Sword & Trowel 2016: Issue 2
GOD’S PARALLEL COVENANTS
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ROM the beginning of the Bible we read of divine covenants, the
word covenant being used twenty-fi ve times in the book of Genesis alone. A divine covenant is an undertaking, a pledge by God, to relate to mankind on certain con- ditions. It is a form of compact or agreement.
God does not relate to man in a haphazard, random, disorderly way, but in accordance with clear princi- ples and purposes, refl ecting his holy nature and requirements. The divine covenants of the Bible enable us to grasp God’s ways much more clearly. Although the word covenant fi rst appears in Genesis 6.18, where God speaks of making his covenant with Noah, the Bible shows that all God’s dealings with men and women are conducted on the basis of two under- lying covenants, either that of works* or that of grace. These two covenants, in a way, run parallel with each other through history, that of works being characterised by the great command and warning of the Garden of Eden,
* Many thinkers have preferred not to call the covenant fi rst made by God with man in the Garden of Eden a covenant of works, because everything was freely provided by God, man only having a duty of obedience. But because it has become most generally known as the covenant of works, we will keep to that term in these pages.
Mount Sinai, where Moses gave the law.
The fi rst of two articles by the Editor on covenants, drawn from the 2016 Tabernacle School of Theology
and subsequently in the time of Mo- ses by the law, whereas that of grace was administered through promises and prophecies of Christ. This writer was taught this as a
very young Christian, learning that it was the fi rm conviction of the au- thors of that notable confession of faith, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.
The so-called covenant of works
was fi rst presented to mankind in the Garden of Eden, God promis- ing blessing on condition that man obeyed him (Genesis 2.16-17). Immediately after his disobedience
and Fall, another covenant was re- vealed, the covenant of grace, coming as a dawn of hope for lost mankind. Adam and Eve would have a special
God’s Parallel Covenants page 3
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