The sanctifying virtue of the covenant

[MW]

Ralph Erskine (Christ the People's Covenant), Sermons 1:187:

But thou, poor soul, that says you never found the sanctifying virtue of the covenant; why, did you never get grace to wrestle against sin? That is some virtue. Doth prevalency of sin never humble you to the dust? That is some virtue. Do you see and lament your own unholiness? That is some virtue. Doth the sense and feeling of the power of sin never make you long for complete victory and freedom from sin? That is some virtue. Did the power of a body of death never make you look upon yourselves as wretched, saying, O wretched person that I am! who shall deliver me from it? That is some virtue. Did the prevalency of sin never force you to the blood of Christ, the fountain open for sin and for uncleanness? That is some virtue. Are you glad of any victory you got over your corruption? Yea, that is some virtue. How do you find it with you, when the light of the covenant is shining on your soul? Do you not find your heart rising against sin? Then that is some virtue. How do you find it with you between hands, when iniquity is prevailing? Do you not find yourself uneasy, and out of your element, aye till the Lord return? That is some virtue. – Do not deny the sanctifying virtue of the covenant.

 

[KeithW]

This comes from the same new covenant where God promised,

• I will forgive their iniquity (Jer. 31:34)
• I will remember their sin no more (Jer. 31:34)
• I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean (Ezek. 36:25)
• from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you (Ezek. 36:25)
• A new heart also will I give you (Ezek. 36:26)

God also promised,

• you shall remember your own evil ways, and your doings that [were] not good (Ezek. 36:31)
• you shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations (Ezek. 36:31)

 

[MW]

To clarify Ralph Erskine's position, he taught the new covenant in contrast to the covenant of works made with Adam, and that it had an old and a new dispensation. See the Gradual Conquest, in Sermons, 5:383:

"Israel's captain general is here described by his relation to them: Thy God; The Lord thy God. This relation is stated upon the ground of a new covenant dispensation, even a covenant of promise in Christ Jesus. Of this covenant there was an Old-Testament dispensation, under which this people of Israel were; and a New-Testament dispensation, under which we are. The former was a darker, and this is a clearer and brighter dispensation of the same new covenant. The old covenant of works being broken and violated by the sin of man, God could not in honour come under this relation again to sinners but upon the ground of a new covenant established in Christ. This covenant of promise was first discovered to Adam in Paradise, afterwards to Abraham and others. The promise of that new covenant was sealed by the blood of Christ, typically, under the Old Testament, by the sacrifices then offered; and actually at Jerusalem, when he gave his life a ransom for many."