Covenant Leads to Relationship
By
Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe
Hebrews
7:22 (NKJV): “by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better
covenant.”
God
relates to His people through covenants. A covenant is greater than
a promise. It is a bonding. A covenant is a bond in which each of
those involved in the matter say, “Everything I have is yours.” Covenant
is total commitment. In covenant with God, even though we are not
totally committed to Him, He is totally committed to us.
God’s
covenants with us are for our benefit. The purpose of God’s covenant
is to bring abundant life. The apostle John quotes our Savior, “The thief
does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that
they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” (John 10:10-11 NKJV) In
God’s covenants, we are assured of guidance, protection and provision.
What
do we have to give to Him as our part of the covenant? Paul wrote to
the church in Rome, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which
is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2 NKJV) We are
to give Him ourselves in holiness, allowing Him to transform our thinking so
that we can demonstrate to the world the transforming, overcoming relationship
that results from walking in covenant with our God.
In
addition, because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, Christians become
participants in the covenants the Lord made beginning with Adam, continuing
with Noah, Abraham and the nation of Israel. Today many teach “replacement
theology” which says that the Lord no longer deals with Israel and that the
Church has replaced Israel in the economy of God. However, the Word
does not support that thesis. Christians do not replace Israel in
God’s covenant. Paul was adamant, “I say then, has God cast away His
people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of
the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. (Romans
11:1-2aNKJV)
Paul
continues, “For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the
root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off,
and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them
became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast
against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the
root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken
off that I might be grafted in." (Romans 11:16-19 NKJV)
Because much of the Church has
denied our Old Testament heritage, we often do not understand the deeper truths
of our relationship with our Redeemer. God's covenant with Israel is the root that supports His covenant with Christians.
Sometimes
our confusion is the result of flawed grammar. Let’s examine Hebrews
8:7-8 NKJV). “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place
would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says:
"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- .” Because
the pronoun “they” is plural and the noun “covenant” is singular, the writer of
Hebrews is not saying that the covenant itself was faulty, but that the people
of Israel and Judah were faulty. The weakness of the Old Covenant
was not in the Covenant itself but in the weakness and inability of man. The
reason the Old Covenant didn't "work" was because the people did not
continue in God’s covenant.
Because the people did not fully embrace the covenant, God, in His mercy, gave us a strengthened covenant that would enable mankind to walk according to His promises.
The
author of Hebrews continues by quoting the prophet Jeremiah, “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 in their mind and write them on their hearts; and
I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Hebrews 8:10
NKJV)
The
laws of God are still the same, the difference is that they are not etched in
stone; they are written on the hearts of those who accept the sacrifice of
Jesus as the pathway to covenant with God the Father. We are
transformed by the renewing of our minds. How does that
transformation come about?
Hundreds
of years before the cross, Ezekiel prophesied, “I will put My Spirit within you
and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
(Ezekiel 36:27 NKJV)
On
Pentecost, ten days after Jesus’ ascension, “When the Day of Pentecost had
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came
a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house
where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire,
and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4 NKJV)
The
Holy Spirit came to indwell God’s people. Because of the Holy Spirit
within, we grow in grace and knowledge, we are transformed; we become the
covenant people of our God. All believers are in the transformation
process.
Paul
affirmed, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit
of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16 NKJV) Covenant Christianity is a
relationship with God Whose Spirit indwells us.
