#49 The Covenant of Grace

Today Coalt, John, and Jay tackle the Covenant of Grace and talk about some good children's resources! 

​Transcript (slightly imperfect) 

Coalt Robinson  
You're listening to the renewal podcast, a weekly podcast that features interviews and discussions and in teaching on various biblical and theological subjects. My name is Coalt Robinson, and I'm the lead pastor at Bethel Church in rural South Dakota. And we do this because we believe that our minds are to be shaped and and renewed by the life giving and transforming Word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. So we pray for the next few minutes that as you listen, that you'll just see Jesus, welcome to renewal cast, and I am here with JF and john Goodell. And I am Robinson. And we are just going to talk today about the covenant of grace. Last time we were we were in we were together, we talked about the covenant of works the time before that to the covenant of redemption. So let's just go back and reiterate a little bit some of our conversation that we had party pad, Jay covenant of redemption, what is what do we mean by the covenant of redemption? You got to give us Act,

Jay Wipf  
the fact that the three members of the One God made before time again, their plan of salvation, and how they were going to accomplish that, so the sun, taking on flesh and living perfectly and going to the cross, everything that you did there, the Holy Spirit, applying salvation to us, was all determined in that pre time covenant. Most members of the Trinity

Coalt Robinson  
Yeah, that was my next question is When did that happen? So pre time, so before, before

Jay Wipf  
your time exist,

John Goodell  
okay, for the foundation of the world

Jay Wipf  
visions one, right. So that's the

Coalt Robinson  
the covenant of redemption, really tied to God's decree. And then there's the the coloring of works. We talked about that last time. JOHN, you want to you want to go and have books understand,

John Goodell  
the covenant of works is a an agreement

that God imposed, it is actually sort of gracious in a sense that God didn't have to do that with Adam. But he kind of send it gave Adam a chance for eternal life. He had life he had, he had he was he was made in a sinless state, but he had the ability to fall. And he was given a covenant of obedience. And I think that covenant included the law written on his heart, as well as the clear command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So if he would have passed that probationary period, he would have been able to eat from the tree of life, and entered into that glorified state. That state of eternal bliss and perfection. We have called glorification. We're looking forward to some. Yeah, so it was a covenant of works, he had to get the pass that test. So and he represented us, Adam represented us. And that kind of works. So he, he sinned and fell and we fell in Adam, he's a representative, we inherit that guilt, more his original sin, and then we're born, we're born under the curse of the other of the covenant works, we're in the curse of it. We still have the law written on our heart, we're still judged by that law. And so because we're sinners, when we break the law, we're condemned.

Coalt Robinson  
Right? So we, we follow the same track is our our father Adam, I mean, not not only was he our example, that we just sin, as he said, and following that, we're actually under under a curse. And therefore, either it is our nature to sin. And is that is that how you would understand that a little bit? I mean,

John Goodell  
yes, we inherit the guilt, as well as the corruption of the original sin. Our nature is stained with that corruption.

So we are separated, alienated from God

Coalt Robinson  
in our actions, then bear out. Yep.

Jay Wipf  
Yeah. Okay.

Coalt Robinson  
So, really, the picture that we painted is pretty a pretty hopeless, hopeless picture. That on one side, we've we've said, okay, God is planned in eternity past to redeem us. And then we see in history,

John Goodell  
Adams, Adam,

Coalt Robinson  
in the human race has fallen. And then God's covenant with himself is played out through history. And that's where we get to the covenant of grace. Let's start talking a little bit about what we mean by the covenant of grace. J. Just start maybe with your definition there. Lewisburg.

Jay Wipf  
Yeah, yeah, the Gracious agreement between the offended God and the offending but he left center in which God promised to salvation through faith in Christ. And the center receives disbelievingly promising the life of faith and obedience, we see in Scripture that God has decided that coming mentally with his people, right, we see that throughout Scripture, we see it kind of works, as well as those kind of grace. And so we, we see these covenants that God has made with his people, in this case, those of these chosen before the foundation, the world, and it's, it's unconditional. And so we we call that a covenant of grace, God promises to that he will be our God, and we will be his people. That's a relational

talk. Do you

John Goodell  
see that throughout Scripture,

as well, and for for Jesus is our covenant till head, he's a covenant ahead of the covenant of grace. He represents all those elect, in Christ for the foundation of the world. And g for Jesus, it's a it's a, it's a covenant of war, surely, it's the law, in our place, provide righteousness before God's standards for us. And then he dies on a cross taking our sins, providing propitiation, satisfying the wrath of God for our sins, dies buried and raises from the dead. The Spirit then applies that, that work of Christ to us in time. So, we are all in the covenant of works. born under the covenant of work, born and Adam, are kinda had, they were born into his Adam. And then in time when the Spirit affectionately calls us to salvation, working faith in us, that's when we entered into the covenant of grace. And what our responsibility is to believe

Jay Wipf  
that's the gift that he actually gives to us. It's not something that

John Goodell  
Right, right, he definitely. He works that faith in us for sure. But, but it we have to believe, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Coalt Robinson  
Yeah. I don't know if this is this is helpful or not, I was listening to just named ourselves Richard ourselves. Is that right, Richard? Anyway,

John Goodell  
yeah. I,

Coalt Robinson  
he was he was saying that that Christ was was under the covenant of works. And so therefore, it's like you pointed out, he lived a perfect life of obedience, and then passed the test where Adam failed. The second Adam excelled, and then was granted to him, resurrection and eternal life and therefore, resurrection is is is something that is passed on. Right? You I think you said glorification is something we look forward to, when destiny, something that I think even Paul says in First Corinthians 15, that Jesus was the first fruits of resurrection for us. So Pascal developed says, when he defines the color of grace, he says, the covenant of grace is the means by which God gave eternal life to all men after the fall. It brings together a lack of lack of all times. And then he goes on to talk about how God does this through Christ Jesus in space and time in how Christ was perfectly obedient, and died on our behalf. And then race again, you know, Jesus Christ, death really matters. Why does the resurrection really matters? Well, it really put the stamp of approval on what Jesus did that his his life of obedience was accepted before God, and he was granted resurrection and therefore obtained that blessing for all of all of those who place their faith and trust in Him and believe in him.

John Goodell  
Yeah, I was raised for our justification, Romans four, right? Yeah. So it's critical for our justification that he raised from the dead. 

Jay Wipf  
Like, Jesus brings in the New Covenant, right, and Luke, new covenant is blood that Jeremiah talks about Jeremiah 31, behold, days are coming declares the Lord. And I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers, and the day took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is a covenant which I will make with the house of Israel, after those days declares the Lord, I will put my law within them and on their heart, I will write it, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor, and each train his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest them declares the Lord for I will forgive their and it can be and their sin, I will remember no more.

John Goodell  
But then the new covenant is the saving covenant.

Coalt Robinson  
Yeah, this would be a good time to point out the fact that there are, there are some there are some differences. In this view, on the count of race, some would see the covenant of grace, and the New Covenant is being equal it in other words, what Jay just read in Jeremiah 31, right, that they're anticipating a new covenant or a covenant of grace. And that we find in the Old Testament through various covenants and prophecies, pointing forward to that that covenant of grace, some would see the different others would see the different covenants in the Old Testament. Different administrations have a covenant of grace leading up to the new covenant in the New Testament set, close to even remotely saying the difference between the two. So there are two different views there that in the 1689 leaves room for both of them.

John Goodell  
I have a question. It's just an honest question. You can you can edit this out. But

Coalt Robinson  
if there's an honest question, we keep those in. Buying or, or?

John Goodell  
Well, if it's not, if it's not, it was not what you want. You can edit that. Yeah. Anyway. So my question would JR. Do all sides agree that the new covenant is the saving covenant

Jay Wipf  
if there is no new covenant, that there is no salvation?

John Goodell  
Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, that. So what I said earlier about the new covenant, same in Canada, that wasn't controversial, I think we all know, we all agree on okay.

Jay Wipf  
There's no Jesus. So

John Goodell  
in his blood by which now which no one is saved, because the Old Covenant, Hebrews makes clear, could not save. Right, right. Right. So we need the New Covenant. It's the saving covenant. But like you said, there are differences even amongst us on how we would explain the covenant of grace. Is it the New Covenant? Or is it an overarching covenant that is administered? And

Abraham, the mosaic and the New Covenant? Yeah.

Coalt Robinson  
And we don't need to, we don't need to get into all the details there. But we just want to kind of go back, and maybe I think it'd just be helpful at this point to go back to like, even Genesis 315. You know, Genesis 315, you see it, that's a section of a curse. But in that curse, we see the the promise of one who is going to, to come in and crush the head of the serpent. Why is why is that text so important to the discussion of a covenant of grace?

Jay Wipf  
That's the initial promise, we have something to look forward to the first announcement

John Goodell  
of the good news, the gospel, the photo Angeli on how do you say that bad, Zach sounds good. So the first announcement of the promise of the gospel, Adam failed, things are bad, they're being disciplined, and and there's hope. You see that even with with God giving them clothes to wear, and then we see that, that first announcement, the gospel and seed form, we see that really, the rest of the Bible is the playing out of that promise to building upon that seed. And, you know, we see it, it comes through, you know, comes to through Abraham, and then through Jacob is carried through and types and shadows and, and even the laws of the Old Testament, that promise. And then when Jesus comes, He is the real deal. He's the, he's the, he's our salvation, totally. Understanding these three covenants, redemption works, Grace really helps you understand the Bible. I mean, you have the whole story. You can go, whether you are teaching or preaching or reading, and Sammy, LRN Genesis relations, if you understand where you're at the story of redemption, if you understand these three covenants, they're very helpful and just reading your Bible like, like a Christian.

Coalt Robinson  
Right, I was gonna I was going to point out a few minutes ago to that what we're saying here is so practical, in that when we go back to Genesis 315, and it talks about how everything is in such a disarray. There's, there's such a mess, that's this curse is this heap on the human race. And there's this, this question. Well, now, now what, and in here, God promises that one day, he's going to send somebody to redeem humankind from from the curse that they brought on themselves, in the whole Bible, that is an anticipation of so the whole Bible, then is a is a book of redemption. And so often, we get the impression, or kids get the impression that the Bible is a book of morality tales to help you know how to live a good life. It's a it's a spiritual playbook. I've heard it said, and really, that's not the primary concern of the Bible. The Bible is a story from start to finish, about redemption, you know, how does that change the way in, in which we read Old Testament stories, so to speak, you know, instead of learning, you know, from, from Daniel to have, you know, a good faith or, or whatever we learned from, from David and in those stories, but to see these stories in the the entire framework of a whole book, dealing with our redemption, how does that how does that change the way we read, we read the Old Testament and scripture,

John Goodell  
I think it simplifies it. I think that you know, what, you just what you're saying there as Romans, you know, 512 through 21, it's the to the covenant will heads in Adam, and then life in Christ. And, and I think when you understand that, and like Jay said to, and you both made that point that, that when you understand that, that just simplifies the Bible, and you're able to understand the storyline and the big picture. And the big, big message is redemption in Christ. And Jesus is the Mount Everest of the Bible, it keeps you from reading yourself into everything, I think, you know, I think it was Ferguson and said, some people read the Bible, like they, you know, they're finding, you know, find Waldo book or whatever, and they find themselves story. But, you know, when you when you see that you start to see Christ. In every story,

Coalt Robinson  
one of the things that I've been trying to do, whether I teach, I've been teaching a young adult Sunday school class a little bit here for the teacher, that's gone quite a bit. And just relating Old Testament stories back to what we're talking about, just pointing out in them that, you know, here's, here's Christ in the story, I think just reading the Old Testament that way, just highlights a large Christology. You know, it just points to the fact that, that he is central in everything, when we're recognizing that that Old Testament story is fitting into a larger book that is centered around the person and work of Jesus Christ. Everything is pointing to him. And we need to be aware of that. And sometimes we just, we take him out of the story. And I think you're right, Jonathan, sometimes, a lot of times we take him out of the story, or take that certain narrative out of the out of the hole, because we're saying, Okay, this story must point to me, in some respect, you know, this story of Daniel lines, and it points to me, what does it say about me? When really, we need to be saying, you know, how does this story fit into the hole? And why is why is it in here? Because we know that the center of everything is Christ.

Jay Wipf  
We missed the forest for the trees, sometimes we sell

children's books. Now we teach our kids the Bible, a lot of times they they know the Bible stories, but have we done a good job of teaching the story? One story, one author, not a bunch of disconnected stories, David one week, to the next, and the next whatever. And we've missed actual story. 

John Goodell  
You know that there is a there is a lot of good children's Bible study books out now devotional books. I think it's the Gospel story book. I'm looking up right now. That's the name of it. But even for reader, yeah, the Gospel story of the Gospel story Bible.

We use that one, I give that to people in our church.

And Matter of fact, I just recommended a couple days ago to a guy in our church and I said, Man, you need to read that. This is for you. And you'll benefit just as much as your kids. Because it does. It shows Christ through the all the stories, and it doesn't neglect the fact that there isn't something to learn about faithfulness from Daniel, I think there is principally, you know,

deal testing is about Jesus Christ, huh.

Coalt Robinson  
Yeah, certainly, certainly, I'm not saying that there's not. There's not other things to learn. And, you know, the story of David has has nothing to do with sin and David's sin and teach us about repentance and some of those games. So what do you guys have that the

John Goodell  
Gospel story Bible? I don't think I do. Marty Murkowski like it is okay. What do you guys do you guys use one? You guys have one you'd like to use? 

Jay Wipf  
What's it called? the Jesus story. I forget the titles. Sally Lloyd Jones, and David Helm

has a different one.

John Goodell  
Yeah, the Gospels. Yeah, storybook Bible or something that

Jay Wipf  
we have that big picture, big picture story Bible, something like that. 

Coalt Robinson  
But we read thethe one by Kevin de young. You seen that way? Uh huh. Yeah, that's that's a pretty good story of kind of telling the whole story anyway.

John Goodell  
Yeah, that's really good sort of redemption. But I really think that, yeah, the the Jesus, the one you're talking about is the Jesus storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones. Yeah, that Yeah, I have that one, too. I prefer I mean, just preference. I mean, I prefer the Marty Murkowski one but,

Coalt Robinson  
but anyway, we're reading in our house the the five minute we seen those books, the five minute, I think there's a lot of secular ones, too, but five minute Bible stories or something like that. I think it's endorsed by the gospel project. You know, it just tells the story of like Joseph and his brothers, you know, it tells the story of it. But then the last part of it at the end, it always comes back to Jesus redeemed us like Joseph saved his brothers. You know, I mean, it just kind of always draws your attention to that. And it gives you an opportunity. You talk with your kids about, you know why that stories in the Bible, and I thought that was is pretty good. It's probably not as good as some but it's,

Jay Wipf  
yeah, long story short, I forget who the author is. But it's

five times a week, 10 minute devotional and three years ago through the Old Testament. My elementary kids and their short story long as the new testament to do we

John Goodell  
have we have those two, we haven't taken them through it yet. But pick those up.

If you work through those, those pretty good. We're just starting the Okay, the one So, okay.

Now, do you guys, boy, we're getting off the trail, but I

Coalt Robinson  
know this is.

John Goodell  
You guys categorize your children.

Coalt Robinson  
I was just going to bring that up. Jay, what do you What's your? Yeah, we're, we're using in our church this last year. So starting in last August or whatever. We started the New City catechism. We started using that in our church.

John Goodell  
Cool. We did this last year. digitas.

Coalt Robinson  
So every week in our bulletin, you know, we have

John Goodell  
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Every week in the bulletin. I put it in on the Insert. We're at question 38. That's a good that's a really good one. I think for a church. I've been doing the boys and girls catechism for years with my kids. Yeah. I don't know if you've heard of that one. But it's, it sure. Sure seems to be based somewhat on the 1689 covers. I mean, some of the questions are you mean, the covenant of grace? I mean, just the questions are really good. They're really theological but simple for boys and girls. I really like it. Know, the one I've been looking at just for me is the the Baptist catechism redone by I think Renehan, and those guys redid it, but but basically, they took the shorter catechism Westminster shorter catechism and then made it Baptist. It's really good. more of an adult or older kids. But the great thing about the covenant of grace is we're saved by grace. And when you think about that, when you study that, when you understand that, it it's impossible to really be a legal list and the big, the big l since legal lyst I mean, you could be legalistic on things I think for salvation. I think it'd be impossible to be illegal lyst when you really understand the covenant of grace.

Coalt Robinson  
If you would like to learn more about the renewal podcast or find past episodes, check us out on the web at renewal cast.com or visit us on facebook@facebook.com slash renewal cast. If you would like to learn more about Bethel Church find other resources there. Please visit the church website at Bethel MV church.org or connect with us there on facebook@facebook.com. Slash Bethel MB Church. Now Bethel Church exists to bring glory to God by promoting the joyful worship of Jesus Christ in our context, into the ends of the earth.