The Word about the Covenant-Making GOD
"The Word and the Prophets" - God created good, made mankind (Adam) as image-bearers to have dominion, to multiply, fill and subdue. The Garden would spread as the temple of God over all the earth, and God would be shown to be the great King. Sin brought death and hinders the growth of the kingdom. Adam had failed because he had broken covenant, but God made a promise to deliver mankind from sin and death through an offspring of man. God re-establishes the covenant with creation (image-bearing and re-creation) with Noah. Noah fails as the new Adam. Covenant with Abraham for a nation, land, and blessing. Abraham has faith, but he too fails, yet we move closer to the picture of what the Offspring would be and how he would deliver from sin and death (through faith). Covenant with Moses narrows further to the people Israel, some of the children of Abraham. The people fail immediately, but do have the covenant that allows them to live holy before God in the promised land. They can make typological sacrifices for their atonement. The Law is here. The prophets called the people to obedience and faith, but they would still have to look forward to the better Adam, the true Son of God who would deliver.
“The Word about the Covenant-Making GOD”
I. God’s Word - Record of Covenants
I. God and Truth in the Covenants
A. God and Truth in Covenant with Creation
B. God and Truth in the Noahic Covenant
C. God and Truth in the Abrahamic Covenant
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
D. God and Truth in the Sinai Covenant
E. Davidic Covenant
E. God and Truth in the Davidic Covenant
E. Davidic Covenant
It is the Davidic king, then, who is called to be God’s devoted servant/son, even functioning sometimes in priestly terms, instructing the nations in the ways of the Lord and inviting them to come under Yahweh’s rule (see fig. 11.3, which captures this point by first picturing the Davidic covenant as a subset of the old covenant, and second by showing that Israel’s sonship role is now narrowed in the king as the corporate head of the people).
Yet, in Old Testament history, there is a major problem in this regard. As with the previous covenant mediators, the Davidic kings are not obedient. The Davidic house does not effect God’s saving reign, which leads the prophets to anticipate the need for God to provide a greater King (e.g., Isa. 7:14; 9:6–7; 11:1–10; 42:1–9; 49:1–7; 52:13–53:12; 55:3; 61:1–3; Ezek. 34:1–31). In this way, the biblical covenants tell a story: not only do they teach us who God is and what he expects of us; they also demonstrate that God must act in sovereign grace to provide an obedient Son, who will fulfill the roles of the previous covenant mediators by bringing God’s rule and reign to this world by inaugurating a new and better covenant.
F. God and Truth in the New Covenant
In the New Testament, it is clear that the new covenant texts are applied to Christ and the church, which includes within it both Jews and Gentiles (cf. Luke 22:20; 2 Corinthians 3; Hebrews 8; 10). Even though the new covenant is made with the “house of Israel and Judah” (Jer. 31:31), Scripture applies it to the church through the work of Jesus Christ, David’s greater Son, the true Israel and the last Adam.
No doubt, Christians still await the consummation of the age, but even now we enjoy the firstfruits of the new creation and participate in the promised “age to come” realities.