BGF
Puritan Board Sophomore
I heard a sermon preached recently where the pastor called the relationship between God and man was a covenant of grace. He was developing the idea that since God did not need to create man, therefore creating man was an act of grace, and the ensuing relationship was governed by grace.
Is this language appropriate? It seems to me that you set yourself up for confusion with the post-fall "covenant of grace". Does this way of communicating have historical pedigree?
The interesting part is that although he was preaching on Genesis 2:15–3:24, the fall of man, the term "covenant of works" was not mentioned once. While I don't think it's always necessary to use this terminology to exegete the passage, it seems to me that if you're in a confessional body (PCA in this case) proper terminology avoids confusing the concepts.
This was only a small portion of the sermon, but the phrase, in this context, jumped out at me.
Is this language appropriate? It seems to me that you set yourself up for confusion with the post-fall "covenant of grace". Does this way of communicating have historical pedigree?
The interesting part is that although he was preaching on Genesis 2:15–3:24, the fall of man, the term "covenant of works" was not mentioned once. While I don't think it's always necessary to use this terminology to exegete the passage, it seems to me that if you're in a confessional body (PCA in this case) proper terminology avoids confusing the concepts.
This was only a small portion of the sermon, but the phrase, in this context, jumped out at me.