Westminster Larger Catechism # 31
Commentary by Dr. Chuck Baynard
Q31. With whom was the covenant of grace made?
Answer: The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the
second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.
References: Gal. 3:16; Rom. 5:15-end; Isa. 53:10-11.
Herein is the very heart of covenant theology, and a point I
have watched many scholars pay lip service in passing, and then
continue to develop the rest of their theory forgetting whom God
had in mind when he introduced the concept of a covenant in the
garden. I invite you to pause here a moment and with prayer read
all of the references. God has always been so gracious toward us,
and in the beginning of His revealed word lays down the
principles that all the rest of Scripture bring to full
revelation, but only to the elect. It doesn’t take a scholar
to understand the Bible and grasp the deeper things of God, it
takes a heart totally surrendered to God and willingly following
the Holy Spirit. For years I have pondered how it could be that
God’s word says one of the things the Holy Spirit would do
is lead us to the truth. Yet, I watch so many that within this
prison of flesh, whom I cannot discern anything other than they
are God’s people, differ widely on what the Holy Scriptures
clearly teach. Denominations abound, and more are being formed
even as I pen these words because of these differences in
"theory." How can this be if we all belong to God, and
all are being led by the same Holy Spirit? The answer must be
that some aren’t following, but vainly attempting to lead
the Holy Spirit where they would have Him go. That be as it may,
we have no way inside the veil of this present darkness to
discern which is indeed the child of God, but we do have a way to
discern God’s truth.
Somewhere early in my walk of faith a mentor told me that I
could accept nothing as doctrine that was not clearly taught in
"word" in at least two different verses of the Bible,
preferably one from each Testament as a minimum. This teacher was
correct, but didn’t tell me the whole story. Another mentor
gave me a rule that goes something like this: One verse is truth
revealed, two a pathway to follow, three a stream of truth to
drink deeply from, and four a doctrine to be believed, taught and
defended. In a note from Dr. Edwin Elliott this week I saw this
pattern outlined another way: one verse is a point of contact,
two passages form a pattern of thought, three passages yield a
plain of discussion, and four different passages produce a solid
doctrine. I think we find here solid doctrine that we need to
understand and proclaim "covenant theology." I believe
we must keep the covenant in sight continuously as we develop the
rest of our theology. This is the boundary (infra-structure)
within which God has placed us to labor.
As I read the LC in preparing for this series, I thought the
order of things was off, and perhaps even backwards, that an
introduction to Covenant and Reformed theology would perhaps lay
a better ground for the understanding of the whole. Knowing that
apart from the indwelling Holy Spirit, none can understand the
revealed Word of God. However in giving into the wisdom of the
Divines and attempting to comment on their product without my
rearranging the scheme of things, I soon found that indeed the
proper order is as they have laid it out for us. It is only upon
the foundation of God’s sovereignty that the whole can rest.
Even as with our beloved TULIP, we see this sovereignty expressed
in its fullness, not at the beginning but at the end. Thus, we
find the Divines introduce us to God and begin the revelation of
His attributes, moving then to His creation, and relationship
with man and revealing Man’s inability to maintain his
position before a holy God, allowing the darkness of sin to
descend. Then follows a complete discussion of sin and its price.
From sin we see the truth of petal one of the TULIP, and the
darkness within the soul of the creature reign supreme on earth.
Immediately after disclosing this awesome judgment, the Divines
bring to us the hope revealed by petal two, even as God gave that
same glimmer of hope in the garden when as He pronounced the
curse upon the serpent, He used words that stirred the heart of
Eve and began the hope that every daughter of Eve would share in
the hope that each male child was this promised deliverer. Then
suddenly we find ourselves facing Covenant theology and wondering
what is going on here and what does this have to do with being a
Christian?
This rambling isn’t as random as you might have thought
and now we get to the point of this question. God in His love and
mercy knowing the weakness of the flesh did not set in place a
series of covenants that man could never fulfill and thus doom
all of His creation to populate hell for eternity. God made a
covenant with Christ, whereby the righteousness of Christ would
be accepted as payment for the unrighteousness of mankind. As
Paul so strongly states, by the law was no one ever saved,
neither by the keeping of a covenant was any one ever saved. We
are all sinners and covenant breakers by nature. Yet Christ did
keep the covenant, but it wasn’t a thing He needed for
Himself, but that the price for our sins might be paid. The
righteous for the unrighteous. Though God humbled Himself and
became flesh, nowhere does He give up His glory, His authority.
Christ says I lay my life down, and I will take it up again. From
glory unto glory, suffering in the flesh for our sakes, yet
mysteriously to us mere mortals, still God. The covenant was made
with Christ, because He could keep it, not for Himself, but for
the sake of the elect.
Many may never understand this concept. Many more will hunt
for holes in the theology and argue the finer points until our
Lord returns. I would ask what does the Book say? I would say it
is time to apply an old Puritan principle: What does it say? What
does it mean? What do I do about it? It says God made a covenant
with the Son for the redemption of the elect. It means the
program as designed by God has been played out in history and
recorded in the Bible so we can accept it as truth. We should be
living like the children of God by faith (the just live by faith)
instead of trying to find holes in what is an obvious Biblical
doctrine having been laid out in far more than four passages as
sound doctrine. There are places we may wander into uncharted and
less sure waters, this isn’t one of them. To argue this
simple statement with such solid proof text is pure vanity. This
is why I shared the process God so lovingly had my mentors share
early in my studies. As I read this statement by the Divines and
prayed over the proof texts offered, I found not only a doctrine,
but a river rushing from eternity to eternity, and the elect
being swept along in its currents from time past until time is no
more. (Petal four being exposed thereby.) Once more I think we
see the full TULIP standing before the throne of God without
stretching the Scriptures at any point.
Seems then as we finish question thirty one, barely having
scratched the surface of the LC yet (16% done) we have easily met
the requirement of four or more verses needed for the TULIP to
rightly hold its place as the brightest flower in the garden of
man, for we see it is in reality a jewel from heaven itself. How
sad then this tool from God is so lightly esteemed in His church,
and child after child never hear about this memory device whereby
even babes in Christ may teach Biblical doctrine to the end of
sowing light and hope in a dark and hopeless sea of humanity.
Dr. Chuck Baynard -- December 1997
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