The Covenant of Grace
Last updated: 2026-04-10
The covenant of grace is the gracious arrangement by which God rescues fallen humanity from sin and misery through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While Reformed traditions agree that this covenant is founded upon an eternal agreement between the Father and the Son, they differ regarding the nature of its administration in the Old and New Testaments.
📜 A Covenant of Pure Grace
Because we have brought ourselves under the curse of the law, the covenant of grace is our only hope. According to the 1689 LBCF Ch.7 §2, God freely offers life and salvation to sinners through Jesus Christ, promising the Holy Spirit to all the elect to make them willing and able to believe. This covenant is not a new invention of the New Testament but was revealed progressively, beginning with the promise to Adam, as noted in the 1689 LBCF Ch.7 §3. It is founded entirely upon the eternal transaction between the Father and the Son regarding the redemption of the elect, emphasizing that salvation is by grace alone through faith.
Sources: 1689 LBCF Ch.7 §2 · 1689 LBCF Ch.7 §3
✝️ The Promise of the Seed
The gospel is the heartbeat of this covenant. From the moment of the Fall, God looked upon sinful, broken people and promised a Redeemer. As written in Genesis 3:15, 'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' This points us directly to Christ, the second Adam, who fulfills the demands of the law that we could never meet. We are indeed more sinful than we dared believe, yet because of the covenant of grace, we are more loved in Christ than we ever dared hope.
Sources: Genesis 3:15
The Reformed tradition views the covenant of grace as one substance administered through different dispensations: through types and shadows under the Old Testament, and through the fulfillment of Christ and the simpler ordinances of the Word and sacraments under the New Testament. While they agree on this unity, Baptists and Presbyterians differ on the nature of the New Covenant administration, particularly regarding the inclusion of the regenerate only in the New Covenant membership.
📜 One Covenant, Multiple Administrations
The historic Reformed view, as articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith Ch. 7 §5, teaches that the covenant of grace has always been the same in substance, yet it was administered differently over time. Under the Old Testament, it was manifested through types, sacrifices, and ceremonies that pointed forward to the coming Messiah. Under the New Testament, as described in Westminster Confession of Faith Ch. 7 §6, the substance—Christ—has been exhibited. The gospel era offers this same covenant with greater clarity, fullness, and simplicity, no longer bound to the shadow of the law but focused on the reality of the work of Christ.
Sources: Westminster Confession of Faith Ch. 7 §5 · Westminster Confession of Faith Ch. 7 §6
✝️ The Gospel Focus: Christ the Substance
The heart of this administration is that we are no longer looking toward a promise, but back to a completed work. As the Apostle writes, "But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises" (Hebrews 8:6). We are all, as sinners, desperate for this grace. We are more flawed than we dare believe, yet the glory of the New Covenant is that it is not based on our obedience, but on Christ’s finished work on our behalf. Because we are fully accepted and loved in Him, we find the strength to walk in newness of life, not to earn our standing, but to reflect the beauty of our Savior.
Sources: Hebrews 8:6
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