The Covenant of Grace is the Eternal Covenant is the 'New' Covenant.
There's actually nothing new about any of the spiritual tenets of the New Covenant. It's 'new' only because the mysteries of it had not been heretofore revealed until the time came for the removal of the old; i.e. '...the removing of those things that are shaken.....that those things which are not shaken may remain.' (Heb 12:27); 'In that He saith, A new covenant he hath made the first old...' (Heb 8:13)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever.
Heb 13:8
I like Pink on this (I like Pink on a lot of things):
“....The everlasting covenant or covenant of grace is that mutual agreement into which the Father entered with His Son before the foundation of the world respecting the salvation of His elect, Christ being appointed the mediator, He willingly consenting to be their head and representative. That there is a divine covenant to which Christ stands related, and that the great work which He performed here on earth was the discharge of His covenant office, is very plain from many Scriptures....”
I would have to say that the Eternal Covenant (with all that it entails) could well be considered the major theme of the scriptures
Afterthought is not the issue. This plan B thing is a contrived and made up objection to the church of Jesus Christ with gentiles in it with the Jews. The church was always in the mind of God. It was his eternal counsel and purpose. You cannot afterthought a purpose that you planned sometime in eternity past. His perfect will was to form it from the Jews, when he sent his Spirit in Acts 2. Why do you think it was 10 years later in Acts 10 before he included the gentiles in it and gave us the Spirit, making the gospel of Jesus Christ efficacious for us?
Speaking to the Jews in the transition, Peter said the following.
Acts 3:25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
You should read the first 12 verses in Ephesians to see this truth concerning the Jews from eternity past and you should read V 13 to see the inclusion of the gentiles at a later time. If you pay attention to words you will get it. Ephesians was written in AD 60, twenty years after God poured out his Spirit on gentiles in Acts 10 in AD 40 and 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ascension to heaven, where he is now .Paul wrote the explanation of the history of the apostolic era in his 13 letters to gentiles, the history that Luke recorded in the book of Acts
I am not wrong about this traditional dispensation teaching. Jesus Christ laid this whole age out in his parables that he gave after the Jews officially rejected his claims of being the Messiah of Israel, calling it the mystery form of the kingdom while the King is away. The things he revealed are called "the mysteries of God for a reason. They were not yet revealed until he wrote these letters.
1 Cor 4:Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
1 Cor 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,
Eph 3:4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
He also knew you would come up with some silly beliefs that resembles no truth, but he did not make you do it and he is by grace just tolerating you for now. Those beliefs were your own idea.
Give me a break, the NEW COVENANT in His blood did not, repeat did not, exist until Christ died.
To teach otherwise is to teach false doctrine.
Full Stop!!!
Now many versions translated Hebrews 13:20 as "eternal covenant" but others go with "everlasting covenant" thus a Covenant with a beginning (Christ's death as the Lamb of God) but no end...
The New Covenant had been promised in the OT, but was not inaugurated until Christ died.
There's nothing 'new' about the 'new covenant' which IS the 'eternal covenant', and the way God has ALWAYS worked (because God is immutable, He doesn't change). The 'new' covenant is 'new' in the sense that the first was made old:
In that he saith, A new covenant he hath made the first old..... Heb 8:13
The mysteries of it simply had not been revealed before. The 'old' law covenant had been ADDED, thereby casting a shadow of the eternal covenant that lay behind it, and then it wasREMOVED while the 'eternal (now new)' covenant REMAINED:
19 What then is the law? It was addedbecause of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. Gal 3
12 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those thingsthat are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Heb 12
Behold the hermeneutics of Calvinism, now "NEW" does not really mean "NEW" because apparently God being "immutable" means it is impossible for God to create anything new!!!
Take all those verses that refer to our New Covenant and rip them right out of your bibles folks, and put your trust in Calvinism...
What twaddle!!
Were you looking for a new Jerusalem?
Are you a new creature?
How about a new heaven or a new earth.
Throw all that on Calvinism's book burning replacement theology where new means old, since means before, and your faith means God's instilled faith.
There is no end when you claim the bible does not mean what it says...
Behold the hermeneutics of Calvinism, now "NEW" does not really mean "NEW" because apparently God being "immutable" means it is impossible for God to create anything new!!! Take all those verses that refer to our New Covenant and rip them right out of your bibles folks, and put your trust in Calvinism... What twaddle!!
Even Kyredneck agrees!!
all who were ever saved have been under It, as God the father preapplied it towards the OT saints, they just had to wait for the coming messiah to get them joined with him now into heaven!
It was brand new, as it was put into place when messiah came, died, and rose again, but all ever saved came to God thru that Covenant, as it only can save!
The Calvinist false doctrine of "preapplied" new covenant is hogwash.
The OT saints gained approval by faith under the Old Covenant.
Full Stop.
Thus they were allowed to wait in Abraham's bosom until the New Covenant was inaugurated.
Totally off topic smokescreed.
One Calvinist says it was not new, because God is immutable, another Calvinist ignores this issue and foists another canard.