Book excerpt: "In the biblical drama of the living God's works in creation and redemption," writes Cornelis Venema, "no theme is more lustrous than that of God's gracious intention to enjoy communion with humans who bear his image and whose lives have been broken through sin." This collection of Venema's essays summarizes and defends a broad consensus view of the doctrine of the covenants in the history of Reformed theology and clarifies several areas of dispute. Venema argues that (1) the distinction between a pre-fall covenant of works and a post-fall covenant of grace is an integral feature of a biblical and confessionally Reformed understanding of the history of redemption; (2) the distinction between a pre-fall covenant of works and a post-fall covenant of grace is necessary to preserve the sheer graciousness of God's redemption in Jesus Christ; and (3) the doctrines of covenant and election are corollary doctrines, not opposed to each other, but mutually defining.