Bella S.

Mrs. Santa

November 27, 2023

Challenge IV, Theology

God’s Grace and Redemption in the Old Testament Covenants

“Grace is one of the most important realities of life in God. Grace, too, is the most important

thing to shape our relationships with one another.”

-Ryan Reeves

Grace is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. His grace to us is displayed in the New

Testament countless times, but ultimately with Jesus’s birth, life, and death on the cross. This is

God’s grace shown through redemption. Today we’re going to be looking at God’s redemptive

grace in the Old Testament. Before I continue though, it is crucial that I define both grace, and

redemption.

God’s grace is defined by The Gospel Coalition as, “the free and unmerited operation of

God’s person and presence that initiates the spiritual life of God’s people,” and redemption is

defined as “the work of Christ on our behalf, whereby he purchases us, he ransoms us, at the

price of his own life, securing our deliverance from the bondage and condemnation of sin.”

In an article by RC Sproul, redemption is spoken of as a covenant. In the Old Testament,

a covenant is understood to be an agreement between two parties, each agreeing to terms, and

each agreeing on a punishment should those terms be broken. In his article on the covenant of

redemption, Sproul states that the covenant of redemption was not made between God and his

people, but rather within the trinity, “The covenant of redemption is intimately concerned with

God’s eternal plan. It is called a “covenant” inasmuch as the plan involves two or more parties.

This is not a covenant between God and humans. It is a covenant among the persons of the
Godhead, specifically between the Father and the Son.” -RC Sproul; What is the Covenant of

Redemption?

Though not expressly stated as a covenant in scripture, we know it is true. Sproul

describes it as “corollary to the doctrine of the Trinity.” Like the trinity, the covenant of

redemption isn’t expressly stated in scripture in any one spot, but rather is stipulated

throughout scripture. Each covenant also requires four elements to be a covenant: promises,

terms, blood, and a seal. The covenant of redemption promises man’s redemption. In His perfect

life on earth, and death on the cross, Jesus fulfills the terms of the covenant between him and

the Father, purchasing our redemption with His blood. The salvation of Christ’s elect is then

sealed in his death. By making a covenant between the Father and the Son, not requiring

anything of sinful man, we see God’s grace displayed.

This intricate plan of redemption and salvation for all of God’s people shows God’s grace

in one of the greatest ways we can comprehend. The Father, Son, and Spirit did not have to

pledge to each other that they would bring to us salvation. They however did, and in doing so

guaranteed our salvation. This displays God’s grace to us, from before the foundations of the

earth were laid.

The covenant of redemption is clearly not the only covenant that displays God’s

redemptive grace though. There are seven major covenants between God and man seen in

scripture, the are the Adamic, Noahic, Abrahimic, Mosaic, Davidic, New, and Everlasting

Covenants. While all of these Covenants are worth studying, I’m going to be focusing primarily

on the five covenants seen in the Old Testament.

First up on our list is the Adimic covenant. The Adimic covenant is found in Genesis two

and three, and it is a two part covenant. The first part is the Covenant of Works, it is seen in the

end of Genesis 2, and the beginning of Genesis 3. It is the first covenant made between God and

man. In this covenant, God promised blessedness to Adam and Eve if they obeyed his

commands. It required perfect obedience to God and promised eternal life to those who keep it.
Now you may be thinking, “Bella, thats insane, man could never perfectly keep God’s

commandments. Why would God give us an impossible task?” That’s where the second covenant

God makes with his people comes into play.

Similar to the covenant of redemption is the covenant of grace. The Westminster Larger

Chatechism, very clearly defines the covenant of grace in questions 30 and 31.

“Q. 30. Doth God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

A. God doth not leave all men to perish in the estate of sin and misery, into which they fell by the

breach of the first covenant, commonly called the covenant of works; but of his mere love and

mercy delivereth his elect out of it, and bringeth them into an estate of salvation by the second

covenant, commonly called the covenant of grace.

Q. 31. With whom was the covenant of grace made?

A. The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect

as his seed.”

Though there is much more to be said about the covenant of grace, you can see its

similarity to the covenant of redemption. It is a covenant made between the Father and the Son,

and through it, we are saved through Christ’s perfect life. In His omniscence, God knew we could

never perfectly keep his commands, so He sent His son, Jesus, to keep them on our behalf. Jesus

fulfilled the covenant of works on our behalf, because He knew we never could.

Now that we’re back from our brief rabbit trail, we get to the second part of the Adimic

Covenant is known as the Protoevangelium, and it is seen in Genesis 3: 16-19. The

Protoevangelium is the covenant made between God and Man after they sinned. This is the part

in Genesis where God curses the serpent, and he curses mankind. He curses the woman, Eve,

and says that He will multiply her pain in childbirth, and that her desire will be contrary to her

husband, though he is in authority over her. God then curses the man, Adam, saying he will have

to work for his food. God also curses the earth because Adam listened to the voice of his wife.
 Now this all looks pretty bleak, but this is also where God gives the first promise after

man sins. He promises emnity between the offspring of the serpent and the woman, this

foreshadows Jesus’s coming. He promises that the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the

serpent, promising Jesus will defeat death.

When the adimic covenant was broken by the sin of Adam and Eve, they brought sin and

death to all humanity, but that wasn’t the end of God’s plan for redemption. God makes another

covenant with his people, and that is the Noahic covenant. The Noahic covenant is seen in

Genesis 8:20-9:17, and is made to Noah after the flood. After being exiled from the garden,

mankind quickly descends into sin. Genesis 4, describes a creation that becomes increasingly

corrupt as sin multiplies on the earth, prompting God to destroy creation with a flood. Though

before flooding the earth, God spares one man who was righteous. This obviously was Noah.

Genesis 6:8 shows us that “Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.” Thus him and his family

were spared.

When God flooded the earth, the only creatures to survive the flood were Noah's family

and representatives of every animal that inhabited the earth. By this we see that the Lord saved a

remnant, not all that He had made, and we should keep that in mind when we reflect upon the

scope of God's saving work. He will not save everyone, like Universalism would suggest. That’s

for a different paper.

What the Noahic covenant does show us, is that the Lord promised never again to

destroy all life with a flood. He also pledges to sustain the seasonal cycle, and thus the general

stability of nature. He provides an arena for His special grace to operate for the sake of our

salvation. His covenant is also the fruit of His common grace for all people. Everyone benefits

from the regularity of nature, for it allows human society to flourish. We do not deserve this, and

in preaching the gospel to others we should call their attention to the grace God has shown even

while calling them not to presume upon His grace, but to repent that they would be saved.
 Next up on our list is the Abrahimic Covenant. The Abrahimic Covenant is a unique

covenant, in that it is both conditional, and unconditional. In the Abrahimic covenant, God

makes a promise to Abraham, then Abram. He promises great land, a great nation, a great name,

and a great blessing that will extend to him and then to all families of the earth. Abraham’s belief

in God’s promise makes him righteous before the Lord.

This is crucial to us today. It means that faith in God is the mechanism by which people

are accepted by Him and become heirs of His promises.The fact that God operates like this is

overwhelmingly good news, not just for Abraham but also for us. This means that salvation is

given to us not because of anything we have done or could do or ever will do, but purely on the

basis of what God has done, and we receive the benefits of what God has done simply by trusting

Him, as Abraham did.

There is one other aspect of the Abrahimic Covenant that makes it unique. When

covenants were made in the ancient Near East, the two parties would kill an animal, cut it in

half, and then both of them would walk between the two halves. This may seem grotesque, but it

was a way of symbolizing what would befall the one who broke the covenant. In the Abrahimic

covenant, God commands Abraham to halve multiple animals, but instead of both God and

Abraham walking through the halved animals, only God does. In this, God is saying to Abraham,

and by implication to all of God’s people: “This covenant does not depend on your obedience but

on Mine. I swear by My own life that this promise will come to pass.” This is why the Abrahimic

Covenant is one of my favorites. It is such a beautiful display of God’s grace, and love for his

chosen elect.

Looking now at the Mosaic covenant, the covenant made between Moses and God, we see

that it is perhaps the most conditional of all the biblical covenants. It deals directly with how

man should live. Man’s requirement in the Mosaic covenant is that we fufil the 10

commandments God gives us without faliure. The fulfillment of the promises and blessings of

any of the covenants for any particular individual or generation was dependent upon their
obedience to God’s revelation. Disobedience annulled the blessings of God for that individual or

generation in their own time, but disobedience did not invalidate the unconditional terms of the

covenant.

Thats a bit confusing, so lets unpack it. The unconditional terms of the covenant are

actually the same unconditional terms of the Abrahimic covenant. Ultimately, it is the promise

of a Savior to come, and redeem them. The very focus of the Mosaic covenant was the formation

of a nation through whom the promises of the Abrahimic Covenant could be mediated.

With the promise of a savior to come, we must look at who the savior descends from.

This brings us to our final Old Testament Covenant. The covenant made between God and

David, the Davidic Covenant. The promises of the Davidic Covenant were anticipated all the way

back to the Adimic covenant. The Davidic Covenant promised a King, and a savior. God's

creational purpose to establish his kingdom with his image-bearer exercising dominion now

reaches a new stage in its progressive accomplishment. One of the major emphases of the

Davidic covenant is the idea of perpetuity. David had wanted to build for God a permanent

dwelling place, but God instead promised that he would establish for David a permanent

dynasty.

Though David appears to fufil the covenant as a righteous leader, the Davidic covenant

looks not only to the fulfillment of past prophecies, it also looks forward, laying the foundation

for Israel's hope of a Messiah. In the fullness of God's grace and the fullness of time, God reveals

the son of David who will be that perfect son, that great king, and it's God himself in the flesh,

Jesus Christ, a son of David, a son of God, the Son of God, who rescues God's people forever.

Now, that was a lot to take in, so lets recap. We looked at the covenant of redemption,

and how it was a covenant made within the trinity, on our behalf. We looked at both parts of the

Adimic covenant, and their promise of a savior. We also looked how they relate to the covenant

of grace. We looked at the Noahic covenant, and God’s grace in sparing him, and his elect

people. We also looked at how God’s love to all humanity is displayed in sealing something as
seemingly simple as the seasons. We looked at the uniqueness of the Abrahimic covenant, and

how our faith is in God and His promises is a method by wheich we are accepted by God. We

looked at the Mosaic Covenant, and we looked at botht the conditional, and unconditional

aspects of it. Finally we looked at the Davidic covenant, and how it lays the foundation for

Jesus’s coming.

The covenants of the Old Testament are important to us today, because they show us in

one of the most beautiful ways God’s plan for humanity. They show us God’s plan for

redemption, and they show us His love, and his sovereignty. In the Bible, God has made

covenants with humans to restore humanity to its divine calling. Covenants are the foundation

for God's promise to bring redemption to his people.

Barrik, William. “The Mosaic Covenant | Journal.” The Master’s Seminary, 2 Oct. 1999,

tms.edu/educational-resources/journal/archive/the-mosaic-covenant/.

Berkhof, Louis. “The Covenant of Redemption | Monergism.” Www.monergism.com,

www.monergism.com/covenant-redemption#:~:text=The%20Father%20require

d%20of%20the. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

Cooper, Barry. “The Abrahamic Covenant.” Ligonier Ministries, 20 May 2020,

www.ligonier.org/podcasts/simply-put/the-abrahamic-covenant.

Duncan, Ligon. “Redemption.” The Gospel Coalition, 10 Sept. 2020,

www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/redemption/.

Ferguson, Sinclair. Doctrines of Grace: Redemption. Audio Sermon.

Hyde, Daniel . “What Is the Covenant of Grace?” Ligonier Ministries, 26 Sept. 2014,

www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/what-covenant-grace.

Lawrence, Michael. “What Is the Davidic Covenant?” Christianity.com, 11 Aug. 2022,

www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/what-is-the-davidic-covenant.html.

Ligonier Editorial. “The Noahic Covenant | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at

Ligonier.org | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org.” Ligonier

Ministries, 29 July 2014,

www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/noahic-covenant-1670.

Loraine Baker, Lisa . “What Is the Adamic Covenant?” Christianity.com, 20 Jan. 2020,

www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-adamic-covenant.html.

Mathison, Keith . “The Davidic Covenant — the Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology.”

Ligonier Ministries, 5 Mar. 2012,

McGraw, Ryan. “Why Is the Covenant of Grace Important?” Tabletalk, 29 Aug. 2022,

tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/why-is-the-covenant-of-grace-important-2020-03

/. Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.

Pritchard, Ray. “What Is the Protoevangelium (Protoevangelion)?” Christianity.com,

Salem Web Network, 10 Mar. 2011,

www.christianity.com/jesus/is-jesus-god/old-testament-prophecies/what-is-the-

protoevangelium-protoevangelion.html.

Sproul, RC. “Covenant of Redemption | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at

Ligonier.org | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org.” Ligonier

Ministries,

www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/covenant-redemption#:~:text=Under%20th

is%20covenant%2C%20the%20Father. Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.

---. “The Covenant of Works by R.C. Sproul.” Ligonier Ministries, 8 June 2022,

www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/covenant-works.

---. “What Is the Covenant of Redemption?” Ligonier Ministries, 9 Dec. 2022,

www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/what-covenant-redemption.

The Gospel Coalition. “Resources on Grace.” The Gospel Coalition,

www.thegospelcoalition.org/topics/grace/#section-3. Accessed 28 Nov. 2023.

Westminster Abbey. “Westminster Larger Chatechism.” Opc.org, 1647,

www.opc.org/lc.html.

Westminster Assembly. “Westminster Confession of Faith - Chapter 7.”

Www.covenantofgrace.com, 1653,
 www.covenantofgrace.com/westminster_chapter7.htm.

Williamson, Paul R. “The Biblical Covenants.” The Gospel Coalition, 4 Jan. 2020,

www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-biblical-covenants/.

Woollard, Whitney. “The Five Key Covenants God Makes with Humans in the Bible.”

BibleProject, Nov. 2018,

bibleproject.com/articles/covenants-the-backbone-bible/#:~:text=A%20Quick%

20Guide%20to%20Five%20Key%20Covenants&text=However%2C%20there%2

0are%20five%20foundational. Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.