Douglas P.
Puritan Board Freshman
For a while now I’ve been following the ‘republication’ debate. Just when I think I understand what is being said I read something new and feel lost again. So I’ve written, in outline fashion, what I understand republication covenant theology to be, and am wondering if I am understanding it correctly.
Pre fall:
- God made a Covenant of Works with Adam, as the representative for all of humanity.
- The Covenant of Works was the basis for God’s relationship with man, and how God expressed his goodness and promise of blessed reward to man.
- Although the Covenant of Works was the basis for God’s relationship with man, it was governed by the law. The law was the legal agreement, by which Adam was to obtain by his merit (merit here, is being defined as pactum merit) the reward.
- Adam broke the covenant by breaking the law by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus losing any ability to obtain his blessed reward, incurring God’s wrath and plunging all of humanity into utter despair.
Post fall:
- Immediately after Adam’s sin, God establishes the Covenant of Grace with Adam and Eve in promise form. This promise is the Gospel.
- The Covenant of Grace is the temporal outworking of the eternal Covenant of Redemption.
- The Covenant of Redemption is the pretemporal Trinitarian agreement, whereby God promises to redeem the elect through salvation by the Son, Jesus Christ.
- Christ secures salvation for the elect by his active and passive obedience. Salvation for the elect is through faith alone, in Christ alone, and is entirely a gracious gift. This is the Gospel.
- The covenant of grace then, is the historical administration of the Gospel.
- The covenant of grace made with Adam is renewed with Abraham.
And this is where I get a little lost:
- The covenant made at Sinai, was not the renewal of the covenant of grace, instead it was the ‘typological republication’ of the pre fall covenant of works. The covenant made at Sinai, administered through Moses, was going to govern Israel’s retention of the land.
- During the Mosaic administration, the Gospel was still administered through the covenant of grace in the form of the promise made to Abraham. Thus the covenant made at Sinai was not a covenant kept by faith, but it was a covenant kept by obedience. The covenant made at Sinai was then a ‘layer’ to the covenant of grace.
- Christ came, and is the fulfillment of both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants. He fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant by becoming the eschalogical reality of the promise and fulfilled the Mosaic covenant by fulfilling the requirements of the law for his people.
Am I on the right track, or have I gone astray somewhere? If I am on the right track, what are the major objections?
Pre fall:
- God made a Covenant of Works with Adam, as the representative for all of humanity.
- The Covenant of Works was the basis for God’s relationship with man, and how God expressed his goodness and promise of blessed reward to man.
- Although the Covenant of Works was the basis for God’s relationship with man, it was governed by the law. The law was the legal agreement, by which Adam was to obtain by his merit (merit here, is being defined as pactum merit) the reward.
- Adam broke the covenant by breaking the law by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus losing any ability to obtain his blessed reward, incurring God’s wrath and plunging all of humanity into utter despair.
Post fall:
- Immediately after Adam’s sin, God establishes the Covenant of Grace with Adam and Eve in promise form. This promise is the Gospel.
- The Covenant of Grace is the temporal outworking of the eternal Covenant of Redemption.
- The Covenant of Redemption is the pretemporal Trinitarian agreement, whereby God promises to redeem the elect through salvation by the Son, Jesus Christ.
- Christ secures salvation for the elect by his active and passive obedience. Salvation for the elect is through faith alone, in Christ alone, and is entirely a gracious gift. This is the Gospel.
- The covenant of grace then, is the historical administration of the Gospel.
- The covenant of grace made with Adam is renewed with Abraham.
And this is where I get a little lost:
- The covenant made at Sinai, was not the renewal of the covenant of grace, instead it was the ‘typological republication’ of the pre fall covenant of works. The covenant made at Sinai, administered through Moses, was going to govern Israel’s retention of the land.
- During the Mosaic administration, the Gospel was still administered through the covenant of grace in the form of the promise made to Abraham. Thus the covenant made at Sinai was not a covenant kept by faith, but it was a covenant kept by obedience. The covenant made at Sinai was then a ‘layer’ to the covenant of grace.
- Christ came, and is the fulfillment of both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants. He fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant by becoming the eschalogical reality of the promise and fulfilled the Mosaic covenant by fulfilling the requirements of the law for his people.
Am I on the right track, or have I gone astray somewhere? If I am on the right track, what are the major objections?