At our Monday morning staff meeting this week we focused on the concept of covenant, and explored biblical examples as well as how the true meaning of covenant has been lost in our society today. Covenant still carries with it connotations of a promise, maybe even a serious promise, but the deeper heart of a binding commitment is difficult to grasp. As I understand it, a covenant is made between two parties under the authority and accountability of a third outside party. (E.g., we often refer to marriage as a covenant between two people before God.) Both parties are bound to one another, and serious consequences are in store for whomever dares break covenant. In the Old Testament, covenant required a sacrifice because blood was a key part of covenant. Every covenant mentioned in the Old Testament involves a sacrifice of blood (Gen 8, 15, and 17, just to name a few). Blood is required to indicate how seriously both parties take the covenant; in essence, each is saying "Let this be done to me if I break covenant with you."
While there are grave consequences for breaking covenant, the trust that is displayed by both parties allows opportunity for incredible intimacy. Referring again to the example of marriage, when both people are truly and wholly committed to one another and to the success of the marriage, there is the freedom to give yourself fully to the other without the fear that they're going to run the opposite direction when your sinful nature surfaces. In covenant, there is a beautiful opportunity for growth and refining. Covenant is scary because it's a serious commitment! It requires intense vulnerability, and it continues to demand vulnerability of each party. It's not as if there's a plateau of vulnerability, and then you get to coast. Covenant fosters an ongoing bond between both parties, and there is the opportunity for healthy mutual dependency that promises to be there today, tomorrow, and each day after that.
In Jesus, we live in the New Covenant. Christ has fulfilled the Law and has fully taken on the consequences of our sinful nature and our inability to keep covenant with God. When God made covenant with Abram and chose the Israelites as His people, He did so with the full knowledge that they wouldn't be able to keep the Law and would break covenant again and again. Rather than destroying mankind every time we failed (because He promised never to do that again in Genesis 8, and He is faithful even though we are not!), God accepted animal sacrifices to fulfill the covenantal demand for the shedding of blood. When Jesus came, He came in the dual role of Sacrifice and Redeemer. He came not only to fully and completely pay the blood sacrifice demanded by the covenant, but also to initiate a New Covenant to bring all of Creation back to relationship with God.
Now, our view of covenant directly informs how seriously we understand what it means to submit our lives to Jesus. Do we truly understand what it means to be in covenant with the God of the Universe? When we tell kids in Sunday school about 'asking Jesus into their heart,' do we really understand what kind of commitment we're asking of kids who still think there are monsters under the bed? In giving our lives over to Jesus as King and Savior, we are entering into the New Covenant with Him. We submit to His authority and reign, and we actively choose to live as He commands us to. We refuse all other ways of living, and we obey what He asks of us. We are binding ourselves to Him, and giving our lives over for Jesus to bind Himself to us. That is incredible! Don't miss the beauty of the second part: God is committed to us. The more we understand the gravity of covenant and seek Jesus, the more we experience the love and freedom offered to us through trusting that God will not abandon us. We are faithless and sinful, but God is not. He holds up His end of the covenant and offers us unending grace when we fail. When we understand the kind of Love that is on the table, we can't help but be intrigued and want to know it more!
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