Sword & Trowel 2016: Issue 2
argued with men’s consciences, insist- ing that they would have no rest nor peace apart from what the promise would give them. If the covenant of grace was alive and effective during that period, why should God provide, at the same time, another covenant between God and Israel, of a completely different nature? If the way of salvation was already enshrined in the promise of a Saviour made to Abraham, why should there be a revival of works, a special covenant for the Israelites from the time of Moses to Christ? We are informed of the general purpose of this old covenant dispen- sation by the apostle Paul in Galatians 3.19-24 —
‘Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgres- sions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator…Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
‘But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. ‘Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’
Here the apostle asks two questions
about the covenant of Sinai: (1) What objective was served? (2) Was it con- trary to the promise of God? The first he answers by saying that
Sinai was a revival and representation of the covenant of works, with its sanc- tion and curse.
The second question he answers by
saying that the Sinaitic covenant gave a signpost to direct the pious to the fulfilment of the promise (the teach- ings of grace). The revival of the covenant of
works was added ‘because of trans- gressions’. Because the fulness of time, the time for the Seed, would not come for a while, some order must in the meantime be exercised to control sin and transgression, so that the pro- gramme appointed by God might not be washed away by sin and disorder. By reviving the commands of the covenant
of works, with the sanction of death, an awe was put on the minds of men, and limits were placed upon their lusts, so that they did not dare to run into the excesses which they were naturally inclined to.
Their own land
The special covenant made with the nation at Sinai also had other ob- jectives connected with the coming of the promised Saviour. These people were the posterity of Abraham, to whom the promise had been made that in his Seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. From among them the Seed was to be raised up in due time, and to accomplish this vari- ous things were necessary: (1) That they should have a definite dwelling place or country, so that they might be distinct from other nations, and under a rule of their own. So it is said of them, that ‘the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations’
John Owen on the Covenants page 35
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