Genesis 17:7-8 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant… I. THAT THE COVENANT OF GRACE IS MADE WITH THE SAINTS, AND THEY ARE ALL FEDERATES THEREIN, WILL APPEAR BY THESE ARGUMENTS. 1. From the type of the first Adam, for he is made the type of Him that was to come. Thus as the first covenant was made with the first Adam and all his posterity, so the second covenant is made with the second Adam and all His posterity also. 2. We read of a covenant made with persons and people, and promised unto them as special mercies, a covenant made with Abraham and Isaac, a covenant made with David: "The Lord has made with me an everlasting covenant in all things ordered and sure" (2 Samuel 23:5). 3. It will appear from the promises of the second covenant, though it is true, that they are all yea and amen in Him, yet are they properly and formally made unto us, either the first promises of grace or else of reward unto grace. Promises of grace are, "He will give His Spirit, and will give repentance, He will heal our backslidings," etc., and "We have an unction from the Holy One," etc. 4. The covenant of grace is a covenant in the hand of a Mediator, and confirmed by the death of the Testator; it is not only a covenant, but it is a testament. 5. The sacraments are seals of the covenant of grace. 6. There is a double oath to confirm this covenant, there is an oath made by God the Father to Christ, and there is an oath also made to us; there is an oath made unto Christ, and therefore He is said to be made a priest by a covenant oath (Psalm 110:4), and the oath to us: "Who are heirs of promise, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:17, 18). II. THE REASONS WHY IT WAS NECESSARY THAT THE COVENANT OF GRACE SHOULD BE MADE WITH ALL THE FAITHFUL AND NOT WITH CHRIST ONLY AS THEIR HEAD. 1. To answer those great ends why God will deal with man in a covenant way. (1) The Lord will enter into covenant that He may declare His glory, not only in a way of goodness, but in a way of faithfulness. In the creation, the Lord did show forth much power and wisdom, and in the law much holiness; but there was no way to manifest His faithfulness, but by covenant: "The Lord hath chosen you above all people, that you might know that He is the Lord the faithful God" (Micah 7:20). (2) The Lord's intention was to honour man also; and it is one of the greatest and highest dignities that the Lord hath put upon His people, to bind them unto Himself for a name and a glory; and (Deuteronomy 26:18, 19) the Lord did avouch them to be His people, to make them high above all people; and therefore the staff of beauty mentioned in Zechariah 11:10 is the covenant between God and His people. (3) That the Lord might bind men unto Him more firmly in a way of obedience, and that the obedience might be made the more sweet. Man was bound unto God by a bond of creation; and from whom he has his being, unto Him did he owe his service; but the Lord will bind him unto Him with a further cord and bond of stipulation; the one was natural and necessary, and the other voluntary. (4) That the people of God might exercise faith in their prayers, putting these bonds in suit that the Lord hath made over unto them, when they look upon themselves as sons of Abraham, heirs of promise, and children of the covenant, etc., and thereby they come with a great deal the more boldness before the throne of grace, as David, "Let the thing Thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and his house be established forever" (1 Chronicles 17:23, 24). 2. There is a covenant made with the saints also, that they may see that they are as strictly bound to obedience in their own persons under the second covenant, as they were under the first covenant; and that the doctrine of the gospel though it be a doctrine of liberty, yet is not a doctrine of licentiousness. 3. That the saints also may stand in awe of the threats of God under the second covenant. (W. Strong, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. |
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