What Young People Should Know about Covenant Theology

Posted On October 25, 2023

Written by Dr. Keith Mathison, professor of systematic theology

I first heard about “covenant theology” while a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. Dallas Seminary has long been the premier dispensationalist seminary in the world. Covenant theology, as I was taught there, was a view that radically differed from dispensational theology. We were taught that covenant theology spiritualized the Bible rather than interpreting it literally. As a result, covenant theologians rejected the doctrines of the pre-tribulation rapture and the premillennial coming of Christ. Very little was said to us about what covenant theology positively taught. As a result, my understanding of covenant theology was extremely limited, and even that limited understanding was vague. I was given the impression that covenant theology was a man-made system that was superimposed on Scripture rather than something derived from Scripture. It took me many years to clear up these misunderstandings.

If someone were to ask me to write a brief blog article explaining what young people should know about covenant theology (and someone did), I would mention several things:

1. Understanding covenant theology is important. There are elements in the early and medieval church of what would later be incorporated into mature covenant theology, but the full development of covenant theology took place during the Protestant Reformation as Reformed theologians sought to clearly distinguish their views from semi-Pelagian notions that had become endemic to Roman Catholic theology. The mature doctrine of the covenant of works, for example, helped explain the biblical teaching as opposed to various Roman Catholic doctrines of a gift that was superadded to human nature to enable man to merit his ultimate goal of salvation.

   Understanding covenant theology is also important because of its relation to how we understand the sacraments. If you have ever been involved in a debate over infant baptism, for example, you need to understand that one’s views on that subject are directly related to one’s covenant theology. Proponents of paedobaptism (i.e., infant baptism) and proponents of credobaptism (i.e., believer’s baptism) have different covenant theologies, and unless that issue is dealt with first, it is almost pointless to discuss the baptism question. Each side in the debate interprets the disputed Scripture passages according to a particular understanding of the covenants.

2. Covenant theology is biblical. Contrary to the claims of my professors at Dallas, covenant theology is not a system that was artificially superimposed on Scripture. Instead, it is rooted in some of the most fundamental biblical teachings. For example, the distinction between what is commonly called the covenant of works and the covenant of grace is rooted in the recognition that God’s relationship with human beings is fundamentally different before and after the fall. By the sixteenth century, a significant number of Roman Catholics were minimizing the effects of the fall and veering closer and closer to full-blown Pelagianism. Reformed theology, in its development of covenant theology, directed the church back to the biblical doctrine of total depravity. In one sense, the main point made in the doctrine of the covenant of grace is that if man is to be saved after the fall, it can be only by the grace of God.

3. Different versions of covenant theology exist today. Within Reformed circles, some have attempted further developments. John Murray, for example, in his “recasting” of covenant theology, introduced a new way of thinking about the covenant of works. Meredith Kline, largely in response to Murray, introduced his own unique ideas. As mentioned above, Baptists have their own understanding of covenant theology. There are also authors today who have suggested alternatives to both traditional covenant theology and dispensationalism. Progressive covenantalism, for example, has become quite popular in some circles.

4. There are many good resources to assist you in coming to a better understanding of covenant theology. I only wish some of these works had been available when I first started to study the issue. Probably the best introduction to the issue is Stephen Myers’ book God to Us: Covenant Theology in Scripture. If you can afford only one book on the subject, this is it. Another very helpful book is Richard Belcher’s The Fulfillment of the Promises of God: An Explanation of Covenant Theology. This book is a good supplement to the book by Myers.