Written by Stephen G. Myers |
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Covenant is woven throughout Scripture. Why? Because in God’s covenantal work, He has been working to bring His people to Himself and He has made them His own.

If you sat down and read the entire Bible from cover to cover, you would notice that one theme surfaces repeatedly: covenant. A covenant is a binding relationship between parties that involves both blessings and obligations, and throughout Scripture, one finds God working to gather a people to Himself through these covenantal relationships. This understanding of Scripture is called covenant theology.
In Genesis 3:15, God first announces His intention to save His people through His covenant of grace. Working through this covenant, God would raise up a messianic Seed who would destroy the serpent and win God’s people to Himself. In advancing this covenant of grace throughout history, God entered into a covenant with Noah (Gen. 6–9), with Abraham (Gen. 12; 15; 17), with Moses (Ex. 20–24), and with David (2 Sam. 7), all the while pointing forward to a new covenant inaugurated by Jesus Christ (Luke 22:20). In each of these covenantal administrations, God was incrementally accomplishing His purpose to gather a people to Himself. In fact, Revelation pictures all redemptive history in precisely this way, as the entire course of redemption is symbolized by a dragon who is pursuing the child of a woman (Rev. 12). All redemptive history has been the fulfillment of God’s promise of the covenant of grace in Genesis 3:15.
As God has brought this covenant of grace to progressive fulfillment, He has used what Hebrews 8:5 calls a “copy” and a “shadow” to teach His people and prepare them for Christ. A “copy” or a “shadow,” in this sense, is an act, an institution, or even a person that, while it has its own meaning, has its ultimate significance in fore­shadowing how God will save His people. For example, in the judgment and deliverance of the Noahic covenant, God was pointing to His ability, at the appointed time, to bring His covenantal purposes to their perfect completion (2 Peter 3:6–7). In His covenant with Abraham, God was showing His people that, by their faith in Him, He would gather them into an eternal city (Heb. 11:8–16). In the Mosaic covenant, God made clear the holiness that He desired in this redeemed people and showed what would be required to take away their guilt (Lev. 19:2; 17:11). In the Davidic covenant, God showed His people that His Messiah would be a righteous King who would reign over them (Ezek. 34:23–24). Finally, as the prophets foretold the new covenant, they revealed that this Messiah would change, from the inside out (Ezek. 36:26), a people from every nation (Isa. 9:2).
All these copies and shadows inject tremendous continuity into Scripture. In Romans 4, Paul uses Abraham as an example of the faith that Christians are to have (vv. 1–5). In Galatians, Paul refers to Christians as “Abraham’s offspring” (3:29); he writes that God’s promises to Abraham envisioned Christ (v. 16); and he refers to the Galatian Christians as “the Israel of God” (6:16). Repeatedly, Paul simply assumes that God is doing in the New Testament precisely what He was doing in the Old Testament.
Other New Testament authors make this same assumption. Peter suggests that God’s work in the Noahic covenant anticipated the coming fulfillment of the covenant of grace (2 Peter 3:5–7), and he uses Old Testament descriptions of Israel to describe the Christian church (1 Peter 2:9–10). In Hebrews, the faith of God’s people in every generation is surveyed so that “so great a cloud of witnesses” might encourage Christians to persevere in the faith (Heb. 12:1; see 11:1–12:2). God has one people, and He saves them through a shared faith; hence, the “cloud of witnesses” is relevant for Christians. Again, continuity within God’s covenant of grace is assumed.
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When considering the category of covenant, an obvious question emerges: What is a covenant? In Scripture, a covenant is a binding relationship among parties that involves both blessings and obligations (e.g., Josh. 9:3–21). In many ways, marriage is a good example of a covenant relationship. Marriage is a relationship to which both parties are solemnly committed, and that relationship brings both blessings and obligations to husband and to wife. Stated differently, a covenant is a relationship within parameters.
If a covenant is a relationship within parameters, what is covenant theology? Covenant theology seeks to use the biblically prominent covenants to inform our knowledge of God and of His work. Specifically, covenant theology contends that God has been working throughout history to gather His people to Himself through covenantal relationship.
The Covenant of Works
The first covenantal relationship one encounters in the Scriptures is the covenant of works, which is the relationship in the garden of Eden between God and Adam as the representative or head of all mankind. This relationship between God and Adam is a rich one. God has made humanity—both man and woman—in His own image (Gen. 1:26–27), He has breathed life itself into Adam (Gen. 2:7), He has placed His image bearers in a garden overflowing with abundant provision for all their needs (Gen. 1:29–30; 2:8–9), and in that place of blessing, man enjoys immediate communion with God Himself (Gen. 3:8). Even more, God has given Adam commands that instruct him how he is to live as God’s image bearer. Under these creation ordinances, man is commanded to exercise dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:28; 2:19), to labor (Gen. 2:15), to marry (Gen. 2:24–25), to fill the earth (Gen. 1:28), and to enjoy doxological rest on the Sabbath day (Gen. 2:3). Adam and Eve are God’s image bearers, living in God’s paradise, in fellowship with their Creator, and with instructions on how to reflect the glory of God Himself. Nestled amid these blessings, God also has commanded Adam that he is not to eat of one tree in the garden—the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If Adam eats of that tree, he will die (Gen. 2:16–17). But if Adam lives out a life of “perfect and personal obedience” (Westminster Confession of Faith 7.2), he will attain everlasting life. In His condescending love for His image bearers, God is holding out a way that finite man can inherit everlasting life in His presence. By covenant, God would gather humanity fully to Himself.
An Eternal Covenant of Grace
Adam, of course, failed to uphold that covenant. In an act of flagrant rebellion, Adam ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree and brought the covenantal curse of death not only upon himself but also upon all the posterity whom he had represented in the covenant (Rom. 5:12–14; 1 Cor. 15:22). In the shambles of Adam’s rebellion, however, God declared a promise. Despite Adam and Eve’s rebellion, God would preserve a people to Himself, from generation to generation, and ultimately, from that people, God would raise up One who would destroy the enemy of the souls of His people (Gen. 3:15). This was the promise of a Messiah and of a people who belonged to Him. It was God’s announcement not of the covenant of works but of His covenant of grace.