How is it that we are assailed for having a high (and very Reformed) view of the sacraments, when others, like the Lutherans and the Westminster West cadre, are given a pass by the anabaptist reformed? The answer that is given to this question is that there is a basic compatibility between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace (as it is currently understood in the American Reformed world), and law and gospel (as it is understood by the Lutherans). It is claimed that these concepts function in largely the same way, and hence, since we deny that the unfallen Adam was assigned the task of earning merit badges (and want to say that the covenant of life made with him was fundamentally gracious), our motives and our persons are therefore suspect.
But of course the covenant of works and the law (in the history of Reformed theology) do not function in the same way, and those who are trying to get out of a dicey debate situation by equating them (or even kinda equating them) are frankly beginning to flail. Those who doubt this assertion need to answer just a few basic questions at presbytery.
1. Is the Reformed believer today to use the covenant of works as a rule of life?
2. Would you please expound on the third use of the covenant of works?
3. In the life of the believer today is my entire duty to my neighbor summed up in the covenant of works? For he who loves his neighbor keeps the covenant of works.
4. Can the believer be under the covenant of works and the covenant of grace at the same time? Please explain, and feel free to use the blackboard