I was on my way to work this morning, and I was listening to a lecture by Joesph Pipa on the covenant of Grace. While I was listening, something kind of caught my ear and I had to rewind the MP3 back. He said that he does not hold to the view of a covenant of redemption.

I was wondering what everyone's particular view of the covenant redemption is? Also is it confessional to hold to the doctrine of the covenant of redemption?

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JD Ketterman
Member of Grace OPC, Vienna VA

If this is anything to go by, the COR is a historic Reformed confessional doctrine.

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Bryan Peters
Providence Reformed Church (URCNA)
Des Moines, Iowa

Doctrinal truth should be preached always, openly, without compromise, and never dissembled or concealed. There is no offence in it; it is the staff of uprightness.
~Martin Luther~

I have heard many say that the differences between the covenant of Grace and Redemption is that one is between God and the elect and the other is between God and the Son. I'm still kind of puzzled though.

Q. 31. With whom was the covenant of grace made?
A. The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.

Question 31 seems to imply that the Covenant of Grace was made between God and Christ with all the elect.

I have said this before:

It's really simple, and this is true of all Westminster Calvinists:

Either
1. There is a Covenant of Grace and a Covenant of Redemption, with the former including both elect and reprobate, and the latter only the elect. This was the position of Rutherford and others.

OR

2. There is only a Covenant of Grace, with two aspects to the covenant, one external (including both elect and reprobate) and internal (including only the elect). This was the position of Thomas Boston and others.

There is no other position consistent with the Confession.

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Fred Greco
Senior Pastor, Christ Church PCA (Katy, TX)
Christ Church Blog

"The heart is the main thing in true religion...It is the hinge and turning-point in the condition of man's soul. If the heart is alive to God and quickened by the Spirit, the man is a living Christian. If the heart is dead and has not the Spirit, the man is dead before God." (J.C. Ryle)

Says Owen, "the covenant of grace, which is a transcript and effect of that covenant of redemption" (Hebrews, 7:475). The covenant of redemption was conceived by the earlier divines as a pactum salutis made with Christ, while the covenant of grace is the transcript of that same covenant as it affects the elect. Hence there is no essential difference between the Sum of Saving Knowledge, which teaches a covenant of redemption, and the Westminster Standards, which espouse a single covenant of grace with Christ and the elect in Him.

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Yours sincerely,


"Illum oportet crescere me autem minui."