As we think about the covenant of grace and its totality of meaning and the kind of glory we participate in due to the promise of Christ it only encourages us to the duty that we affirmed in our yes vote to be a member and/or minister in His church, and the kind of life we would like to see in our nation.

For my Seventeen82 article for April I would like to touch on something that undergirds the entire teaching of the Seceder church on the question of social covenanting and the gospel. And that is the role and place of this blessing in life of the Christian in light of the promise found alone in the covenant of grace. Whenever one may hear a phrase like covenant of duty you might immediately begin to think of the covenant of works. However, responsibilities are not antithetical to promises. As descendants of Ebenezer Erskine we certainly believe in the free offer of the gospel and the inherent legalism that would require any merited labor before one could rest in the peace of Christ for salvation. Yet, if you take a look at the covenants that we associate (no pun intended) with Abraham, Moses, David, etc… that are administrations of the one covenant of grace there is without a doubt an expectation of evangelical obedience which should follow. We are to have no other gods before the one true and living God because He has brought us out of bondage to sin and misery caused by Adam’s transgression. Abraham is to live peacefully in the land because God called him out of the land of Chaldees to rest in the place of promise. Christ bids His sheep to come onto Him, away from the yoke of weighty shame and take on the light yoke of His righteousness. 

Even when we move away from these expressions of the good news and into more practical matters we see the same truth expressed by way of the covenant of promise. For instance, when ministers are ordained they profess oaths to perform certain actions, do certain things, and to abstain from others. No one would call those vows an administration of the covenant of works because they require performance on the affirming, and consequence for the breaking. When it then comes to what our forefathers called social covenanting the same truth applies, even in the case of National covenants. As the Solemn League and Covenant makes clear the yeahs and amens of the swearers are grounded not in the power of their own flesh, but in the finished work of the Redeemer with whom the covenant has been made. All this in light of His mediatorial essence and authority under which all men are bound as the King of the Nations and the Head of the Church. 

Second generation Associate pastor Adam Gib is helpful here. He writes, “Such a covenant no way interferes with the Covenant of Grace; as it means not a laying any new ground of dependence and expectation before God. It only means a solemn avouching of the Lord and engagement to him, upon the ground of his Covenant of Grace.”. We would not call a tree sprouting in a forest a new forest anymore than we would call this type of covenant of some other kind since it springs from the ground saturated with the blood of Christ. 

Gib continues, “As the engagement unto, and performance of duties, is not anv condition of obtaining life from God, but is a consequence of embracing the gift of life in the covenant of grace, and of dependence on the promises of that Covenant.”.

Read More