The Covenant of Grace

To the Reader

Dear Reader,

The worthy author of this treatise, who was my very dear and deeply honored friend, left this work to me as a gift of his affection, along with the rest of his manuscripts. He had prepared this piece for publication, intending to expand it if the Lord had granted him more time and health. I'm confident it would have appeared in more polished form had he been able to complete it and then review the whole structure once it was assembled. At first, I was genuinely uncertain whether I should risk publishing it in its unfinished state, but the persistence of friends, along with the encouraging judgment of several respected ministers who had read it, led me to make it public without any addition, reduction, or alteration.

The subject of this book is excellent, profitable, and necessary: it concerns the mystery that has been hidden from ages and generations, but is now made known to the saints. That blessed apostle who had firsthand knowledge of the full value of human learning still counted it as nothing compared to the knowledge taught in this treatise. "I determined not," he says, "to know anything among you" (and these were knowledgeable Corinthians) "except Jesus Christ." And further: "Yes, without question, I count all things as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." How incomparably sweet and satisfying it is for a Christian soul genuinely seeking self-knowledge to become acquainted with the faithful commitments of Almighty God to the poor, penitent sinner, through His beloved Son, in a covenant of free, rich, and everlasting grace! This covenant, transacted between Christ and God, is where the first and most secure foundation of a Christian's comfort lies. "I will give you as a covenant for the people, and will establish the earth" (Isa 49:8). "All the promises of God find their Yes in Him, and their Amen through Him, to the glory of God" (2 Cor 1:20). Therefore, the servants of the Most High, despite their own changeableness and unworthiness, may hold their hearts and hopes steady in the enjoyment of all gospel privileges through Him, because God has said: "I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David" (Isa 55:1, 3).

A right understanding of this covenant, and a fruitful application of it, will provide timely support and comfort to God's people in these sorrowful and troubled times. Through God's mercy, we have a glorious work before us: the work of church reformation. Even though difficulties, delays, and opposition weigh heavily on our hearts, we find encouragement here. "The mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires" (Isa 54:10-12). And when violent oppressors prevail and prosper, we may plead with our God in these words: "Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence" (Ps 74:20). For the terms of the covenant God makes with Christ and His spiritual offspring run as follows: "If they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips." And again: "As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit." How precious beyond all expression are the treasures of God's love in the covenant of promise!

These riches are unearthed and brought to light in this work. Many difficult passages of Scripture, full of rich gospel grace, are here interpreted from the original languages and through careful comparison of one text with another. The book, I believe, will commend itself to the thoughtful reader. And since so many godly, learned, and well-regarded brothers have been pleased to honor it with their endorsement, any further testimony from me would be entirely unnecessary. If the style of writing sometimes seems dense or unfamiliar, I ask that patient attention be given to it before discouragement sets in. A little diligence often overcomes what at first appears to be a great difficulty, and a genuine love of truth will make the search for knowledge a labor worth undertaking. May the Lord guide and prosper your reading of this treatise, so that your soul may be built up in grace and comfort through the fulfillment of His glorious promises in the Lord our Savior. In Him and for Him, I will endeavor to show myself your faithful friend and servant,

Simeon Ash

Chapter 1: The Meaning of the Word "Covenant"

The word translated "Covenant" is derived, by some scholars, from a root meaning to choose or to eat, since covenants were typically sealed with a feast. On this reading, a covenant is something two parties choose together, mutually agreeing and pledging themselves to one another, though the word can also apply when a single party makes a unilateral promise, which brings it close in meaning to a binding, one-sided arrangement. Others trace it to a root meaning to cut, divide, or strike, which, when joined to the word for covenant, gives us the familiar phrase "to make" or "to strike" a covenant or agreement: "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham" (Gen 15:18), and "They have not performed the words of the covenant" (Jer 34:18). The Holy Spirit expresses the Hebrew word ברית in Greek in several ways: as ποιέω (Heb 8:9; Jer 34:18, 8), τελέω (Heb 8:8), διατίθεμαι (Heb 8:10), and ἐντέλλομαι (Heb 9:10; Exod 24:5-7; Num 18:19; 2 Chr 13:5). The Septuagint renders it Διαθήκη ἁλὸς αἰωνία καὶ εἰς διαθήκην αἰώνιον, a covenant of salt, meaning something firm, stable, and incapable of being dissolved, just as salted meat resists decay (a covenant of salt, firm and stable, which cannot be rescinded, just as salted meat cannot spoil) (Gen 15:9-10; Jer 34:18). In Hebrew, a perpetual covenant would be called a covenant of the age, with both ideas appearing together. Salt represents generosity: just as salt preserves meat, so generosity preserves wealth and resources. And as the Roman poet Virgil notes, covenants were also joined by the sacrifice of a pig. In human affairs as well, the same word is used (1 Sam 11:1; 1 Kgs 5:12; see also Junius and Piscator, lib. 3, cap. 9, on Heb 15, etc.). In Job 31:1, it refers to a solemn commitment to guard his eyes. "The covenant which they had made before me" (Ps 83:5); "They are confederate against you" (Ps 83:5); "I have made a covenant with my chosen" (Ps 89:3). Elsewhere, the word carries the sense of promising, appointing, or ordaining: "As I have promised" (or ordained, or covenanted) "with David your father" (2 Chr 7:18). In the New Testament, the word used by the Septuagint carries the same sense: "And I appoint to you a kingdom" (Luke 22:29). Erasmus renders this as Ego dispono vobis regnum (I arrange a kingdom for you), Beza as Ego pacificor (I make a covenant), and the Syriac as Ego polliceor (I promise). Among all nations, covenants were ratified through the offering of sacrifice.

The clearest example is the sacrifice by which God made a covenant with the people of Israel and bound them to obedience to His law, which is why it is also called a covenant of salt, meaning something perpetual, either because salt drives out corruption or, more likely, because salt was used in sacrifices. It is as if to say: a covenant struck with all the ceremonies customary to covenant-making. Among the Greeks as well, this practice was universal, as shown not only by countless examples but by common phrases such as ὅρκια ταμεῖν, meaning to swear with the sacrifice slain, or to ratify a covenant, and in Homer's Iliad 3, φέρειν ὅρκια πιστά, meaning to bring or carry those things required for the taking of an oath or the making of a covenant. The word for covenant, binding agreement, or league, which in Hebrew carries the sense of brotherly or friendly parting and of setting out the terms of an agreement, is rendered by the Greek translators almost universally as διαθήκη, meaning a testament or disposition (Pss 25:10, 14; 44:17; 50:16; 55:20), and only rarely as συνθήκη, meaning covenant (Isa 28:15), though that latter form does appear elsewhere (Wis 1:16; 1 Macc 10:26; 2 Macc 13:25; 14:26). In the Old Testament, however, the word Berith is never used for a last will and testament. That concept is expressed, as Drusius notes from the Rabbis, by the word צואה, derived from a root meaning to command and thus to set one's house in order or to make one's will (Isa 38:1). That word is itself general and must be understood according to the context of each passage. Where the Septuagint and Theodotion translate it as διαθήκη, Symmachus and Aquila render it συνθήκη (Ps 25:14). Nor is it unusual for classical Greek authors to use διαθήκη in its broader sense: Camerarius cites from Aristophanes' Birds the phrase διαθεῖναι διαθήκην, used to mean making a covenant. The Roman Catholics criticize our translators for rendering the word as "covenant" rather than "testament," since they prefer the testamentary sense. But they are mistaken, because the word's meaning is broader than that. The Apostle's argument in Heb 9:16 does not rest on the bare meaning of the word but on the circumstances of the covenant itself. Both a covenant and a testament involve the ordering and disposing of things according to one's will, and the Greek usage in the New Testament follows the established interpretation of the Septuagint. That said, the covenant of grace does resemble a testament in one important respect: it is not ratified except by the death of the Mediator, who stands in the role of a testator.

In Scripture, the word "covenant" sometimes refers to an absolute promise from God, with no conditions attached whatsoever. This was the nature of the covenant God made with Noah immediately after the flood, when He freely promised never again to destroy humanity and the animals through a universal flood (Gen 9:11). Similarly, God made a covenant of peace and an everlasting covenant with Phinehas, promising that he and his descendants would hold the covenant of an everlasting priesthood (Num 25:12-13). In the same category is the covenant in which God promises to give His elect both faith and perseverance, a promise to which no external condition can be attached, because any such condition is already contained within the promise itself (Heb 8:10).

Very often in Scripture, however, the word "covenant" is used in a way that clearly implies a free promise from God alongside a corresponding obligation on the part of the rational creature. This obligation was already owed to God regardless of any promise, and God could have demanded it while the creature was bound to perform it, even without any covenant being made (Pss 50:16; 25:10; 44:17). A covenant is, by its nature, something composite, involving two distinct elements, whether distinguished in reality or in concept: one party making the covenant, and the other accepting or responding to it. It also involves two corresponding parts: first, the giving of some future good; and second, the performance of some duty in return. The first part without the second is nothing more than a promise. The second without the first is nothing less than a law, though Paul draws a different contrast between law and promise, nature and faith, works and Christ (Gal 3:22), because he is working from a different understanding of what "promise" means. When two parties come together around both of these elements, we have what is properly called a covenant, though in a looser, figurative sense, Scripture sometimes uses the word "covenant" to refer only to the promise (Ps 50:5; Neh 1:5; Gen 17:7, 9), and sometimes only to the stipulation. Occasionally, even the seal of the covenant is called the covenant itself (Gen 17:10-11).

This distinction within the covenant rests on a prior distinction within God's love. There is a love God has toward the creature from which all the good in the creature flows, and there is a love God extends to the creature on account of what the creature has received, not from itself, but from God, as the creature was already loved by that first love. We can call the first kind primary or antecedent love, and the second secondary or consequent love, simply to keep the two distinct. From the first flows both the making and the fulfilling of the Absolute Covenant. The second governs the fulfilling of the covenant to which a mutual obligation is attached, though not the making of it. In the Absolute Covenant, there is nothing in the creature that could move God either to promise or to carry out what He has promised. But in the covenant to which a stipulation is attached, God fulfills what He promised because the creature performs what was required, even though the fact that God entered into such a covenant at all, and promised such great things to whoever rendered such obedience, flows entirely from His antecedent love and free pleasure. The essence of the covenant properly consists in the promise and the stipulation.

But the words of the covenant contain the obedience God requires and the creature pledges, and so by a figure of speech (metonymy) those words are themselves called the covenant (Exod 34:27-28; Deut 29:1; Jer 11:2-4; 34:13-14). The tablets of the law were the tablets of the covenant. The covenant and the law differ as friendship differs from the written obligations that friendship produces: whoever violates the latter is shown to have broken the former (Heb 8:1-2). The tablets of the covenant of law are called the covenant, the testament, and the book of the covenant (Exod 24:4, 7; 2 Kgs 23:2). A covenant between people concerns things that were either not owed before, or not recognized as owed, and which are made firm, stable, and binding by the covenant itself, so that through it a new right is created or established for one or both of the parties. The covenant of God therefore contains things that are new, immense, and in no way owed, which God offers to us out of His pure pleasure. Now where there is such vast and infinite disparity between the parties, nothing can assure us of so great a gift except the certain Word of God and the sure promise of the One who never lies and never changes. For a person to enter into covenant with God, then, it was necessary first that they believe God's Word, and then that they hope for things beyond their own capacity, and so, trusting and obeying, they would at last obtain the promised good. This is why the words of the covenant can rightly stand for the covenant itself (Exod 24:6-8).

Nevertheless, in making a covenant with the creature, God is not confined to verbal expressions. He often establishes the covenant through real impressions made on the heart and constitution of the creature, as is evident in the covenant so frequently mentioned with non-rational creatures, and this was also the manner of covenanting with our first parents in the state of innocence. It is most clearly seen, however, in the restored rational creature, when God puts His laws into their hearts and writes them on their inward parts (Jer 31:33). The more perfect the creature becomes, the more real and deep that impression will be. Yet in every age of the church, past and continuing to the end of the world, God has always made, and always will make, outward expressions of His covenant with humanity. The covenant itself is one thing; the name of the covenant is another. The covenant encompasses the whole substance of the relationship along with its circumstances, while the name is sometimes applied to only some of those circumstances. In this way the covenant can be said to be both the same and not the same: what is identical in substance may vary in form and circumstance (Deut 5:2-3; 4:31). Nor is it unusual in Scripture for something to be affirmed of one thing and denied of another, when it belongs more fully to the one than to the other, even though it is common to both, as in Matt 15:34. Interpreters of Scripture follow this rule: when a text seems to deny the very essence of something, it is in fact denying only some circumstance or aspect of it. So in Mark 9:37, "whoever receives me does not receive me" is a negation that properly concerns degrees, not essence. In John 5:45, "there is one who accuses you, even Moses" means Moses primarily and especially. And in Gen 45:8, "God sent me here" is said even though both God and Joseph's brothers had done it, each in a different way.

Chapter 2: The Covenant God Made with Humanity in Innocence

It has pleased God to deal with rational creatures by way of promise and mutual agreement, that is, by way of covenant. In this arrangement, God Himself is one party, covenanting and promising, while the entire rational creation is the other party, responding and obeying. What God holds out is eternal life along with all its accompanying blessings, and the condition required from the rational creature is free, willing, and ready obedience, whether that obedience flows from nature or from grace. There are three principal reasons why God chose to deal with rational creatures in this way. First, so that the creature might always know what to expect from the Creator, whatever circumstances it finds itself in. Second, so that the same creature might continually recognize and acknowledge what it owes in return. Third, this manner of dealing fits best with the nature of the rational creature and its proper subordination to the Almighty. Setting aside what might be said about God's covenant with rational creatures generally, including both humans and angels, we will focus only on the covenant God made with mankind, because that knowledge concerns us most directly, and Scripture is richest in its treatment of that subject.

We do not find the word "covenant" used explicitly between God and man from the time of creation onward, whether in innocence or after the fall; yet Scripture contains everything that amounts to the same thing. In the state of innocence, God provided and set before Adam the prospect of eternal happiness in his present enjoyments, and called for perfect obedience. This is clear from God's warning in Gen 2:17, for if man would die for disobeying, it strongly implies that God's covenant with him promised life on the condition of obedience. After the fall, it is equally clear that God was pleased to continue this pattern with humanity across every age and condition, though with certain adjustments that His infinite wisdom saw fit to make and that best suited the creature's present state. In this way, God has granted both primary and secondary goods to humanity under covenants and seals, so that people might have greater assurance as long as they walked in obedience. In doing so, God condescended to human weakness and, to strengthen faith, added seals to His covenants in every era to confirm the agreement. The covenant in general may be described as a mutual compact between God and man, by which God promises all good things, and especially eternal happiness, to man on just, fair, and gracious terms, while man promises to walk before God in full, free, and willing obedience, looking to God alone for all good and for happiness in Him, according to His promise, all to the praise and glory of His great name.

The author of the covenant is God alone, not God and man together, because God enters into covenant with man not as an equal but as a sovereign. Man is bound to accept the terms the Lord offers. There can be no equality of power and authority between God and His creature such that the creature could negotiate with the Most High; man must simply receive what the Lord is pleased to offer and require. The covenant originates with God, and it flows from His free grace and love. Although in some covenants the promised benefit is given in justice as a reward for works, it was still an act of grace that God chose to bind Himself to His creature at all, and to do so beyond anything the creature deserved. Even where the reward is a matter of justice, it is also a matter of favor. Consider this: after a creature had rendered perfect obedience according to God's will, it would have been no injustice for God, who made that creature from nothing, to return it to nothing. It was therefore an act of grace that He chose to make any promise at all, and it would have been by that same grace that the creature's happiness was sustained.

The two parties to the covenant are God and man: God promises something to man on a condition, and man in turn promises God what He requires. Considered from the side of God's promise, the covenant can rightly be called His; considered from the side of the conditions, it can be called man's. God freely promises to reward an obedience that is already owed and could be demanded without any promise of recompense, while man promises to pay that debt of duty he owes to the Lord by virtue of the many relationships in which he stands obligated to Him. The structure of the covenant consists of a promise and a return pledge. The Lord, though He could have demanded the full debt of obedience without offering any reward, given all He had already bestowed on His creature, chose instead to bind Himself first to reward man's obedience, before binding man to obedience in return. His purpose was that man might obey freely and gladly.

The subject of this covenant, in general terms, is humanity considered without any special distinctions, because just as the Law was given to all people, so the Gospel is revealed to all people. When the covenant is divided into different types or adjusted for varying circumstances and degrees, then humanity considered in particular ways becomes its subject; but at the most basic level, the covenant addresses humanity without those specific qualifications. The Lord, taking into account the instability and weakness of human nature, was pleased not only to test our obedience through symbolic commands but also to confirm the certainty of His faithful promise through outward signs. Yet when His creatures finally reach absolute perfection and unchangeableness, those symbolic commands and outward signs will no longer be needed and will cease. The good that is promised is eternal blessedness, along with everything that accompanies or belongs to it. The good that is required is obedience to God's just and righteous commands, which He, as our sovereign Lord, claims and calls for according to His own prescription and appointment. The purpose of all this is the glory of God, namely the praise of His wisdom, justice, and goodness. In all these respects, the various covenants, however they may be divided by type or varied in degree and circumstance, harmonize beautifully and agree with one another.

But since the covenant is not a single thing but rather something manifold, both in its types and its degrees, we must carefully distinguish between them and examine more closely what belongs to each type, where they agree, and where they differ from one another. Some make the distinction this way: the covenant is either one of Nature, one of Grace, or one that serves both, which is called the Old Testament. Others put it this way: the covenant is either Legal or Evangelical, either a covenant of works or a covenant of grace. The covenant of works is the one in which God covenants with humanity to grant eternal life on the condition of perfect personal obedience. The covenant of grace is the one God makes with humanity, promising eternal life on the condition of faith. This distinction is essentially the same as the first, and it also aligns with the distinction that can be drawn from the specific identity of the party with whom the covenant was made, namely the covenant made with Adam in the state of innocence versus the covenant made with humanity after the Fall. Scripture does not use the precise phrases "covenant of works" or "covenant of grace" word for word; the closest we come is in Rom 3:27, where the law of works is set against the law of faith, which amounts to the same thing as the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. In that passage, the Apostle is arguing about justification and, by extension, eternal salvation, which is God's part to give within a covenant. But more on that later. The covenant that God made with our first parents is that mutual contract or agreement in which God promised eternal happiness to humanity on the condition of complete and perfect obedience performed in their own persons.

The author of this covenant was God, man's Creator and sovereign Lord, who had already lavished countless blessings on humanity, equipped him with remarkable abilities, and enriched him with extraordinary privileges. God established this covenant in justice, yet it was equally an act of grace to make such a generous promise and to offer such great rewards in exchange for obedience. In strict justice, God required obedience, promised a reward, and threatened punishment; but He acted also as a bountiful and gracious benefactor toward His creature, who was at that point whole and perfect. God, in justice, calibrated the reward to the work, balancing the weight of the blessing promised against the obedience required. Yet I cannot conclude that it would have been unjust for God to have given less, or to have withheld such great blessings from man even while man continued in obedience. Rather, God was pleased to display His goodness toward obedient humanity no less than His justice, just as He had previously shown Himself, in the act of creation itself, to be extraordinarily gracious toward man above all other visible and physical creatures.

This covenant God made with humanity without a mediator, because no intermediary was needed to bring humanity into favor and friendship with God. Man bore the image of God and had committed no offense, and his service required no special pleading for acceptance, since it was pure and without blemish. God loved humanity as His own image-bearers, and promised to accept their obedience when it was offered freely, willingly, and completely, in accordance with His commands.

The structure of this covenant rested on a specific promise of blessing to be received from divine justice as a reward for faithful work: "Do this and live." It also required exact and rigorous perfect obedience in one's own person, without the slightest failure in either substance or manner. The blessing God promised was, in its nature, a complete and perfect system of good, to be sustained as long as obedience continued. Because this could, in principle, be sustained indefinitely by the power of the Creator, we describe it as happiness, life, and everlasting blessedness. However, to claim that God would have translated Adam into a state of heavenly glory had he persisted in obedience goes beyond what any solid scriptural ground can support, because no such promise appears in Scripture. Since we must not presume beyond what is written, we can say that Adam would have continued in the blessed condition in which he was created, but as for any translation to heaven after a number of years on earth, we simply do not read of it. In this state, Adam's obedience would have been rewarded by justice, yet he could not have merited that reward. Happiness would have been granted or sustained on account of his works, but those works would not have earned its continuation, because it is impossible for a creature to merit anything from the Creator. When a creature has done everything within his power, he remains an unprofitable servant who has done nothing more than his duty.

The obedience God required of Adam was partly natural, governed by the law written on his heart by God Himself, consisting in the true, sincere, and perfect love of God and of one's neighbor for the Lord's sake. It was also partly symbolic, consisting in obedience to a law given as a test and trial, to determine whether Adam would submit to God's good pleasure in an act that was in itself entirely neutral, simply because God had commanded it. Though God had endowed humanity with remarkable abilities and honorable privileges, He remained their Sovereign, and through an act of restraint He was pleased to make even this exalted creature aware of that fact. He did so by requiring His creature to abstain from one fruit that was pleasant to the eye and good for food. This was humanity's token of homage, something indifferent in itself before the command was given, toward which Adam had a natural inclination, but from which he was now to abstain. God, who had already granted humanity the liberty to eat from every tree in the garden as part of their inheritance rather than as a reward for obedience to this particular restraint, here stepped in and reserved this one thing as an act of homage owed to Himself.

In His sovereignty, God attached a punishment to the breaking of this commandment, so that man would understand his subordinate position and recognize that his relationship with God was not one between equals. The subject of this covenant is man in his complete and perfect state, created in the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, equipped not only with a rational soul and its fitting faculties, but with divine qualities breathed into him from the whole Trinity, infused throughout his entire being, raising every faculty and power above its original condition, and enabling him to obey God's will fully, willingly, and precisely, in both substance and degree. Whether these qualities were natural or supernatural to the first man is a question that need not be debated here, and if the terms are properly understood, it may not amount to much of a controversy at all. What must be acknowledged is this: these qualities represented Adam's excellence above all other creatures, and that in fallen humanity, this quality is entirely supernatural.

To this mutual covenant, God added a seal to assure the first man of His faithfulness and His intention to remain in covenant with him, and further to strengthen his obedience along with that of his descendants, a seal that was rendered void when he broke the covenant. This covenant of works, made with Adam, would have extended to all his descendants had he remained faithful, since in all of God's subsequent covenants they are made with a head and root, reaching out to all the branches and members that spring from them (Rom 5:17; 1 Cor 15:22, 47). The same pattern holds from Abraham to Christ, until the covenant is rejected by those who come after. But this covenant was made with Adam as the root of all humanity in such a way that, if broken, his entire posterity would be subject to both temporal and eternal judgment, which entered the world at his fall. This was a covenant of friendship, not of reconciliation; once broken, it could not be repaired. It promised no mercy or pardon, allowed no repentance, and accepted no obedience except what was perfect and complete. If Adam entertained any thought, after his breach, that he might somehow mend the situation, it was nothing but empty presumption, and lest he place false confidence in eating from the tree of life, God drove him out of the garden. Yet this covenant was not the final word, not the last or unchangeable arrangement. It would have been a terrible fate for all of Adam's descendants if God had dealt with them strictly according to the sentence pronounced here. When man had plunged himself into misery, it pleased the Lord to reveal His abundant grace in the covenant of grace, which will be addressed in what follows.

The purpose of this covenant is to display God's wisdom, generosity, goodness, and justice, both in how He rewards and how He punishes. It also prepared the way for the revelation of His rich grace and abundant free mercy, which would be fully brought to light in the second covenant.

Three questions worth raising here are neither unprofitable nor beside the point.

1. Why does the covenant of nature (as it is called) not explicitly require faith, but rather obedience and love? The answer is that faith is required only by implication in this covenant, not explicitly, because there was not the slightest reason for man to doubt God's love. Sin had not yet entered the world. The covenant of grace, however, is a different matter entirely, because it is made with a conscience already terrified by sin. Such a conscience could be lifted by no other means than the free promise of mercy, received through faith embracing the word of that promise, which is freely and faithfully offered and can only be accepted by faith.

Furthermore, the covenant of nature concerns what man owes to God in strict justice, namely righteousness and holiness. The covenant of grace, by contrast, concerns what God, having been reconciled to man through His Son, freely offers. And what He offers is given with extraordinary generosity.

2. How does the faith that strict justice in the covenant of nature presupposes differ from the faith required in the covenant of grace?

Answer: Faith, as it relates to the precise righteousness required under the Covenant of Nature, shares certain qualities with the faith required under the Covenant of Grace. Both originate from God, both involve a conviction concerning God's love, and both produce in the believer a reciprocal love for God. The connection between faith and love runs deep: when faith flourishes, love flourishes with it; when faith weakens, love weakens; and when faith dies, love dies along with it. Yet for all these similarities, the two kinds of faith differ in important ways. The first difference lies in their foundation. The faith that natural righteousness presupposes rests on the standing of unfallen human nature, and therefore, after Adam's fall, it has no place. Although God loves His creatures as such, He cannot love them as they are when corrupted by sin. No one, then, can honestly persuade himself that he is loved by God simply on the basis of being a creature, since all have sinned, nor can anyone love God as he should on that basis alone. The faith spoken of in the Covenant of Grace, by contrast, rests on the promise made in Christ. The second difference concerns how each kind of faith comes from God. Both originate with Him, but the faith that exact righteousness presupposes comes from God, as the Scholastics put it, through the order of nature (per modum naturae), while the faith required in the Covenant of Grace comes from God through the order of supernatural grace (per modum gratiae supernaturalis). The third difference concerns what each kind of faith produces. The righteousness that natural faith generates was changeable, because the faith from which it flowed depended on a changeable principle within nature itself. The holiness that the faith of the Covenant of Grace produces, however, is eternal and unchangeable, because it flows from an eternal and unchangeable source: the Spirit of Grace.

But if Adam's faith and holiness were changeable, how could he have lived with any security, free from unsettling fears? The answer is this: Adam's mind was so completely fixed in wonder at and awareness of God's goodness that such thoughts simply could not gain entry. There was no opening in him for that kind of anxiety to take hold.