In contrast to the gloomy and dark picture of the effect of sin on the nature and condition of humankind, we now are brought into the bright light of God’s love and free grace.
Q20 Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A God having, out of His mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
The Bible tells us that God breaks into mankind’s misery due to sin by pursuing man by grace and establishing a covenant, a covenant of grace.
By ‘covenant of grace’ we mean the promises and commands of God to His people in Christ, binding them together forever (Gen. 17:18). As Joel Beeke puts it,
We call this bond a covenant because it is sealed with God’s oath (Deut. 7:8–9).
We call it the covenant of grace because it comes out of God’s eternal decision to show grace, stands on the accomplishment of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, offers salvation to people as a gift of grace, and implements salvation through God’s regenerating and transforming grace.
The covenant of grace is like a wedding vow that God will never break. The sacrament of baptism is the wedding ring, the outward sign of our union with Him. People broken by sin who have been taught by the Spirit to trust in the gospel are the bride. And Christ is the groom—indeed, the heart of the covenant.
This covenant of grace was first revealed in the promise of a Saviour that God gave to Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:15). It was more fully expressed in the promises God made to Abraham and his seed (Gen. 17:7). Finally, it was renewed, confirmed, and enlarged by the shedding of Christ’s blood at Calvary (Matt. 26:28; 2 Cor. 1:20).
Those who ultimately benefit from this covenant of grace are elected by God. BY this we are told that it was out of God’s good pleasure to save some – it was not because some were more worthy but because “of His mere good pleasure”. The reasons are in God’s gracious heart of love. God’s grace is to the unlovely, to the undeserving, to the sinful and wicked. We do not know how many, but we do know that those whom He elects God calls to faith in Christ so that faith is the sign that He elected us.
“And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” (Acts 13:48)