I’m sure you have been impacted by the coronavirus, and like so many people, would like to hear some good news for a change. I think we’re all tired of hearing about death, politics, and an economy in recession.
So, let me give you some encouragement, hope, and faith. The six truths that I will share about covenant, though brief and simple, can really build up your faith and confidence in the Lord. Don’t we all need that right now?
1. God is a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God.
God works through covenant. Every interaction between God and man is based on covenant. Every covenant in Scripture, including the ones made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus, were initiated by God Himself.
When God initiates a covenant, His purpose is always to invite an individual or a group of people into a relationship with Himself. In every one of God’s covenants, there is always promises and conditions.
Since God is a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God, we can rest assured that He will be faithful to keep all the promises contained in His covenant. He will fulfill His word to us.
2. Covenant binds two parties together as one.
A covenant binds two parties together. Thus, covenant is God’s basis to bring humanity into a close, intimate relationship with Him.
Our New Covenant relationship with Christ gives our lives meaning and purpose; allows us to have a close friendship with the Lord; and is the basis for His loyalty to us. The great news is that the New Covenant endures forever.
In addition, God accomplishes His eternal purpose of making us one with Christ through covenant. Specifically, through the New Covenant, God achieves His ultimate intention to conform us into Christ’s image, bring us into intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and make us one with Him—spirit, soul, and body.
3. Covenant is the basis for salvation and eternal life.
Thinking about how many people who have only made an intellectual decision to accept Christ troubles me. This is not what God originally intended, when He offered salvation and eternal life to all.
We don’t receive salvation and eternal life by believing a set of facts about Jesus Christ. Rather, by faith and surrender, we enter the New Covenant that was cut between the heavenly Father and His Son. Then, having entered into this covenant, Christ comes to dwell within us and we receive His eternal life. Thus, covenant is the basis for salvation and eternal life.
4. Covenant ensures that God will be faithful to us.
The Hebrew word checed, often used to describe God’s covenant with His people, is usually translated lovingkindness. However, when you dig into the meaning of this rich word, it could easily be translated covenant faithfulness.
Checed has several shades of meaning, each suggesting God’s faithfulness or loyalty to His covenant. This word signifies a legal obligation, an everlasting time frame, strength, steadfastness, faithfulness, determination, and love. These are all aspects of God’s faithfulness to us, His covenant people.
5. Covenant demands our absolute surrender.
Many believers think that surrender to the lordship of Christ and obeying Him are optional. Often, people distinguish between salvation and lordship. But nothing could be further from the truth.
When we are saved and begin a new relationship with Christ, we also accept God’s New Covenant requirements. As I’ll explain in future posts, the New Covenant demands the complete surrender of our lives.
When we accept the terms and conditions of the New Covenant, we give God full permission to have absolute control of us.
6. Covenant is the foundation for believing God’s promises.
Andrew Murray, in his book The Two Covenants, wrote, “And so the covenant was, above all, to give man a hold upon God, as the covenant keeping God, to link him to God Himself in expectation and hope, to bring him to make God Himself alone the portion and strength of his soul.”
Here’s why I really like this quote. Covenant is the basis for us to believe God’s promises. It inspires expectation and hope in our hearts that God will fulfill His covenant promises. This doesn’t mean we demand the Creator of the universe to do something for us. Nor is it a magic formula that we can continually confess so that God will eventually give us what we want.
Rather, as a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God, we can rest assured that the Lord will be faithful to love us, bless us, and fulfill all that He said He would do.
Covenant is the basis for every promise God has made to man.
More to Come . . .
I hope you are getting excited about your covenant relationship with the Lord. I was definitely stirred afresh writing about it. I will share more about covenant next week.
If you haven’t received my free eBook, which goes into much greater detail about God’s covenants, sign up for our email list to receive the link directly in your inbox.
