For Those Who Are Confessional
For those who are confessional, are there (2) Covenants or (3)? The Westminster Confession of Faith yields (3).
If you say (3) you have conflicting Covenants, the first with Adam alone before he fell, then a 2nd with fallen man, after Adam fell. If Adam is the federal head, why would another Covenant of Grace be needed and not the same standard applied to fallen mankind as Adam was under? Was not the corresponding imputation of the active and passive obedience of Christ applied accordingly to those given to Him by the Father?
Westminister Confession of Faith:
Covenant of Redemption
Covenant of Works
Covenant of Grace
Particular Baptists:
Covenant of Redemption aka Covenant of Grace
Covenant of Works
John Gill on the subject in the Body of Divinity:
Of The Everlasting Covenant of Grace, between the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit (3e):
“[The covenant of redemption] is the same with the covenant of grace; some divines, indeed, make them distinct covenants; the covenant of redemption, they say, was made with Christ in eternity; the covenant of grace with the elect, or with believers, in time: but this is very wrongly said; there is but one covenant of grace, and not two, in which the Head and Members, the Redeemer and the persons to be redeemed, Christ and the elect, are concerned; in which he is the Head and Representative of them, acts for them, and on their behalf. What is called a covenant of redemption, is a covenant of grace, arising from the grace of the Father, who proposed to his Son to be the Redeemer, and from the grace of the Son, who agreed to be so; and even the honours proposed to the Son in this covenant, redounded to the advantage of the elect; and the sum and substance of the everlasting covenant made with Christ, is the salvation and eternal happiness of the chosen ones; all the blessings and grants of grace to them, are secured in that eternal compact; for they were blessed with all spiritual blessings in him, and had grace given them in him before the world was; wherefore there can be no foundation for such a distinction between a covenant of redemption in eternity, and a covenant of grace in time.”
Robert Gilmore is a Strict and Particular Baptist preacher. He resides in Blountville, Tennessee, serving the Lord in various capacities. He is widely read on historic and modern theology, engaging with believers on social platforms and other mediums.
