When God said to Abraham, “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your children after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your children after you” (Genesis 17:7) and “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised” (Gen 17:9–10; ESV) he both extended and elaborated upon the pattern already established under Noah. The outward administration of the covenant of grace has always included families. God included in the external administration of the covenant of grace made with Noah: “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you” (Genesis 6:18; ESV). That pattern traces back to the promise made to our first parents after the fall, the protevangellion, the first promise of the gospel: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your child and her child; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). The promise was that there was come a headcrushing child, whom we know to be Jesus of Nazareth, who came as the last Adam (Rom 5:12–21; 1 Cor 15:45), the obedient substitute for all of God’s elect, would come. That promise, however, was to be administered outwardly through believers and their children. That is why Eve said, “I have gotten a man with the help of Yahweh” (Gen 4:1). She thought that this child was the one whom the Lord had promised. He was not but the child did come. He was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He was raised on the third day. He is ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father as the reigning King until his glorious return (Acts 2; all).
The church under the types and shadows always administered the promise of the covenant of grace, the promise that God would be the God of believers and their children, to believers and their children. The Lord repeated the Abrahamic promise through Jeremiah, “I will give them a a heart to know me, for I am Yahweh; and they will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with their whole heart” (Jer 24:7) and “I will be their God, and they shall be My people” and “they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Jer 32:38). The promised the New Covenant was to include believers and their children. That is why the Apostle Peter told the Jews gathered at Pentecost, “Because the promise is to you and to your children, and to for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39). The administration of the New Covenant was to include believers, their children, and gentiles.
In Scripture, the outward administration of the covenant of grace is distinguished from the inward reality. Participation in the outward or external administration of the covenant of grace is not dependent upon having already received the inward or internal reality (new life and true faith). Rather, it is through the regular participation in the outward administration that the Lord ordinarily bestows in the inward realities. Read more»
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