The PuritanBoard - View Single Post - Mosaic Covenant

CaseyBessette · #13 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenbaggins

But Casey, it equates the law with the covenant when it says "as a covenant." Furthermore, the next section emphasizes the continuity between Adam and Moses, and mentions no discontinuity. Taken altogether, therefore, we can say that the Mosaic economy was part of the CoG, with an overlay (I like Bruce's word here) of the CoW.

Friend, I don't see the Confession equating law with covenant. The law always existed; the covenant didn't always exist -- right? WCF 7.1 makes it clear that the covenant is a condescension. Hypothetically, God could have created Adam and not entered into a covenant with him (though Adam would still be required to obey the law, only without any promise of reward). The law always just is, as an expression of God's character; but the covenant just doesn't exist, God must will it and reveal it -- and in the case of the CoW, the law forms the stipulation of the first covenant.

So, yes, the Confession says that the law was given "as a covenant of works" to Adam, but it doesn't say that the law was given "as a covenant of works" to Moses. The chapter is on the law, not on the covenants. It seems more to suggest that it was given to Moses because God's people had gradually lost an understanding of what God requires (as a rule of gratitude, hence, "I have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of bondage, therefore live in this way . . ."). If the Confession wished to communicate the idea of "republication of CoW," then it would have done so in its chapter on the covenants, no? It seems miguided to develop foundational views of the covenants from the chapter on the law (instead of the chapter on the covenants!).

Again, following this logic that you are employing, there is no way to deny that the CoW also "overlays" the new covenant (because in the new covenant, just as in the Mosaic covenant, we are told to love God and neighbor). WCF 19.5 says that the "moral law doth forever bind all" -- if law = CoW, then even Christians remain in the CoW. But that seems to me to just cloud things up, just as it clouds things up to say the Mosaic covenant is both CoW and CoG.

But perhaps I am misunderstanding you?

Please correct me if I am, brother!