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affecting their mutual relation, or one party promises to bestow certain benefits on the other,
provided the latter fulfills the conditions that are laid down. That the covenant of grace is such
a compact is abundantly evident from Scripture. There is the condition of faith, Gen. 15:6,
compared with Rom. 4:3 ff., 20 ff.; Hab. 2:4; Gal. 3:14-28; Heb. 11; and there is also the promise
of spiritual and eternal blessings, Gen. 17:7; 12:3; Isa. 43:25; Ezek. 36:27; Rom. 4:5 ff.; Gal.
3:14,18. But it is also clear that the covenant in its full realization is something more than that,
namely, a communion of life. This may be already symbolically expressed in the act of passing
between the parts of the animals slain at the establishment of the covenant with Abraham,
Gen. 15:9-17. Moreover, it is indicated in such passages as Ps. 25:14; Ps. 89:33,34; 103:17,18;
Jer. 31:33,34 (Heb. 8:10-12); Ezek. 36:25-28; II Cor. 6:16; Rev. 21:2,3.
Now the question arises as to the relation between the sinner’s being under the “bond of the
covenant” as a legal relationship and his living in the communion of the covenant. The two
cannot be conceived of as existing alongside of each other without some inner connection, but
must be regarded as being most intimately related to each other, in order to avoid all dualism.
When one takes the covenant relation upon himself voluntarily, the two must naturally go
together; if they do not, a false relation ensues. But in the case of those who are born in the
covenant the question is more difficult. Is the one then possible without the other? Is the
covenant in that case a bare legal relationship, in which that which ought to be — but is not —
takes the place of the glorious realities for which the covenant stands? Is there any reasonable
ground to expect that the covenant relation will issue in a living communion; that for the
sinner, who is of himself unable to believe, the covenant will actually become a living reality? In
answer to this question it may be said that God undoubtedly desires that the covenant
relationship shall issue in a covenant life. And He Himself guarantees by His promises pertaining
to the seed of believers that this will take place, not in the case of every individual, but in the
seed of the covenant collectively. On the basis of the promise of God we may believe that,
under a faithful administration of the covenant, the covenant relation will, as a rule, be fully
realized in a covenant life.
E. MEMBERSHIP IN THE COVENANT AS A LEGAL RELATIONSHIP.
In discussing membership in the covenant as a legal relationship, it should be borne in mind
that the covenant in this sense is not merely a system of demands and promises, demands that
ought to be met, and promises that ought to be realized; but that it also includes a reasonable
expectation that the external legal relationship will carry with it the glorious reality of a life in
intimate communion with the covenant God. This is the only way in which the idea of the
covenant is fully realized.