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Miscellanies on the Covenant | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to the show. We're trying something a little
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distinct today. We are stepping into a special
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edition we're calling Reformed Thinking.
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It's good to be here and I think that title fits because we are
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really getting into the root system of a, well, a specific
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theological tradition today. We're not just looking at
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surface level ideas, we're trying to look at the
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architecture. We are.
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We're looking at a stack of notes.
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I mean quite literally, a collection called Miscellaneous
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from none other than the American theologian Jonathan
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Edwards. A giant of the faith for sure.
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Absolutely. And you know, usually when
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people think of Edwards, they think of sinners in the hands of
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an angry God, right? They think of fire, brimstone,
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and that spider held over a flame.
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That's the caricature that sort of stuck for centuries.
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But the documents we have in front of us today, this is this
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is different. This is Edwards the logician,
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the pastor, really wrestling with a problem that I think
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every serious Christian has felt at 2:00 in the morning.
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It is the problem of anxiety, isn't it?
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The anxiety regarding faith and works.
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That's it. It's that nagging thought.
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If we are saved by faith, does faith itself become a work?
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Does believing become the new way we earn God's favor?
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Like I have to believe hard enough or sincere enough or long
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enough and all of a sudden I'm just performing again.
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It turns faith into a performance review.
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You start looking inward. You start analyzing the quality
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of your own trust instead of looking at the object of that
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trust. That's the trap, and frankly,
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it's exhausting. So our mission today is to
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unpack how Edwards solves this. And he doesn't solve it with,
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you know, just warm fuzzies or platitudes.
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He solves it with high level architectural logic.
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That's the beauty of Edwards. He uses precision to bring
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comfort. And to do that, we're going to
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have to distinguish between two massive concepts that people,
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well, they often mix them up, the covenant of redemption and
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the covenant of grace. OK, let's unpack this, because
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to the average person, those might sound like synonyms.
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They do Redemption grace. Aren't we talking about the same
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thing here? They sound similar and they are
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definitely related, but Edwards is going to argue that confusing
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them is what leads to all that spiritual anxiety we were just
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talking about. We're going to look at how he
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separates the agreement God made with Christ from the year that
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Christ makes with us, and he uses some pretty fascinating
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analogies to do it. We've got beggars, marriages,
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even a little bit about angels. So the goal here is to stop what
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Edwards called neonomianism. Right.
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Neonomianism. It basically means new law.
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It's this idea that the gospel is just a new set of rules where
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faith replaces obedience as the thing you have to do to, you
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know, pay for salvation. Edwards wants to completely
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destroy that idea because it robs the believer of any real
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assurance. Then let's dive into the first
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source, which is listed under tab one in our stack.
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This is from his miscellaneous on the Covenant.
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Edward starts right off with a philosophical dilemma.
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He does. He's very honest.
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He admits that he used to have a lot of difficulties in his own
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mind about this very thing. He looked at the first covenant,
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the covenant of works made with Adam.
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OK, so let's establish the baseline before we get too far
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into the abstract. What was the deal with Adam?
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The deal with Adam was pretty straightforward.
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Do this and live. The condition of salvation was
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perfect obedience. It was based on all the virtues.
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If Adam had obeyed perfectly, he would have earned life for
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himself and for his descendants. It was a merit based system.
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100% merit based, yes. OK, so that's the covenant of
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works. Be perfect and you get the
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reward. Then Christ comes and we have
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the new covenant and the standard teaching is we aren't
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saved by works, we are saved by faith.
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Correct. But here is where Edwards gets
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stuck in his early thinking. He says, look, if we say that
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God saves us on the condition of faith, how is that actually
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different in principle from the first covenant?
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Right, I see what you mean. In the first one, you are saved
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on the account of all virtues. In the second, you're saved on
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the account of 1 virtue faith. And Edwards asks where is the
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difference in principle? I mean, if I sell you a house
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for $1,000,000 or I sell you a house for $1.00, it's still a
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transaction. You're still paying something.
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It's just a massive discount. Precisely.
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And if the gospel is just a discount, you know, God used to
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require perfect obedience, but now he's lowered the price to
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just believing, Then we're still in a system of wages and
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earning. Believing just becomes the
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currency. And that's a terrifying thought,
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because then I have to wake up every day and ask myself, did I
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pay the bill today? Was my faith high quality
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enough? Did I believe enough to trigger
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the transaction? And that is exactly the anxiety
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Edwards wants to dismantle. He says this confusion happens
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because people don't understand the second Adam.
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The second Adam, this is a core reformed idea, federal headship.
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Let's make sure everyone is on the same page with this one
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because it's key. It's vital, Edwards writes, that
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the first covenant was made with Adam and with his seed.
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That's us in him. The condition was Adam's
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standing. If Adam stood, we stood.
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If Adam fell, we fell. And we know how that went.
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We do, but the second covenant is made with the second Adam,
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who was Christ, and this is the crucial shift.
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The condition of the second covenant is not our standing,
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it's Christ's standing. So in the same way that Adam's
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failure was the condition for our fall, Christ's success is
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the condition for our rising. Yes.
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And Edwards is very specific here.
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He says, and I'm paraphrasing, Christ has performed the
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condition of the new covenant. It is already done, the
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transaction, all the heavy lifting, the earning of the
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reward that happened between the Father and the Son.
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OK, so where does that leave us? I mean, if Christ did the
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condition, what are we doing when we have faith?
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Because we do have to have faith.
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Edwards isn't teaching universalism here.
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No, absolutely not. We must believe.
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But this brings us to one of my favorite analogies in these
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notes, the one he uses to explain what that belief is.
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The Beggar. Oh, I love this one.
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Walk us through. It so Edward says, imagine a
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rich man holds out a gift to a beggar.
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He just offers it. And the beggar, what does he do?
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He reaches out and takes it. Now, strictly speaking, the
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beggar had to do something. He had to reach out his hand.
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Right. Muscles were used, energy was
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expended. There was a physical action,
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right? But would you ever say that the
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beggar earned the gift by reaching out his hand?
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No. Would you say the condition of
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the gift with the lifting of his arm?
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No, of course not. That would be ridiculous.
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The lifting of the arm was just the method of receiving it, it
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wasn't a payment. It's the instrumental cause, not
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the meritorious cause. Edward says faith is the act of
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reception. It is not the condition of the
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contract. He says it is not proper to say
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that a covenant is made with the beggar.
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The rich man isn't saying if you lift your arm I will pay you
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with this gift. He is just saying here's a gift,
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take it. That is a massive mental shift
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because I think a lot of us, maybe without even realizing it,
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we treat faith like the if. If I believe, then God will love
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me. And Edwards is saying no, God
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loves the electing Christ because of what Christ did.
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Christ holds out life. We receive it.
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The doing is entirely on Christ's side.
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The receiving is on ours. He actually has a warning here
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about language, doesn't he? About using the word condition.
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He does, and he's very charitable, but also very firm.
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He admits that if people really, really want to call faith a
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condition, they can, you know, that it's not illegal to use
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that word. But he says, and this is a great
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line, I believe it is much the more hard for them to think
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right for speaking so wrong. Hard for them to think, right?
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That's the danger. If you use the language of
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commerce, you know conditions, payments, requirements, you'll
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eventually start thinking of your relationship with God as a
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business deal. And that leads right back to
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self righteousness. If faith is a work, then I can
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be proud of my faith. I can look at my neighbor and
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say well I believe better than you did.
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My transaction was cleaner. But if faith is just a beggar's
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empty hand, there is no pride, there's just gratitude.
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You can't boast about having an empty hand.
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You really cannot. And this brings us to the
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structural solution Edwards proposes.
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He says we have to stop lumping everything under one big
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covenant of grace umbrella. We have to separate the covenant
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of redemption from the covenant of grace.
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OK, this is Part 2 of our outline.
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Let's define these terms clearly, because Edwards is very
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precise here, especially in note #825 What is the covenant of
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redemption? So the covenant of redemption is
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the eternal deal. This is the agreement made
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between God the Father and God the Son.
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And the timing on this is key. Right.
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It's everything Before the world began, before there was a
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creation, before there was a single human being, the Father
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and the Son had an agreement. The Father promised to give a
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people to the Son, the Elect and the Son, for his part, promised
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to do the work of redemption, to live a perfect life, to die a
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sacrificial death, to act as that second Adam.
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So in this covenant, this covenant of redemption, do we
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have a role to play? None.
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We didn't exist yet. We were in Christ, in the mind
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of God, but we were not active participants.
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We certainly weren't fulfilling any conditions.
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So the condition of that covenant was Christ's work
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alone. Entirely.
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The father says if you die for them, I will save them.
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The Son says I will do it. That is the bedrock of our
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salvation. Nothing we do can add to it or
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take away from it. OK, so then what is the covenant
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of grace? Because that sounds like the one
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we usually talk about in church. The covenant of grace is what
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Edwards calls the marriage covenant.
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This is the agreement between Christ and the soul.
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The marriage analogy is so strong.
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Here it is. It's all through his writing, he
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quotes Revelation. Behold, I stand at the door and
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knock before conversion. The covenant of grace is just an
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offer. It's an invitation.
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Christ is standing there saying I have purchased redemption.
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I have eternal life. Will you be mine?
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And when we say yes, when we believe, that's conversion.
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That is the marriage. That is when the union happens.
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And once that union happens, everything that belongs to
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Christ now belongs to us. His righteousness, His
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inheritance, everything. So let me see if I have the core
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argument straight. The confusion happens when we
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mix these two things up. If we think our acceptance of
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the marriage proposal is the thing that purchased the house,
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we're completely confused. That's a perfect way to put it.
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The house was purchased in the covenant of redemption.
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The marriage gives us the right to live in it, Edwards says.
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In the covenant of redemption, we do nothing.
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It is already done by Christ. In the covenant of grace.
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There is an interaction, an offer, and an acceptance, but
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that acceptance relies completely on the foundation of
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the first covenant. This really helps clarify the
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why of the Gospel. It's not that God just lowered
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the bar for us. No, it's that Christ cleared the
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bar for us and now He invites us to join Him in the winner's
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circle. That's a great way to put it.
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And to deepen this, Edward uses another analogy in note #617
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it's a family analogy. I think it's a little complex,
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but it's incredibly illuminating when it comes to the Trinity's
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roles. This is the scenario with the
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father, the son, and the son's wife.
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It's a bit of a brain Bender. It is, but it's worth it.
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So imagine a wealthy father. He makes a covenant with his son
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regarding the son's marriage. But, and this is the key, Edward
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says, we have to view the son and the wife as a single unit.
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One flesh, as the Bible says. Exactly.
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So you have two layers of covenants happening here.
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Layer A is the father dealing with the son and wife combined.
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Layer B is the son dealing directly with the wife.
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OK. Let's breakdown the father's
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role in Layer A, Edwards says he acts like a parent in a child's
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marriage. He's directing, consenting and
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ratifying. Yes, the father is the
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authority. He approves the union.
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He sets the terms, but notice the promises in that first
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layer. Father with son and wife.
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What is the condition? The condition is Christ's
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suffering and work. And what is the promise the?
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Promise is Christ's reward and his success.
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Right. The Father promises the Son.
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If you go to the cross, if you redeem them, I will glorify you
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and I will accept her for your sake.
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The Father's promise is primarily to the Son.
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OK, so that's layer A. Now let's look at layer B, the
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covenant between the Son and the wife.
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Here the dynamic changes. The condition here is that she
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close with him and adhere to him.
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That she acts like a wife. She receives him.
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Right, that she accepts the proposal and stays faithful.
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And the promise here isn't success or glory in some
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abstract sense. The promise is Christ himself.
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The enjoyment of himself is the phrase Edwards uses.
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And communion, Edwards writes. As in marriage, the person's
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covenanting give themselves and all that they have to each
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other. The promise is intimacy with the
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sun. Why is this distinction so
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important for us to get our heads around?
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I mean, why drag us through this complex triadic relationship?
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Because we often confound them, we mix up these promises.
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We start to think that the Father's acceptance of us is
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based on our performance as a wife.
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Oh, I see, we think if I am a good enough wife to Jesus today,
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then the Father won't be angry with me.
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Exactly. But Edwards is saying no, the
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Father is not angry with you because the Son fulfill the
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condition of the first covenant. The Father looks at the Son and
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wife unit and sees the Son's perfect righteousness.
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So our standing before the father is secured by the son's
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work period. Our enjoyment of the Son is
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where our closing and adhering comes in.
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Yes, think about it this way. If you are a grumpy, distant
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spouse to Christ, you might lose the enjoyment of the marriage.
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Your communion might feel cold, your prayer life might suffer.
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But you don't lose the ratification of the Father,
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because that was based on Christ's work, not yours.
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That is massive. That completely takes the
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pressure off saving myself every day, and it puts the focus on
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enjoying my Savior. It changes everything.
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It moves the motivation from fear to love.
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I don't love my spouse because I'm afraid of being evicted from
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the house. I love my spies because I want
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to be close to them. I want to pivot for a second to
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something that feels like a sidebar but is actually super
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helpful for contrast. Edwards brings in the angels.
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Yes, this is from note #367. I call this the control group of
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the whole experiment because angels, well, the holy angels,
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didn't fall. Right.
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And Edwards points out that because of that, angels operate
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under a strict covenant of works.
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So for them it really was do this and live.
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Yes, the condition was perfect obedience, and Edwards notes
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they all performed it. The holy angels passed the test
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with flying colors. And because they passed, they
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obtained complete blessedness. They earned it.
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They are the living proof that a creature can be sustained by a
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covenant of works. If they never ever sin.
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But there's a. Fascinating little detail here
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about degrees of glory among the angels.
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Oh, this is classic Edwards getting into the details.
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He notes that not all angels are equal in glory.
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You have archangels, seraphim, cherubim, you know, different
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levels. But he insists this isn't
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because some angels worked harder than others.
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Right. They all obeyed perfectly.
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You can't obey more than perfectly.
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Exactly. So why the difference in glory?
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Edward says it's because God gave them their capabilities as
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he pleased. He uses the analogy of different
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size cups. Imagine a little thimble and a
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huge bucket. If you fill them both to the
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brim, they are both full. They're both perfect, but the
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bucket just holds more. So God sovereignly made some
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angels to be buckets and some to be thimbles.
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Yes, their perfect obedience did no way meddle with that matter,
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Edward says. Their rank is based on God's
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sovereign design, not on their personal hustle.
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But the main take away for us, for humanity, is the contrast,
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isn't it? The contrast is everything That
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ship has sailed for humanity. The angelic path, the path of
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the covenant of Works, requires perfect obedience from the very
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start. We failed that in Adam, so we
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cannot look at the angels and say I'll just do what they did.
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We are broken vessels. We don't just need filling, we
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need fixing first. We need a whole new covenant.
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We need the second atom plan. The angels stand on their own
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record. We stand on Christ's record.
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This leads us neatly into Part 5, reconciling the debate.
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Apparently, theologians love to fight.
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It's an occupational hazard, I think.
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And the fight here, which he addresses in note #1091, is
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about whether the covenant of grace is conditional or
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unconditional. This is a huge debate in
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Reformed theology. You've got some saying it's
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completely unconditional, grace is free, and others saying no,
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wait a minute, you must believe and repent.
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There are conditions. It's like both sides have Bible
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verses to back them up. They do, and this is where
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Edwards, being the peacemaker, steps in and says you're both
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right and you're both wrong because you aren't defining your
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terms properly. How does he split the baby on
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this one? He says it depends entirely on
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which relationship you're looking at.
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Are you looking at the relationship between God the
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Father and the believer, or are you looking at the relationship
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between Christ and the believer? OK, let's take the first one,
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the relationship between God the Father and believers who are in
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Christ. Edward says from that
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perspective it is unconditional to us.
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Why? Because the condition was
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righteousness, perfect righteousness.
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And who performed that? Christ.
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Christ did so from our perspective, we provide nothing
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to the Father directly. We are hidden in the Son.
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The Father doesn't look at us and say I will save you if you
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do XY and Z. He saves us because Christ
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already did XY and Z. So the Free Grace people are
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right in that specific sense. Yes, but then you look at the
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second relationship, the relationship between Christ and
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his church, the marriage. And Edward says this is
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conditional. Yes, because a marriage requires
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consent. You cannot be married to Christ
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against your will. The condition is yielding to
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Christ's invitations, accepting His offers, and closing with
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Him. So the Lordship salvation
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people, or the people who emphasize the necessity of
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repentance and faith, they're right here.
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Exactly. But notice the incredible nuance
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Edwards emphasizes that faith is the condition of the union, but
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Christ's righteousness is the condition of the redemption.
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That is the key distinction. Faith connects us to the power
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source, but faith isn't the electricity itself.
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That's a brilliant analogy. Faith plugs us in, but Christ is
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the power. If you confuse the plug with the
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power plant, you are in serious trouble.
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This really does solve the tension.
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I don't have to choose between grace is totally free and I need
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to repent and believe both are true in their proper place.
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It upholds the necessity of a holy life.
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We must adhere to Christ our Husband, without making that
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holy life the basis of our justification before the Father.
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Now there's one final technical detail in that same note #1091
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that I found just fascinating. It's about mediators.
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Oh, this is a beautiful little nugget.
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Edwards distinguishes between how we relate to the Father and
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how we relate to Christ. He asks a simple question, Is
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there a mediator between sinners and the Father?
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And the answer is obviously yes, Christ First Timothy 2.5 We
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cannot approach the Father directly.
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He is a consuming fire. We are sinners.
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We need to go between. Right, But then he asks another
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question. Is there a mediator between
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sinners and Christ? And the answer is no.
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There is no mediator between Christ and sinners.
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We don't need a go between to get to Jesus.
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That is startling when you stop and think about.
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It it is. The marriage union is direct.
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Christ deals with us directly. He stands at the door and
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knocks. He doesn't send a secretary.
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He doesn't send an Angel to negotiate terms on his behalf.
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He comes himself. That really speaks to the
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intimacy of the gospel. I think sometimes we feel like
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we aren't holy enough to talk to Jesus.
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You know, like we need to clean ourselves up first.
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Or maybe ask a pastor to pray for us because they have a
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better connection or something. But Edwards is saying that's
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just bad theology. Christ came to seek and save the
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lost. The physician comes directly to
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the sick patient. You don't need a mediator to see
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the doctor when the doctor is making a house call to your
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sickbed. I love that Christ deals with us
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directly. The Father deals with us through
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Christ. That sums up the whole structure
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perfectly. It really does.
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It's so clear. So as we wrap this up, let's try
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to synthesize this mental shift that Edwards is guiding us
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toward. The shift is really from a
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contract mindset to a marriage mindset.
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We stop worrying if our faith is good enough to buy salvation.
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We stop treating faith like a currency we have to mint every
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morning. Right, we realized the heavy
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lifting, the condition of works, the perfect obedience that was
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done by the second Adam. That account is settled, paid in
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full. And our role is simply the
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beggar's role, to say yes, to hold out an empty hand and
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receive the gift. And this way of thinking
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destroys 2 terrible things, pride and despair.
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OK, how does it destroy pride? Well, you can't be proud of a
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gift you didn't earn. It's impossible.
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If you realize your salvation is based on Christ standing, not
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yours, you have no grounds to boast whatsoever.
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And how does it destroy despair? Because despair comes when you
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look at your own performance and realize it constantly falls
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short. But if salvation doesn't depend
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on your performance, but on Christ's perfect performance,
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then your failures, while they are sad and they need
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repentance, they don't disqualify you from the
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covenant. Because the covenant of
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redemption is unshakable. Exactly.
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It was made before the world began between the Father and the
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Son. Your bad Tuesday cannot break an
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eternal covenant made within the Trinity itself.
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That is incredibly comforting. That's a rock to stand on.
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It is the only solid ground there is.
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I want to leave our listener with a provocative thought,
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something to chew on. Edwards warned that confusing
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these covenants leads to neonomianism.
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Yes. Turning the good news into a new
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law. So here's the question for you,
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listening in your own spiritual life.
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Where have you secretly turned the gospel back into a list of
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requirements? Are you acting like that beggar
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who thinks he somehow earned the coin by reaching out his hand?
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It's a really subtle shift, isn't it?
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You start thinking God answered my prayer because I had my quiet
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time 5 days in a row this week. Or I feel saved today because I
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didn't lose my temper with the kids.
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That is functional neonomianism. That's basing your standing
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before God on your behavior. It is, and the remedy is always
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to look away from yourself and look to the second Adam.
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The condition is met in him. The condition is Christ's
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standing. I think I'm going to write that
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on a post it note and stick it on my monitor.
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It's a good one to keep visible. Thank you for walking us through
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this deep theology. It is dense stuff, but man is it
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beneficial. It is always a pleasure to dig
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into Edwards. And to our listener, thank you
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for joining us on this deep dive.
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Until next. Time until next time.