Book Review: What is Covenant Theology? by Ryan M. McGraw

Ever heard the expression, "Let's get back to basics?' Normally, this is said when things are understood properly or when an organization is dwindling down due consumers not supporting their new approach. For many in the Christian life, getting back to basics is simply relearning, for lack of a better term, the fundamentals of the Christian life. 

In his book, What is Covenant Theology, Ryan M. McGraw is going back to basics in teaching the church the fundamentals regarding Covenant Theology. However, this Covenant Theology is under paedobaptist doctrine rather than credobaptist doctrine. So, we are already aware where this book is going. I am credobaptist and I agree with majority of this book, however, I still hold to my credobaptist beliefs. The purpose of this review is to give a fair assessment in what Mcgraw has written.

The beginning of book dives into the blessings of Covenant Theology which shows the beauty of the unity of the Bible. I can testify that Covenant Theology does show the Bible as one collective work rather than a collection of works that do not have any connection with one another. Another blessing is showing the unity of God and how the Trinity has worked throughout redemptive history. Finally, the blessing in living the Christian life. Covenant Theology can teach Christians how to live for the glory of God as well as living life with fellow believers. 

McGraw explains what the covenant of Grace is as opposed to the covenant of works. As well as how covenant theology is beneficial to the Christian life. Mcgraw does mention baptism and how is it a better sign of the covenant than circumcision was. The way he presents baptism sounded more credo than it did paedo. He states that baptism "requires our self-identification with God. Water in baptism shows us that we need washing...Due to the filthiness of our sins, we need to be washed by Christ's blood." Mcgraw is a paedobaptist and they baptize babies showing them to be under the New Covenant. Paedobaptists believe their children are regenerate until they are shown otherwise. As a credobaptist, I disagree with this view.

McGraw continues in the book to show how covenant theology connects Scripture as a whole and ends with answering common questions regarding covenant theology.

This book is an easy read and anyone who does not understand covenant theology will be able to comprehend it a lot more than most theological textbooks, not that those are a bad thing. Even though this is from paedobaptist covenant theology, credobaptists can benefit for this book. 

Yes, I am still a credobaptist after reading this book

I received this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review.

Jeffrey Johnson Preaching on Covenant Theology

An Introduction to Covenant Theology with Theocast

I must confess that I am still a rookie when it comes to Covenant Theology. I have read books and articles on the subject and even listened to podcasts discussing it. Some of you might be in the same boat as I am or you might know someone who is new to Covenant Theology. 

There are many great resources on Covenant Theology yet some of them can be a little more academic especially if you are just beginning to study it. I am delighted to recommend a five-part teaching series on Covenant Theology put on by the guys over at Theocast:

Introduction & Overview 

The Covenant of Redemption

The Covenant of Works

The Covenant of Grace in the Old Testament

The Covenant of Grace in the New Testament 

Fred Malone Discusses Baptism

On the Covenant Podcast, Fred Malone was featured in a two-part episode as he discusses baptism and the importance that the church realizes that Baptism is for Disciples Alone:

The Baptism of Disciples Alone with Fred Malone (Pt.1)

The Baptism of Disciples Alone with Fred Malone (Pt.2)

Recommended Resources:

Fred Malone's book that is discussed: The Baptism of Disciples Alone

The Fatal Flaw: The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism by Jeffrey Johnson

Duncan, Mohler, and Dever Discuss Covenant Theology

During this year's Together for the Gospel conference, Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, and Albert Mohler discussed Covenant Theology. This panel discussion was the most talked about moment during the conference, which this is more edifying than any of the Baptism debates you will see on Twitter. The conversation begins after the three minute mark following some announcements for those who were livestreaming the conference.  

Reformed Theology Is Covenant Theology

Reformed theology is often associated with “covenant theology.” If you listen carefully, you’ll often hear pastors and teachers describe themselves as “Reformed and covenantal.” The terms Reformed and covenant are used together so widely that it behooves us to understand why they are connected.

Covenant theology refers to one of the basic beliefs that Calvinists have held about the Bible. All Protestants who have remained faithful to their heritage affirm sola Scriptura, the belief that the Bible is our supreme and unquestionable authority. Covenant theology, however, distinguishes the Reformed view of Scripture from other Protestant outlooks by emphasizing that divine covenants unify the teachings of the entire Bible.

Earlier developments in the Reformed, covenantal understanding of Scripture reached a high point in seventeenth-century England with the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), the Savoy Declaration (1658), the London Baptist Confession of 1689, and each representing different groups of English-speaking Calvinists. With only slight variations among them, these documents each devote an entire chapter to the way God’s covenants with humanity reveal the unity of all that the Bible teaches.

Read the entire post here.

Around The Web-February 7, 2019

Covenant Theology with Brad from Theology Nights from Christ is the Cure

Is It True That God Blesses Those Who Bless Israel and Curses Those Who Curse Israel? by Robert Rothwell

Gene Edward Veith- Post-Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture from Equipping You in Grace

So, What Did Jesus Think about the Old Testament? by Michael Kruger

Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and the Gospel by Tom Ascol

5 Resources for Critical Race Theory & Intersectionality by Eric Davis

Did Calvin Murder Heretics? from Credo Podcast

Tom Buck | The State of the SBC & Pastoral Leadership from The Sword and The Trowel

Gender Roles Before the Fall and in the Church by Allen Nelson IV

Sam Renihan Talks About His New Book on Covenant Theology

In an interview on the Theology In Particular podcast, Sam Renihan discusses his latest book, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom:



Recommend Resource:

A Couple of Podcasts Addressing Baptist Covenant Theology

Around The Web-May 22, 2019

4 new ESV Bibles on sale at WTS Books

Cody Floate reviews Before the Throne by Allen Nelson IV

Is Covenant Theology the Same as Replacement Theology?

God Doesn't Need Us by Matthew Barrett

The Sufficiency of Scripture: Enough to Know and Love the Lord by Joseph Hamrick

4 Reasons You Should Pray For Your Pastor Daily by Jason K Allen

Pastors' Talk on the Prosperity Gospel

Around The Web-February 6, 2019

Pat Abendroth talks about his journey from dispensationalism to covenant theology on Office Hours

On Living in a Post-Christian Context by Tim Challies

Christian good works are by the grace of God by Mike Ratliff

9 Marks Journal: Ecclesiology for Calvinists and the latest Pastors' Talk on this same subject

Why We Still Need the Puritans by Nate Pickowicz

The Lord Purifies His People by John MacArthur

The Reproductive Health Act of Horror: The Lies Behind Abortion Without Limits by John Ensor

Around The Web-December 21, 2018

What Is The Old Covenant? by John Young

2018: A Christian Music Review by Jeremy Howard

An Open Letter to the Depressed Christian at Christmas by David Murray

When Your Sin Finds You Out by David McLemore

Ask Pastor John: How Will Christ ‘Reconcile’ Unbelievers to Himself?

5 Myths about the Bible by Chris Bruno

The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 14, Racism by Darrell B. Harrison

Michael Lawrence speaks on the idea of belonging to a church before believing in Jesus

A Chart on Covenant Theology

The Baptist Reformation:

Recommended Reading:

Covenant Theology: From Adam to Christ by Nehemiah Coxe and John Owen

The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology by Pascal Denault

Covenant Theology: A Reformed Baptist Primer by Douglas Van Dorn

No Racial Partiality with God

Paul began his letter to the Romans by declaring the racial impartiality of God (2:11). It is important to remember that the racial separation in the Old Testament helped preserve the genealogical line of Christ. This wall of division between Jews and Gentiles was very important, for salvation (Christ) would be of the Jews. Yet now that the promise of the Abrahamic covenant has been fulfilled in Christ, the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles has been broken down (Eph. 2:14).

The Jews no longer have exclusive rights to the gospel. According to Paul, the gospel is impartial and has gone into all the world, and is powerful enough to save both Jews and Gentiles: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).

Not only is the gospel impartial, but the law is also impartial: “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality” (Rom. 2:9-11).

The law and the gospel do not show any racial favoritism. Gentiles can be saved by the gospel, just as Jews can be condemned by the law: “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law” (Rom. 2:12).

Adapted from The Kingdom of God: A Baptist Expression of Covenant Theology by Jeffrey Johnson

The Mosaic Covenant Was Conditional

We find undeniable proof that the Mosaic Covenant was a covenant of works in Exodus 19:5-6, when the Mosaic Covenant was established with the nation of Israel. At the inauguration of the Mosaic Covenant, God clearly based His relationship with the Israelites upon a condition. He told them in the clearest terms, “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” According to this passage, the promise was conditional (quid pro quo).

The Israelites would be God’s people and God would be their God, if they would obey and keep the conditions of the covenant. According to Moses, the condition was, ‘If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my people.’ In Deuteronomy, when Moses goes back over the law, he re-explains the conditional nature of the old covenant. “Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant, and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers” (Deut. 7:11-12).

Several years later, Jeremiah echoes Moses by teaching on the true nature of the old covenant. Jeremiah speaks on behalf of God, when he says, “This thing commanded I them, saying, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you’” (Jer. 7:23). Again he says, “Hear ye the words of this covenant and do them” (Jer. 11:6). Nevertheless, after the children of Abraham heard the terms of the covenant at the base of Mt. Sinai, they all replied back to God in one accord by saying, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:8). Thus, Meredith Kline is right when he claims that the Sinaitic Covenant “made inheritance to be by law, not by promise—not by faith, but by works.’

Adapted from The Fatal Flaw: The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism by Jeffrey Johnson

The Old Covenant Was One Of Works

Paedobaptist covenant theology is deeply rooted in the idea that the old and new covenants are essentially the same; that both covenants are manifestations of the covenant of grace. This, however, is simply not the case. The covenant established at Mt. Sinai was founded upon the law. It was founded upon God’s commandments, upon the phrase, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them” (Lev. 18:5). The old covenant was not a covenant of grace, because it was not rooted in grace nor did it promise or dispense grace to it participants. Rather, it was a conditional covenant based on works—that eventually led to the condemnation of its participants. To put it plainly, the Mosaic Covenant was not a part of the covenant of grace, but the covenant of works.

Adapted from The Fatal Flaw: The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism by Jeffrey Johnson

Jesus' Blood Seals The New Covenant

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:31–34).

This is one of the most significant passages in Jeremiah. It is quoted (Heb. 8:8–13; 10:15–17) and alluded to a number of times in the New Testament (see Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:23–26; 2 Cor. 3:3, 6; Heb. 7:22).

When Jesus, at the Last Supper, refers to the “new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20), he picks up the theme of Exodus 24:8, where Moses seals the covenant of Sinai in sacrificial blood. It is this Sinai covenant, written on stone, that Jeremiah indicates needs to be renewed by being written on people’s hearts—not merely presumed to be in effect on the basis of the external practices of the Mosaic economy. This corresponds to the regeneration by the Spirit that is spoken of in Ezekiel 36:25–28.

Jesus’ own sacrificial blood seals the new covenant of our salvation (Heb. 8:6; 9:11–12). The internalizing of the law on the hearts of the people is the transformation by which the covenant promise will be fulfilled (Jer. 31:33; see 2 Cor. 6:16). God himself asserts that the people “shall all know me” (Jer. 31:34). This is not only an intellectual knowing about God but a relational knowing made possible by regeneration. It means believing in him, trusting him, and obeying him in gratitude for salvation. Those to whom the new covenant applies will have their sins forgiven (“remembered no more”; see v. 34). This perfectly describes the glorious situation of Christians, who know God internally through regeneration and who have had their sins wiped away by his gracious provision.

Adapted from the Gospel Transformation Bible

Around The Web-September 7, 2018

Sinners Need to Be Justified by Tom Nettles

IRBSTS Presidential Inauguration by Gatlin Bredeson

Lectures on Covenant Theology from Reformed Baptist Seminary

David McLemore on Church Planting in Church Saturated Areas from For The Church

John Onwuchekwa on One Big Reason the Church Doesn't Pray

10 Things You Should Know about the Puritans by Sam Storms

Straight From the Word: Inward Sin by Joshua Sommer

Al Mohler on Andy Stanley: Is Christianity “Unhitched” from the Old Testament? from the Center for Public Theology

Just Thinking Podcast: ‘Aretha Franklin Eulogy’

A Couple of Podcasts Addressing Baptist Covenant Theology

Sam Renihan has a been a busy fellow as of late. He has been on two podcasts discussing Baptist Covenant Theology. Some of you may still not have a idea as to what Reformed Baptists believe and what makes their understanding of Covenant Theology different than Presbyterians. I hope these two interviews will equip you in a better understanding of Baptist Covenant Theology:

1689 Finally Explained from the Regular Reformed Guys

The Importance of Baptist Covenant Theology from Theology Driven

Christ The Servant of The Covenant

Christ who is the Lord is also the Servant of the Lord. He is the true vine, the true Son, the true Israel. Where a righteous servant of the Lord appears in Old Testament history, it is the true Servant who is prefigured. God makes his covenant, claiming his people as his, and giving them a claim on him. “Lord” and “Servant” express that relation. The Lord’s demand to Pharaoh was, “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 10:3, ESV). Serving the Lord means worship and obedience. Jesus Christ consummates the covenant relation from both sides. The Old Testament promises the coming of the Lord and also the coming of the Servant of the Lord. When the Lord condemns the failure of Israel’s shepherds to care for the sheep, he declares that he himself will come to shepherd them (Ezek. 34:11-16). He also says that he will set up one shepherd, his servant David, over them to feed them: “I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them” (Ezek. 34:24, NIV).

Old Testament history is prophetic history, describing covenant blessings, the covenant curse, and the wonder of God’s great salvation to come in the latter days. For the “day of the LORD” to come, for God’s kingdom to come, the covenant must be fulfilled from both sides. Hanson seeks to shrink typology in the New Testament by his interpretation of the terms that express it. He concludes that it was only beginning to infect the writers of the New Testament. Where it seems to have arrived, as in the sign of Jonah in Matthew’s account (Matt. 12:38-41), he is ready to suggest that it originated in the early church’s study of the Old Testament. He even pleads with respect to Jesus’ reference to the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14-15), that since no word for “type” is used, “we are left to draw the conclusion ourselves.”

It is true that the New Testament does not often speak of the way it interprets the Old, and we are often left to draw our own conclusions. But the grand structure is clear. What Jesus does as the Servant of the Lord cannot be described as a mere “‘parallel situation’ phenomenon,” a term Hanson uses to explain away the typical reference. He is right in insisting that the activity of the Lord himself in the Old Testament is not merely a type of his activity as Lord in the New Testament. However, the actions and roles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, and the rest are not to be set alongside the person and work of Jesus Christ as less effective performances of the same kind of service. Leonhard Goppelt, in his article “typos” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, and in his book entitled Typos, has shown the distinctiveness of Paul’s typology in Romans 5. It is found in Paul’s eschatological focus. The coming of the Messiah does not take us back to a golden age of the past, restoring its glories.

Rather, the coming of Christ brings the fulfillment, the realization of what was anticipated by God’s servants, the saviors, prophets, kings, priests, and judges of the Old Covenant. Countering other views, Goppelt says, “Instead, the typological idea of the consummation of God’s redemptive plan appears to be the heart of the Old Testament eschatology.” He acknowledges the theme of restoration, but insists that “the typological idea of consummation of salvation is the core; the concept of restoration provides the appropriate clothing”

Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney

Conversations on 1689 Federalism

Reformed Northwest had a conversation with Brandon Adams about Covenant Theology from a Reformed Baptist perspective:

1689 Federalism, Part 1

1689 Federalism, Part 2

1689 Federalism, Part 3

1689 Federalism, Part 4

1689 Federalism, Part 5

Recommended Reading:

Covenant Theology: From Adam to Christ by Nehemiah Coxe and John Owen

The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith