https://www.amazon.com/Distinctiveness-Baptist-Covenant-Theology/dp/1599253259
https://press.founders.org/shop/the-mystery-of-christ-his-covenant-and-his-kingdom/
https://brokenwharfe.com/product/covenant-theology-from-adam-to-christ-us/
https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Substance-Theology-Particular-1642-1704/dp/1907600310
The Law, the Gospel, and the Covenants
The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 7
P1 - The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to Him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
P2 - Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.
P3 - This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.
Intro
How should we interpret and understand Scripture? The Law/Gospel distinction through a covenantal hermeneutic is clearly expressed by our confession in paragraph 7. Is this though a theological construct we force Scripture into? Or is it the hermeneutic taught us by Jesus and the apostles?
The law/gospel distinction is central to our understanding of Scripture as it’s taught to us by Scripture itself, and our faith and salvation rest upon it.
- Bi-covenantal structure
- Bi-covenantal heads
- The glory of Christ in the covenantal structure of revelation
A covenant is an oath-bound promise with sanctions. God reveals himself and his way of salvation through the covenants.
I. The Law and Gospel in Galatians 3
The law is not of faith and these are two different covenants
• The law represents the old covenant which was a type of the CoW broken by Adam in whom we all are condemned
• Faith represents the Abrahamic covenant which promised the covenant of grace in Christ and all who put their faith in Christ follow Abraham’s footsteps and receive the promised inheritance, which is union with Christ.
Gal 3:10-14 - we are saved by Jesus taking on the curse of the law for us because we were unable to fulfill it ourselves and giving us the blessing he alone earned. Faith is opposed to works. Don’t be bewitched!
Gal 3:15-20 - This is seen clearly in the nature of covenants themselves. They aren’t changed after they’re made. The law didn’t change the blessing or the promise. The promise is still obtained by faith. The promise wasn’t for land. It was to be blessed in Christ. But this would come through the physical blessings of land and people governed by the law.
• So why would you think you could obtai
