P & R Publishing: Individual Title
The Law Is Not of Faith
Essays on Works and Grace in the Mosaic Covenant
Bryan D. Estelle, J. V. Fesko, David VanDrunen
Is the Mosaic covenant in some sense a republication of the covenant of works? What is the nature of its demand for obedience, since sinful man is unable to obey as God requires? How in turn was the law to drive Israel to Jesus? This book explores these issues pertaining to the doctrine of republication—once a staple in Reformed theology—a doctrine with far-reaching implications for Paul’s theology, our relationship to Old Testament law, justification, and more.
This anthology argues that the Mosaic covenant in some sense replicates the original covenant with Adam in the garden, and that this notion is neither novel to nor optional for Reformed theology. The authors locate it within the fabric of federal theology in its Reformation and post-Reformation development, and more importantly, they demonstrate how it is firmly embedded in the flow of redemptive history. Finally, they explain why a thin and merely soteric Calvinism, without the support of federal theology, cannot withstand the challenges to Reformed orthodoxy today. While varying among themselves in their expression of this “republication thesis,” these authors together make a compelling and coherent argument with rich historical, exegetical, and theological insights.
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