Covenant Theology
Subtopics
Related: The Active/Passive Obedience of Christ
In studying divine covenants in general, one is treading through understanding God's Redemptive Plan throughout history. This is a matter of Eternal Salvation. It answers the question: How may a sinful man approach God (Exodus 3:5)?
Herman Witsius
“The gospel set in the context of God’s eternal plan of communion with his people and its historical outworking in the covenant of works and grace.”
– J; Ligon Duncan III
Everyone is in covenant with God and the sanctions are according to which covenant you are in. Covenants are the architectural framework, the superstructure of the Bible. Covenant theology is just biblical theology because we find covenants everywhere in the Bible. Many scholars try to discover what is the center of the Bible ... the center of biblical theology? Some of the proposed centers for biblical theology are God, Israel, Covenant, creation, kingdom, salvation, new creation, and so forth. None of these are the center of the Bible though. They lose their meaning without Christ. If there is no Christ, there is no kingdom to talk about. The diversity of the Bible is unified in Christ. He is the center that holds all of the biblical data together. While the covenants night be the vehicle by which God relates to his people and the kingdom of God is certainly his pervasive rule over all people yet the fullest expression of God and His glory come in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and this is why covenants are important. They teach us about Him.
- Rev Dan McManigal
Question: Does not God then do injustice to man by requiring of him in His Law that which he cannot perform?
Answer: No, for God so made man that he could perform it, but man, through the instigation of the devil, by willful disobedience deprived himself and all his posterity of those divine gifts.
Heidelberg Catechism (Q9; 1563)
There is no obscurity in the words, "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
John Calvin (Institutes, 2.1.6)
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