One Covenant, Many Administrations

Did God save people differently in the Old Testament than He does today?

In this episode of Confessional Moments, we examine Westminster Confession of Faith 7.5–7.6, which teaches that there is one covenant of grace, administered differently across redemptive history—but always centered on Christ.

Under the law, the covenant of grace was administered through promises, sacrifices, types, and ceremonies that pointed forward to the coming Redeemer. Under the gospel, that same covenant is administered with greater clarity and simplicity through the preaching of the Word and the sacraments, now that Christ has come and fulfilled all righteousness.

Guided by Scripture and the Reformed and Puritan tradition, this episode explains how Old Testament believers were saved by faith in the promised Christ, why the Mosaic administration did not establish a second way of salvation, and how the New Testament church enjoys the fullness of gospel light without returning to ceremonial shadows.

This doctrine is essential for reading the Bible as one unified redemptive story, guarding against both legalism and dispensational fragmentation, and understanding why Christ is the substance of every covenant promise.

Scripture Reading & References

Key Doctrinal Themes

Authors & Works Referenced

About the Host

Confessional Moments is hosted by Pastor Tim Beauchamp, teaching elder at Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Guam. Pastor Tim has served in pastoral ministry since 2010 and is committed to helping God’s people grow in doctrinal clarity, spiritual maturity, and confidence in Christ through the riches of the Reformed confessional tradition.

Church Website

Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA)

After the fall, man was not merely weakened—he was rendered incapable of life by the covenant of works.

In this episode of Confessional Moments, we examine Westminster Confession of Faith 7.3 and 7.4, where the Confession introduces the Covenant of Grace and explains the only reason it can stand. Together, these paragraphs teach how God graciously responds to man’s total inability by freely offering salvation in Jesus Christ, requiring faith in Him, and promising the Holy Spirit to make sinners willing and able to believe.

But this gracious offer is not grounded in sentiment or divine leniency. WCF 7.4 explains why the covenant of grace is possible at all—because it is founded upon Christ and brought into effect by His death. Christ’s blood secures every promise of the covenant, establishing it legally, eternally, and unshakably.

This episode clarifies the relationship between God’s gracious offer and Christ’s atoning work, showing that grace is freely proclaimed because grace has been fully purchased.

Genesis 3:15

Isaiah 55:3

Romans 3:20

Romans 8:8

John 3:16

John 6:44

Acts 4:12

Luke 22:20

Hebrews 9:12, 15

Ephesians 2:8–9

Man’s Incapacity After the Fall

The Covenant of Grace Introduced

Faith as the Means of Reception

The Work of the Holy Spirit

Christ’s Death as the Ground of the Covenant

Grace Secured, Not Merely Offered

Confessional Moments is hosted by Pastor Tim Beauchamp, teaching elder at Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Guam. Pastor Tim has served in pastoral ministry since 2010 and is committed to helping God’s people grow in doctrinal clarity, spiritual maturity, and confidence in Christ through the riches of the Reformed confessional tradition.

Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA)

Life Promised, Life Lost, Life Fulfilled

Before grace was ever needed, God entered into a covenant with man.

In this episode of Confessional Moments, we examine Westminster Confession of Faith 7.2, which teaches that the first covenant made with humanity was a covenant of works—a covenant in which life was promised to Adam upon the condition of perfect and personal obedience.

Guided by Scripture and the clarity of the Reformed and Puritan tradition, this episode explains why Adam stood as a public representative for all mankind, how his failure brought death to all, and why Christ—our Second Adam—had to fulfill the covenant of works in order to save sinners.

This doctrine is essential for understanding why the law cannot justify fallen man, why justification must be forensic and grounded in imputed righteousness, and why the gospel is not God lowering His standard, but Christ meeting it fully on our behalf.

Scripture Reading & References

Key Doctrinal Themes

Authors & Works Referenced

About the Host

Confessional Moments is hosted by Pastor Tim Beauchamp, teaching elder at Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Guam since 2015. Pastor Tim has served in pastoral ministry since 2010 and is committed to helping God’s people grow in doctrinal clarity, spiritual maturity, and confidence in Christ through the riches of the Reformed confessional tradition.

Church Website

Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA)

The Distance God Crossed

In this episode of Confessional Moments, we begin Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 7 by addressing a foundational truth that shapes all covenant theology: God has no equal, and yet He chooses to draw near to man by covenant.

WCF 7.1 teaches that although man owes perfect obedience to God as Creator, obedience alone never entitled Adam to God as his blessedness and reward. Even before the Fall, Adam depended entirely on God’s voluntary condescension—not grace or mercy, but God’s free decision to promise life by covenant.

This episode carefully distinguishes between duty and reward, obedience and entitlement, probation and promise. It shows why covenant was God’s chosen way from the beginning, how this protects the gospel from moralism and self-righteousness, and why Christ’s obedience as the Second Adam is essential for our salvation.

Pastorally, this doctrine humbles pride, corrects how we think about obedience, steadies assurance, and calls believers to grateful worship. We are not received by God because we climb high enough, but because Christ stood where Adam fell—and obeyed perfectly on behalf of His people.

“The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.”

Tim Beauchamp is the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Guam. He has served in pastoral ministry since 2010 and planted Trinity Presbyterian Church in 2015. Confessional Moments is a teaching podcast devoted to helping Christians understand and apply the Reformed confessions for the life of faith.

Church Website: www.trinitychurchguam.org

Episode Summary

This paragraph confronts modern attempts to soften sin, redefine guilt, or separate God’s law from His judgment. Yet it also prepares the way for the gospel by showing us why Christ’s saving work is so necessary and so glorious. When the law speaks clearly, grace shines brightly.

This episode calls listeners to humility before God’s law, gratitude for Christ’s finished work, and holy watchfulness in the Christian life.

“Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and eternal.”

Pastor Tim Beauchamp has served in pastoral ministry since 2010 and has been preaching regularly since 2008. He is the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Guam and the host of Confessional Moments, a podcast devoted to helping Christians grow in faith by anchoring their hearts in the truths of the Reformed confessions.

Visit Trinity Presbyterian Church: https://www.trinitypca.org

Confessional Moments

Confessional Moments – WCF 6.5 | Sin Still Dwells Within Us

“This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be, through Christ, pardoned and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.”

Though believers are regenerated and fully forgiven in Christ, sin has not yet been removed from their nature. In this episode of Confessional Moments, we examine WCF 6.5 and the sobering doctrine of remaining corruption—the ongoing presence of sin in the Christian life.

Drawing from Scripture and the Puritan tradition, this episode explains why indwelling sin remains, how it is pardoned and mortified through Christ, and why even the inward motions of sin—the first stirrings of sinful desire—are still truly and properly sin in God’s sight. Far from leading to despair, this doctrine humbles the believer, sharpens spiritual watchfulness, and directs us again to the sufficiency of Christ.

Scripture Readings

Theological Themes

Authors Referenced

About the Host

Pastor Tim is a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves at Trinity Presbyterian Church. He has been preaching and teaching Reformed theology for over two decades and hosts Confessional Moments, a podcast devoted to anchoring hearts in the doctrines of the Reformed faith through the Westminster Standards.

Westminster Confession of Faith 6.4

Why do sins arise so naturally—even after we know better?

In this episode of Confessional Moments, we consider WCF 6.4, which explains the biblical relationship between humanity’s fallen nature and the actual sins that flow from it. Scripture teaches that sin is not merely the result of poor habits, bad environments, or momentary weakness, but proceeds from a heart corrupted by Adam’s fall.

This study helps us understand why self-effort cannot resolve the problem of sin, why Scripture speaks honestly about human inability, and why the gospel must address more than outward behavior. By exposing the root of sin, the Confession directs us to Christ, who alone forgives sinners and renews hearts.

This episode calls believers to sober self-examination, genuine repentance, and renewed dependence on God’s grace as we continue to battle remaining corruption in this life.

Scripture Readings

Referenced

About the Host

Pastor Tim is the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church and host of Confessional Moments, a podcast devoted to exploring the Westminster Standards with clarity, conviction, and pastoral faithfulness—anchoring hearts in Reformed truth.

Guilt Imputed, Corruption Inherited

In this episode of Confessional Moments, we continue our study of Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 6, paragraph 3. This paragraph explains how the guilt of Adam’s first sin is imputed to all his descendants and how the same corrupted nature and spiritual death are conveyed to them by ordinary generation.

Drawing from Romans 5, we consider why Adam stood as the root of all mankind, how covenantal headship shapes our understanding of sin and salvation, and why the imputation of guilt in Adam is essential for grasping the hope of imputed righteousness in Christ.

Westminster Confession of Faith 6.3

“They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.”

Scripture Reading

Resources Mentioned

About the Host

Pastor Tim Beauchamp has served in pastoral ministry since 2010 and is the founding pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Guam. This podcast is part of his ongoing commitment to teaching and applying the Reformed confessions for the life of the church.

Learn more at: www.trinitychurchguam.org

Confessional Moments is a short-form devotional podcast designed to anchor hearts in Reformed truth by walking through the Westminster Confession of Faith—one paragraph at a time.

Westminster Confession of Faith 6.2

“By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.”

In this episode of Confessional Moments, we continue our study of Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 6, paragraph 2. This paragraph explains the immediate consequences of the fall: the loss of original righteousness, the breaking of communion with God, spiritual death, and corruption that extends to every part of human nature.

Using Genesis 3, we consider how sin first manifests itself not merely in disobedience, but in alienation—fear replacing fellowship, hiding replacing communion. This doctrine humbles us, warns against shallow views of sin, and directs us to Christ, the only Savior who restores communion with God and gives life to the dead.

Scripture Reading

Resources Mentioned

About the Host

Pastor Tim Beauchamp has served in pastoral ministry since 2010 and is the founding pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Guam. This podcast is part of his ongoing commitment to teaching and applying the Reformed confessions for the life of the church.

Learn more at: www.trinitychurchguam.org

Confessional Moments is a short-form devotional podcast designed to anchor hearts in Reformed truth by walking through the Westminster Confession of Faith—one paragraph at a time.

Westminster Confession of Faith 6.1

“Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.”

What does it mean to say that “it pleased God to permit the fall”? Did sin catch God by surprise? Does God’s sovereignty make Him responsible for evil?

In this episode of Confessional Moments, Pastor Tim walks through Westminster Confession of Faith 6.1, addressing the fall of our first parents, the subtlety of Satan’s temptation, and the careful biblical balance between God’s sovereign permission and human responsibility. Drawing from Scripture and the wisdom of the Reformed tradition, this episode is both apologetic and devotional, guarding against error while calling believers to humility, vigilance, and dependence on Christ—the second Adam.

Scripture References (ESV)

Resources Mentioned

About the Host

Pastor Tim Beauchamp has served in pastoral ministry since 2010 and is the founding pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Guam. This podcast is part of his ongoing commitment to teaching and applying the Reformed confessions for the life of the church.

Learn more at: www.trinitychurchguam.org

Confessional Moments is a short-form devotional podcast designed to anchor hearts in Reformed truth by walking through the Westminster Confession of Faith—one paragraph at a time.