Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology

Phillip D. R. Griffiths

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781666717174
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

God's covenants form the backbone of the Scriptures. Understanding these covenants is the key to unlocking the treasures that lay therein. This book will enable the reader, not only to appreciate redemptive history, but to understand more fully his/her position in Christ. Griffiths demonstrates the essential fact that there has always been one Church, one way of salvation, and that all have been, are being, and will be saved only through faith in Christ.Griffiths eschews the Presbyterian paradigm which believes the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants to be of the same substance as the new covenant, only differing in regard to their administration. Replacing it with essential truth that the new covenant, which is the outworking of the eternal covenant of redemption in time, is the only covenant of grace. Both Old and New Testament believers come under the mediatorship of Christ and are members and recipients of new covenant blessings.The author shows how all other covenants, what he calls "subsidiary covenants, " are of works, and that their function is to magnify the covenant of grace, i.e., the new covenant.

1

What is a Covenant

Before we can go any further we need to determine exactly what a covenant is. There is much that could be written about this. For this work, however, it will be necessary to provide only a basic understanding.

“Covenant” is unquestionably one of the most important words used in the Bible. The Hebrew word for covenant is Berith, which occurs no less than 275 times. The Greek word is Diatheke, and this occurs thirty-three times. Our Bible is divided into two sections, the Old and New Testaments. The word ‘testament’ is simply another name for covenant. The Old Testament, however, is not synonymous with the old covenant, although most of what we read about from the Old Testament is concerned with the old covenant. By Old Testament is meant the entire contents of the Scriptures revealed before the first advent, i.e., the 39 books, ranging from Genesis to Malachi. The old covenant, as used in Scripture refers to the covenant made with Moses, which we usually refer to as the Mosaic or Sinaitic covenant.

One usually considers a covenant to be an agreement or a contract. When made between two equal parties it is, in the words of paedobaptist A. A. Hodge, “a mutual understanding and the agreement of two wills.”1 The covenants that God has made with man are different from covenants made between men because they are made between a superior party (God) and an inferior party (man). It is important to bear in mind that “in the Bible a divine covenant is never a pact resulting from bargaining or mutual discussion . . . A divine covenant is always a unilateral, one-sided imposition.”2 Or as Berkhof puts it:

God and man do not appear as equals in any of these covenants. All God’s covenants are of the nature of sovereign dispositions imposed on man. God is absolutely sovereign in His dealings with man, and has the perfect right to lay down the conditions which the latter must meet, in order to enjoy His favor.3

Such covenants are not “the product of human request or cajoling. It comes from the free, spontaneous activity of God.”4 A covenant made by God is “an unchangeable divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man that stipulates the conditions of their relationship.”5 These covenants are essentially conditional promises. God promises blessings if the covenantal conditions are kept and he threatens curses if they are broken. For example, in Deuteronomy chapter 28 we have a list of blessings for the nation’s obedience to the covenant (vv.1–14) and a list of the curses (vv.15ff) for disobedience.

There are also what might be called ‘unconditional’ covenants in Scripture. A good example is God’s covenant with Noah and his descendants in Genesis 8:20—9:17. Here there are no conditions imposed upon man, but only God’s promise to never again destroy all life. As we shall see later, we find the same kind of covenant in Genesis 15, where again no conditions are stipulated. We may, in the words of Waldron, define this type of covenant as “a sworn promise—a commitment certified by an oath.”6

Although there is much more that can be said about the biblical covenants, the above should suffice for what I have to say here.

1. Hodge, A. A. Evangelical Theology, 166.

2. Waldron, A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, 115.

3. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 213.

4. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 116.

5. Grudem, Systematic Theology, 515.

6. Waldron, A Mordern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, 117.

2

The Plight of Humanity Under the First Man

Although the Scriptures mention several different covenants, there are only two primary covenants. The first covenant in time was the covenant of works made with Adam, the first man. The second covenant, what we call the new covenant, while it was revealed to humanity after the covenant of works, is the outworking, in time, of a covenant made in eternity. This eternal covenant is what theologians refer to as the covenant of redemption.7It is essentially an agreement made between the three Persons of the Godhead before creation itself. The new covenant is essentially the operational stage of this covenant. Let me use a simply analogy. Let us assume that a difficult military operat...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: What is a Covenant
• Chapter 2: The Plight of Humanity Under the First Man
• Chapter 3: Redemption through the Second Adam
• Chapter 4: The New Covenant in the Old Testament
• Chapter 5: Application of New Covenant Before Abraham
• Chapter 6: Promissory Covenant with Abraham
• Chapter 7: The Covenant of Circumcision
• Chapter 8: Abraham’s Double Capacity
• Chapter 9: The Sinaitic Covenant
• Chapter 10: The Davidic Covenant
• Chapter 11: Circumcision and Baptism?
• Chapter 12: The Distinguishing Factor
• Conclusion
• Bibliography