Covenant and Commandment: Works, Obedience and Faithfulness in the Christian Life (New Studies in Biblical Theology, vol. 33 | NSBT)

by Bradley G. Green

Publishers:

Apollos; IVP

, 2014

Overview

“The heirs of the Protestant Reformation have emphasized salvation by grace in general and sola fide (“by faith alone”) in particular. It was important for the church to recover the central biblical truth that we are justified by God, that this is an act of God’s grace, and that faith–apart from works–is the means by which we are justified. A related issue is the nature of works–obedience or faithfulness–in the Christian life. Evangelicals generally agree that a person enters into a covenant relationship with God by grace (even solely by grace) apart from works, but there is often much disagreement over how to construe the nature of works, or obedience, inside this covenantal relationship.

Bradley Green shows, from a close study of key Old and New Testament texts and interaction with historical and contemporary theologians, that in the new covenant, works–or obedience–will be a real and necessary God-elicited part of the Christian life. In short, “works” are “necessary” for salvation, because part of the “newness” of the new covenant is real, grace-induced, and grace-elicited obedience by its true members.

Key Features

• Contains scholarly and accessible volumes written by well-respected Biblical scholars
• Includes notes that interact with the best of recent research and significant literature
• Engages the immense challenges facing today’s church
• Offers new insights and challenges established positions
• Encourages Christians to better understand their Bibles through biblical theology

Contents

• The New Testament and the Reality and Necessity of Works, Obedience, and Faithfulness
• Obedience, Works, and Faithfulness: Moving from Old Testament to New Testament
• Old Covenant, New Covenant, and the History of Redemption
• The Cross and the Reality of Works, Obedience, and Faithfulness
• Union with Christ and Its Relationship to Works, Obedience, and Faithfulness
• Justification, Judgment, and the Future
• The Reality and Neccessity of Works, Obedience, and Faithfulness

Top Highlights

“One of God’s key goals has always been obedience from the heart” (Page 52)

“That is, Frame argues, as I am arguing, that across the canon God saves a people by his grace. Then, once persons are in covenant relationship with the Lord, he then gives his people commands, statutes, laws, and so on. And he expects his people to obey what he communicates to them.” (Page 65)

“The latter conquering occurs only because we are united to Christ through faith alone in an indissoluble union” (Pages 28–29)

“God is rescuing and transforming a people who will love, glorify and serve him from the heart. Works, obedience and faithfulness are ‘necessary’ in that such realities are simply constitutive of a redeemed life. And such a life flows from a heart radically transformed by the grace of God. It is not, in Vos’s terms, ‘law-observance’ in the meritorious sense, but it is certainly ‘law-observance’ (works, obedience, faithfulness) ‘appropriate’ to the life of a redeemed person.” (Page 67)

“Also, I am not arguing that these ‘works’ or acts of obedience are somehow autonomous. I argue, following Philippians 2:12–13, that we truly do act, work and obey, and that at the same time it is God who is truly, efficaciously and actually eliciting and bringing about this obedience. I will also argue that this power for obedience is—ultimately—something that flows from the cross, from the gospel itself (cf. Heb. 10:10, 14), and is linked to our union with Christ.” (Page 18)

Praise for the Print Edition

For the Christian, to know Jesus, to confess him as Lord, entails obeying him. But how does this reality relate to a plethora of complementary themes? Dr. Green addresses this question by soundings in an impressive diversity of topics . . . The canvas on which he paints is large enough to draw in a wide range of readers, all of whom will find themselves stimulated to think about these issues more precisely.

—D.A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Product Details

• Title: Covenant and Commandment: Works, Obedience and Faithfulness in the Christian Life
• Author: Bradley G. Green
• Series: New Studies in Biblical Theology
• Volume: 33
• Publishers: Apollos, IVP
• Print Publication Date: 2014
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Christian life › Biblical teaching; Obedience › Biblical teaching
• ISBNs: 9780830826346, 9780830897773, 9781783591664, 0830826343, 0830897771, 1783591668
• Resource ID: LLS:NSBT33
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:54:08Z

About Bradley G. Green

Bradley G. Green is associate professor of Christian studies at Union University. His varied background includes serving as Latin instructor and Sunday school teacher. He has written a number of articles for various publications including Churchman, Touchstone Magazine, Chronicles Magazine, and The International Journal of Systematic Theology. He has written books including The Gospel and the Mind: Recovering and Shaping the Intellectual Life and Colin Gunton and the Failure of Augustine.