Scott's Thoughts

“God of Promise” by Michael Horton

In the wide spectrum of Christian faith and practice, my church - the Presbyterian church - belongs to that part known as the Reformed tradition. Reformed churches are so called mainly because they trace their theology and practice back to the Reformation.

The only problem with the label “Reformed” is that it means different things to different people. For many Christians, “Reformed” is equated with the five petals from our favorite flower, "TULIP" – Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints.

As much as I love these teachings, and believe they are Scriptural, to limit the Reformed tradition to five bullet points is misleading. The Reformers and their heirs had a far more comprehensive understanding of biblical teaching, and the life that flows from it, than this.

Which is why I’m glad that Dr. Horton has written the book that he did, “God of Promise”. Horton’s aim in the book is to explain what is really a better summary of Reformed theology. And that is, covenant theology. As he puts it, “Reformed theology is synonymous with covenant theology” (pg. 11). I’m glad Horton wrote this book not because I’m overly concerned about the purity of labels, but because I believe the evangelical church today could use a strong dose of Reformed teaching, both in her doctrine and in her practice.

Horton not only explains what covenant theology is all about, but unpacks many of its important implications. First, he defines and describes what the Bible means by the term “covenant”. He relies heavily on the insights of scholars who have studied extrabiblical covenants from the ancient Near East to help define the kinds of covenants we find in Scripture. He then builds on that discussion to affirm and describe the basic structure of covenant theology with its pre-Creation covenant of redemption between the members of the Trinity, the covenant of works between God and Adam, and the covenant of grace between God and Christ, and all those who belong to Christ. At the risk of oversimplification, essentially the first is God’s plan to redeem a people for Himself, the second is the way of eternal life that was first offered to Adam, that is, perfect obedience (thus, “works”), and the third is the new way of attaining eternal life after the fall, faith in Christ (apart from works, hence, it is by grace).

Horton’s overall explanation of covenant was helpful (with this caveat: he could have simplified it by relegating much of the text to the endnotes). I’m not as convinced as he is that the covenant at Sinai, including the Ten Commandments, should primarily be considered a republication of the covenant of works (and thus, abrogated by the new covenant in Christ). While I agree that this underlines the fact that justification is a matter of grace and not of law-keeping, I’m not sure how to square this understanding of the law with his own very good explanation of the place of the law in the Christian life in the last chapter.

Maybe Horton’s most valuable work in the book is to spell out the implications of such an understanding of God’s dealings with his people. For example, covenant, since it is by nature God’s dealings with a group of people, is a powerful antidote to the individualism in today’s church. Horton especially does a good job of showing how the Lord’s Supper, as a covenant ratification ceremony, has a lot to do with the community of believers and less to do with the individual Christian’s participation in it. Other implications of covenant theology include our understanding of the church and the world, the nation of Israel, the place and function of the law in the life of the Christian, eschatology, and the efficacy of the sacraments as real means of grace.

These are the very aspects of Reformed theology and life that are obscured when we see the Reformed tradition as nothing more than an affirmation of God’s sovereignty in salvation. It is that, of course, but it is also a comprehensive understanding of how we, as God’s covenant people in this sin-cursed but good creation, are to think and live to the honor of our Creator and Redeemer God.

Horton has many good things to say and a number of helpful insights. The only problem is that sometimes the book is difficult to follow. His flow of thought was at times jumpy and unclear. It made for tough going in places.

The subtitle is “Introducing Covenant Theology,” but it doesn’t always read as an introduction. For example, in the space of 3 pages he uses the following technical words with little or no explanation: “pericope”, “shekinah”, “deus nudus”, and “semi-eschatological age” (pgs. 141-143). Too many of these words and the average reader will give up, thinking he’s gotten in over his head.

My hope is that someday this book will be rewritten as a true introduction. Covenant theology is too rich and valuable for just a few Christian folks (and in the big picture, at least in this country, Reformed people are just a smattering after all) to hoard it all.