The following is an articulation, not an attempt to “prove” covenant theology from Scripture. Maybe it will be a benefit to you.
The so-called Covenant of Redemption (CoR) is between the Persons of the Godhead. It is God’s plan for redemptive history. The CoR gives rise to two distinct but related *historical* covenants: the Covenant of Works (CoW) and the Covenant of Grace (CoG).
BAD Covenant
The CoW is between God and Adam. Adam failed in it and death was the divine sanction (consequence/punishment). Adam was constituted (by God) as a public figure, representing all his posterity. Thus, we all fell in Adam. We all broke the CoW and stand condemned under it. This, of course, was God’s plan. God (according to his eternal plan, which we’re calling the CoR) purposed to send a second public person, Christ, the Last Adam.
Since the CoW failed to bring life, God immediately instituted another covenant, which we call the CoG. In the CoG, fallen and sinful men receive not just forgiveness, but the fullness of life (the same thing that God implicitly offered Adam in the CoW). These blessings come to fallen man as sheer grace. Fallen man (under the condemnation of the CoW) could never earn these blessings. The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, however, could and did earn them.
Jesus Christ is the Mediator and Head of the CoG. He stood in a very similar situation as did Adam. By his perfect and obedient works, he earned the blessing of life. By his sacrificial death, he purchased the forgiveness of sins. Thus, what Adam lost (life), the Last Adam earned. What Adam plunged his whole rage into (death), the Last Adam saves us from by his own sacrificial death.
Okay, one more step: God develops the CoG in history through a series of successive covenants (we might even call them sub-covenants). God promises salvation in Genesis 3, thus beginning the CoG in history. In Genesis 6-9, we see God working with Noah for the preservation of the world and other things. In Genesis 12, 15, 17 (for starters), we see God making covenant with Abraham. God makes covenant with Israel in the Exodus under Moses. God makes covenant with David. Finally, God makes the New Covenant in Christ.
I don’t want to explore all these covenants here. It’s enough to say that they come successively and build on each other. The underlying continuity, the thing that holds them all together is the CoG. There are, to be sure, certain discontinuities as these covenants develop, but there is also very clearly a great deal of continuity. What’s more, each of these covenants *adds* something to the covenantal experience of God’s people. God is, through each of these successive covenants, revealing more and more of his redemptive plan for his people. The New Covenant is the fullness of God’s redemptive work in history. It was inaugurated with Christ’s death, but it does not come to its fullness until he returns. This is the foundation for the now-and-not-yet understanding of the blessings we enjoy as members of the New Covenant.
Hope that helps give a framework to better understand the Bible and covenant theology.
Did Christ earn or did He fail to fail?
Sorry, but I read the Left Behind series and they favor dispensationalism and a pre-trib premillienialism.
It seems a good overview of the situation as recorded in Scripture to me. But, then, I didn’t really expect anything else
I can actually see both in Scripture in some ways… covenant and dispensationalism. Both are Biblical in some ways and both are accurate in some ways. They are different ways at looking and understanding the Bible. The one difference that I see that causes the break is Israel and the Church and how God is currently dealing with each of them.