The Controversial Covenant of Grace: Westminster Christians and Reformed Baptists

The “covenant of grace” is one of the most profound and yet controversial theological truths of Christianity.

Many leaning towards dispensationalism simply say “well, I don’t see it anywhere in the Bible,” and so dismiss it. Infant-baptists see it as the sure ground for vindicating their position. Reformed Baptists such as myself simply agree with what the 1689 London Baptist Confession says (because it is taught in Scripture), and as such don’t see any biblical connection between the practice of baptizing unrepentant individuals (e.g. infants) and this covenant of grace. Hence, we are baptists.

The London Baptist Confession summarizes it best (Chapter 7):

The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant. ( Luke 17:10; Job 35:7,8 )

Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe. ( Genesis 2:17; Galatians 3:10; Romans 3:20, 21; Romans 8:3; Mark 16:15, 16; John 3:16; Ezekiel 36:26, 27; John 6:44, 45; Psalms 110:3 )

This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency. ( Genesis 3:15; Hebrews 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 11;6, 13; Romans 4:1, 2, &c.; Acts 4:12; John 8:56 )

Roughly put, the covenant of grace is simply God’s relationship to his elect people throughout all ages and times. Thus, all “covenant” transactions – all pacts and relationships established between God and his creatures post-fall – are essentially an expression of this covenant of grace. Why? Because God did not bring his wrath to bear on the human race immediately after the fall, but continued to be in (covenant) relationship with him. This is obviously an act of God’s grace.

Entering into the covenant of grace is always the same: having faith in the one true God and in Christ Jesus, either faith in the coming Christ (as Old Testament saints), the present Christ (as NT church), or Christ in history (as Christians today). That is, we enter into covenant with God via the gospel (and for that reason, some make the generalization that the covenant of grace is essentially the gospel itself). All people are saved through the same mediator no matter what age or particular historical covenantal relationship they might be in. Paedo-baptists and credo-baptists agree on this general doctrine, as their confessions show it.

As you can imagine, many religious persons under the massive umbrellas of “evangelicalism” and “Trinitarian Christianity” don’t like this truth. Extreme dispensationalists, for example, assert that man is not saved in the same way throughout time. Man was saved by works-righteousness before and during the life of Christ and Peter (whose words are only relevant to Jews). But since the Apostle Paul, who has been given the gospel of grace, we are saved by grace. As Joel Finck, a leader in the Hyper-Dispensationalist movement said in Common Questions about the Grace Message:

Paul’s epistles are the words of Christ to us today…we are to follow the Words of Christ, as they were revealed to the Apostle Paul. We must preach and believe the gospel as was revealed to the Apostle Paul. Christ taught a gospel – the Gospel of the Kingdom. But under that gospel, He taught that if you want eternal life, you must keep the commandments (Matthew 19:17). It was Paul who first taught the simple gospel of faith, believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again on the third day (I Corinthians 15:3, 4). Have you been saved by believing the Gospel of Grace preached by Paul? If you haven’t, you can be saved today by faith. (17)

Is Peter still preaching the necessity of some kind of righteous works to be accepted by the Lord? Yes. Works of righteousness. Peter…preaches this in II Peter 1:5-11 where he says “…add to your faith…”(57)

This is horrible theology, and (Lord willing) I will critique it more thoroughly in the future. Let it be said for now that Scripture clearly teaches the contrary (see references above in the Confession). All Christians are saved by grace through faith. This is most clearly demonstrated in how Paul uses Abraham as an example of how Christians today are justified before God (Rom. 3-5). In fact, Paul says that “the gospel” was “preached beforehand to Abraham” (Galatians 3:8). Finally, Calvin summarized under the section “Even in the Old Covenant justification derives its validity from grace alone”: “The Old Testament was established upon the free mercy of God, and was confirmed by Christ’s intercession” (Institutes, II. X. 4).

So the covenant of grace is generally an area of agreement between Reformed camps.

Generally.

The debate on this issue – and on covenant theology in general – between the Westminster Christians (those who hold to Westminster Confession of Faith) and Reformed Baptist Christians (hold to LBCF)  revolves around three major disagreements…stay tuned.