Covenant Theology

Definition and Meaning

Covenant theology is a theological system that reads the whole of Scripture as the unfolding of the covenants God has made with human beings. A covenant is a relationship that God initiates by establishing its conditions and promises. Covenant theology is usually explained in terms of the following concepts:

• Covenant of works: the covenant in which God promised life to Adam before the Fall on the condition of obedience
• Covenant of grace: the covenant in which, after the Fall, God promised salvation through Christ to those who believe
• Covenant of redemption: an eternal agreement understood to have been made between the Father and the Son concerning the plan of salvation. Some scholars do not treat it as a separate covenant.

Covenant theology regards the Old Testament and the New Testament as the progressive unfolding of a single covenant of grace and therefore emphasizes the continuity between the two Testaments.

Biblical and Historical Background

Passages frequently cited in support include Genesis 2:16-17, Genesis 17:7, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Romans 5:12-21, and Hebrews 8. The covenants made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, as well as the new covenant, are explained as successive stages in the revelation of the covenant of grace.

During the Reformation, Huldrych Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger emphasized the concept of covenant. The concept was further developed by John Calvin, Zacharias Ursinus, and Caspar Olevianus, and was systematized in the seventeenth century by Johannes Cocceius, Herman Witsius, and others. Chapter 7 of the Westminster Confession of Faith explicitly sets forth the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, and this understanding became the standard in Reformed churches.

Practice in Korean Churches

• Presbyterian churches: Many Korean Presbyterian denominations have adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith as their doctrinal standard, so covenant theology serves as the basic framework for seminary education and preaching. It also provides the basis for explaining infant baptism as a sign of the covenant of grace that continues Old Testament circumcision.
• Baptist churches: Because Baptists hold to believer's baptism, they do not accept the covenantal basis for infant baptism. Some Reformed Baptists, following the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, accept the concept of covenant but limit membership in the new covenant to believers.
• Methodist and Holiness churches: Denominations that follow Wesleyan theology do not place covenant theology at the center of their doctrinal system. The Methodist tradition does, however, include the Covenant Renewal Service begun by John Wesley.
• Relationship to dispensationalism: Because dispensationalism distinguishes between Israel and the church and divides history into several dispensations, it is often contrasted with covenant theology. Dispensational eschatology has also influenced Korean churches, so the two frameworks are sometimes blended in preaching.