The Covenant of Grace in the Old Testament

What is a covenant? Generally, it can be defined as an agreement, or a pact, that two parties enter into on the basis of prearranged conditions. What must it mean for us that God has entered into a covenant with man? Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gives a brief survey of God’s covenants with man throughout history, highlighting God’s covenant of grace as revealed in the Old Testament. God has promised to be a God unto man, and this is significant because man has sinned against God, yet He has made a way for us to declare that He is ‘my God.’ We can know God through Jesus Christ, our mediator who came on the scene in the New Testament. Thus, the covenant of grace has been administered in two parts, the old and the new. Here, Dr. Lloyd-Jones focuses on the covenant of grace administered in the Old Testament. God’s covenant of works with Adam, God’s covenant of common grace with Noah, God’s covenant of justification by faith with Abraham, and God’s covenant of Law with His people at Sinai are all different yet intertwined. Ultimately, they all culminate in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If we look for the Gospel in the Old Testament, we will most certainly find it in what we know to be the covenant of grace.