The Baptists believed that no covenant preceding the new covenant was the covenant of grace. Before the arrival of the new covenant, the covenant of grace was at the stage of promise. According to Benjamin Keach, the expression “the covenants of promise” that can be found in Ephesians 2:12 refers to the covenant of grace.118 To speak of it as a promise implies that it was not yet accomplished and was not yet in the form of a testament or a covenant. The Baptists believed the new covenant was the accomplishment of the promise, or in other words, the accomplishment of the covenant of grace.
