One covenant of grace in many ages

Two Testaments, one covenant

We call the two parts of the Bible the Old and New Testaments, and the word testament translates the Greek diathēkē (διαθήκη), covenant. Paul speaks of Israel's reading of the books of Moses as "the reading of the old covenant" (2 Corinthians 3:14). So does the Bible tell of two covenants of salvation, an old one and a new one?

The Westminster Confession answers carefully. The covenant of grace "was differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the gospel". Under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb and other types and ordinances, all foresignifying Christ to come. These were, for that time, "sufficient and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah", by whom they had full remission of sins and eternal salvation; and this is called the Old Testament Westminster Confession 7.5.

Under the gospel, when Christ the substance had come, the same covenant is dispensed by the preaching of the Word and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are fewer and simpler, with less outward glory, yet in them the covenant is held forth "in more fulness, evidence and spiritual efficacy, to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles"; and this is called the New Testament. The Confession draws the conclusion: "There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations" Westminster Confession 7.6.

Calvin had argued the same at length. The covenant made with the patriarchs, he wrote, is in substance one with ours and differs only in the way it was administered. The Old Testament set the heavenly inheritance before Israel under earthly blessings, showed the truth in shadows and ceremonies, and was given to one nation; the New shows the substance plainly and is opened to all nations Calvin, Institutes 2.10–11.

The gospel preached to Abraham

Scripture shows this unity again and again. Paul says that the Scripture "foretold the gospel to Abraham" (Galatians 3:8), and he names the heart of the promise.

The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, "and to seeds," meaning many, but "and to your seed," meaning One, who is Christ.

Galatians 3:16

Matthew Henry comments that "the covenant God made with Abraham, was not done away by the giving the law to Moses" Matthew Henry. So Paul can tell Gentile believers, "if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29). Abraham received circumcision as a seal of the righteousness he had by faith, so that he might be "the father of all who believe" (Romans 4:11), Jew and Gentile alike.

Israel in the wilderness lived on the same Christ.

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:3-4

Matthew Henry calls the crossing of the Red Sea "a typical baptism" Matthew Henry, and sees the manna as a type of Christ crucified. Hebrews 11 tells of saints who "saw them and welcomed them from afar" (Hebrews 11:13), and says that Moses "valued disgrace for Christ above the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:26). On the Emmaus road the risen Lord, "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets", explained what all the Scriptures said about himself (Luke 24:27). Chrysostom, in the Catena, gives one example: "the sacrifice of Abraham, when releasing Isaac he sacrificed the ram, prefigured Christ's sacrifice" Chrysostom.

What becomes of the law

Seen as one covenant, the law of Moses looks different too. The Westminster Confession says God gave the people of Israel, "as a church under age", ceremonial laws: ordinances of worship that prefigured Christ and his benefits, and are now abrogated under the New Testament. To Israel as a nation he gave judicial laws, "which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require". But "the moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof" Westminster Confession 19.3–5. The ceremonies were not thrown away; they were fulfilled. "These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ" (Colossians 2:17).

Believers are not under the law as a covenant of works, to be justified or condemned by it. Yet the Confession says the law is still of great use to them, "as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty" Westminster Confession 19.6. Calvin called this the law's third use: even believers, in whose hearts the Spirit already lives, learn the Lord's will from it more fully every day Calvin, Institutes 2.7.12. Under the new covenant God writes that law not on stone but on the heart (Jeremiah 31:33). The life of gratitude it shapes is the subject of Guilt, grace and gratitude.

Israel and the church: one olive tree

Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Romans 11:17-18

The Reformed churches read here one tree, one people of God. Matthew Henry puts it simply: "Abraham was as the root of the church" Matthew Henry. Gentiles who were once "strangers to the covenants of the promise" (Ephesians 2:12) are now "fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household" (Ephesians 2:19), because Christ "has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14).

What then does Paul mean when he says, "And so all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26)? Reformed interpreters read it in more than one way. Calvin took all Israel to be the whole people of God gathered from Jews and Gentiles. Others take it as the full number of elect Jews through history. Many Puritans, and Matthew Henry among them, expected a future turning of many Jews to Christ. Henry says this does not mean a return of priesthood, temple and ceremonies, "but they are to be brought to believe in Christ" Matthew Henry. On every reading, salvation comes the same way, by being grafted into the one tree through faith in Christ.

Dispensationalism reads these passages differently. Spread widely by the Scofield Reference Bible, it keeps Israel and the church distinct as two peoples, and expects the promises of land and throne made to Abraham and David to be fulfilled literally to the nation of Israel in the future Scofield Reference Bible. It springs from a desire to take God's promises at their word and to honour his faithfulness to Israel, and dispensationalists today generally insist that in every age salvation has been by grace through faith. The Reformed confessions read those promises as fulfilled in Christ and shared by all who belong to him.

So the Reformed churches read the Old Testament not as someone else's book but as their own. The Christ whom Abraham trusted, the rock in the wilderness, the one to whom every sacrifice pointed, is the same Christ who comes to us today in word and sacrament. The sign of the covenant in this new age is the subject of the next lesson, The sign of the covenant: baptism and infant baptism.

Practice