It’s common to hear terms like Covenant of Grace used in Christian circles. But the Covenant of Grace is not actually mentioned by name in Scripture. So, what does it refer to, and should Christians hold to it if it’s not specifically mentioned in the Bible?
Adriel Sanchez and Harrison Perkins discuss this question and more in a conversation about covenant theology on Sola Media’s YouTube channel: “What Is the Difference Between Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism?”
Adriel Sanchez:
Sometimes people will say: Okay, well, the Bible does talk about covenants. You do have these biblical covenants, like the Abrahamic covenant or the Mosaic covenant or the New covenant.
But oftentimes, people who believe in covenant theology bring in these theological covenants like the Covenant of Works. You mentioned that covenant that was made with Adam in the garden, or this idea of a Covenant of Grace. And those are theological covenants that are imposed upon the biblical text. How would you respond to this argument that those really aren’t even biblical covenants?
Harrison Perkins:
Christians have long accepted the fact that sometimes we have to use terms that aren't right there in the Bible to bring together a lot of things that are happening in Scripture to give us a shorthand way of referring to them.
So, [in] Jude verse 5, Jude is writing and says, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” It's astounding that Jude would use the incarnate name of the Son to refer to his activity in the Old Testament.
Paul basically says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 10, where he's talking about Israel in the wilderness and that the Rock that followed them was Christ—the mediatorial designation of the Son, the Christ, the Messiah. These types, shadows, and ordinances in the Old Testament were about Jesus Christ and were ways that he was present with the people of God in that time.
Adriel Sanchez:
This is just reinforcing the reality, the substance of the covenant, that the grace that God has offered in the gospel throughout redemptive history is the same.
Harrison Perkins:
Right—whether you like the phrase the covenant of grace or not. I really like it. I think it's helpful. But it's just referring to this reality that I've invoked. I haven't done tricky exegesis there. I've just invoked passages that say Christ was there—just the Bible… I don't think that this is something that we're imposing or reading into it. I think it's something we're codifying with this doctrine of the covenant of grace, giving some framework, giving some explanation.
In Romans 4, Paul argues for Christians that we are justified by faith alone, and he appeals to the example of Abraham. It's a similar thing in Galatians 3:
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.— Galatians 3:7–9
But he's explaining the mechanics of justification by faith alone in Romans 4, and he says, think about Abraham. Now, I think that the step that we can miss as we process that [is that] the only way that that argument works is if Abraham was justified in the same way we are, the exact same way—and that's by faith in Jesus Christ.
So the covenant of grace is also just about this reality of Romans 4, that Abraham—and David, in Psalm 32—are talking about the same way of salvation and receiving the same way of salvation that we receive in the New Covenant… The Covenant of Grace is just saying: these benefits came from Jesus Christ always, even before he came in the incarnation. His work was applied beforehand.
