Would it be correct to say that the condition of the Covenant of Grace is the active and passive obedience of Jesus Christ?
The WCF says that "...he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe." (WCF 7.3)
Faith is obviously involved. We must have faith in Jesus in order to have an interest in him. But God also supplies the faith. So faith must be an instrument by which we receive Christ, and not the condition of the Covenant. The condition of the Covenant is Jesus' obedience. It is by Jesus' obedience that we are given the grace to believe.
Am I wrong?
I believe you are correct, that faith is a condition by which we receive faith, both the condition and the faith are gifts of God.
London Baptist Confession of Faith:
This saving repentance is an evangelical grace, whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, doth, by faith in Christ, humble himself for it with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrency, praying for pardon and strength of grace, with a purpose and endeavour, by supplies of the Spirit, to walk before God unto all well-pleasing in all things. (
Zechariah 12:10; Acts 11:18;
Ezekiel 36:31;
2 Corinthians 7:11;
Psalms 119:6;
Psalms 119:128 ) chp. 15.3
John Gill:
Special faith in Christ is of the operation of the Spirit of God:
he produces it by his mighty power in the soul;
he enlightens the mind,
reveals the object,
brings near Christ, his righteousness and salvation, and
enables the sensible sinner to look unto him,
lay hold on him,
and receive his as his Savior and Redeemer;
hence he is called the Spirit of faith (2 Cor. 4:13);
because he is the author of it, who begins and carries on, and
will perform the work of faith with power:
the principal use of which grace is to receive all from Christ, and
give him the glory.
God has put this honor upon it, to constitute and appoint it to be the receiver-general of all the blessings of grace.
It receives Christ himself as the Father’s free-gift;
it receives out of the fulness of Christ,
even grace for grace,
or and abundance of it;
it receives the blessing of righteousness from the Lord of justification;
it receives the remission of sins through his blood, according to the gospel-declaration;
it receives the adoption of children,
in consequence of the way being opened for it through the redemption which is in Christ;
it receives the inheritance among them that are sanctified,
the right unto it, and the claim upon it; and to this post it is advanced,
that all the glory might redound to the grace of God; it is of faith, that it might be by grace (Rom. 4:16).
(
FAITH IN GOD AND HIS WORD: HE ESTABLISHMENT AND PROSPERITY OF HIS PEOPLE: A Sermon, Preached at a Wednesday’s Evening Lecture, in GREAT EAST-CHEAP, Dec. 27, 1753.)
Again, The London Baptist Confession of 1689 reads;
ch.14
“
The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts,”
“By
this faith a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word for the authority of God himself”
“and so is
enabled to cast his soul upon the truth thus believed”
ch.15
“This
saving repentance is an evangelical grace, whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin”
Yours in the Lord,
jm
