I was recently asked the question, “What do you mean by “covenantal”? The text below is my answer to that person and I hope it may prove helpful to many in the church.
I admit the term "covenant" can be misused and over used and perhaps the word "covenantal" is not a word at all but an idea. However J.I. Packer uses it when he writes on the covenant and my use of "covenantal” comes from his idea that in our relationships to one another in the church we are expressing a "biblical ethic" that is a reflection of God's bending himself toward us in his covenant with us. Here is how Packer says it,
"The distance between God and the creature is so great," says the Westminster Confession (VII.I), "that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant." Exactly! So biblical doctrine, first to last, has to do with covenantal relationships between God and man; biblical ethics has to do with expressing God's covenantal relationship to us in covenantal relationships between ourselves and others; and Christian religion has the nature of covenant life, in which God is the direct object of our faith, hope, love, worship, and service, all animated by gratitude for grace."[1]
Therefore when I use covenantal in regards to the life we live as the church it is the life we live out of the new covenant in Christ's blood toward one another as his body not only "animated by gratitude for grace" but exercised by faith in the ongoing grace of God we have in Christ. We are bond together in Christ for love to God and love to one another. Therefore we live in this bond by worshiping around the apostles teaching, prayers, the breaking of bread, sharing one another's burdens and joys. This is very much unlike the world expresses in the suburbs at the block party in the culdesac or in the backyard around the grill and teake torches or unlike the world expresses on the island at the club or unlike the world expresses in the neighborhood under the big oak tree and a grill full of chicken or fajitas. The churches covenatalism is around the cross of Christ where we live by faith in him submitting to his discipline, not forsaking the assembling together, worshiping in our homes and then with homes together in one place, the church building, praying, singing, eating, laughing and crying together, talking about what it means to be a man in the church, home and community with our minds and hearts in the book of the covenant and not the latest Esquire in reflection of Tom Cruises manhood.
Covenantalism is the life of the people of God who have been bought by the blood of the covenant and put by his providence among a particular visible body of his covenant and living bound together in the bonds of love for his glory there until he by his providence, and not a persons passion or wander lust, moves them elsewhere or returns in his fullness.
I am rambling but I hope this is helpful.
Showing posts with label covenant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label covenant. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
An Everlasting Covenant to An Uncertain Culture
Someone has said, “There is only one thing that is certain and that is that everything is uncertain.” We live in uncertain times, our jobs and livelihoods are uncertain. We live with the uncertainty of our future as a church, a community, a state or a nation. Uncertainty and a struggling sense of security are marks of our culture. What does the church have to offer in a culture of uncertainty and insecurity? The answer comes in God’s everlasting covenant.
God said to Abraham, “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 17:7). This covenant is a relationship that God established with Abraham by his sovereign will and guaranteed it by himself (Genesis 15:17). He made the promise in the relationship in love and promised with an oath to keep it (Deuteronomy 7:8). Therefore God is true and his everlasting covenant is true. This everlasting covenant God makes with his people is further realized in the New Covenant in the blood of Christ (1Corinthians 11:25). God’s grace promised (Genesis 3:15) and realized throughout the covenants of the Old Testament was fully confirmed in the death of Christ on the cross. There on the cross Jesus made full atonement for sins as a righteous substitute for sinners (Romans 3:21-26) satisfying the justice of God and at the same time being the justifier of all who by faith in him come into a relationship with God by his grace through faith. Through Jesus Christ God the Father establishes his relationship with his elect sealing them to a promised life forevermore through his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-14). God is true, not false and he cannot lie or go back on his promise. Therefore the covenant that he establishes with his people is an everlasting covenant that cannot be undone. And it is in the certainty of this everlasting covenant that the church is secure.
This doctrine of assurance founded in the truth of God is called by some, “The prime error of heretics”. And by the Council of Trent it was said “a believers assurance of the pardon of his sins is a vain and ungodly confidence.” Others would say this assurance is presumption. They argue that having a confident assurance in God’s everlasting covenant and salvation is not a true and spiritual humility and often leads to a passive and apathetic form of Christianity. But all who would denounce this doctrine of assurance on grounds of abuse or untruth must acknowledge the Scriptures clear statements to the contrary. And when the Scripture makes this doctrine clear to our minds and hearts this “grace with assurance is no less than heaven let down into the soul.” Here are a sampling of Scripture passages that may prove helpful in considering God’s eternal grace to all who are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus: Job 19:25-26; Ps.23:4; Isa.43:1-3; 54:10; Jer.32:40; Mt.18:12-14; Jn.3:36; 5:24; 6:35-40, 47; 10:27-30; 17:11,12,15; Rom.5:8-10; 8:1,28-30, 35-39; 1Cor.1:7-9; 10:13; 2Cor.4:14,17; Eph.1:5,13-14; 4:30; Col.3:3-4; 1Thes.5:23-24; 2Tim.4:18; Heb.9:12,15; 10:14; 12:28; 1Pe.1:3-5; 1Jn.2:19,25; 5:4,11-13,20; Jude 1, 24-25. It is the grace of assurance that allows the church to live in God’s kingdom of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and this is what the church can offer to a culture of uncertainty.
A toddler plays happily in the kitchen. He climbs under the cabinets and cleans out the pots and pans making a fort, he bangs the pots and pans in the floor, he digs unidentified objects out from under the refrigerator or from under the table missed by the broom, and unnoticed by Mom, eats them. He is secure in Mom’s kingdom as she works around him, goes back and forth to the laundry caring for the families needs. He does not fear when she disappears around the corner because he knows she’s coming back. So are all who have been brought into God’s kingdom by his grace through faith in Christ and live and rest in his everlasting covenant.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." 15And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf,
. - Hebrews 6:13—20
God said to Abraham, “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 17:7). This covenant is a relationship that God established with Abraham by his sovereign will and guaranteed it by himself (Genesis 15:17). He made the promise in the relationship in love and promised with an oath to keep it (Deuteronomy 7:8). Therefore God is true and his everlasting covenant is true. This everlasting covenant God makes with his people is further realized in the New Covenant in the blood of Christ (1Corinthians 11:25). God’s grace promised (Genesis 3:15) and realized throughout the covenants of the Old Testament was fully confirmed in the death of Christ on the cross. There on the cross Jesus made full atonement for sins as a righteous substitute for sinners (Romans 3:21-26) satisfying the justice of God and at the same time being the justifier of all who by faith in him come into a relationship with God by his grace through faith. Through Jesus Christ God the Father establishes his relationship with his elect sealing them to a promised life forevermore through his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-14). God is true, not false and he cannot lie or go back on his promise. Therefore the covenant that he establishes with his people is an everlasting covenant that cannot be undone. And it is in the certainty of this everlasting covenant that the church is secure.
This doctrine of assurance founded in the truth of God is called by some, “The prime error of heretics”. And by the Council of Trent it was said “a believers assurance of the pardon of his sins is a vain and ungodly confidence.” Others would say this assurance is presumption. They argue that having a confident assurance in God’s everlasting covenant and salvation is not a true and spiritual humility and often leads to a passive and apathetic form of Christianity. But all who would denounce this doctrine of assurance on grounds of abuse or untruth must acknowledge the Scriptures clear statements to the contrary. And when the Scripture makes this doctrine clear to our minds and hearts this “grace with assurance is no less than heaven let down into the soul.” Here are a sampling of Scripture passages that may prove helpful in considering God’s eternal grace to all who are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus: Job 19:25-26; Ps.23:4; Isa.43:1-3; 54:10; Jer.32:40; Mt.18:12-14; Jn.3:36; 5:24; 6:35-40, 47; 10:27-30; 17:11,12,15; Rom.5:8-10; 8:1,28-30, 35-39; 1Cor.1:7-9; 10:13; 2Cor.4:14,17; Eph.1:5,13-14; 4:30; Col.3:3-4; 1Thes.5:23-24; 2Tim.4:18; Heb.9:12,15; 10:14; 12:28; 1Pe.1:3-5; 1Jn.2:19,25; 5:4,11-13,20; Jude 1, 24-25. It is the grace of assurance that allows the church to live in God’s kingdom of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and this is what the church can offer to a culture of uncertainty.
A toddler plays happily in the kitchen. He climbs under the cabinets and cleans out the pots and pans making a fort, he bangs the pots and pans in the floor, he digs unidentified objects out from under the refrigerator or from under the table missed by the broom, and unnoticed by Mom, eats them. He is secure in Mom’s kingdom as she works around him, goes back and forth to the laundry caring for the families needs. He does not fear when she disappears around the corner because he knows she’s coming back. So are all who have been brought into God’s kingdom by his grace through faith in Christ and live and rest in his everlasting covenant.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." 15And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf,
. - Hebrews 6:13—20
Covenantalism by J.I.Packer
"The distance between God and the creature is so great," says the Westminster Confession (VII.I), "that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant." Exactly! So biblical doctrine, first to last, has to do with covenantal relationships between God and man; biblical ethics has to do with expressing God's covenantal relationship to us in covenantal relationships between ourselves and others; and Christian religion has the nature of covenant life, in which God is the direct object of our faith, hope, love, worship, and service, all animated by gratitude for grace.
Our theme is the life-embracing bedrock reality of the covenant relationship between the Creator and Christians, and it is high time we defined exactly what we are talking about. A covenant relationship is a voluntary mutual commitment that binds each party to the other. Whether it is negotiated, like a modern business deal or a marriage contract, or unilaterally imposed, as all God's covenants are, is irrelevant to the commitment itself; the reality of the relationship depends simply on the fact that mutual obligations have been accepted and pledged on both sides. Luther is held to have said that Christianity is a matter of personal pronouns, in the sense that everything depends on knowing that Jesus died for me, to be my Savior, and that his Father is my God and Father, personally committed to love, nurture, uphold, and glorify me. This already is covenant thinking, for this is the essential substance of the covenant relationship: God's covenant is precisely a matter of these personal pronouns, used in this way, as a basis for a life with God of friendship, peace and communicated love. –
From what has been said so far, three things become apparent. First, the gospel of God is not properly understood till it is viewed within a covenantal frame.
Jesus Christ, whose saving ministry is the sum and substance of the gospel, is announced in Hebrews the mediator and guarantor of the covenant relationship (Heb. 7:22, 8:6). The gospel promises, offering Christ and his benefits to sinner, are therefore invitations to enter and enjoy a covenant relationship with God. Faith in Jesus Christ is accordingly the embracing of the covenant, and the Christian life of glorifying God by one's words and works for the greatness of his goodness and grace has at its heart covenant communion between the Savior and the sinner. The church, the fellowship of believers that the gospel creates, is the community of the covenant, and the preaching of the Word, the practice of pastoral care and discipline, the manifold exercises of worship together, and the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper (corresponding to circumcision and Passover in former days) are all signs, tokens, expressions, and instruments of the covenant, through which covenantal enrichments from God constantly flow to those who believe. The hope of glory, as promised in the gospel, is the goal of the covenant relationship (Rev. 21:2 f.), and Christian assurance is the knowledge of the content and stability of that relationship as it applies to oneself (Rom. 5:1-11,8:1-39). The whole Bible is, as it were, presented by Jesus Christ to the whole church and to each Christian as the book of the covenant, and the whole record of the wars of the Word with the church as well as the world in the post-biblical Christian centuries, the record that is ordinarily called church history, is precisely the story of the covenant going on in space and time. As artists and decorators know, the frame is important for setting off the picture, and you do in fact see the picture better when it is appropriately framed. So with the riches of the gospel; the covenant is their proper frame, and you only see them in their full glory when this frame surrounds them, as in Scripture it actually does, and as in theology it always should.
J.I. Packer Covenantalism http://www.gospelpedlar.com/articles/Bible/cov_theo.html
Our theme is the life-embracing bedrock reality of the covenant relationship between the Creator and Christians, and it is high time we defined exactly what we are talking about. A covenant relationship is a voluntary mutual commitment that binds each party to the other. Whether it is negotiated, like a modern business deal or a marriage contract, or unilaterally imposed, as all God's covenants are, is irrelevant to the commitment itself; the reality of the relationship depends simply on the fact that mutual obligations have been accepted and pledged on both sides. Luther is held to have said that Christianity is a matter of personal pronouns, in the sense that everything depends on knowing that Jesus died for me, to be my Savior, and that his Father is my God and Father, personally committed to love, nurture, uphold, and glorify me. This already is covenant thinking, for this is the essential substance of the covenant relationship: God's covenant is precisely a matter of these personal pronouns, used in this way, as a basis for a life with God of friendship, peace and communicated love. –
From what has been said so far, three things become apparent. First, the gospel of God is not properly understood till it is viewed within a covenantal frame.
Jesus Christ, whose saving ministry is the sum and substance of the gospel, is announced in Hebrews the mediator and guarantor of the covenant relationship (Heb. 7:22, 8:6). The gospel promises, offering Christ and his benefits to sinner, are therefore invitations to enter and enjoy a covenant relationship with God. Faith in Jesus Christ is accordingly the embracing of the covenant, and the Christian life of glorifying God by one's words and works for the greatness of his goodness and grace has at its heart covenant communion between the Savior and the sinner. The church, the fellowship of believers that the gospel creates, is the community of the covenant, and the preaching of the Word, the practice of pastoral care and discipline, the manifold exercises of worship together, and the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper (corresponding to circumcision and Passover in former days) are all signs, tokens, expressions, and instruments of the covenant, through which covenantal enrichments from God constantly flow to those who believe. The hope of glory, as promised in the gospel, is the goal of the covenant relationship (Rev. 21:2 f.), and Christian assurance is the knowledge of the content and stability of that relationship as it applies to oneself (Rom. 5:1-11,8:1-39). The whole Bible is, as it were, presented by Jesus Christ to the whole church and to each Christian as the book of the covenant, and the whole record of the wars of the Word with the church as well as the world in the post-biblical Christian centuries, the record that is ordinarily called church history, is precisely the story of the covenant going on in space and time. As artists and decorators know, the frame is important for setting off the picture, and you do in fact see the picture better when it is appropriately framed. So with the riches of the gospel; the covenant is their proper frame, and you only see them in their full glory when this frame surrounds them, as in Scripture it actually does, and as in theology it always should.
J.I. Packer Covenantalism http://www.gospelpedlar.com/articles/Bible/cov_theo.html
Friday, April 23, 2010
Covenant by the Book
Covenant by the Book
God is pleased to establish his covenant with his creatures in deed and truth. In the garden of Eden God set his creatures in the midst of all they needed and he spoke to them establishing his covenant and its conditions and in the midst of their sin spoke to them in words of grace (Gen.1-3). In the days of Noah God preserved his favored servant and his family in a floating vessel and secured them again upon dry ground, reiterating his covenant with Noah and his progeny in truth (Gen.6-9). God took the Gentile Abram from his homeland and spoke to him in numerous ways establishing his covenant with him and promised its fulfillment by himself (Gen.12-17). God led Moses out of the desert into Egypt to lead his covenant people out by his might under the cover of blood. He encamped with his people and spoke to them through his prophet words of life and promise (Exodus). David, a man after God’s own heart, preserved and protected by God, was given the throne of Israel by God’s might, and his throne established forever in his word of promise (2Sam.7). And in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son (Heb.1:2) who is the Word (Jn.1:1) and the Lamb of God who was slain for his people’s sin (Jn.1:29; Rev.5:8-10). He did this to demonstrate the love of God toward all those he has chosen to be holy and blameless in the Son forevermore for the praise of his glorious grace (Eph.1:4,6). God establishes his relationship with his people in his own deeds of power, wisdom and goodness through a bond of blood. And he perseveres with them with his eternal Word of power, wisdom and goodness. Covenant begins with God’s deeds and Word and is continually renewed with his people by his gracious deeds and powerful Word.
Covenant Renewal is a time to be reminded of our need of God’s powerful work toward us and his powerful Word with us. In 1968 the 36 year old Philip J. Masters climbed the mountains in Papua in the islands of Indonesia to carry God’s gospel to the Kimyal and Yali peoples. These fierce people had no knowledge of God’s love toward them in Christ and no welcome for this sojourner from another kingdom. They filled him with dozens of arrows shot from their bows and left his body in the river to wash up and be found by his family and friends. This was a tragic end to a fervent servant of the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, from this tragedy God would grow a people reflecting his glory through his new covenant in the blood of Christ. In the year of our Lord 2010 God delivered to the Kimyal and Yali peoples his book of the covenant in their own language through the hands of Phyllis Masters, the wife of Philip J. Masters. The hands receiving the Scriptures were those of the people who took her husbands life in hatred 42 years earlier. These hands received the Book of the Covenant with joyful hearts as those who were being saved by God’s grace in the covenant of blood, the blood of his own Son, Jesus Christ as told to them in the Scriptures. The Kimyal and Yali church was founded in the blood of the covenant in the Son as told to them from the book of the covenant, and now this covenant people continue in God’s grace through these Scriptures as they hear them, read them and preach them in their own language. Philip J. Masters laid down his life for his friends as one who had known the love of God through the blood of the Son. The deed and truth of God in the covenant had given him life and in continued renewal of that covenant a life to share with others. As the Son promised to build his church even against the gates of hell (Mt.16:18), so Mr. Masters took the glory of Christ into a kingdom of darkness where Satan dwells and was killed as a faithful witness (Rev.2:13). His wife and others followed standing upon this faithful witness as a seed that had gone into the ground and died and there God has grown his beautiful church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and where this seed goes into the ground and dies it grows a beautiful bride of Christ through God’s deed and truth in covenant established and preserved on his book of the covenant.
God is pleased to establish his covenant with his creatures in deed and truth. In the garden of Eden God set his creatures in the midst of all they needed and he spoke to them establishing his covenant and its conditions and in the midst of their sin spoke to them in words of grace (Gen.1-3). In the days of Noah God preserved his favored servant and his family in a floating vessel and secured them again upon dry ground, reiterating his covenant with Noah and his progeny in truth (Gen.6-9). God took the Gentile Abram from his homeland and spoke to him in numerous ways establishing his covenant with him and promised its fulfillment by himself (Gen.12-17). God led Moses out of the desert into Egypt to lead his covenant people out by his might under the cover of blood. He encamped with his people and spoke to them through his prophet words of life and promise (Exodus). David, a man after God’s own heart, preserved and protected by God, was given the throne of Israel by God’s might, and his throne established forever in his word of promise (2Sam.7). And in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son (Heb.1:2) who is the Word (Jn.1:1) and the Lamb of God who was slain for his people’s sin (Jn.1:29; Rev.5:8-10). He did this to demonstrate the love of God toward all those he has chosen to be holy and blameless in the Son forevermore for the praise of his glorious grace (Eph.1:4,6). God establishes his relationship with his people in his own deeds of power, wisdom and goodness through a bond of blood. And he perseveres with them with his eternal Word of power, wisdom and goodness. Covenant begins with God’s deeds and Word and is continually renewed with his people by his gracious deeds and powerful Word.
Covenant Renewal is a time to be reminded of our need of God’s powerful work toward us and his powerful Word with us. In 1968 the 36 year old Philip J. Masters climbed the mountains in Papua in the islands of Indonesia to carry God’s gospel to the Kimyal and Yali peoples. These fierce people had no knowledge of God’s love toward them in Christ and no welcome for this sojourner from another kingdom. They filled him with dozens of arrows shot from their bows and left his body in the river to wash up and be found by his family and friends. This was a tragic end to a fervent servant of the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, from this tragedy God would grow a people reflecting his glory through his new covenant in the blood of Christ. In the year of our Lord 2010 God delivered to the Kimyal and Yali peoples his book of the covenant in their own language through the hands of Phyllis Masters, the wife of Philip J. Masters. The hands receiving the Scriptures were those of the people who took her husbands life in hatred 42 years earlier. These hands received the Book of the Covenant with joyful hearts as those who were being saved by God’s grace in the covenant of blood, the blood of his own Son, Jesus Christ as told to them in the Scriptures. The Kimyal and Yali church was founded in the blood of the covenant in the Son as told to them from the book of the covenant, and now this covenant people continue in God’s grace through these Scriptures as they hear them, read them and preach them in their own language. Philip J. Masters laid down his life for his friends as one who had known the love of God through the blood of the Son. The deed and truth of God in the covenant had given him life and in continued renewal of that covenant a life to share with others. As the Son promised to build his church even against the gates of hell (Mt.16:18), so Mr. Masters took the glory of Christ into a kingdom of darkness where Satan dwells and was killed as a faithful witness (Rev.2:13). His wife and others followed standing upon this faithful witness as a seed that had gone into the ground and died and there God has grown his beautiful church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and where this seed goes into the ground and dies it grows a beautiful bride of Christ through God’s deed and truth in covenant established and preserved on his book of the covenant.
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