The Covenant of Works in Dutch and German Reformed Theology

Wilhelmus Schortinguis was a pastor who served in German and Dutch Reformed churches until he died in 1750.  Though not all of his work was widely accepted and read, his booklet that summarized the Christian faith in catechetical form was quite popular.  The title of this booklet is Essential Truths in the Heart of a Christian.  Here are a few of his questions and answers that have to do with the covenant of works and covenant of grace. 

“What is the covenant of works?  The agreement of God with the righteous man [Adam] in which God promised life and threatened death, with the stipulation of perfect obedience to his law.  If man met the stipulation, he would enjoy eternal life (Hos. 6:7, Job 31:33).

“Did man have the ability to fulfill these demands?  Yes, indeed; because he was created in God’s image (Gen. 1:31, Ecc. 7:29), he was perfectly good and completely upright.”

“What do you learn from this covenant?  1) The happiness of the first man in the original state; 2) the privilege of the believer, who now lives in another, unchanging covenant; 3) never to seek salvation in a covenant of works, but as a miserable sinner to seek it in Christ in the covenant of grace (Matt. 11:28, Prov. 18:10). 

“What does God promise and demand in the covenant of grace? He promises all the essential benefits here and especially for eternity.  He promises: ‘I shall be a God to you (Jer. 31:33).  And he demands faith and conversion (Acts 16:31; Ezek. 33:11), both of which he promises to provide (Eph. 2:8, Ezek. 36:27).

William Schortinghuis, Essential Truths in the Heart of a Christian, p. 56-57, 66.

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The Law/Gospel Distinction in Old Holland

One thing I’ve mentioned quite a bit here over the last five years is how the law/gospel distinction is part of the veins and sinews of historic Reformed theology.  More narrowly, the law/gospel distinction is also part of the Dutch Reformed theological tradition.  Here’s a great later example of this by Herman Bavinck, found on pages 410-411 of Our Reasonable Faith which was first published in Dutch in 1909 (called Magnalia Dei).

“Law and gospel are the two component parts of the Word of God.  The two are distinguished from each other but they are never separated.  They accompany each other throughout Scripture, from the beginning to the end…. [The terms law and gospel designate] two entirely different covenants.  The law really belongs to the so-called covenant of works which was concluded with the first man and which promised him eternal life in the way of perfect obedience.  But the gospel is the proclamation of the covenant of grace which was made known for the first time after the fall of man, and which gives him eternal life by grace, through faith in Christ.”

“The covenant of grace is, however, not the discarding or annihilating, but rather the fulfilling, of the covenant of works.  The difference between the two is mainly that in our stead Christ fulfills the requirements which God by reason of the covenant of works can bring to bear on us.  Hence it is that the covenant of grace, although in itself is pure grace, can from the very beginning put the law of the covenant of works in its service, unite itself with that law, and by the Spirit of Christ bring it into fulfillment in the believers.  The law keeps its place in the covenant of grace, not in order that we by keeping it should try to earn eternal life, for the law cannot do this because of the weakness of the flesh, but, in the first place, in order that through it we should come to know our sin, our guilt, our misery, and our helplessness, and struck down and stripped by the consciousness of guilt, should take refuge in the grace of God in Christ (Rom 7.7 and Gal 3.24), and, in the second place, in order that we, having died and been raised with Christ, should walk in newness of life and so fulfill the righteousness of the law (Rom 6.4 and 8.4).”

“There is no room in Christianity for antinomianism, for despising or violating the law.  Law and gospel should go together, as in the Scriptures, so also in preaching and teaching, in doctrine and in life.  They are both indispensable and real constituent parts of the one complete word of God.”

“All the same, identifying the two is as bad as separating them.  Nomism, which makes of the gospel a new law, is in error no less than antinomiansim.  Law and gospel differ from each other not in degree but in kind.  They differ as demand and gift differ, as commandment and promise, and as question and offer differ.  It is true that the law as well as the gospel comprises the will of God, and that it is holy, wise, good, and spiritual, but it has become impotent by reason of sin, does not justify but rather aggravates sin, and provokes wrath, doom, and death.  And over against this stands the gospel which has nothing but grace, reconciliation, forgiveness, righteousness, peace, and eternal life.  What the law demands of us is given us in the gospel for nothing.”

Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith.

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God Does Not Help Those Who Help Themselves

Great words by John Newton:

“We are never more safe, never have more reason to expect the Lord’s help, than when we are most sensible that we can do nothing without him.”

“This was the lesson Paul learned – to rejoice in his own poverty and emptiness so that the power of Christ might rest upon him.  Could Paul have done anything, Jesus would not have had the honor of doing all.”

“This way of being saved entirely by grace, from first to last, is contrary to our natural wills.  It mortifies self, leaving it nothing to boast of, and through the remains of an unbelieving, legal spirit, it often seems discouraging.”

“When we think ourselves so utterly helpless and worthless, we are too ready to fear that the  Lord will therefore reject us; whereas, in truth, such a poverty of spirit is the best mark we can have of an interest in his promises and care” (p. 156).

God does not help those who help themselves, but he does help those who can’t help themselves (the helpless).  A legal (i.e. covenant of works) attitude is that we have to do something so that God will accept us.  But an evangelical and biblical (i.e. covenant of grace) attitude is that we can do nothing; God does it all in his sovereign grace.

If you have a broken and contrite heart, don’t despair, for these God will not despise (Ps. 51:17).  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out (Is. 42:3).  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mt. 11:28).

To repeat Newton: “We are never more safe, never have more reason to expect the Lord’s help, than when we are most sensible that we can do nothing without him.”

This entire letter can be found in volume two of Newton’s Works (p. 145-6).

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The Mosaic Covenant: Works or Grace?

In his helpful book, An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Robert Shaw (d. 1863) discussed the Mosiac (or Sinaitic) covenant in a way similar to Francis Turretin and other Reformed theologians.  Here’s what Shaw wrote in his comments on WCF 19.2.

“It may be remarked, that the law of the ten commandments was promulgated to Israel from Sinai in the form of a covenant of works.  Not that it was the design of God to renew a covenant of works with Israel, or to put them upon seeking life by their own obedience to the law; but the law was published to them as a covenant of works, to show them that without a perfect righteousness, answering to all the demands of the law, they could not be justified before God; and that, finding themselves wholly destitute of that righteousness, they might be excited to take hold of the covenant of grace, in which a perfect righteousness for their justification is graciously provided.”

“The Sinai transaction was a mixed dispensation.  In it the covenant of grace was published, as appears from these words in the preface standing before the commandments; ‘I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;’ and from the promulgation of the ceremonial law at the same time.  But the moral law, as a covenant of works, was also displayed, to convince the Israelites of their sinfulness and misery, to teach them the necessity of an atonement, and lead them to embrace by faith the blessed Mediator, the Seed promised to Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed.”

“The law, therefore, was published at Sinai as a covenant of works in subservience to the covenant of grace.  And the law is still published in subservience to the gospel, as ‘a schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ, that they may be justified by faith’ (Gal. 3:24).”

Robert Shaw, An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith (Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 2008), 256.  For more info on this topic, be sure to see Michael Brown’s Christ and the Condition.

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An Application of the Covenant of Grace

One reason I like Sacred Bond is because it gives the practical aspects of covenant theology.  For example, after discussing the covenant of grace, there are several different ways this doctrine is important for the Christian life.  Here is one “application” of the covenant of grace that is profoundly comforting for the Christian.

“[The covenant of grace] tells us that we are not under a covenant of works and therefore do not relate to God on the basis of our own law-keeping.  In the covenant of grace, God promises to accept us as righteous by virtue of the righteousness of his Son, the second Adam.  In other words, God’s covenant of grace draws attention to the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  Whereas the covenant of works (law) says, ‘Do this and you will live,’ the covenant of grace (gospel) says, ‘Christ did it for you.’  This allows us to go through life on the solid foundation that God receives us because of Christ.  There is no greater contributing factor to our joy and comfort as Christians than the reality that God accepts us in spite of the fact that we still struggle with sin and disobedience.  Knowing that God loves us on account of Christ protects us from the roller coaster of our own conscience and emotions.  With its emphasis on the person and work of Christ, the covenant of grace tells us that we are not under a covenant of works” (p. 69).

Michael Brown and Zachary Keele, Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored (Grand Rapids: Reformed Fellowship, 2012).

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