I realize that there are countless number of books written about covenants and what they mean and how they form our relationship. This is really an introductory discussion but I believe, especially for Christians, that it is important to realize that when we become Christians, we enter into a covenant with God. Therefore, it’s important to have a least a cursory understanding.
I’m still trying to gain a deeper, fuller understanding and appreciation for the concept – ‘covenant’. I’m not certain we really understand this word. A covenant is not a contract. It appears that contracts seem to be those ‘instruments’ that people can easily and rather quickly break. Most contracts have a kind of ’escape’ clause that facilitates breaking the agreement. On the other hand, covenants are far more long lasting, far more personalized. far more all encompassing, and with far more responsibilities. Whether or not you appreciate, understand this when you accepted Jesus as your Lord, you did entered into a covenant relationship with the Triune God, the God of all creation. It was He who signed the covenant and the price He paid for this act was simply… everything – His Word, His Son. And it was for us and still is.
When the Bible mentions a covenant, it’s referring to a strong, solemn agreement between two parties. However, biblical covenants are very different from the kinds of contracts or agreements we make today. It seems that many times, when people enter into agreements or contracts, they look for loopholes to get out of them. However, consider how God views covenants with His people:
“For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you. Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
[Jeremiah 29:11-13]
Later in Hebrews He says:
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. …
For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.” [8:10-12]
As you can see – God is promising His people what He will do for them but it is contingent upon their actions. Actually, He began covenanting with His people in Genesis and continues through Revelation. I could be wrong, but my understanding and perception on covenants is to look in scripture and try to understand how God went about making covenants with His people. When you read the Old Testament, there are multiple covenants that God makes and His people break. Again I could be wrong but I think God fulfilled His promise, His covenant with His creation in the form of Jesus. Jesus is OUR promise fulfilled.
Knowing it was impossible for His ‘stiff necked people’ to abide in His covenant, the only path to restoration was Jesus and His sacrifice for us. But it also explains Jesus’ last words – ‘it is finished’. Jesus had done His part and now the only thing separating God from His creation was and is His creation. But when we accept Jesus as our Lord and believe on Him, then our restoration occurs.
One could argue that this is God talking only to Israel. But don’t forget that we are grafted in. Read Hebrews 11:11-31, AMP because this provides a fuller understanding of what has been done for the Gentiles and what will happen for the Israelites. [See also Jeremiah 31:33-34]
“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you [Gentiles], being like a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them to share with them the rich root of the olive tree, do not boast over the [broken] branches and exalt yourself at their expense.” (v. 17-18)
One of the better definitions of covenant is found at Christianity.com:
“A covenant is essentially a relationship, but it’s a relationship that has been formalized and has been brought under sanctions, as it were. So there are blessings that come if the relationship is kept, and there are penalties that come if the relationship is broken, and a covenant is simply
the terms of that relationship.”
I think the important point to take away from this is the word ‘relationship’. Covenants are based in relationships and there penalties and blessings associated with the covenants. Specifically,
“These covenants become a way of helping us understand how is it that we relate to God, and He relates to us. …
Part of understanding how the Bible fits together is understanding how the various covenants that God’s revealed either build on one another and fulfill one another, or in some ways are quite different from each other and are introducing something new. …
Everything that God does is based on covenant. …
A covenant is a solemn binding agreement.“
As you can see, I’ve barely scratched the surface on what a covenant is and how it relates to us. Perhaps it will become important enough to do a deeper study to gain a deeper understanding of our relationship with The Father. I love the way [https://overviewbible.com/covenant/] teaches:
*Covenants make two into one. When two parties make a covenant in the Bible, they are joined together and identified with each other.
*Covenants involve promises. People don’t just join together at random: the agreement usually includes some kind of practical application.
*Covenants involve families and bloodlines.
*Covenants are spiritually charged.
*Covenants are taken seriously, and for good reason: two people are joining together based on little more than their words. They trust a divine being to hold them accountable, which means . . .
*Covenants are not easily broken. To break a covenant is a serious thing.
When the Bible speaks of covenant, it’s usually more than just an alliance, and certainly more than a transaction of goods and services: it’s a bond that God Himself holds people to.
So to simplify and summarize, a covenant:
- helps us to understand how we relate to God and He to us.
- is a binding agreement.
- is how God relates to His creation
- is a relationship
- are the backbone of the biblical story. *
- can be defined as follows: a covenant is a chosen relationship in
which two parties make binding promises to each other * - Virtually all the covenants have both conditional and unconditional
elements * - the new covenant is the climax of all of God’s covenants. *
(* 5-8, the source for these inclusions is Crossway.com)
