The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology

by Geerhardus Vos

"To what, then, does one attribute the fact that from the beginning this concept of the covenant appears so much in the foreground of Reformed theology? There must be something in its starting-point by which it feels itself drawn to this idea. Let us now in succession take a look at (1) the covenant of works, (2) the covenant of redemption, and (3) the covenant of grace."Doctrine of the Covenant is a brief essay in which Geerhardus Vos details the historical development of covenant theology, and provides a positive case for the Reformed view. This essay provides an accessible, short order explanation of the covenants, giving readers a key biblical hermeneutic for understanding the breadth of biblical history, and its cohesion via the covenants.This electronic edition features an active table of contents.Doctrine of the Covenant is part of The Fig Classic Series on Modern Theology. To view more books in our catalog, visit us at fig-books.com.

Genres: Theology, Christian

45 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 3, 2010

About the author

Geerhardus Johannes Vos was an American Calvinist theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical Theology.

Vos was born to a Dutch Reformed pastor in Heerenveen in Friesland in the Netherlands. In 1881, when Geerhardus was 19 years old, his father accepted a call to be the pastor of the Christian Reformed Church congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Geerhardus Vos began his education at the Christian Reformed Church's Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, before moving to Princeton Theological Seminary. He completed his studies in Germany, receiving his doctorate in Arabic Studies from the Philosophy Faculty of Strassburg University in 1888.

Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper tried to convince Vos to become professor of Old Testament Theology at the Free University in Amsterdam, but Vos chose to return to America. Thus, in the Fall of 1888, Vos took up a position on the Calvin Theological Seminary faculty. In 1892, Vos moved and joined the faculty of the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he became its first Professor of Biblical Theology.

In 1894 he was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in the USA.

At Princeton, he taught alongside J. Gresham Machen and Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield and authored his most famous works, including: Pauline Eschatology (1930) and Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (1948). Despite his opposition to the growing modernist influence at Princeton in the late 1920s, he decided to remain at Princeton Seminary after the formation of Westminster Theological Seminary by Machen, as he was close to retirement. Vos did indeed retire to California in 1932, three years after the formation of Westminster.

Vos's wife, Catherine, authored the well-known Child's Story Bible. She died in 1937, after 43 years of marriage. They had three sons and one daughter, and their son J. G. Vos studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and also became a minister.

Reviews

[Jordan Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really helpful article exploring Covenant Theology from a historical perspective. He touches on the various Reformed views of soteriology and sacramentology as they fit into the covenant theology framework.

[Russ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense and concise overview

One of the densest and most concise overviews of Covenant Theology you may ever read, and will take one multiple readings to fully benefit from it.

[Andrew Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short read that I started on a whim. Vos goes through the history of covenant theology among Reformed theologians, proving that it was integral, if immature, right from the beginning, and thus the development of the covenant view of Scripture happened independently in multiple places (Germany, Switzerland, England, Netherlands) at the same time leading to similar doctrinal views on the subject.

There are many works that cover the same ground, but what makes Vos's work particularly relevant today (and the reason I read it in the first place) is how he ends his essay. Vos does so by going through three different views among the early Reformers concerning the basis of infant baptism.

Most Presbyterians today (e.g., PCA, OPC, RPCNA, etc.) dogmatically hold to a particular view that completely divorces the Sacrament from any precedent faith of the infant (this is done primarily because at the core of "faith" in their theological system is intellectual and volitional assent to certain propositional truths, and thus infants obviously can't have "faith"), and they declare those who hold "deviant" positions to be outside the historically Reformed stream or even heretical. The quotes Vos provides prove that the modern "only Reformed position" was far from the consensus, or even the majority view until quite recently.

Consider the review over. What follows is a plethora of useful quotes proving the point:

Beza: "The situation of children who are born of believing parents is a special one. They do not have in themselves that quality of faith which is in the adult believer. Yet it cannot be the case that those who have been sanctified by birth and have been separated from the children of unbelievers do not have the seed and germ of faith. The promise, accepted by the parents in faith, also includes their children to a thousand generations. . . . If it is objected that not all of them who are born of believing parents are elect, seeing that God did not choose all the children of Abraham and Isaac, we do not lack an answer. Though we do not deny that this is the case, still we say that this hidden judgment must be left to God and that normally, by virtue of the promise, all who have been born of believing parents, or if one of the parents believes, are sanctified (Confessio Christianae Fidei, IV, 48)

Peter Martyr Vermigli: "We assume that the children of believers are holy, as long as in growing up they do not demonstrate themselves to be estranged from Christ. We do not exclude them from the church, but accept them as members, with the hope that they are partakers of the divine election and have the grace and Spirit of Christ, even as they are the seed of saints. On that basis, we baptize them. We do not need to respond to those who object and ask whether the minister is deceived, whether perhaps the infant is in truth no child of the promise, of divine election and mercy. Similar diatribes could be adduced with regard to adults, for we do not know whether they come deceptively, whether they truly believe, whether they are children of election or perdition, etc." (Loci Communes, IV, 8, 7).

The children of believers must be baptized, according to Polanus, "because they have been purchased by the blood of Christ, have been washed from their sins, and possess therefore by the work of the Holy Spirit the thing signified. . . . Because the Holy Spirit is promised to them, they possess the Holy Spirit" (Syntagma, VI, 55).

"Three schools of thought can be identified: the first school (including Ursinus, Polanus, Junius, Walaeus, Cloppenburg, Voetius, and Witsius) not only assumes that the children of the covenant who die before they reach the age of discretion, possess the Holy Spirit from their earliest childhood and so are born again and united to Christ, but also maintains this thesis as generally valid for the seed of the promise without distinction. They use it as an argument in defense of infant baptism in their polemics with the Anabaptists."

Ursinus, "Our continual answer to the Anabaptists, when they appeal to the lack of faith in infants against infant baptism, is that the Holy Spirit works regeneration and the inclination to faith and obedience to God in them in a manner appropriate to their age, always with it understood that we leave the free mercy and heavenly election unbound and unpenetrated" (quoted in Südhoff, Olevianus und Ursinus, pp. 633f.)

Junius: "We call it false to argue that infants are completely incapable of faith; if they have faith in the principle of the habitus, they have the Spirit of faith. . . . Regeneration is viewed from two aspects, as it is in its foundation, in Christ, in principle, and as it is active in us. The former (which can also be called transplanting from the first to the second Adam) is the root, from which the latter arises as its fruit. By the former elect infants are born again, when they are incorporated into Christ, and its sealing occurs in baptism" (Theses Theologicae, LI, 7)

Walaeus: "We do not bind the efficacy of baptism to the moment in which the body is sprinkled with external water; but we require with the Scriptures antecedent faith and repentance in the one who is baptized, at least according to the judgment of love, both in the infant children of covenant members, and in adults. For we maintain that in infants too the presence of the seed and the Spirit of faith and conversion is to be ascertained on the basis of divine blessing and the evangelical covenant" (Synopsis Purioris Theologiae, XLIV, 27, 29)

[sam tannehill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is short and focused! Geerhardus Vos writes very clearly on the Reformed concepts of Covenant Theology what it means to Christian faith. This book ultimately arrives at the explanation that covenant that God makes with Man is one in which men come to understand their relationship to God through the law, Christ's keeping of the law, and Christ's act as high priest that secures grace for believers.

[Eddie Mercado · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal article. As is normal with Vos, this is not an easy read. It must be read slowly and thoughtfully. But this is a superb overview of Reformed covenant theology, in comparison to the Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions. The last few pages were especially helpful, where he gives a taxonomy of Reformed views of children in the covenant, and the administration of their Baptism as related to their regeneration.

[Laurent Dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good historic overview of covenant theology from Zwingli to 20th century. Shows how covenant theology developped and formulates its concepts differently through the time.

[Josh Cosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshingly easy to read piece as an introduction to reformed theology

[Chris Comis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good stuff here on covenant theology by one of the main progenitors of biblical theology in the 20th c. Excellent stuff here!

[Frank Shock · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part this is well written and thought out. However, my strongest critique is in the inconsistent usage of "seed." Most of the argument centers on the covenant now belonging to the spiritual not physical "seed" of Abraham. This is well attested and well developed. However, in the final section dealing with why paedobaptism for 2nd gen of believers, Vos makes his sole appeal to the fact that God has always worked through physical seed. The logic does not hold, or at least he does not develop why this switch is warranted.

[Timothy Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Geerhardus Vos in his early years as a scholastic. For more expounding on the theology of this piece, read Dr. J. V. Fesko's monograph on the covenant of redemption!

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very useful discussion of the history of covenant theology in the Reformed tradition, though I might not agree with every point.