Appreciating your Covenant with God

Genesis 17:7, “…I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” Another translations reads, “…I will confirm My covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you.”

God pledges that He will be the Lord Almighty to Abraham and his descendants forever. This pledge is irrevocable and it is the foundation stone of all other biblical promises. The covenant between God and His people is one of the most important theological truths of the Bible, yet most believers have very little under-standing of this truth. The most striking thing about God’s covenant is that God is holy, all knowing and all-powerful; but He consents to enter into covenants with people who are weak, sinful and imperfect. God’s “covenant” is a relationship of love and loyalty between the Lord Almighty and His chosen people.

God, who has all authority and is full of grace, takes the sole initiative in covenant making and fulfilment. When He promises to “establish His covenant”, He is actually saying, “I will cause it to stand forever - regardless of what you do or don’t do.” In the covenant, your response may contribute to the covenant being fulfilled, however, your actions are not causative. God’s grace always goes before in order to produce a response.

The word covenant is used over 280 times and in all parts of the Old Testament. But what does it mean? A covenant is a legal binding agreement between two people, or two groups of people, that involves specific promises on the part of each to the other. The Hebrew word usually means “betweenness”, emphasising the relational element that lies at the core of all covenants. Human covenants can be between equals or between a superior and an inferior. However, divine covenants are always of the latter type.

A divine covenant implies much more than a contract or simple agreement. A contract always has an end date, while a divine covenant is a permanent perpetual arrangement. Another difference is that a contract generally involves only one part of a person, such as a skill or ability, while a covenant (like a marriage) covers a person’s total being – sprit, soul and body. By making a covenant with Abraham, God promised to bless his descendants and to make them His special people. Abraham in return was to remain faithful to God (heart and soul) and to serve as a channel through which God’s blessings could flow to the rest of the world (Genesis 12:1-3). Also, these blessings would flow from generation to generation.

There are five great Bible Covenants - Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Christ. The first was before Abraham’s time when God made a covenant with Noah, and it illustrates three important principles:

(1) All divine covenants originate with God and He initiates with a promise (Genesis 9:9).

(2) All divine covenants are everlasting and irrevocable (Genesis 9:16).

All of them are memorialised with a visible sign; in this case a rainbow (Genesis 9:13). The purpose of the Noahic covenant was the divine promise that God would never again destroy all sinful humanity (Genesis 9:11). Another famous covenant was between God and David, in which David and his descendants were established as the royal heirs to the throne of the nation of Israel (2 Samuel 7:12; 22:51). This covenant agreement reached its highest fulfilment when Jesus was born in Bethlehem about 1000 years after God’s promise to David.

Note all biblical covenants were performed by the slaying of one or more animals and the shedding of their blood, the importance of which is reflected in the Hebrew idiom “to cut a covenant” (Genesis 15:18). The ‘blood-bought’ ratification of the earlier covenants were a shadow of the “new covenant in Jesus’ blood” (Luke 22:20). Christ’s blood was shed as the sign - and the seal of our redemption - once for all, and for all time (Hebrews 10:5-19).

Christ’s death ushered in the New Covenant under which we are justified by God’s grace and mercy rather than our human attempts to keep the law. And Jesus Himself is the Mediator of this better covenant between God and mankind (Hebrews 9:15).

A mediator in this instance is the one who makes a covenant lawful or operative. Jesus’ sacrificial death served as the oath, or pledge, that God made to us, to seal this new covenant. And this was validated by the shedding of blood. The blood was God’s pledge that the terms of the covenant would be fulfilled. He is determined to give us eternal life and fellowship with Himself, in spite of our unworthiness.

Notice, the new agreement God made with mankind, based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ originated with the promise of the prophet Jeremiah that God would accomplish for His people what the Old Covenant had failed to do (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Under the New Covenant, God would write His Law on human hearts. This promised action suggested a new level of obedience, a new knowledge of the Lord, and a new and total forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 10:14-18).

Jesus Christ brought this promised new covenant into being. In Luke 22:20, when Jesus ate the Passover meal at the Last Supper with His disciples, He spoke of the cup as “the new covenant in My blood.” This new covenant, a better covenant established on far better promises (Hebrews 8:6), rests directly on the sacrificial work of Christ on the cross. The present covenant accomplishes what the old covenant could not; removal of sin and cleansing of the conscience (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 10:2, 22). The work of the cross makes the old covenant “obsolete’ and fulfils the promise God gave to the Jeremiah.... “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

The most astounding thing for me is that God Himself has sovereignly chosen to be my God - Abba Father! And this is a personal and individual pledge – written in the blood of Jesus!

Now treasure these seven points. The blood of Jesus…

(1) Ensures that the covenant is legally valid, binding and also fully operative.

(2) Is a pledge that the terms of the covenant will be fulfilled.

(3 Is a solemn seal that makes the covenant unchangeable and everlasting.

(4) Binds both parties to keep the terms of the covenant. We must obey and God promises to bless us in the process.

(5) Is an assurance that no person would have to pay the penalty by death if they fail to keep their side of the agreement.

(6) Ensures that there is no condemnation under the laws of the new covenant.

(7) Has sanctified us. We are set apart by God, to God and for God so that the covenant would be performed and fulfilled.

To end, I’d like to provide a key that will help to unlock the mystery that is “covenant.” The Hebrew term for covenant is translated into the Greek as ‘syntheke’, “binding together.” Hence, like a marriage, a covenant is a relationship based upon mutual commitments that “bind the parties together” – spirit, soul and body. And nothing should break or separate this bond of love!

Last week, when we examined authority it was determined that our authority was inherited. However, our covenant is established through marriage (parties being bound together in love, in community of property). In Ephesians 5:32 it says, “This is a great mystery, but I speak in regard to Christ and the church.” Marriage ultimately is the ‘binding together’ of Christ and the church. A bond that’s unbreakable and everlasting.

You love God because He chose to love you first (1 John 4:19). Consequently, God’s covenant is (a) an intimate relationship of love and (b) a bond of loyalty between Himself and you. When He promised to “establish His covenant”, He was actually saying, “I will cause it to stand forever – regardless of your condition or the circumstances.”

“…And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below —indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” – Romans 8:38,39.

Chris Demetriou, 18/01/2009