Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology

by Phillip D. R. Griffiths

God’s covenants form the backbone of the Scriptures. Understanding these covenants is the key to unlocking the treasures that lay therein. This book will enable the reader, not only to appreciate redemptive history, but to understand more fully his/her position in Christ. Griffiths demonstrates the essential fact that there has always been one Church, one way of salvation, and that all have been, are being, and will be saved only through faith in Christ.

Griffiths eschews the Presbyterian paradigm which believes the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants to be of the same substance as the new covenant, only differing in regard to their administration. Replacing it with essential truth that the new covenant, which is the outworking of the eternal covenant of redemption in time, is the only covenant of grace. Both Old and New Testament believers come under the mediatorship of Christ and are members and recipients of new covenant blessings.

The author shows how all other covenants, what he calls “subsidiary covenants,” are of works, and that their function is to magnify the covenant of grace, i.e., the new covenant.

160 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2022

Reviews

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful and concise summary of covenant theology from a 1689 2LCF Federalist position. It is irenic in tone and makes a clear and convincing case for a covenantal understanding that is distinct from the Westminster Standards.

There are a few syntactical and spelling errors, and a couple of places where a good editor would improve the work, but it would be churlish to make an issue of those when the rest of the book is accessible and well-written. I'd be very happy to put this in the hands of someone exploring Baptist thinking of covenant for the first time. In places, that study requires lots of effort, but the advantage of this book is that the author takes great pains to explain and simplify.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learnt a lot from reading this. The writer clearly shows how OT believers were saved by the same covenant as NT believers. I notice that one reviewer commented on the lack of progression in the book. I don't believe this is in anyway a weakness. The writer says what he is going to do i.e. show that all people who have ever believed have been saved in the same way and by the same covenant, and by the end of the book he has demonstrated this.
This book certainly allows one to understand the unity of God's covenants, especially the new covenant. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone finding themselves bewildered by God covenants.

[Austin Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful in some respects, but there wasn’t a coherent argument or thesis that was furthered as the chapters progressed. Seemed like blog posts he had written about different questions in covenant theology. Worth the read, but Denault and Renihan are significantly more helpful