0 Marrow Theology: a Brakel Weighs In on the Covenant of Works and Christ's Active Obedience Imputed to Believers

Once again, I'm turning to another source connected to this theme of the Covenant of Works before moving on into the discussion by Edward Fisher in The Marrow of Modern Divinity of the promise of God and the Covenant of Grace instituted in Genesis 3. This time, I've turned to Wilhelmus a Brakel's magnum opus, The Christian's Reasonable Service - in it, he spends 2 chapters (worthy of their own comments here) on the Covenant of Works... one choice quotation, though, that I want to leave with you:

"Acquaintance with this covenant is of the greatest importance, for whoever errs here or denies the existence of the covenant of works, will not understand the covenant of grace, and will readily err concerning the mediatorship of the Lord Jesus. Such a person will very readily deny Christ by His active obedience has merited a right to eternal life for the elect. This is to be observed with several parties who, because they err concerning the covenant of grace, also deny the covenant of works. Conversely, whoever denies the covenant of works, must rightly be suspected to be in error concerning the covenant of grace as well." (p. 355, volume 1, The Christian's Reasonable Service)

a Brakel here hits the issue squarely - the covenant of works is absolutely necessary for a proper understanding of Christ's covenant headship and the covenant of grace. Wherever there is denial or obfuscation of the principle of Adam's covenantal obedience unto life while in the Garden and not yet fallen, there will be a misunderstanding of what Christ's atoning work brings believers. This is critical stuff, and a Brakel nailed it over 300 years ago. Today, among Federal Vision proponents and sympathizers, there is both a denial of the Covenant of Works, AND, generally, a denial of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ. Monocovenantalism begets misunderstandings of Imputation. They go hand in hand, and the errors of the Federal Vision highlight this fact. It's worth pausing the Marrow study further to look at what a Brakel says about the Covenant of Works... and therefore, I think I shall. Til next time,