Sunday April 4
Covenant Basics
“And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly” (Gen. 17:2).
“The Hebrew word translated as ‘covenant’ (appearing about 287 times in the Old Testament) is berith. It can also be translated as ‘testament’ or ‘last will.’ Its origin is unclear, but it has come to mean that which bound two parties together. It was used, however, for many different types of ‘bond,’ both between man and man and between man and God. It has a common use where both parties were men, and a distinctively religious use where the covenant was between God and man. The religious use was really a metaphor based on the common use but with a deeper connotation [meaning].” — J. Arthur Thompson, “Covenant (OT),” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised edition (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), vol. 1, p. 790.
Shall we seek an inspired statement that will keep us from missing the point? In Genesis chapter nine we read of a covenant which has no conditions. God made the covenant and it applies to all of creation, and it is something He will never do, period.
9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9:9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
9:10 And with every living creature that [is] with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
9:11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
9:12 And God said, This [is] the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that [is] with you, for perpetual generations:
9:13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
9:14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
9:15 And I will remember my covenant, which [is] between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
9:16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that [is] upon the earth.
9:17 And God said unto Noah, This [is] the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that [is] upon the earth.
And, let us go to the first covenant God made when Adam and Eve were still in the garden. It is found in Genesis chapter three.
3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life;
This is the "everlasting covenant," the first covenant made for man. It has conditions, part of which is revealed in the covenant, part is not. Adam and Eve had no hope prior to the giving of this covenant. They did not know that when the foundation of the Earth was laid that Jesus and His Father agreed to it. It gave hope to Adam and Eve that they might be transformed in character and obtain what they had lost in the garden. When they sinned they lost their connection with God, they then were aligned with Satan and sin. They could not longer do any good thing, their motives were selfish. They were at "enmity" with God.
The everlasting covenant was a promise that they could regain their experience with God and be saved. God had made provision for fallen man to be reconciled to Himself. But, their were conditions, not all would be transformed into His image, His character. Not all would escape their alignment with Satan. The conditions were twofold. First, we read that Satan would have his head crushed, and Christ would have His heal bruised. Christ could have sinned and then God's part of this covenant would have failed, but He did not. That left the other condition to be fulfilled by man. Only those who would want to be reconciled to God and by beholding His glory would be transformed into His image would then receive the "enmity" towards Satan and sin. And, it was not good enough to be transformed at conversion, man must continue to cling to Christ, to feed upon Him, to behold Him daily, to drink His blood and eat His flesh, to allow grace to continue to strengthen man in His love for God. This growth in grace would deepen his love for God and hatred of sin. By daily obedience through grace, man would become more loving, more patient, more capable if resisting stronger temptations. It all begins when man ceases to resist the wooing of the Holy Spirit and makes a full heart surrender to God's grace.
This is the everlasting covenant, an agreement to bring sinful man into an everlasting relationship with Himself, to write His laws upon our hearts IF we will love Him with "all" of the heart, mind, soul, and strength. Not of of humanity will receive the enmity towards Satan and sin, thus we understand there that the everlasting covenant has conditions for man and God. Again, God has fulfilled His and it is left with man to learn to love God with the whole heart that he might receive the promise of hating sin and obtaining eternal life.
Christ on the cross not only draws men to repentance toward God for the transgression of His law—for whom God pardons He first makes penitent—but Christ has satisfied Justice; He has proffered Himself as an atonement. His gushing blood, His broken body, satisfy the claims of the broken law, and thus He bridges the gulf which sin has made. He suffered in the flesh, that with His bruised and broken body He might cover the defenseless sinner. The victory gained at His death on Calvary broke forever the accusing power of Satan over the universe and silenced his charges that self-denial was impossible with God and therefore not essential in the human family.
Christ was without sin, else His life in human flesh and His death on the cross would have been of no more value in procuring grace for the sinner than the death of any other man. While He took upon Him humanity, it was a life taken into union with Deity. He could lay down His life as priest and also victim.... He offered Himself without spot to God.
The atonement of Christ sealed forever the everlasting covenant of grace. It was the fulfilling of every condition upon which God suspended the free communication of grace to the human family. Every barrier was then broken down which intercepted the freest exercise of grace, mercy, peace, and love to the most guilty of Adam’s race.
In the courts above, Christ is pleading for His church—pleading for those for whom He has paid the redemption price of His blood. Centuries, ages, can never lessen the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. Neither life nor death, height nor depth, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus; not because we hold Him so firmly, but because He holds us so fast. If our salvation depended on our own efforts, we could not be saved; but it depends on the One who is behind all the promises. Our grasp on Him may seem feeble, but His love is that of an elder brother; so long as we maintain our union with Him, no one can pluck us out of His hand. God's Amazing Grace; pg 153.
Like the marriage covenant, the biblical covenant defines both a relationship and an arrangement. As an arrangement, the biblical covenant contains these basic elements:
1. God affirmed the covenant promises with an oath (Gal. 3:16; Heb. 6:13, 17)
2. The covenant obligation was obedience to God’s will as expressed in the Ten Commandments (Deut. 4:13)
3. The means by which God’s covenant obligation is ultimately fulfilled is through Christ and the plan of salvation (Isa. 42:1, 6)
Look at the three elements listed above (God’s promises, our obedience, and the plan of salvation). How can you see those factors at work in your own walk with the Lord? Write down a paragraph describing how they are manifest in your life now.
In the Old Testament, the sacrificial systehttps://remnant-online.com/smf/Themes/anecdota_2_0/images/bbc/bold.gifm of types instructed the people regarding the entire plan of salvation. Through its symbols, the patriarchs and Israel learned to exercise faith in the coming Redeemer. Through its rites, the penitent could find forgiveness for sin and release from guilt. The blessings of the covenant could thus be retained, and spiritual growth — restoring the image of God in the life — could thereby continue, even when humankind failed to uphold their end of the bargain.
Restoring the image in man could continue without man's effort? Is there a scholar who can explain this?
Though there are covenants made between people, the main use of the word berith in the Hebrew Bible deals with the relationship between God and humanity. Considering who God is and who we are in comparison to Him, what kind of relationship would such a covenant depict?
Without God's power and without man's effort, there would be no success in God's desire to transform man.
