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Renewing Your Mind
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
00:27:25
No matter how uncertain life seems, God’s promise of salvation in Christ rests on His unchanging plan for the ages. Today, Nathan W. Bingham is joined by J.V. Fesko to discuss his new book and video teaching series on covenant theology: Signed,...
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- [00:00]
JV Fesco
What covenant does is it reminds us that we are bound together in a covenantal relationship, not only with our triune God, but one to another. And so we are a part of a body as individuals. We've been sewn into that body, knit into that body, so that we can be a body together as the church of Jesus Christ.
- [00:27]
Host
Covenants, they are all through the Bible, you see, throughout history and even eternally. God relates to us through covenants. And today on this special edition of Renewing youg Mind, we'll be discussing God's covenants as we're joined by the author and teacher of the book and series Signed, Sealed, Delivered. This is the Monday edition of Renewing youg Mind, and I'm so glad you're with us today. JV Fesco is our guest today, and his book and series are so helpful in outlining what we mean when we speak of covenant theology and making the case from Scripture. So I do encourage you to respond to today's one day offer before it ends at midnight tonight, we'll send you the hardcover book, the DVD set and unlock Lifetime digital access to all the messages and the study guide when you donate by calling us at 800-435-4343 or at renewingyourmind.org this offer does end today and won't be repeated tomorrow. Well, at our national conference, Dr. Fesco, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, stopped by the podcast studio to discuss this new resource. And I began by asking him about the name Signed, Sealed, Delivered.
- [01:49]
JV Fesco
Let's say that a lot of people have a lot of assumptions. They think, okay, it must be the Stevie Wonder song. It played a small role. The main reason is that as I was thinking about the theme of covenant, naturally there are signs of the covenant, circumcision, baptism. And as I thought about Romans 4:11, that circumcision was the sign and seal of the righteousness that Abraham had by faith. I thought, okay, they're signed and they're sealed and then, okay, Mr. Wonder provided the delivered. I thought, well, that's a nice third little word there that helps us to remember that God does give us and delivers to us his covenants and that he signs and seals them. And so that's kind of where the title came from. So it's Romans 4:11, more so than Stevie Wonder. But Stevie Wonder pitched in a little.
- [02:43]
Interviewer
Bit well, for someone that's listening and they are less familiar with covenant theology. Briefly, how would you summarize covenant theology and the significance of understanding how God.
- [02:58]
JV Fesco
Operates through covenants yes, Robert Rollick was a late 16th century Scottish theologian who said that God does not speak to us apart from covenant. And I think that we get a taste of that when we look at the Bible. And you read through the Bible, let's say, as you go through a read through the Bible plan per year and you continually run into that word covenant, it occurs over 300, sometimes at least in the ESV translation of the Bible. And so you run into that and you say, well, goodness gracious, if this word occurs so frequently and it's mentioned so regularly, it must be an important idea. And so I think it's only natural that people would have that question. And so that was something that I wanted to address in the book to say. Let me just give a very brief and relatively succinct overview as to what the covenants are all about.
- [03:53]
Interviewer
When did God's plan of redemption begin? Was it after the fall in the Garden of Eden, when Jesus came? Help us understand the timing of God's plan of redemption.
- [04:04]
JV Fesco
Yeah, I think that when you read, for example, in Ephesians chapter one, where Paul says that before the foundations of the world in love, God predestined us there in Ephesians 1:4 and 5. And so it's before the foundations of the world, before anything existed, the triune God exists and conceives of and plans and ordains not only the creation, but also our redemption.
- [04:33]
Interviewer
When we think about God covenanting to save a people for himself, it reminds us and teaches us that salvation was not plan B, that when Adam fell in the garden, God didn't say, oops, what am I going to do now? Nothing takes God by surprise. And covenant theology helps us see that.
- [04:54]
JV Fesco
Yeah, I think so. You know, I mean, we can speak of this metaphorically, that when God first thrust his hands into the dust of the earth to form Adam, it's not just Adam that he had in view, but it's also the last Adam, as Paul calls him in 1st Corinthians 15:45, that was ultimately in view or in Romans 5:12 and following where Paul says there in Romans 5:14, that Adam was a type of the one who was to come. The way that I like to think about it is that Adam is, is a rough sketch, a hint, a foreshadow as to who is to come, and that is as Jesus. And the clothing in which the first and the last Adams come is in the clothing and in the robes and garments of covenant. Whether we talk about that first covenant that God made with Adam in The garden or the covenant of grace, which is the covenant that comes to us through the person and work of Jesus.
- [05:54]
Interviewer
We will get to those covenants. But staying with the covenant of redemption, how does that covenant help the believer, especially in the area of assurance?
- [06:04]
JV Fesco
Yeah, you know, there's an amazing statement in Luke's gospel, in Luke 22:29, where Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples and he says, I covenant to you a kingdom, as my Father covenanted to me a kingdom. And so this is an important statement that Jesus makes because it lets us know that prior to the foundations of the world, the Father covenanted with the Son, a kingdom. And why this is significant is because so many of us, I suspect from time to time, we have doubts about our salvation. Maybe at times we have doubts about the fulfillment of God's promises because we look out into the world and we see a lot of chaos. And so that certainly generates a lot of uncertainty within us. But all of us, I suspect, have certain prized possessions that we place out of the reach of people, whether it's in a safe, whether it's high on a shelf, whether it's locked up snugly in some sort of box or special place. Well, the way that I like to think about this is to say that when God makes the promises of salvation, they are founded upon the bedrock, the immutable and unchanging assurances and promises of God. As God promises to the Son that he will grant him certain rewards upon the completion of his work, that the Son consents and promises to the Father that he will complete the work that the Holy Spirit consents with Father. Son to apply the work of the Son. That's like the cookies tucked way high up on the shelf out of the reach of children. That's like the precious jewels snugly locked away into a safe box that nobody can get to. And it gives us this assurance that no matter how uncertain the times may be, no matter how many doubts we may have, that the promises of salvation that we receive in Christ rest on the bedrock of God's unchanging plan.
- [08:05]
Interviewer
Our listeners, many of them, are in the pew Sunday after Sunday, and they're familiar with wrestling with assurance. It's a common affliction among Christians. You're a seminary professor. Is this a topic that ever comes up with seminary students or pastors you interact with or other professors? Is it something that only a lay Christian experiences or someone that knows these truths in great detail? Is this still an area that a Christian as studied and learned as that can still Wrestle with.
- [08:37]
JV Fesco
Oh, sure. I mean, I can speak biographically in that My wife and I are somewhat different. My wife can say that she has never been ever plagued with doubts, ever. And she's always had a strong assurance of her salvation. Me, on the other hand, from time to time, you know, I can't say that it's frequently, but every once in a while, all of a sudden, sometimes waves of doubts come in, whether it's because of things that I think or things that I see or read. And I can remember one night, even after lecturing in the seminary classroom, I was in the car driving on a freeway interchange going north. And I just was having one of those moments where the waves were billowing in and the waves of doubt. And as I thought through that, I said, okay, I know that my sense of assurance may wax and wane from time to time. But what gave me assurance in that moment is I say, your word, O Lord, does not change. Your promises are certain. And I may have doubts in this moment, but I know that your Word is a firm foundation for my salvation. And so in that moment, those promises, the covenant of redemption in eternity, the unchanging nature of God's word, his faithfulness, morning by morning, day by day, that's what gave me assurance in that moment. So I think that, yes, it's not just something that is common to the ordinary believer. It can affect pastors. It can affect seminary professors. It can, at times, depending upon the circumstances, affect us all but praise God for the unchanging nature of his word.
- [10:19]
Interviewer
People can think that theology is purely academic, and of course, it can remain academic, but that's not good theology. Good theology is practical. Helps the believer help us think through Adam and Jesus Christ and how covenant theology helps us understand their relationship and Jesus mission, what he was coming to do as a result of what Adam failed to do.
- [10:43]
JV Fesco
Yeah. What's important for us to recognize is that when God fails, first creates Adam, places him in the garden. He gives him two commands. The first is, be fruitful, multiply, Fill all the earth and subdue it. That shows us that the extent of Adam's work was global and that he was supposed to have other offspring, which Genesis 5:1 tells us that they were supposed to be in his image and likeness, which means that if Adam is made in God's image and likeness, and then his offspring are in his image and likeness, the overall intent there is to fill the earth with image bearers, that God's glory would fill the earth. And then the second command, of course, is not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that he would do so, he would die. And now we sadly, of course, know Adam failed, he sinned, he and Eve both. And so they were exiled from the benevolent presence of God outside of the Garden of Eden. So that when Christ comes along, it's important to see that Christ's work is the taking up of Adam's failed work. In that God does not change Adam's vocation or his job, if you will, but rather instead sends someone who will faithfully fulfill it. To put this in more familial terms, Luke 3:38 says, says that Adam was God's son. And then at the baptism of Christ in the opening chapters of the Gospels, where God bellows out of the heavens, this is my son, in whom I'm well pleased. Here comes Jesus, the son of God, the last Adam, who takes up the failed work of the first. And it's through the Gospel, as we read in the Great commission in Matthew 28, 18 and 19, that he says to of the church, go into all the world, discipling the nations. So there's the global extent. Ephesians chapter four tells us that we are being remade in the holy and righteous image of Christ. And so here Christ, the last Adam, is making offspring through the church, through the gospel that bear his image, his perfectly righteous and holy image. And then the picture that we see, see in the book of revelation, in Revelation 21 and 22, as the heavens descend upon the earth and the new creation, the new Jerusalem descends, it's filled with image bearers that Revelation 7 talks about in terms of they come from all of the nations. So I remember when I studied these things, it was so eye opening to me to see that the Bible ends in a sense as it began, and that the two bookends of the story are wrapped up in the covenant of works which Adam failed at. And then in the covenant of grace, as Christ fulfills that work that God gave Adam to do, but didn't do it, it's Christ, the faithful last Adam, who completes it all and fills the earth with image bearers.
- [13:48]
Interviewer
So Jesus mission was more than dying for our sins because of the covenant of works.
- [13:56]
JV Fesco
Yes, he comes and his death on the cross is necessary to atone for the sins that we have committed, as well as the fracture of that initial covenant, what theologians call original sin. But it's also about fulfilling that original mandate that God gave to Adam in Genesis 1:28, fill all the earth and subdue it. And so the way that I like to say it is this way. It's a short little aphorism that we could say, why did Jesus die? He died to save me from my sins. Why did Jesus live to fulfill the law on my behalf? But we can say the law in its most fundamental and rudimentary sense is fulfilling that original command that God gave Adam to do in the beginning.
- [14:41]
Interviewer
You mentioned earlier that covenant is used throughout the Scriptures, say more than 300 times. When we read the Old Testament, we read of a number of covenants. The Mosaic covenant, Davidic covenant. Are these all distinct covenants? How do they relate to each other, if at all? As we think about covenant theology?
- [15:01]
JV Fesco
Yeah, I think we can say that in Genesis 1:28, Genesis 2, 15, 16, that's the covenant of works, the covenant that God gave to Adam. So that term refers to a specific event in the opening chapters of Genesis. We can say that the covenant of redemption, Luke 2:29, Hebrews 7:22, Psalm 2:7, a host of other texts, Psalm 110, that refers to the specific covenant among Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But the covenant of grace is more of a theological term. Think of it as a large umbrella that covers all of God's gracious dealings with fallen sinners from Genesis 3:15 and the promise that the seed of the woman was going to crush the head of the serpent. The Noah covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the New covenant. All of those covenantal dealings that God makes with his people throughout all of redemptive history. Those all fall under the large umbrella or the rubric of the covenant of grace. So in that sense, the covenant of grace is a theological construct, a theological term, a basket, if you will, that we put all of those other covenants in it.
- [16:16]
Interviewer
Renewing youg Mind has a global listening audience. Our listeners come from a variety of different church traditions. Someone listening today that is less familiar, perhaps even unfamiliar with covenant theology, they're hearing about this topic for the first time. I can imagine that some of them might be thinking, it sounds like you are placing a framework upon Scripture. Is this really something derived from the Scriptures, or is this a man made framework that isn't biblical? I'm not saying that's true, but how would you respond to someone that that might be their thinking right now as they're listening to this conversation?
- [16:55]
JV Fesco
And this is where I'd say, okay, let's just look into the Scriptures themselves and let's recognize and see how does this grow naturally out of the biblical text itself. So that, for example, when you look, say, at Genesis 1:28, and it has blessings, that's a blessing. God blessed them and said, be fruitful, multiply, fill all the earth and subdue it. And then you read in Genesis 2:15 and 16 and 17, that God threatens them with the potential of death if they eat from the tree. So you have blessing, you have curse. That's a common feature of covenant. When you see in Genesis 2:4 and 5, the covenant name of God invoked Yahweh, when you see a command, you shall not eat. That's the covenantal form of giving a law. And then you read in Hosea 6, 7, they, like Adam, Israel, like Adam, broke the covenant. And that. That's the very type of language that the Apostle Paul uses In Romans chapter 5 when he speaks of Adam transgressing the command of God. You put all of those pieces together and you see, hey, this is something that grows naturally out of the Scriptures. Same thing for the covenant of redemption as we mentioned earlier, Luke 22:29, where Jesus says, I covenant. Here you a kingdom, as my Father covenanted to me, a kingdom. Well, that puts us on a search in the Scriptures. When does the Father covenant a kingdom to the Son? Because you flip through the pages of the Gospels and you don't see an example of that. And yet Psalm 105, 8, 10, where God says through the Psalmist that issuing a command, swearing an oath, or giving a statute are all tantamount to creating a covenant. And then in Hebrews 7, you see that the author of Hebrews says that by the sworn oath of the Father, he appointed the Son to be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek and makes him the surety of a better covenant. Well, again you come to the conclusion, okay, this is the Father covenanting with the Son to appoint him to be the high priest. And so all of this, I think, grows naturally out of the Scriptures. And it's not a grid that we place over the Bible, but rather it's the natural grid, if you will, that originates from the Scriptures themselves.
- [19:15]
Interviewer
What is the church missing and what is missing in the Christian life if covenant theology is not something that is part of the preaching and teaching in a local church?
- [19:28]
JV Fesco
You know, I think that especially in the west, there's a phrase that sticks in my mind that used to float across the airwaves from radio broadcasts in more of a political context, that our nation here is founded on the principles of rugged individualism. And it's this idea that I can be a lone ranger I can do my own thing. But what covenant does is first and foremost, it reminds us that we're in a covenantal relationship with the triune and God. Christ is our covenantal head. So we have theological, ethical and moral obligations to our covenant Lord. But the second thing that I think it helps us to remember is that while God in Christ, through the Spirit, loves us as individuals and he's made us, each one of us, unique in our own different ways, we are individuals united to, to Christ, our federal head, as a part of the body, the church, which means that we're not only bound to God, the triune God, in a covenantal relationship, but that covenant embraces the church. And so we are supposed to be a part of a covenantal community. I remember one time I put a post on social media that said that we needed to love the church and be of a part, part of it, because the church, in a sense, is our mother. And I was kind of surprised by the negativity that that post drew from people who didn't want to be a part of the church. And as common as that sentiment might be, I think we always have to remember, no, we can't love the head and not love his body. And so what covenant does is it reminds us that we are bound together in a covenantal relationship, not only with our triune God, but one to another. And so we are a part of a body as individuals. We've been sewn into that body, knit into that body, so that we can be a body together as the Church of Jesus Christ.
- [21:30]
Interviewer
What encouragement would you have for a pastor or teacher that upon hearing this, and I assume in this hypothetical scenario, they're familiar with covenant theology, but they've never made it a part of their preaching or teaching. How would you encourage them as they seek to help their congregation understand these concepts?
- [21:52]
JV Fesco
You know, one of the things that I like to do, and I do this with my daughter especially, is maybe on an afternoon, maybe a Sunday afternoon, we'll draw. I have an art notebook that nobody will ever see because these drawings are sometimes very bad. And so the Lord did not bless me with that gift. But one of the things I've done sometimes in that art notebook is I will get a drawing, I print it out from the Internet, and I will illuminate it from behind and trace the lines that I find in that drawing. That, ideally is what we should be doing with the Scriptures, is tracing the lines of revelation that we see so that when, when we read the Scriptures, when we teach the Scriptures, when we preach the Scriptures, we're tracing those lines. And if we find ourselves diverging from those lines, where we fail to trace a line that God gives us, then we're distorting the picture of the Scriptures. And so ideally, I would just want to encourage pastors and teachers and parents as they instruct and catechize their children. When you see that covenantal line, tracing that line carefully in the Scriptures and then saying, hey, let's dig in here and find out what covenant is God speaking of. How is it connected with the saving plan of God in Christ through the Spirit, so that we can accurately reflect what God has said in His Word? When a child learns how to speak, one of the things that the child does is he repeats the words of his Father back to him. Well, that's again a form of tracing where we repeat those words. And if we see covenant, then we repeat covenant back to God. And in so doing, hopefully it teaches us and it helps us to understand how God covenantally saves us in Christ.
- [23:41]
Interviewer
Just in closing, any final exhortation or encouragement for our listeners, perhaps a truth from this book or this series that we haven't discussed that you'd want to listen to, to hear and know.
- [23:54]
JV Fesco
Yeah. To me, I think the final picture that we see in the Bible is the great wedding feast of the Lamb. And the fact that it's a wedding feast dials us into once again the orbit of covenant. So that as we think about Christ's marriage, to us, that's a covenantal relationship. And to me, as I think about Christ's faithfulness as the last Adam, it helps me to remember my faithlessness and to repent of it. But at the same time, as I look at Christ's faithfulness as he saves us, to think that I, sinner that I am, will be presented before the throne of God spotless, without blemish. And it's because of the work of the last Adam. And it's because he has bound me to himself in a covenant relationship, an unbreakable covenant at that. To me, that's always a great source of encouragement.
- [24:47]
Interviewer
Well, Dr. Fesco, thank you so much for all your labors in producing signs, sealed, delivered. And we're grateful you could spend some time with us today on renewing your mind.
- [24:56]
JV Fesco
Hey, thanks so much for having me. It's been a real pleasure.
- [25:06]
Interviewer
I love the way that Dr. Fesco.
- [25:08]
Host
Concluded our conversation summarizing how covenant theology is a great source of encouragement. And we need encouragement on the journey, don't we? This is Renewing youg Mind on this Monday and you just heard a conversation I had with JV Fesco at this year's Ligonier National Conference. If you would like to attend next year's event here in Orlando and have the opportunity to stop by the podcast studio for recordings of Renewing youg Mind, Five Minutes in Church History, and more, register today@ligonier.org 2026. The theme is Crucial Questions and I'd love to see you there. When I was first taught Covenant Theology, I could see it everywhere in Scripture and it was like a light bulb coming on, helping me appreciate the good news of the Gospel more deeply. This topic is far from merely academic, so request this new book and teaching series from Dr. Fesco when you give a donation of any amount@renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. We'll send you the hardcover book and DVD set while also unlocking the series and study guide in the free ligonier app. Visit renewingyourmind.org or use the link in the podcast Show Notes before this offer expires at midnight tonight. And if you live outside of the US and Canada, there is a digital only version of this offer available for you at renewingyourmind.org global. If RC Sproul had been cast into prison with access to only one book of the Bible, which book would he have selected? That's the book we'll be spending the next few days in, so discover the answer when you join us to tomorrow here on Renewing your Mind.
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JV Fesco
Sam.