Meet The Puritans

Grace in the CoW?

Posted on 30. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.

Was the covenant of works gracious in any way? Or should we talk about “divine favor” instead of grace?  I’ve heard some Klineans argue that if you reject a “strict justice” view of the covenant of works you inevitably end up doing irreperable harm to the doctrine of justification by faith.  Theologians in the Reformed tradition have never been shy of speaking of grace during the “Adamic administration” or what one person calls the “covenant of works” (do I have that backwards?)

Francis Roberts wrote the longest work on covenant theology in the seventeenth century and his thoughts on grace in the covenant of works are interesting.  He argues that God’s entering into the covenant of works with Adam was an “act of divine grace and favour, not of debt” (God’s Covenants, 23).

God could have dealt only in terms of “command”, requiring duty from Adam without a reward.  However, because he condescended to Adam and entered into a covenant with him, it was “meer grace” (Ibid).  Roberts insists that Adam could not merit any reward.  In fact, even if Adam had rendered perfect obedience he would still have “been an unprofitable servant, having done nothing but what was duty” (Ibid).  On account of Creation, Adam owed God obedience.  On account of God instituting a covenant at creation, Adam had to be “double dutiful” (Ibid).  In fact, Roberts suggests that if God’s dealings with Adam in the covenant of works was an “Act of Divine Grace”, then God’s covenant of grace was an act of “superabounding and transcendent grace” (Ibid).

What is interesting is that Thomas Goodwin takes a rather different approach than Roberts, which is yet more evidence of the diversity among theologians in the Reformed tradition.  Sure, the covenant of works became firmly entrenched in our confessional tradition, but the details of the covenant of works have never been fully agreed upon. [...]

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