November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Calvin’s Integrated Covenant Theology (2)
This is how Anglican J. I. Packer defines “the life-embracing
bedrock reality of the covenant relationship between the Creator
and Christians” : “A covenant relationship is a voluntary mutual
commitment that binds each party to the other.” 25 Packer roots
this bond between God and us in the inter-Trinitarian communion
of the Godhead. In answer to his own question, “Why does God
… desire covenantal fellowship with rational beings” he answers,
...the nature of such fellowship observably corresponds to the relationships
of mutual honor and love between Father, Son and Holy
Spirit within the unity of the divine being, so that the divine purpose
appears to be, so to speak, an enlarging of this circle of eternal love
and joy. In highlighting the thought that covenantal communion is
the inner life of God, covenant theology makes the truth of the Trinity
more meaningful than it can otherwise be. 26
In the Protestant Reformed Churches the truth of the covenant
as a bond of friendship and fellowship between God and His elect
in Jesus Christ has been developed and maintained most fully,
consistently, antithetically, and systematically. This has resulted
in increased insight into and/or practical help regarding, for example,
the living fellowship within the Holy Trinity, the covenant
with Adam, Old Testament history, sovereign grace, infant baptism,
Reformed worship, the unbreakable bond of marriage, Christian
schooling, and the Christian life as one of God’s friend-servants
keeping His covenant. 27
This development in the understanding of the nature of the
25. J. I. Packer in his “Introduction” to Herman Witsius, The Economy
of the Covenants Between God and Man: Comprehending a Complete
Body of Divinity, 2 vols. (Escondido, CA: The den Dulk Christian Foundation,
repr. 1990), vol. 1. There is no pagination for Packer’s “Introduction.”
26. Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants.
27. See, e.g., Herman Hanko, God’s Everlasting Covenant of Grace
(Grandville, MI: RFPA, 1988); Herman Hoeksema, Believers and Their
Seed: Children in the Covenant (Grandville, MI: RFPA, rev. 1997);
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