Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 66:3 (Sep 2023)
Article: Grace In Place Of Grace: Perfections Of Grace In Old And New Covenants
Author: Paul W. Lamicela

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Grace In Place Of Grace:
Perfections Of Grace In Old And New Covenants

Paul W. Lamicela*

^* Paul W. Lamicela has been an adjunct and assistant professor of biblical and religious studies in a Christian college setting. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: It is not enough to say simply that the grace of the new covenant is greater than that of the old. More precision is needed. This study attempts to supply that precision by applying John Barclay’s taxonomy of the perfections of grace to two texts that set the gifts of old and new covenants side by side: Deuteronomy 29–30 and Jeremiah 31:31–34. It concludes that the key distinction between the two “ages”/”graces” is efficacy. The problem with the gift of the old covenant according to these texts is that circularity is demanded, but efficacy is not provided, because superabundance is limited; this problem is remedied in the greater gift of the new covenant, where the demanded circularity is enabled by the provision of efficacy rooted in the greater superabundance of the gift itself.

Key words: grace, gift, old covenant, new covenant, biblical theology, John Barclay, perfections, efficacy, superabundance

John M. G. Barclay’s 2015 monograph, Paul and the Gift, has proposed an illuminating taxonomy of the “perfections” of gift/grace in the Greco-Roman and first-century Jewish world.1 Barclay applies his taxonomy to Paul’s theology of grace in Romans and Galatians, but in this article I employ the same taxonomy to compare and contrast the graces of the old and new covenants.2 The added precision

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that this analysis brings to the discussion of grace in old and new covenants is a needed contribution to a relationship that is often vaguely understood.

In this article, I analyze two texts that set the gifts of the old and new covenants side by side: Deuteronomy 29–30 and Jeremiah 31:31–34.3 I argue that according to these texts the perfections of priority, incongruity, and to some degree superabundance are shared by old and new covenants (and neither perfect singularity or non-circularity); but that the distinction between the two lies in the efficacy of the new—lacked by the old—which...