Our God is infinitely and wonderfully complex, His ways past
finding out and His wisdom boundless and eternal. The Lord has, nonetheless, been
pleased to bend low to reveal much about Himself. He has shown us His power and
engineering discretion in the physical creation. He has revealed His holiness,
justice and mercy through the giving of the law, and His great kindness and
patience through the prophets and Scripture writers. The clearest and fullest
revelation was given to us through the coming of the Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. It is in the face of Christ that we are able to determine most
specifically what God is like, how He governs His creation and how He saves and
brings a people unto Himself. In Christ we have justice and mercy perfectly
alloyed, righteous wrath against the sinner and perfect love made possible and
joined together.
Trying to think God’s thoughts and to describe His ways we
soon discover the severity of our limitations. Like a swimmer attempting to
navigate the Pacific Ocean, we progress only a few yards at a time. We have
awareness of but a few square miles on the great expanse. In spite of this
inadequacy, there are distinct patterns that God has wisely ordained. When we
attempt to analyze His strategies and to examine the course and methodology
that He uses we become better able to grasp and retain the truth. This analysis
is like figuring out the "game plan," getting an understanding of how
everything has been made to work in God’s universe. The pattern that the Church
has historically discerned in the workings of the sovereign God is called
Covenant Theology. This pattern portrays God the Father as first, the Absolute
Determiner of all things and events; second, the Only Begotten Son, the One who
causes all things to happen, moving life and history forward; and third, as the
Holy Spirit, who generates life, sustains creation and gives insight to all
with whom He savingly strives.
His being a Covenant God means that He lives in consummate
covenant life in Himself. Within the three Persons of the Holy Trinity there is
nothing of loneliness or need of any kind. This is true because God knows
Himself exhaustively and exists within Himself in perfect fellowship and love.[1] Thus,
God, indeed, is One. This forms the essence and basis of the Covenant of Grace,
the pact concerning His elect that the Father made with Jesus Christ, as the
Head of man. Because of the perfection already existing in the Lord God,
through the mechanism of the Covenant, man is able to participate in and taste,
in a creaturely way, something of the harmony.
As a benefit then of the existing perfection (koinonia) in
God, the Covenant of Grace was instituted to reveal the awesome permanence and
continuity of the way of the Lord. This is the part of the Decree that reflects
the brightness of God’s glory in showing how comprehensive is His design and how,
in shaping His universe nothing was left out, nor was "chance"
licensed or the Pagan concept of randomness entitled.
This holy Covenant was made between God the Father and His
Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ in His human nature, standing at the head of and
as sovereign Representative of the elect. Those fallen men upon whom God had
set His love, those rebels not being able or willing to come to repentance and
faith, in fact, running from any fellowship with their Creator, are thus
undeservedly represented in Christ. They are not left to their self-centered
defiance and insurrection, but are brought to humility and submission before
the Savior who died for their sin.
Presented with the Gospel these sinners turn away and run
for cover just as do all unregenerate people. If left to themselves, their own
sin-enslaved wills and evil desires, they would invariably continue to reject
Christ and His proffered mercy. On the other hand, if they are subjects of the
contract between the Heavenly Father and His Eternal Son they sooner or later
will be found slowing down in their baneful spiritual descent, beginning to
think with a somewhat enlightened mind and starting to realize the hopelessness
of their plight.
This point is reached in the human heart only by the blessed
intrusion of the Holy Spirit. Now when presented with the Gospel, in its many
forms and graces, the sinful heart listens. It begins to consider the
truthfulness of the indictment and the sweetness of the offer. Then, in God’s
time, the sinner’s heart and mind are brought to repentance and faith. God’s
eternal will and plan are carried out and His people, for whom He covenanted,
are brought into the safety and productiveness of His Kingdom. Their fallen
natures are renewed, their actual sins are confessed and forgiven, their
faithless and valueless works are shelved. After this, listed in the Father’s
Book Of Life, are the righteous works of Christ Jesus, now accounted under
their names and to their credit. These regenerated lives are set on a course of
change and obedience. New works begin to reflect the blessings of salvation.
God has wisely engineered history, both personal and
corporate, to nurture and influence His people. From before human conception to
the point of conversion their names are known to Him.[2] Their
individual characters have been designed and created in the same way as their
physical bodies were formed. For example, God spoke of His servant Abraham as a
man who was "known" in a creative and generative sense.[3] This
truth should be understood dynamically, not in some reflexively mechanical or
involuntary way. God made the spiritual fidelity of His chosen ones a certainty
and, by the same eternal decree, personal faithfulness their singular delight.
We are graciously allowed to view the double-sided coin of God’s love and
justice.
The idea of "covenant" has, on occasion, seen
wrong application or distortion. Some Christians mistakenly think of God’s
promise of care and salvation as "automatic" regeneration, as though
it would occur without the awareness or concern of the person. Indeed, there
have been erroneous applications of theology that would tend to suggest this
mistake. There have been children of the Covenant who lived lives of self
indulgence and debauchery, while at the same time, considering themselves
"officially" to be believers. This fault does not render the position
to be wrong. Covenant theology is not erased by covenant breakers who despised
their heritage in the same way as did Esau.[4]
The idea of "covenant" is only rightly grasped by
the one who realizes something of the depth of his own spiritual need, the one
who has been brought to face the hopelessness of his inability and the
fickleness of his determination to change. The ultimate covenant breaker, in
reality, lives out of himself, nothing more. He reveals and confirms the fact
that he is not included in the number of those given to the Son. On the other
hand, the covenant keeper reveals the opposite. His eventual faith is lived out
of the power of God’s Spirit and grace. Thus, the staying power and certainty
engendered by the knowledge of God’s covenant promises expand into the precious
basis for stability in the life of the maturing believer. Looking to God as the
Author, as well as the Finisher of our faith is the apt summary of an accurate
view of redemption. As stated above, other views are too weak and man-oriented.
Covenant theology is also the basis for the best and most
comprehensive world view. This is because it assumes that God is sovereign and
has always carried out, with perfection, His plan for His world, for man and
all of history. It holds that every event, big or small, significant or
(seemingly) insignificant, comes about as part of the totality that God
designed. It catalogs the comprehensive fulfillment of the promise that
"God causes all things to work together for those who love Him and are the
called according to His purpose."[5]
A Covenant world view always maintains the cardinal point
that the sovereign God is the center of the universe, the focus of the one as
well as the many, each and every event and the many circumstances and
happenings of all history. It marvels at His wisdom and power. It engenders
fascination at His justice and mercy, able to account for the economic and
political status of nations, and the difficulties and inequities that dog even
the keen and principled philosopher. It never sees God as a mere genie who
waits in his bottle until summoned by a rub from man.
The widely popular opposing view, there being only one,
helps us to understand the importance of the covenantal emphasis. Humanism, the
religion of man, irrepressibly asserts its starting point with man, not God.
Its maligning chant centers around, as should be anticipated, the salvation of
man. Its litany exposes an underlying dogma consisting of a carping lamentation
about the economic and physical condition, the endless needs of various sectors
of society and man’s stalking death sentence. Expressed in simple terms, man
wants with all his heart to believe the fantasy that God doesn’t exist and
that, simultaneously, He is responsible for all the pain and suffering endured
by a humanity that is essentially neutral, if not innocent.
Certain inadequate "Christian" world views persist
in one form or another. Evangelicals and Arminians sheepishly propose a
well-meaning god, one who does his best to keep order in history and to stamp
out the fires of defiance and sedition. His chief purpose being to provide
personal salvation to man, He is presented as always standing by, anticipating
the momentary decision of any who might turn to Him with favor. Their gospel of
salvation is based, as it should be, on the substitutionary blood atonement of
Christ, but its hope is all in the future tense, divorced from the larger vista
of conflict and Kingdom and the vindication of Christ.[6] Man’s
free will and genius, in their view, interfere with the righteous proposals of
God, thus He can’t be blamed for bad things that happen, but spiritual
contention is seen too much as on an equal footing.
Modernists and liberals, other spin-offs from the Faith,
profess the same empty prospect as do the Humanists, seeking man’s good only in
economic, political and psychological progress. They see no conquest over evil
in the cross and resurrection, nor do they hope for an eternity in heaven. This
"non-pagan" philosophy contents itself with befriending the enemies
of Christ and mimicking their complaint, while wearing a costume of the church.
Covenant Theology then calls to mind the full-orbed biblical
truth, the most God-centered statement of His revelation. It maintains in top
billing the idea of the absolute sovereignty of God. This great doctrine is the
controlling feature and starting point of every subsequent and supporting
doctrine. A God who acts only with perfect righteousness in everything He says
and does needs no bargain apologies from His ministers on earth. He requires no
spin doctors or sales-oriented divines who can invent more appealing versions
of character or create a better press to explain His acts of judgment or mercy.
Application ONE of Covenant Theology establishes that it is
to be received because of its peremptory biblical mandate. The Bible says that
God promised to bless Abraham and his seed, the seed we learn that is found in
Christ. His promise had application for all time and for all people who are, by
grace, in that favored category.[7] (In the
book of Galations we are taught that these are all the people of faith, those
blessed with faithful Isaac.) We cannot ignorantly dismiss covenant
consciousness because of some misunderstanding or alleged misuse. Nor can we
arrogantly construct some other understanding of God’s ways.
Application TWO; either God has planned and continually
brings about all events, personal and corporate, with precision and
righteousness or He doesn’t. If He does not or cannot do this, the alternative
must be accepted, Man is his own god.[8] The
uniqueness of Covenant thinking points up the certainty, the formal and
reliable legal aspect of everything that God has said in His Word. It reassures
us that Christ was and is victorious, that He, indeed, continues to bring to
greater light, within the confines of history, the reality of His Kingdom on
earth and the glory of His present rule. We are personally humbled, our own
salvation being thus, the more assured. Resting on the contractual certainty of
the Book of Life, the entry of our name having been written in the blood of the
cross, we revel in the faithfulness of the Savior and in His ability to keep
that which we have committed until the final consummation.
Application THREE is the fact that Covenant Theology reflects, most profoundly, the glory and majesty of God. All of history comes about as the outworking of His eternal decree, not as a construct of the combined or assimilated decisions and works of man. Our salvation is the subject of this all encompassing compact between the Father and Son. The circumstances and the final outcome of our lives issue forth as fully determined and significant from God’s throne room and we are particularly privileged to be enabled to partake in the covenant communion of the Triune God.
A FOURTH application is evident with regard to the holy
sacraments. We baptize our new born children in faith. Having received them
from the hand of God we rejoice with them as having a part in the Promise.[9] We cannot
biblically count them among the reprobate, or dependent on personal good will,
ingenuity or spiritual discernment. They are God’s to create and to cause to be
born in a covenant home, our home. We are commanded to treat them as such. The
sacrament of the Lord’s Supper has the same rationale. We do not excommunicate
our children as soon as they enter the world. Rather, having received them from
God’s hand, we include them in the eating and drinking of the life-giving bread
and wine. Their discernment is not as great as our own, as adults, but the
required level of perception must only be commensurate with one’s ability.
Thus, the aged and the senile are not excluded because of their lack. The Lord
doesn’t require of us, sitting in the pew, the understanding of Luther or
Calvin. Nor do we demand of our toddlers a seminarian’s grasp of doctrine.
Those born within or adopted under the cover of the Promise are included in the
blessing.
Covenant Theology rightly acknowledges the honor of God and
is energized by Divine initiative. It draws attention away from man and self.
This superior emphasis is noted throughout the entire spectrum of theological
subjects. The wise accent on representation is especially noteworthy and
helpful. Those who rejoice under the covering of God’s holy promise know
something of the confidence that is found only in the government of our
Covenant-keeping elder Brother, Savior and King, Jesus Christ.
[1] See Herman Hoeksema, Reformed
Dogmatics, Reformed Free Pub. Assoc., Grand Rapids, MI, 1966, p. 319.
[2] Jeremiah 1:5 reveals the prior
knowledge of God and His sovereign direction in the life of the prophet.
[3] Genesis 18:19 speaks of God’s
creative "knowledge" of Abraham that insured his faithfulness in
rearing his covenant children.
[4] Hebrews 12: 11-17
[5] See Romans 8:28. This wonderful
pledge is often used to crow about something that is considered beneficial and
good. It must also be remembered at times and events that are disappointing and
not understood.
[6] Psalm 149:5-9. This Psalm, along
with many others, portrays the ultimate victory of our Lord, in history.
Scripture teaches that Christ’s honor will be vindicated before the kings,
political leaders and nations. His rule will be increasingly manifested while
the failure and defeat of Humanism becomes undeniably evident.
[7] See Galatians 3:16 and 4:4. Here in
these verses we see the application of Genesis 3:15 as God declared it in the
Garden of Eden.
[8] See Romans 8:26-28. For this
statement of God’s sovereignty to be true and sustainable He must ordain and
control with absolute certainty, all things, big and small. Nothing can be left
to chance or incertitude, since everything is related and dependent.
[9] 9 See Gen.17:1-17. Father Abraham
puts the mark of the Covenant on his child and upon his hired servants. He thus
notes the significance of both familial and other relationships.