LESSON 18

The Covenant of Grace

1. How does God save His people?

By means of a living faith in the Mediator of the covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. What is the fruit of the work of Christ?

That God maintains, restores, and perfects His covenant through Him. Jeremiah 31:33

3. What is the covenant?

It is the gracious relation of living fellowship and friendship between God and His people in Christ, wherein He is their God and they are His people. Genesis 17:7; Psalm 16:5; 33:22

4. How many covenants are there?

There is only one covenant, in both the Old and New Testaments, established with God’s people throughout all time.

5. Did not Adam stand in a covenant relationship to God?

Yes, but he violated the covenant through his sin, so that the covenant must be restored through Christ.

6. How does God establish His covenant?

God establishes His covenant by His own work of grace, whereby He takes His people into His own covenant fellowship. Ephesians 2:8

7. Does God establish His covenant with all men?

No, He establishes His covenant only with His elect people in the line of continued generations. Galatians 3:16, 29

8. What does God do for His people in that covenant?

He forms them to be His people, makes them partakers of all the benefits of Christ, and leads them on to eternal glory.Ephesians 1:23

9. Through whom does God make us partakers of all Christ’s benefits?

Through the Holy Spirit, who dwells in Christ as the Head and in His people as members of His body. Ephesians 1:23

EXTRA WORK

1. There are some who teach that the covenant is an agreement between God and man. How does an agreement differ from a bond of friendship and fellowship?

2. Some teach that, because the covenant is an agreement, it is bilateral (two sided). Prove from Genesis 15:7-18 that the covenant is unilateral (one-sided).

3. How do the dispensationalists deny the unity of the covenant?

4. Prove from Psalm 89:28-34 that God not only establishes His covenant, but also preserves it by His own work.

5. How is the protevangel in Genesis 3:15 a promise of the coming of Christ, the Head of the covenant?

6. Prove from Psalm 25:14 that the covenant is a bond of friendship between God and His people.

7. Prove from Genesis 17:7 that God establishes His covenant in the line of continued generations.

8. Read the doctrinal part of the Baptism Form and explain from it what is our“part” of the covenant.