The Gracious God of the Old Testament
In the second century, a man by the name of Marcion of Pontus developed and propagated the idea that the god of the Old Testament could be distinguished from the god of the New Testament, and that the Old Testament was on a level far below that of the New Testament. According to him, the god of the Old Testament was jealous and vindictive god: the creator of evil who hardened human hearts, ordered people to commit genocide against the Canaanites, and gave laws that were bad. Christ, then, is said to be a totally different god: a god of grace and love. Consequently, the Christian is free from the law and from the whole Old Testament.[1] Marcion was expelled from the church in 144 as a heretic, but the movement he headed became both widespread and powerful.
Scripture is clear on the unchanging nature of God (James 1:17). Further, God cannot change, because that would make him dependent on that which changed him, and therefore no longer God. This attribute of God is more carefully expounded in our previous article on God's immutability. Thus, the two Testaments are really one in origin and content. God, the eternal λογος (Logos), is the author of both. And in both, we are presented with "one faith, one covenant, and one way of salvation".[2] The overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that God is, and always has been, a God of grace.
God's Covenant of Grace
"Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them up like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations".
Isaiah 51:7-8
The grace of God did not begin in the New Testament when Jesus was born in the flesh. Rather, the covenant of grace begins immediately after the fall, in Genesis 3, at the garden of Eden. Christ is the fulfillment of that Old Testament covenant of grace. As we will see in the following paragraphs, God has always been a gracious God.
In Isaiah 51:7-8 above, the fate of the church is contrasted with the fate of her enemies. Her enemies enjoy a short-lived power and prosperity, but "the moth will eat them up like a garment". Their prosperity and power will vanish and come to nothing. On the other hand, the "people in whose heart is my law", that is - God's Church, need not fear, since God's righteousness shall be forever, and His salvation from generation to generation.
What is God's righteousness? And how exactly does God's righteousness give the Church comfort and confidence in this hostile world? The word righteousness is very often used in Scripture for God's covenant faithfulness.[3] Consider:
(1) Nehemiah 9:7-8, where the Levites said: "You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous".
(2) Psalm 24:4-5: "He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation".
(3) Psalm 36:10: "Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart!"
(4) Psalm 51:14: "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness".
(5) Daniel 4:16: "O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem..."
God's righteousness here refers to his faithfulness in fulfilling his covenant promises to his church: his faithfulness in bestowing the benefits of the covenant of grace upon them. Though these benefits are altogether undeserved, God has been pleased, by the promises of the covenant of grace, to bind himself to bestow them in the exercise of his free and sovereign grace.[4]
The other word used in Isaiah 51:7-8 above is salvation. "Of these two... one is the cause, of which the other is the effect. God's righteousness, or covenant mercy, is the root, of which his salvation is the fruit. Both of them relate to the covenant of grace".
The commandment given to Adam was: "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:16-17). When the expression "in the day" is understood literally, the punishment threatened is obviously not fully carried out, for Adam and Eve did not die the day they sinned but lived on for many years afterward. Had the full punishment of sin been immediately carried out, in the first couple the whole human race would have been annihilated.[3] The significance of this is apparent when we contrast the experience of Adam with that of the angels. With the angels, we find that when they fell, they fell at once into hell (Jude 6). They immediately became hardened in evil, and consequently, irredeemable.[4] Not so for humankind. When Adam and Eve transgressed God's commandment, "the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked" (Gen. 3:7). And a sense of guilt became manifest in their sense of shame. Bavinck puts it best:
"Their conscience had awakened - the realization that they had sinned and deserved punishment... It makes them fear, flee, and hide themselves from his presence... that in itself is already an operation of God's Spirit in them".[5]
This means that Adam and Eve had not had their hearts hardened in their sin. God held back the full effects of the power of sin, and instead of withdrawing Himself or abandoning Adam and Eve after the fall, God reveals Himself to them, and first curses the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel".
In this address to the serpent, God reveals His covenant of grace by promising a Saviour - one who would restore the kingdom. From eve will spring a human race, and that race, though it will have to suffer much in the conflict with that evil power, will eventually triumph, in Christ. The head of the serpent will be crushed. Nevertheless, God's method of grace is also costly. The heel of the Saviour will be bruised - the shedding of substitutionary blood. Indeed, blood needs to be shed for sins to be forgiven (Heb. 9:22).[6] Bavinck writes: "Though they have deserved death and decay, God's blessing makes the woman fruitful and causes her to bring forth the humanity that, in her greatest son, the Son of Man, will conquer the evil of sin... In principle Genesis 3 contains the entire history of humankind, all the ways of God for the salvation of the lost and the victory over sin. In substance, the whole gospel, the entire covenant of grace, is present here".[7]
[1]: Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 3, "Sin and Salvation in Christ", at p 207.
[2]: Ibid.
[3]: Jonathan Edwards, "The Works of Jonathan Edwards", The Banner of Truth Trust, Vol 1., "A History of the Work of Redemption", at p 533.
[4]: Ibid.
[3]: Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 3, "Sin and Salvation in Christ", at p 197.
[4]: Id, at p 198.
[5]: Ibid.
[6]: Derek Thomas, "The Significance of Genesis 3:15", Ligonier Ministries, extracted from <https://www.ligonier.org/blog/significance-genesis-315/> (accessed 4 June 2021).
[7]: Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 3, "Sin and Salvation in Christ", at p 200.
[8]: Id, at p 219.
[9]: Id, at p 220.
