-From John Brown of Haddington's
Questions and Answers:
Q. By what means doth God deliver the elect?
A. By the covenant of grace, Zech. 9:11
Q. Might not the broken covenant of works have been renewed?
A. No; it was a covenant of friendship, and could never reconcile enemies.
Q. How is the covenant by which sinful men are delivered, called?
A. The covenant of grace, of promise, peace, of reconciliation, or redemption, and the second or new covenant.
Q. Why is it called the
covenant of grace?
A. Because free grace moved God to make it; and all the blessings theoreof are freely bestowed upon unworthy sinners.
Q. How is God's free grace manifested in this covenant?
A. Im his freely providing and furnishing his own Son to be our Mediator, accepting his righteousness in our stead, and sending the Spirit to apply his purchase to us.
Q. Why is it called a
covenant of promise?
A. Because it is dispensed to us in free promises.
Q. Why is it called a
covenant of peace?
A. Because it brings about peace and reconciliation between God and rebellious sinners, 2 Cor. 5:19
Q. Why is it called a
covenant of redemption?
A. Because thereby lost and enslaved sinners are brought back, and delivered from their bondage, Zech. 9:11
Q. Is the covenant of grace, and that of redemption, one and the same covenant?
A. Yes; the scripture mentions only two covenants that regards man's eternal state, of which the covenant of works is one, and therefore the covenant of grace must be the other: and the blood of Christ is in scripture called the blood of the covenant, but never of the covenants, Gal. 4:24, 30.
Q. How do you further prove that what some call the covenant of grace made with believers, and distinct from the covenant of redemption, is no proper covenant?
A. Because it hath no proper condition, faith being as much promised as any other blessing, Psalm 110:3
Q. Why is the covenant of grace called the
second and
new covenant?
A. Because, though it was first made, it was last executed, and is everlasting, 2 Sam. 23:5
Q. How many things are in general considered with respect to the covenant of grace?
A. Two; the making, and the administration of it.
Q. Is the making of it the same which some divines call the covenant of redemption?
A. Yes, Psalm 89:3
Q. Is the administration of it, which some call the covenant of grace, made with believers?
A. Yes.
Q. Why was the covenant of grace made from all eternity?
A. Because of God's eternal and infinite love to elect sinners, Jer. 31:3, 1 John 4:9, 10, 16, 19
Q. Who are the parties in the covenant of grace?
A. God and Christ, Psalm 89:3, Zech. 6:13
Q. Whether did God, essentially considered, or the person of the Father, make this covenant with Christ?
A. God essentially considered in the person of the Father.
Q. How prove you that the covenant of grace was made with Christ?
A. The scripture affirms it; and he is called the covenant himself, Psalm 89:3, Isaiah 42:6
Q. What is the condition of the covenant of grace?
A. Christ's Surety-righteousness, Dan. 9:24, Rom. 5:19
Q. How prove you that Christ fulfilled the whole condition of the covenant of grace?
A. He was holy, harmless; became obedient unto death; and gave himself to be a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour unto God.
Q. How do you prove Christ's righteousness to be the only proper condition of the covenant of grace?
A. Because it is the only pleadable ground of the believer's title to eternal life, Rom. 5:21 and 6:23
Q. Is not faith the proper condition of this covenant?
A. No; for it can no way answer the demands of the broken law; and it is a blessing promised in the covenant of grace, Gal. 3:17, Phil. 1:29
Q. Were then these godly divines in an error, who called faith the condition of the covenant of grace?
A. No; for they only meant, that it was the instrument by which we are personally interested in that covenant, and receive the blessings of it, Acts 16:310
(Taken from
Questions and Answers on the Shorter Catechism, John Brown of Haddington, Reformation Heritage Books, 2006, PB, pp.87-98)
-From
Fisher's Catechism:
Q. 50. Is what is called by some divines, the covenant of redemption, a distinct covenant from the covenant of grace?
A. Although Christ alone engaged from eternity to pay the price of our redemption, on which account the covenant is wholly of free grace to us; yet there is no warrant from scripture, to suppose a covenant of redemption distinct from the covenant of grace.
Q. 51. How many covenants are there for life and happiness to man in scripture reckoning?
A. They are but two in number: of which the covenant of works is one, and consequently the covenant of grace must be the other.
Q. 52. How do you prove from scripture, that there are only two covenants, of which the covenant of works is one?
A. From Gal. 4:24, where it is said -- "These are the two covenants, the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage."
Q. 53. How does it appear that the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, is the covenant of works?
A. Because the generating of bond children, excluded from the inheritance, Gal. 4:30, is a distinguishing character of the covenant of works, which cannot agree to the covenant of grace under any dispensation of it.
Q. 54. Was then the covenant at Mount Sinai a covenant of works?
A. The covenant of works was only repeated at Mount Sinai, together with the covenant of grace; to show to all Israel, that the clearing of both the principal and penalty of the covenant of works was laid on Christ, as the condition of the covenant of grace.
Q. 55. Does the scripture make mention of the blood of any more than one covenant?
A. The scripture makes mention of the blood of the Covenant, in the singular number four several times, namely, Ex. 24:8; Zech. 9:1; Heb. 10:29 and 13:20; but nowhere speaks of the blood of the covenants, in the plural number.
Q. 56. What is the native consequence of the scripture's mentioning the blood of the covenant, in the singular number, and not the blood of the covenants in the plural number?
A. The consequence is, that the covenant, the blood of which the scripture mentions, and upon which our salvation depends, is but ONE covenant, and not TWO.
Q. 57. What is the received doctrine in our standards upon this head?
A. Our standards make no distinction between a covenant of redemption, and a covenant of grace.
Q. 58. Is the covenant of grace conditional, or absolutely free?
A. It was strictly conditional to the Surety, Isa. 49:3, but is absolutely free to the sinner, Jer. 31:33,34.
Q. 59. What is the proper condition of the covenant of grace?
A. It is Christ, as representative and surety, his fulfilling all righteousness, owing to God by his spiritual seed, in virtue of the broken covenant of works, Matt. 3:15.
(Taken from
Fisher's Catechism, Q. 20 of the Shorter Catechism,
https://reformed.org/documents/fish...reformed.org/documents/fisher/index_fish.html )