"...all covenants require obedient faith. This is a not a condition of one covenant or another; it is essential to all human dealings with God, simply by virtue of who God is. It is a requirement of what I have called the universal covenant. Individual covenants require specific forms of obedience, but obedience itself, springing from faith, is simply a requirement of all relations between God and human beings. This requirement is implicit in the very distinction between Creator and creature....
"This emphasis on faithful obedience does not compromise grace at all. For we can never begin to earn God's forgiveness of our sins through good works, and the blessings that God promises to Abraham are far beyond what any human being could accomplish....
"So like all the other covenants, the Abrahamic covenant is unconditional in the sense that in it God declares that he will certainly accomplish his own purpose, the blessing of the nations through Abraham. But it is conditional in that those who would receive that blessing must trust and obey. As sovereign controller, God is the God of grace. As sovereign authority, he demands obedience of his covenant partners."
John Frame, Systematic Theology, pp. 70-71.
Monday, July 28, 2014
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