{"id":25031,"date":"2025-06-02T23:11:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T23:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=25031"},"modified":"2025-06-02T23:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T23:21:18","slug":"the-mosaic-covenant-a-reiteration-of-works-an-administration-of-grace-or-a-mixture-of-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2025\/06\/the-mosaic-covenant-a-reiteration-of-works-an-administration-of-grace-or-a-mixture-of-both\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mosaic Covenant: A Reiteration Of Works, An Administration Of Grace Or A Mixture Of Both?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Masters delivered two lectures on the biblical covenants for the 2016 School of Theology, Metropolitan Tabernacle. He asks the question, Was the Mosaic Covenant a reiteration of the Covenant of Works, an administration of the Covenant of Grace or a mixture of both? He takes the view it is a reiteration of the Covenant of Works.[1]<\/sup><\/p>\n

I answer, none of the above. The Mosaic Covenant was a separate covenant from that of Works and Grace (Redemption).[2]<\/sup> Each of these covenants was made between different parties, at different times (or points), with different promises (blessings) and with different conditions (terms).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Covenant of Works was made between God and Adam on behalf of the human race in the garden of Eden, requiring perfect obedience to the law inscribed upon his heart.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Covenant of Grace (Redemption) was made between the three Persons of the Godhead on behalf of the elect from eternity, all conditions resting upon the Father\u2019s electing love, the Son\u2019s redeeming grace and the Holy Spirit\u2019s sanctifying power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mosaic Covenant was made between God and Moses on behalf of the Jewish people as a nation, requiring obedience to the law under that covenant (moral, civil and ceremonial).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Covenants of Works and Grace (Redemption) are spiritual and perpetual covenants separate from all other covenants recorded in the Scriptures. Unregenerate sinners are and always have been under the authority of the Covenant of Works (before, during and after the Jewish people existed as a nation under the jurisdiction of the Mosaic Covenant). Regenerate sinners are and always have been under the authority of the Covenant of Grace (Redemption)\u2014before, during and after the Jewish people existed as a nation under the jurisdiction of the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Jewish people as a nation were in existence and under the Mosaic economy, they were simultaneously under one or the other of the preceding two covenants\u2014Works or Grace (Redemption). This was true for all the nations of the world, for although there were Gentiles that had been brought into and under the Mosaic economy with Israel, yet there were millions others belonging to other nations all of whom were under one or the other of the two spiritual covenants\u2014Works or Grace (Redemption). For it is certain, God has chosen a people for Himself out of every kindred, tongue and nation from the beginning of time till its end. Although their names and testimonies are not recorded in the Scriptures (for the purpose of the biblical narrative is to give a detailed account of the Jewish people as a nation, for it was from that biological line the Messiah would be born), yet there were multitudes of Gentiles regenerated by the Spirit of God and converted to Christ before, during and after the Jewish people existed as a nation under the Mosaic Covenant (and who were never brought under that covenant as proselytes).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether these Gentiles were brought into and under the Mosaic economy at that time had no bearing on whether they were regenerated and made experiential participants in the promises and blessings of the Covenant of Grace (Redemption). The Covenant of Grace (Redemption), like the Covenant of Works, transcends all other covenants recorded in the Scriptures. To make the Mosaic Covenant a reiteration of the Covenant of Works, or an administration of the Covenant of Grace (Redemption) or a mixture of the two is to undermine the authority, diminish the purpose and confound the nature of the two spiritual covenants\u2014that of Works and Grace (Redemption).[3]<\/sup> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do so many feel the need to conflate the spiritual covenants (Works and Grace\/Redemption) with the temporal (Abraham, Moses and David)? It is because they read their Bibles as if they as Gentiles are Jews by birth having been brought up under the authority of the Mosaic Covenant. They can\u2019t see the forest for the trees. If they would stand back, look at the biblical narrative from an overarching and objectively historical standpoint, irrespective of Jew and Gentile, they would come to see the universal and comprehensive nature of the covenants of Works and Grace (Redemption) in action throughout the ages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n[1] As a side note, Masters departs from the 17th<\/sup> century traditional view of a threefold covenantal framework. In its place, he subscribes to the Covenant of Works and then collapses the Covenant of Redemption into the \u201cconditional\u201d Covenant of Grace, thereby combining the components of both covenants into one. He claims this became the dominant view among the Particular Baptists and other denominations during the 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> centuries. He is incorrect. The Particular Baptists, Anglicans and Independents out-right rejected the \u201cconditional\u201d Covenant of Grace, subscribing only to the Covenant of Redemption, thereby dismissing the doctrines of duty-faith and the free-offer as having no place within the covenantal framework or the biblical narrative. Masters, of course, is a strong proponent of duty-faith and the free-offer. Although he is the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he takes a very different view on the Covenant of Grace and related matters than that of his predecessors, Benjamin Keach and John Gill.\u00a0<\/span>
\n[2] I take the view of Keach and Gill, rejecting the \u201cconditional\u201d Covenant of Grace outlined in the major confessional statements of the 17th<\/sup> century, believing there to be only the Covenant of Redemption, which I also call the Covenant of Grace. Henceforth, my use of the label is very different from that of the Reformed Baptists, including Peter Masters. A failure to understand this distinction in covenant theology is the cause for so much confusion among the Moderate-Calvinists, leading them to draw false conclusions about 18th<\/sup> century Hyper-Calvinism and to grossly misinterpret the writings of men such as Keach, Gill, Huntington, Gadbsy, Hawker, Philpot, &c.\u00a0<\/span>
\n[3] Let it also be noted, (1) Those who make the Mosaic Covenant an administration of the Covenant of Grace lay the groundwork for a State Church and Infant Baptism. How does one legitimately or consistently defend the New Testament teachings on the Local Church and Believers\u2019 Baptism if subscribing to this \u201cadministrative\u201d view? Too many Baptists have huddled up with the Anglicans and the Presbyterians on this matter. Come out from among them and be ye separate, my dear brethren! (2) Those who make the Mosaic Covenant an administration of the Covenant of Grace do with the Old Testament Scriptures similar to that of the Dispensationalists. Both groups divide up the biblical narrative into \u201cdispensations\u201d or \u201cadministrations\u201d of time. The former do it with a series of separate covenants; the latter with a single covenant. They both err in this matter. The proper meaning of \u201cdispensations\u201d or \u201cadministrations\u201d is this\u2014every person (regenerate and unregenerate) is a dispensation or administration of God\u2019s grace. Every unregenerate sinner is a dispensation of God\u2019s grace unto creation, dispensing to the sinner the terms and promises of the Covenant of Works. Every regenerate sinner is a dispensation of God\u2019s grace unto salvation, dispensing to the sinner the terms and promises of the Covenant of Grace (Redemption). Henceforth, the dispensations of God\u2019s grace are applicable to individuals, rather than periods of time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Peter Masters delivered two lectures on the biblical covenants for the 2016 School of Theology, Metropolitan Tabernacle. He asks the question, Was the Mosaic Covenant a reiteration of the Covenant of Works, an administration of the Covenant of Grace or a mixture of both? He takes the view it is a reiteration of the Covenant of Works. I answer,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1018],"tags":[1232,1205,1210,1198,1199,1201,1202,1203,1204],"class_list":["post-25031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jared-smiths-bits-and-pieces","tag-baptist-history","tag-biblical-covenants","tag-confessions","tag-duty-faith","tag-free-offer","tag-fullerism","tag-hyper-calvinism","tag-moderate-calvinism","tag-reformed-baptists"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25031"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25034,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25031\/revisions\/25034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}