Grace and Covenant

“We do not often enough contemplate our salvation in the form of a covenant—yet, it is so represented in Scripture. From the beginning of God’s dealings with men, covenant is set forth as the relation in which He and the people who are peculiarly His own are made to stand with each other. It is well for us to look more upon this, to dwell more on this—the very condition and state of the matter between Christians and our God—so that instead of the vague and loose and general views that take no real or practical hold of a man, we are able to precisely and distinctly understand the things which the great God of Heaven and Earth has bound Himself to do for us, and to what, on the other hand, He has bound us. Instead of this faith of ours floating before the eye of our mind in the form of a slight, shapeless, shadowy imagination, we can clearly apprehend it as an express and definite plan, both of what God is engaged by promise to do for us, and to what we are engaged by promise in return. Comprehending this covenantal overture of mercy is the means by which we may know the greatness of an amazing grace.” Thomas Chalmers, 1847