We'll take a look at what being that faithful and loving bride means. But until then, read The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 7 on God's Covenant with man.
1.
The distance between God
and his creation is so great, that, although reasoning creatures owe him
obedience as their creator, they nonetheless could never realize any
blessedness or reward from him without his willingly condescending to them. And
so it pleased God to provide for man by means of covenants.1
1. Is
40.13-17, Jb 9.32-33, 1 Sm 2.25, Ps 100.2-3, 113.5-6, Jb 22.2-3, 35.7-8, Lk
17.10, Acts 17.24-25
2.
The first covenant made
with man was a covenant of works.2 In it life
was promised to Adam and through him to his descendants,3 on the condition of perfect, personal obedience.4
2. Hos 6.7, Gn 2.16-17, Gal 3.10, Rom 5.12,19, 1 Cor
15.22,47, Gal 3.12.
3. Rom
5.12-20, 10.5.
4. Gn 2.17, Gal 3.10; Compare
Gn 2.16-17 with Rom 5.12-14, 10.5, Lk 10.25-28, and with the covenants made
with Noah and Abraham.
3. By his fall, man made himself incapable of life under that
covenant, and so the Lord made a second, the covenant of grace.5 In it he freely offers sinners life and
salvation through Jesus Christ. In order to be saved he requires faith in Jesus6 and promises to give his Holy Spirit to all who
are ordained to life so that they may be willing and able to believe.7
5. Gal 3.21, Rom 3.20-21, 8.3, Gn 3.15, Is 42.6, Mt
26.28, Heb 10.5-10.
6. Mk
16.15-16, Jn 3.16, Rom 10.6,9, Gal 3.11, Acts 16.30-31, Mt 28.18-20, Rom
1.16-17.
7. Ez
36.26-27, Jn 6.37,44-45, 5.37, 3.5-8, Acts 13.48, Lk 11.13, Gal 3.14.
4.
This covenant of grace is
frequently identified in Scripture as a testament, in reference to the death of
Jesus Christ, the testator, and to the everlasting inheritance and everything
included in that legacy.8
8. Heb 9.15-17, 7.22, Lk 22.20, 1 Cor 11.25.
5. This covenant was administered differently in the time of the
law and in the time of the gospel.9 Under the law it was administered by
promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other
types and ordinances given to the Jewish people, all foreshadowing Christ.10 For that time the covenant administered under
the law through the operation of the Spirit was sufficient and effective in
instructing the elect and building up their faith in the promised Messiah,11 by whom they had full remission of their sins
and eternal salvation. This administration is called the Old Testament.12
9. 2 Cor 3.6-9, Heb 1.1-2.
10. Heb 8-10,
Rom 4.11, Col 2.11-12, 1 Cor 5.7, Col 2.17.
11. 1 Cor
10.1-4, Heb 11.13, Jn 8.56, Gal
12. Gal 3.7-9, 14, Acts 15.11, Rom 3.30.
6.
Under the gospel Christ
himself, the substance13 of God’s grace,
was revealed. The ordinances of this New Testament are the preaching of the
word and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper.14 Although these are fewer in number and are
administered with more simplicity and less outward glory, yet they are
available to all nations, Jews and Gentiles,15
and in them the spiritual power of the covenant of grace is more fully
developed.16 There
are not then two essentially different covenants of grace, but one and the same
covenant under different dispensations.17
13. Gal 2.17, Col 2.17.
14. Mt
28.19-20, 1 Cor 11.23-25, 2 Cor 3.7-11.
15. Mt 28.19, Eph 2.15-19, see under figure 11
above, Lk 2.32, Acts 10.34-35.
16. Heb 12.22-28, Jer 31.33-34, Heb 8.6-13, 2 Cor 3.9-11.17. 15.11, Rom 3.21-23,30, Ps 32.1, Rom 4.3,6,16-17,23-24, Heb 13.8, Gal 3.17,29, see context and citations under figure 10 above, Heb 1.1-2.
16. Heb 12.22-28, Jer 31.33-34, Heb 8.6-13, 2 Cor 3.9-11.17. 15.11, Rom 3.21-23,30, Ps 32.1, Rom 4.3,6,16-17,23-24, Heb 13.8, Gal 3.17,29, see context and citations under figure 10 above, Heb 1.1-2.
