Perhaps one of the reasons we have a difficult time reaching our neighbors with the gospel of Christ is that we are unwilling to sacrifice anything for their sake, breaking down relational and cultural walls that make it hard for them to . . . Continue reading →
Covenant of Works
But Even Tax Collectors
The ordo amoris isn’t a justification for cruelty, nor does it exempt us from loving strangers, enemies, etc. Loving your own is natural and necessary, but even tax collectors and sinners do that. Grace doesn’t destroy nature, and natural affection must be . . . Continue reading →
Erskine: A Sonnet On The Law And The Gospel
An angry God the law revealed, The gospel shows Him reconciled; By that I know He was displeased, By this I see His wrath appeased… Lo, in the law, Jehovah dwells, But Jesus is concealed; Whereas the gospel’s nothing else But Jesus . . . Continue reading →
The Marrow: Seeing Evidence Of Faith Is Not A Return To The Covenant Of Works
Ant. But I pray you, sir, is not this his reflecting upon himself to find out a ground to lay his believing that he hath believed upon, a turning back from the covenant of grace to the covenant of works, and from . . . Continue reading →
Christ Fulfilled The True Covenant Of Works
Christ fulfilled the true covenant of works by being born under the Mosaic law as the situation most resembling it. Mosaic typology thoroughly signified Christ’s obedience. Read more» Harrison Perkins | Reformed Covenant Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2024), 331. (HT: Reformed Dogmatika) . . . Continue reading →
Sibbes: The Ascended Christ Is Our Contentment
Christ’s ascension is a ground of contentment in all conditions. What if we lack comfort, houses, or anything on earth, when we have heaven provided for us, and glory provided for us in our Head? Will not any condition content a man . . . Continue reading →
Kuiper: The New Administration Of The Covenant Of Grace Is Not Nationalistic
The old dispensation and the new are customarily distinguished as the dispensation of nationalism and that of universalism. Continue reading →
Kuiper: The Covenant Through The Family And Beyond
While election stresses the fact that God chose one of twin brothers, Jacob, not Esau (Rom 9:10-12), the doctrine of the covenant stresses the truth that in imparting saving grace to men, God, although not bound by family ties, graciously takes them . . . Continue reading →
Kuiper: Christ Met The Condition Of The Covenant Of Works
Both at Babel and at Jerusalem God supernaturally caused men to speak in various tongues. But the consequences differed radically. At Babel there was confusion and division. Men were scattered abroad on all the face of the earth. That was the beginning . . . Continue reading →
New Resource Page: On The Internal/External Distinction In The Covenant Of Grace
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 . . . Continue reading →
Boston: Baxter Turned The Gospel Into Law
As to the point of justification; no man is, nor can be justified by the law. It is true, the Neonomians or Baxterians, to wind in a righteousness of our own into the case of justification, do turn the gospel into a . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: Sincere Obedience Is Not Enough
Is the law of the Lord perfect, and does it require that our obedience be perfect in its principles, parts, degrees, and continuance? It is impossible, then, that sincere obedience can entitle a sinner to eternal life. A man’s faith may be . . . Continue reading →
Boston: The Mosaic Covenant Was An Administration Of The Covenants Of Grace And Works
Wherefore I conceive the two covenants to have been both delivered on Mount Sinai to the Israelites. First, The covenant of grace made with Abraham, contained in the preface, repeated and promulgate there unto Israel, to be believed and embraced by faith, . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: Sinai Considered As Covenant Of Works
The law that was given from Mount Sinai by the ministry of Moses, considered as the matter of the covenant of works, was a ministry of rigor and of terror in opposition to the gospel dispensation, which is called grace; it was . . . Continue reading →
Erskine: The Order Of Assurance Matters Because Grace And Works Are Two Distinct Things
Before we proceed to the more particular consideration of the words, it is very much worthy of our notice, to observe the apostle’s order and method of doctrine, and how he knits the believer’s privilege and duty together. He would have the . . . Continue reading →
Boston: In The Covenant Of Grace We Are Not Sent Back To The Covenant Of Works
For Adam, by his sin, being become the child of wrath, and both in body and in soul subject to the curse, and seeing nothing due to him but the wrath and vengeance of God, was “afraid, and sought to hide himself . . . Continue reading →
The Covenant Before The Covenants
Those not well read in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Reformed theology might be forgiven their ignorance of the covenant of redemption or for concluding that it is an arcane doctrine long abandoned. Continue reading →
Colquhoun: No Natural Knowledge Of The Gospel
The law is known partly by the light of nature (Rom. 2:14–15), but the gospel is known only by a revelation from heaven (Matt. 11:27). Man, though he is a fallen creature, has in some degree a natural knowledge of the law, . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: We Were Created Able To Obey
The law [as a covenant of works] regards us as creatures originally formed with sufficient ability to yield perfect obedience to it; and accordingly, it requires us to retain and exert that ability in performing perfectly all the duties that we owe . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: We Are Wired For Works
The children of fallen Adam are so bent on working for life that they will on no account cease from it till the Holy Spirit so convinces them of their sin and misery as to show them that Mount Sinai is wholly . . . Continue reading →