First of all the distance between God and humans is so great that we can never have any fruition of him as our blessedness and reward except by God’s condescension upon us, which he has expressed by way of covenant. So, God has chosen to relate with us and to reveal himself to us through a covenantal way like the Abrahamic covenant, Mosaic covenant, and eventually the new covenant by the son of God our Lord Jesus Christ himself. All these covenants are in fact the covenant of grace not of law. So, covenant is the means whereby we enjoy God as our blessedness and reward. Therefore, our justification and sanctification in life completely depends on the revelation and the relationship of God with us through the covenant which is the only means we can enjoy his blessings and reward.

Our justification is completely dependent on Christ’s fulfillment of the covenant works which is the first covenant God made with man whereby life was promised to Adam, and in him his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. That covenant of works points to the terms of conditions on which the blessings of the covenant continues. Man by his fall has made himself incapable of life by that covenant of works, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; Whereby he freely offered unto sinners life in salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring them of faith in him, that they may be saved and promising to give unto all those who are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe. Now this is a huge promise because fallen man like all of us will not be able to be willing to believe in Christ if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, those of us who are the elect. In the covenant of grace, there is blessing despite disobedience. The covenant of grace conditions are fulfilled by Jesus on our behalf. Our faith is required of us in the covenant of grace but it is not the basis of salvation. It is merely the means to receive the blessing which Jesus has obtained on our behalf. Therefore our obedience is tied up with Christ’s fulfillment of the conditions.

The only way we can go on in our lives sanctified is by and through the mediator of our Lord Jesus Christ to stay in grace. Like Westminster says we are brought into this covenant by grace and stay in it by our mediator our Lord Jesus Christ. Our ongoing sanctification depends on our obedience to Christ. Our obedience can only follow from the active and passive obedience of Christ because Christ fulfilled the conditions of the covenant of works, our salvation is by grace alone and by faith alone in Christ who has obeyed perfectly the covenant of works on our behalf.

This is hugely encouraging to folks in church to understand that it is not by our effort to continue to be sanctified and walking with Christ but it is rather Christ has already won the battle on the cross by his perfect obedience, and that we are drinking in that benefit and walking in him by the Holy Spirit, commonly called abiding in Christ. And then we are justified by Christ because he fulfilled all the conditions of the works of covenant which our forefather Adam failed. And now we can continue to be sanctified because of his complete obedience that our obedience is tied up with Christ fulfillment of the conditions and because he has fulfilled it, we can be overcomers in our Christian walk with God.