Sword & Trowel 2016: Issue 2
I used to visit the USA often years ago and it seemed to me that the historic Baptist view of covenants had died out there. It was a kind of side-hobby for me to chat to pastors about the authentic Baptist view of covenants, and I believe they viewed me as an eccentric, speaking of some- thing unknown to mankind. But the revival of the historic view in recent years is immensely valuable, for few things are so scripturally logical, illu- minating and practical.
While touching on the past, may
I say that in 1983 – over 30 years ago – I contributed an article on di- vine covenants to the Sword & Trowel, accompanying it with an extract of John Owen’s view. During the eighth chapter of Owen’s magnificent commentary on Hebrews there is a dissertation on divine covenants. Most of this sets out his arguments showing that the Presbyterian view is mistaken, and that the Sinaitic covenant amounts to works. His ar- guments have always seemed to me to be unanswerable.
I did something which was perhaps
unwise. I took Owen’s 30 pages and condensed them into two magazine- size pages, just to provide a taste of the case. (This condensed extract is reprinted on page 33 of this issue of Sword & Trowel.) John Owen never moved to an
entirely Baptist position, but made the Mosaic covenant something na- tional, for the Jews, containing both law and grace. (This appears to give comfort to sound Presbyterian writ- ers, but it shouldn’t really, because John Owen’s demolition of the ‘one- covenant two-administration’ view is
page 8 God’s Parallel Covenants inescapable.)
It is certainly true, as we have noted, that the ceremonial of the Jews was full of pictures of grace, but Bap- tists of old insisted that the covenant of Sinai was in itself a scheme of law and works. John Owen was not alone of course in refusing to see Sinai as gracious. Benjamin Keach, pastor of the congregation that later be- came the Metropolitan Tabernacle (and a compiler of 1689), was very strong on this subject, his sermons on covenants being available today. Even more important was Nehemiah Coxe, who probably led in the draft- ing of the covenant chapter of the 1689 Baptist Confession, and who wrote a definitive Baptist treatise on the covenants.
Paul’s contrasting covenants
Here is a brief summary of some New Testament passages that differ- entiate between law and grace. We have seen that in Romans 10 the apos- tle Paul shows that Moses preached the Gospel of righteousness by faith, showing that the covenant of grace is the contrasting cure for the condem- nation of the law covenant of works. In Galatians 3 he shows that the Gos- pel was revealed to Abraham (verse 8) and that New Testament believ- ers are justified in the same way as Abraham (by faith) and become his spiritual children (verses 7 and 9). He then states that all who trust in the works of the law of Moses are under the curse (verses 10-11). People ask, ‘How can this be, that
Abraham had the covenant of grace, but then the law came, which could
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