliation through Christ, made between God and Believers (with their Children) in Christ" (Therapeutica Sacra, Book I, ch. 4).

The Standards teach all three, though they do not use the name covenant of redemption. Scripture speaks of eternal life, "which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2). And Christ says to His Father, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do" (John 17:4).

Both ways of speaking teach salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We speak of three covenants to make one thing plain. Our salvation was planned and secured in Christ before the world began. (See also the question 'What is covenant theology, in basic terms?')

Read: The Covenant of Redemption, Wilhelmus à Brakel; The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, vol. 1, Herman Witsius; Therapeutica Sacra, David Dickson; The Sum of Saving Knowledge.

A covenant is a solemn promise or agreement. The covenant of grace is God's promise to save sinners through Jesus Christ.

When Adam fell, mankind fell "by the breach of the first covenant, commonly called the Covenant of Works" (Larger Catechism 30), and made itself "incapable of life by that covenant" (Westminster Confession 7.3). But God did not leave mankind to perish.

• Who it is made with: The covenant of grace "was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed" (Larger Catechism 31). Its outward signs reach more widely, as Ishmael and Esau show (Genesis 17; Q&A with Rev. R. McCurley, 2024).
• What God offers: In it God "freely provideth and offereth to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation by him" (Larger Catechism 32). The offer goes to every sinner who hears the gospel.
• What God requires, and gives: He requires "faith as the condition to interest them in him" (Larger Catechism 32), that is, to give them a share in Him. And He "promiseth and giveth his Holy Spirit to all his elect, to work in them that faith" (Larger Catechism 32). The faith He asks for is His own gift.
• One covenant in every age: Before Christ came, it was given through promises and sacrifices that pointed to Him; since He came, through the Word and the sacraments. "There are not therefore two covenants of grace differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations" (Westminster Confession 7.6).

It rests on Christ's blood. Every sin "cannot be expiated but by the blood of Christ" (Larger Catechism 152), for "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). His blood is "the blood of the everlasting covenant" (Hebrews 13:20), and we are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19). God freely offers Christ, and He keeps every promise.

Read: A Treatise on the Covenant of Grace, John Colquhoun; The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, vol. 1, Herman Witsius; An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Robert Shaw.

In the same way we are: by God's grace, through faith in Christ.

Before Christ came, God's people trusted the Saviour God had promised. The first promise came right after the fall. The woman's seed would bruise the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" (Romans 4:3). Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day" (John 8:56). Hebrews 11 says they "died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off" (Hebrews 11:13).

God taught them through "promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances" (Westminster Confession 7.5). All of these were "foresignifying Christ to come" (Westminster Confession 7.5). That is, they pointed ahead to Him. (The paschal lamb is the Passover lamb.) Through these the Spirit built them up "in faith in the promised Messiah" (Westminster Confession 7.5). By Him "they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation" (Westminster Confession 7.5). Christ had not yet died, but yet His death already reached "the elect in all ages successively from the beginning of the world" (Westminster Confession 8.6).

So there has only ever been one way to be saved. It is not two covenants "differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations" (Westminster Confession 7.6). That is, one covenant, given out in different ways at different times. Believers then and now are made right with God in the same way (Westminster Confession 11.6). "Neither is there salvation in any other" (Acts 4:12). Christ is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8).

Read: The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, vol. 1, Herman Witsius; Redemption Accomplished and Applied, John Murray; An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Robert Shaw.

In it, not only under it. Infants of believing parents "are in that respect within the covenant, and to be baptized" (Larger Catechism 166). By birth they belong to the covenant outwardly, though this does not mean they are yet joined to Christ inwardly. Each child must still be born again and believe.

In the covenant. The visible church "consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, together with their children" (Westminster Confession 25.2). God promised Abraham to be "a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee" (Genesis 17:7). Paul says of a believer's children, "else were your children unclean; but now are they holy" (1 Corinthians 7:14). Peter said, "the promise is unto you, and to your children" (Acts 2:39).

Not saved by birth. This privilege does not make anyone a true believer. The covenant, as God administers it outwardly, is wider than election. Isaac and Ishmael both received its sign, and so did Jacob and Esau (Q&A with Rev. R. McCurley, 2024). Yet "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Romans 9:13). Baptism does not mean that "all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated" (Westminster Confession 28.5). Every child, like every adult, must be born again: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).

So covenant children are not outsiders waiting to get in. They are to be taught from the start that God's promise is to them, and called to trust in Christ and to own God's covenant for themselves. Parents pray and teach, trusting God, who gives His grace "in his appointed time" (Westminster Confession 28.6).

Read: Church Membership of Infants, James MacGregor; Why We Baptize Infants, John Murray; Q&A with Rev R. McCurley (April 7, 2024), R. McCurley.

Presumptive regeneration is the view that the children of believers should be presumed to be born again, unless they later show otherwise. It is not the same as baptismal regeneration, the view that baptism itself gives new birth.

Here is what Scripture and the Westminster Standards teach:

• Covenant. The children of believing parents are "within the covenant, and to be baptized" (Larger Catechism 166). Their standing rests on God's promise, "For the promise is unto you, and to your children" (Acts 2:39), not on a judgment about their hearts.
• Baptism. Baptism is a sign and seal "of regeneration" (Westminster Confession 28.1). But the Confession does not teach "that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated" (28.5). The grace baptism promises is given by the Holy Ghost "to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time" (28.6).
• New birth. Everyone must be born again: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The new birth is the Spirit's work. Jesus compared Him to the wind, which "bloweth where it listeth" (John 3:8).

So the Standards do not let us take a child's new birth for granted (28.5), nor treat covenant children as strangers to God's promise (Larger Catechism 166). Receiving the covenant sign is not the same as being a child of the promise. Ishmael and Isaac were both circumcised (Genesis 17:25; 21:4), yet "they are not all Israel, which are of Israel" (Romans 9:6). So each baptized child needs the gospel and the call to repent and believe in Christ, as one to whom the promise is made (Acts 2:39).

Read: Why We Baptize Infants, John Murray; Q&A with Rev R. McCurley (April 7, 2024), R. McCurley; An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Robert Shaw.

Baptism means the same thing for an adult and for an infant. What differs is who may receive it, and when. And no, salvation does not hinge on the water.

The same sign. Baptism is "a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins", and it solemnly admits the person baptized "into the visible church" (Westminster Confession 28.1).

Who is baptized. "Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents, are to be baptized" (28.4). An adult from outside the church is baptized when he professes faith in Christ. The children of believers "are in that respect within the covenant, and to be baptized" (Larger Catechism 166). God promised Abraham to be "a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee" (Genesis 17:7), and Peter said, "the promise is unto you, and to your children" (Acts 2:39).

Does salvation hinge on it? No. It is "a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance" (28.5), that is, to despise it. Yet "grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated" (28.5). Nor is its working "tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered" (28.6). God gives the grace it signifies to those to whom it belongs, "in his appointed time" (28.6).

So every baptized person, baby or adult, must still trust in Christ. The Catechism calls us to keep "improving our baptism", that is, making good use of it, "all our life long" (Larger Catechism 167).

Read: Why We Baptize Infants, John Murray; The Heidelberg Catechism (Questions 69 to 74); An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Robert Shaw.