Introducing Covenant Theology
Michael Horton
Baker Books
Michael Horton is one of the leading Reformed theologians working today and I have enjoyed reading several of his previous books. This book on covenant theology is no exception - it is tremendous.
The title is slightly misleading if you don't read it carefully. This is certainly not a mere introduction to covenant theology, but rather it does introduce us to fairly high-level current thinking on covenant theology. The book was formerly published with a different title, God of Promise, which I think was better.
For someone coming totally new to this area of theology, I think this book would be very challenging reading, and I would suggest perhaps something else as a first book on covenant theology. You could do a lot worse than reading James Packer's essay on covenant theology that was written as an introduction to Witsius's magnum opus, The Economy of Covenants Between God and Man. You can find Packer's essay here.
I really benefited from reading this book. Its discussion of the similarities and differences between the biblical covenants and the so-called suzerain-vassal treaties of the ancient Near East is excellent. Horton makes it clear that the Bible contains two forms of these treaties or covenants, and neither is what we would understand by a contract or agreement.
For Horton, there are covenants of law - and this includes the covenant of works with Adam before the Fall, and the Mosaic covenant at Sinai - and there covenants of promise - and this includes the covenants with Abraham, Noah, David and the New Covenant. Both are similar to these suzerain-vassal treaties, meaning that all are sovereignly imposed by God, but in the former case, there are obligations put on the people to obey and penalties for disobedience. This is the kind of treaty a conquering king would impose on a defeated nation after war.
But Horton correctly notes that many biblical covenants do not fit this pattern. The archetypal biblical covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, does not fit this pattern, for there no obligations are placed on Abraham - it is all promise, it is all grace. It is a treaty where the only obligations are taken by the king himself (in this case God) and the only potential penalties are self-maledictory ones. This points to the fact that the Covenant of Grace is unconditional in nature as far as we are concerned, though it was conditional as far as Christ was concerned.
There are interesting discussions within the book of such things as common grace, the sacraments, the church, and where our obedience fits into the covenant of grace scheme.
As I said before, this book is excellent and highly recommended, but perhaps don't think of it as a simple or basic introduction. It is actually a significant contribution to current Reformed thinking on covenant theology.
