Covenant People [part 1]

Covenant is one of those words that shows up over and over again in the Bible. In fact, maybe it comes up so much that we start to lose the meaning. It is a term that we normally do not use all that much outside of the Bible. But the places we do use the term covenant in our world are helpful, because it means pretty much the same thing in the Bible as it means in our English language understanding and application.

Before I moved back to Michigan, I lived in a neighborhood with covenants. There is a Homeowners Association covenant that everyone who lives in Highlands Ranch must sign onto and follow. The neighborhood covenant is simply a way of everyone agreeing to abide by an adopted set of standards. Covenants are helpful, then, for creating expectations and accountability. So, I knew that if I parked my camper out front, it could only stay there for no more than 72 hours before I had to move it away again. But by that same token, the neighborhood streets were safely clear of countless boats, RVs, and utility trailers parked along sidewalks and stored in driveways. Everyone in the neighborhood agreed about this, and we all abided by it.

Anyone who violated the terms of the neighborhood covenant would then be notified and given an opportunity to return to compliance. There was accountability that way. Now, I know that this can also be abused. I will admit that there always seems to be the possibility of a person in a Homeowners Association who takes advantage of the rules as a form of control or manipulation. So, maybe the time I received a notification for having my camper parked out front after only 24 hours was just a neighbor’s passive-aggressive way of telling me that my camper is ugly. Even though examples like that happen, covenants are not meant to be instruments of control and manipulation. Rather, covenants are simply a way for expectations and accountability to be brought together.

Covenants in the Bible follow this exact same pattern. Biblical covenants are statements of expectation and accountability. And just like our modern-day covenants can take the shape of something like a legal document, biblical covenants work like that too. Covenants in the Bible were seen by the original authors and recipients as a legal arrangement. The middle section of Galatians 3 takes a look at the way these legal arrangements of the covenant work. In particular, notice how these verses draw attention to three different, but interconnected, expressions of covenant between God and people.

Galatians 3:15–22 NIV

15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

The Covenant and Abraham

that his family will increase to become a great nation, that he will receive the inheritance of land, and that all nations will be blessed through his descendants

The apostle Paul makes reference to promise of God given to Abraham. This is a the first covenant expression we see in this passage. The covenant between God and Abraham is pieced together from a few different scenes in Genesis and involves a handful of specific expectations. God makes a covenant promise to Abraham that his family will increase to become a great nation, that he will receive the inheritance of land, and that all nations will be blessed through his descendants.

unconditional promises that God makes with Abraham

These are unconditional promises that God makes with Abraham. The covenant is completely one-sided. God is the one who holds all the expectation, and God is the one who holds himself accountable to those promises. Abrahams end of the deal was simply to believe that what Gods was promising to him was true. In other words, Abraham’s only expectation in the covenant was faith; all he had to do was believe.

Abraham to respond to God’s covenant in faith

There were several significant opportunities for Abraham to respond to God’s covenant in actions of faith. Abraham packed up everything he had and moved to a new land in which he was a foreign immigrant based entirely upon the call of God for him to do so. Abraham showed a dedication to God so strong, he was willing to even lose his own son. These are actions of faith. God does not place obedience to these commands as expectations or conditions of the covenant arrangement. Abraham, rather responds to God’s covenant with these actions simply on the basis of faith; Abraham does these things because he believes God’s promises are true.

the covenant with Abraham applies not only to Abraham himself, but also carries promises down through the descendants of Abraham

Paul’s reason for bringing up the covenant with Abraham has two significant applications. First, Paul is saying that the covenant with Abraham has priority in importance because it was the first Covenant establishing the nation of Israel in Abraham’s family. And second, Paul is reminding his readers that the covenant with Abraham applies not only to Abraham himself, but also carries promises down through the descendants of Abraham. We’ll say more about that later.

The Covenant and Moses

Paul tells us in Galatians 3 that the covenant with Abraham remained as the only covenantal arrangement between God and the descendants of Abraham for 430 years. It wasn’t until Moses brought the people of Israel out of Egypt to Mount Sinai that another covenant shows up. Paul refers to this covenant as the law. This is the covenant arrangement that was given by God to Moses on behalf of all the people of Israel. It most famously includes the Ten Commandments. But also included in this covenant law are all the other rules and regulations we read about in the last half of the book of Exodus, and the book of Leviticus.

expectation and accountability of the covenant goes both ways

This law of Moses is a covenant that is structured a little bit differently than the covenant God made with Abraham. With the law of Moses, the expectation and accountability of the covenant goes both ways. Now there are conditions that have to be met by both sides of the covenantal relationship. God’s end of the covenant remains largely the same. He reaffirms the promise made to Abraham to be the God of all Abraham’s descendants. And God reaffirms his promise for an inherited land that will be their own.

the covenant is conditional on the Israelites performing their compliance with the rules and commandments given by God to Moses

But this time with Moses, God puts a new stipulation on the covenant that was not there before with just Abraham. Now the covenant is conditional on the Israelites performing their compliance with the rules and commandments given by God to Moses. This is why the covenant with Moses is referred to as the law.

Why does God suddenly come along and change the terms of the covenant?

There is a question of why here. Why does God suddenly come along and change the terms of the covenant? Why is God renegotiating his arrangement of expectations and accountability with his people? The question makes sense and is certainly worth asking. And understanding the reason for asking this question along with understanding the answer makes all the difference for how it is we still see God’s covenant working in the church yet today. So, what is it? What’s up with God changing the unconditional arrangement of his covenant with Abraham to a conditional agreement with Moses and the people?

Lucky for us, we don’t have to wonder because Paul asks this very question in Galatians 3. He asks in verse 19, “Why, then, was the law given at all?” His answer: because of transgressions. This may take a little explaining in order for it to make sense. Verse 22 concludes this section of Galatians with the statement that scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin. Again, perhaps a bit confusing and not all that helpful. Let’s pull these statements apart.

the law is given as a way to constrain sin, but it does not provide a way out of sin

When the apostle Paul uses the term scripture, we need to remember that in Paul’s day the only scripture that existed was the Old Testament. When Paul talks about scripture, he is making reference to the law of Moses. And so, it is the law of Moses which locks everything up under sin. Here is what that means. According to Paul, the law was given because of sin. If people did not sin, then there would have been no need to give the law. But Paul is reminding his readers that the law does not provide a solution to sin. The only thing that the law can do is constrain sin, but it does not provide a way out of sin.

the law itself cannot impart life or bring righteousness

the law shows us we are still in need of a savior

This is why Paul concludes that the law itself cannot impart life or bring righteousness. While the law is able to constrain sin, it can never by itself provide an escape from sin. Therefore, the law by itself will always leave people enslaved to sin. The covenant of the law given to Moses, then, shows us a way in which sin can be constrained. But what the covenant of the law given to Moses ultimately shows us is that we are all still left in need of a savior, because we can never—through the law—save ourselves. This is important for Paul to highlight because he argues that it shows the connection between the covenant of Moses (the law) and the covenant of Abraham (faith).

This connection between covenants is playfully displayed by Paul in Galatians 3 by one word: seed. Let’s consider how the seed is the connector between the covenant of Abraham and the covenant of Moses in a way which points us forward to a new covenant: the covenant of Jesus.

The Covenant and Jesus

Remember that Galatians is written to a group of Greek Christians who have come to faith in Jesus, and then are being pressured by Jewish Christians to adopt all the cultural religious customs and values of the Jewish people. They are being told by the Jews, if you want to be part of the children of Abraham like we are, then you have to do all of the things that children of Abraham do—follow all the customs and culture of the Jewish people.

the promise of God to Abraham received by Abraham in faith is now fulfilled in Christ

But the letter to these Galatian Christians says differently. Paul says that the promise of God given to Abraham was accepted by Abraham on the basis of faith. Paul also says that the promise of God given to Abraham was passed along through his seed. And it is Paul’s insistence that this seed of Abraham is a reference to Christ. So, the promise of God to Abraham received by Abraham in faith is now fulfilled in Christ, and is still yet to this day received in faith just as it was received in faith by Abraham.

You see, in Paul’s view the covenant of Abraham and the covenant of Moses both work together to point us forward to the connection and fulfilment of both those covenants in Jesus. And Paul says our connection to this covenant of Jesus is on the basis of faith. It is given and shared with those who believe. Because Jesus fulfills the covenant of Moses in the law, Jesus supersedes the law and jumps us all the way back to the original promise given to Abraham, which is a promise received by faith.

the law of God still serves the function of constraining sin in this world, but we are no longer enslaved to the law because we are no longer enslaved to sin

So, is the law gone? Is the Covenant of Moses in the Old Testament useless to us now? No. Not at all. The law of God still serves the same function as it did in the Old Testament as something which constrains sin in this world. But now, because of faith in Jesus, we are no longer enslaved to the law because we are no longer enslaved to sin.

Let me help make sense of this with a little theology lesson, which will then allow us to consider a practical application for all this discussion about covenants. I have led us through this passage in Galatians 3 by showing three expressions of the covenant of God as it comes through Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Systematic theologians categorize this in two ways; they speak of the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace.

covenant of works - God’s people are given commands, God provides shalom flourishing

When theologians write about the covenant of works, they are talking about an arrangement between God and humanity which takes root all the way back in the garden of Eden in Genesis. It was at the creation in which God established a mandate for Adam and Eve to be fruitful, to cultivate the earth, and to be caretakers (stewards) of the creation. The blessing which God promised on his end of the covenant was one of shalom. The people created by God were given the work of cultivating and developing and caring for the earth, and God would provide the shalom flourishing of his people and the earth.

In the perfect world before sin, this covenant of works entailed a mandate for Adam and Eve to do certain things or behave in certain ways in order for them to accomplish the work given to them by God. They had to be fruitful and multiply. They had permission to eat fruit of the garden. And they also had a very specific command to NOT eat anything from one particular tree. Perhaps I am oversimplifying it, but the covenant of works was based in living a certain way under a certain set of guidelines so that the promised shalom flourishing of God would take place in the world.

In some sense, the law given to God’s people through Moses fits this same model within the covenant of works. Through the law, God has given his people guidelines for living a certain way so that the promised shalom flourishing of God would take place in the world. The difference, of course, is that when sin entered the world, our ability to ever faithfully keep our end of the covenant of works became impossible. This is why we have seen in Galatians that Paul says the law was no longer a path to shalom flourishing, but rather the law had become a curse.

covenant of grace - Jesus fulfills God’s commands, God provides shalom flourishing

Against this, theologians also speak of the covenant of grace. This is an understanding of covenant with recognizes that there is unequal ground between God and humans. The covenant of grace acknowledges that all the conditions and fulfilment of any covenantal agreement fall to God. This makes the covenant of grace an unconditional promise from God to humans because God himself has already met all the conditions.

It is the covenant of grace which connects us to Jesus through faith. God demonstrates his faithfulness to maintain his promise unconditionally through Jesus. And by faith, we are the recipients of this promise from God. Paul says it this way in one of his other letters. Romans 5 says,

Romans 5:1–2 NIV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Through Christ we have peace with God. Peace comes from that Hebrew word Shalom, which I have always said is better translated into English as flourishing. Do you see what the Bible is saying here? The shalom flourishing which God promised as his condition in the covenant of works all the way back in Genesis has been restored in Christ because only in Christ is the covenant of works fulfilled.

You and I now live in a world which is on its way to complete renewal in Jesus. Our redemption in Christ sets us on a path in which—even now—we see glimpses of shalom flourishing which can only take place because of Christ. You and I live as people called and grafted into this covenant promise. We are now covenant people by the grace of God through faith in Jesus.

how can you bring an expression of God’s shalom flourishing into someone else’s life this week?

Here is a practical application of what it means to be part of God’s covenant people in Christ. We now join with Christ in his covenantal mission bring God’s shalom flourishing in his creation. How can you bring an expression of God’s shalom flourishing into someone else’s life this week? May we be people who embrace the covenant of God given to us by grace through faith. And may we, then, live as people of that covenant, bringing expression of God’s shalom flourishing into the world he loves so very much.