Everyone will have to agree that for Adam, perfect keeping of the law for a fixed period of time was the means to acquire eternal beatitude that cannot be lost. When the covenant of works was broken, God could have rescinded this promise. He was no longer bound to honor it. Nevertheless, He allowed the promise and the condition to stand and repeatedly be published anew, especially by the proclamation of the Sinaitic law (Lev 18:5, “The one who does them will live by them”; cf. Rom 10:5, “For Moses describes the righteousness that is by the law,” etc.; Gal 3:12). Fulfillment of this condition from man’s side was no longer conceivable; thus the repetition must have had a different significance. This significance can only be that after the fall God gave His covenant of grace, in which the same demand and promise are fulfilled in the Mediator.
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, ed. and trans. Richard B. Gaffin Jr., vol. 3 (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012–16), 132. (HT: Jesse Cook)
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R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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Prior to this posting I had only slim evidence of Vos’ actual embrace of repub. There is the nod toward its historic place in his article on the Reformed doctrine of the covenant but this nails it. Thanks so much for digging out this gold nugget and republishing it for our enrichment.