New Covenant Debate with James White: Opening Statement

For today’s post, I’m uploading the manuscript of my opening statement from my recent debate with James White. You can find the entire debate here. The prompt for the debate was: “The New Covenant consists of only regenerate persons, therefore the church should not knowingly give the Covenant sign to those who have not demonstrated evidence of their regeneration.”

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The prompt states that the new covenant consists of only regenerate persons and that is the crucial question. I grant that if this is true, then the rest of the prompt follows. So I will focus all of my attention on the central thing, disagreeing with the prompt in favor of the claim the new covenant does not only consist of regenerate persons but those who profess faith in Christ and their children.

The first thing to do in order to determine who new covenant members are is to define the new covenant itself. A Costco member is one thing and Costco itself is another. So it is with the new covenant and new covenant members. And the word new in new covenant implies that there was an older version of it. The Bible has an Old Testament and a New Testament but only one Lord, one faith, and one gracious redemption. And both the 1689 Baptist confession (7:2) as well as the Westminster Confession affirm God’s one covenant of grace.

In order to define the new covenant, we need a solid definition of this one “covenant of grace,” which I define as follows: The covenant of grace is the Heavenly Father’s solemn oath to man on earth of saving grace in and by Jesus Christ, conditioned upon faith, a bond in blood that constitutes an organization over and to whom God says, “I am y’all’s God and y’all are my people.”

The new covenant is the same in substance, it being simply a new and better form of this covenant of grace just defined. The new covenant is the Heavenly Father’s solemn and better oath to man on earth of saving grace, in and by Jesus Christ, conditioned upon faith, a better bond in better blood, that constitutes a better organization over and to whom God says, “I am y’all’s God and y’all are my people.”

That’s a stout definition. But it is warranted given that the word “covenant” appears 284 times in the Old Testament. And it appears 33 times in the New Testament. We’re dealing with a lot of material and the content of that definition really matters. Notice that the covenant originates with the Father in heaven and terminates with man on earth. In this covenant, God swears an oath of salvation to man and man receives that salvation conditionally upon faith. This covenant does something in the world, namely constitutes an organized people who are bonded to God and each other. And this called out community hears God speaking to them as one thus the Southern “y’all.”

Note three key aspects of this definition:

First, I’ve made the point that it is the Heavenly Father who covenants with man on earth. That is because a divine covenant with man is executed in history. What is in view is not the idea of a covenant. It is not a covenant simply up in the heavens. A covenant is cut on earth. Covenants must be established or they are not divine covenants with man. This matters because some of my 1689 Baptist brothers say that the covenant of grace was never inaugurated, formalized, or cut on earth in the Old Testament, this not happening until the new covenant itself in Christ. But this would leave Abraham, Moses, David and all of our other Old Testament brothers being saved outside of God’s covenant of grace, which according to them had not yet arrived on earth. 

Second, the covenant of grace and new covenant involves the creation of a constituted people. Theologians often use the language of administration, which means more than “getting thing A to individual B” like I administer lotion to my daughter’s knee. But a covenant administration is more like the Washington or Jefferson administration. The Washington or Jefferson “administration” refers to an entity, a people, an organization, a corporate reality. You can be a member of such an administration or not a member of such an administration. Covenant membership implies that a covenant is more than a promise, it is an administration, organization, or league. Membership in an administration involves rights and responsibilities. None of that comes through when we conceive of a covenant as a mere promise from God to an individual. (Defend biblically).

Third, the covenant of grace and new covenant maintains an eschatological dimension. God swears an oath about blessing and future blessing. What he will do in the future is there with Abraham, “I will be God to you” and David “you shall not lack a man to sit upon the throne.” 

With a definition of the new covenant before us, I will provide five arguments for the new covenant consisting of those who have professed faith in Christ and their children.

First, God has always included a man’s seed in His covenant with man. “Always” is very strong there, underscoring that the inclusion of man’s seed is of the very nature of God’s gracious covenant with man.

Adam, Genesis 3:15 “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.”Noah, Genesis 9:8-9 “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you.”Abraham, Genesis 17:7 “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”Moses, Deuteronomy 29:10-13 “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”David, 2 Samuel 7:12-1? “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.”Christ, Acts 2:38-39 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”Philippian Jailer, Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and your house.”

I am not making a claim about household baptisms at the moment from Acts 16. Rather, I am asking, “On what basis can Paul and Silas look at a man and say, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved and your house.‘”? The answer is that Paul and Silas knew that God always includes a man’s seed in His gracious covenant with man.

Second, God’s covenant of grace in the old testament was mixed, including the unregenerate or non-elect, thus the burden is on those who would change God’s covenantal pattern in the new covenant.

Hebrews 3:16-19: “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

All those who left Egypt constituted the old covenant people of God. But some of them did not enter God’s rest because of unbelief.

1 Corinthians 10:1-5: For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 

Again, each and every member of the old covenant did not receive the promise of eternal life. But they were genuine members of God’s gracious covenant in the Old Testament. They even ate the same spiritual food that the Corinthians ate at the Lord’s Supper. They drank from Christ as His genuine covenant people. But they were not regenerate and fell in the wilderness.

Malachi 2:10-12: 10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts! 

Third, men can and do depart from the new covenant, which could not be the case if they were regenerate.

Hebrews 6:4-6 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Here are those who are genuinely covenant members, but evidently not regenerate since they fall away.

Hebrews 10:26-30 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 

Note that the Lord will judge His people, not outsider who are not His people. Moreoever, the man in question has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified. Here is a new covenant member who goes on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, resulting in judgment without mercy.

2 Peter 2:1: But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 

These false teachers among the new covenant people bring in damnable heresies and deny the Lord that bought them. The Lord bought them in some sense, albet not an eternally salvific sense. These, like the one in Hebrews 10, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified. Clearly members of the new covenant and clearly not regenerate.

John 15:1-6: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

Romans 11:17-22 “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”

Fourth, Jeremiah 31’s language that in the new covenant they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest is no objection to my claim. It does not teach that each and every member of the new covenant must be regenerate but that salvation will be pervasive in the new covenant, unlike the old. The key is to let Jeremiah himself define what he means when he says “from the least of them to the greatest.” He uses the term several times and by it he means a community about which something is pervasively though not exhaustively, true. 

Jeremiah 6:13 “For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

Surely, we could find one Old Testament saint in Jeremiah’s day who was not greedy for unjust gain, or who did not deal falsely. Thus, Jeremiah does not mean “each and every” when he says “from the least to the greatest.” Rather, by the phrase, he means a community about which something is pervasively though not exhaustively, true.

Jeremiah 44:12-14 “I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine they shall be consumed. From the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, and they shall become an oath, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. 13 I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, 14 so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, except some fugitives.”

You might think that Jeremiah means each and every individual will die in Egypt when he says “From the least to the greatest, they shall die.” But, he goes on to say that some fugitives will return. So “from the least to the greatest” cannot mean each and every without exception. Rather Jeremiah’s own usage indicates that he means death with be pervasive among the community that goes down to Egypt as regeneration will be pervasive among the new covenant community.

Fifth, the central apologetic argument in Hebrews is in no contradiction with the new covenant consisting of some unregenerate persons because the central apologetic argument of Hebrews is not “don’t go back to the old covenant because the new covenant consists of only regenerate persons” but rather “don’t go back to the old covenant because there is nothing there to go back to.” The old is vanishing and the new will never vanish or fade. The new covenant is better than the old because it is enacted on better promises, and it involves a better sacrifice, and a better mediatorial ministry. But the betterness of each of those is not in the fact that the covenant of grace in the old included some unregenerate persons and the new only regenerate persons. Rather it is that the old covenant was vanishing. It’s priests were vanishing. Its sacrifices were vanishing. Because the old model was not enacted on the promise that those things would remain. But new covenant is enacted on the better promise that it will never fade. Its priest will never die. And its sacrifice is a once for all time sacrifice.

A final word of thanks to all here. Faithfulness permeates the Baptist and Paedobaptist world. These things are obviously tricky and we’re all brothers in Christ. So much love to all.

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