Understanding God, Myself, and the WorldSample

What is a covenant?

“Covenant” is a word that we often use in church but don’t always fully understand. What exactly is a covenant and why is it significant for us as Christians? Firstly, covenant is primarily concerned with relationships. It can be seen as a set of agreements and commitments (similar to marriage vows) between two parties on how they ought to relate to one another. In the Bible, the relationship between God and man is primarily defined within the concept of covenant. 

The Ten Commandments are one of the best-known passages in the Bible. Often the Ten Commandments are only seen as a moral code. What is usually missed here is that the Ten Commandments are actually a call to covenant between Israel and God. Because God has met His covenantal obligations (by leading Israel out of slavery in Egypt), He now expects Israel to meet their obligations by walking according to God’s ways as stipulated in the Ten Commandments. The Israelites could trust God to be faithful, because He already saved them from slavery. God, on the other hand, now entrusted the Law to Israel so that they could live by it. 

Trust is a foundational component to any relationship. If we cannot trust another person, the relationship cannot deepen beyond a certain point. Issues of trust arise when there is a discrepancy between what a person is doing (or not doing) compared to what the person is saying; or compared to what the other person is doing. Now the issue of trust is already a tough matter when it comes to human relationships, but how does trust play out when we relate to God? Here is the big problem concerning trust: God is holy, and we are not. Will we mess up our relationship with God because it is an unequal relationship, or will God actually be interested in helping us because He is so much loftier than us? 

This is where the grace of God comes in. We can see God’s grace most clearly at the Cross of Christ where God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God, in and through Christ, makes an everlasting covenant with us by dying on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Our sins are forgiven and God’s Spirit now dwells within us, helping us to walk according to His Law. In all of this we see how God perfectly upholds His faithfulness to the covenant and how He also helps us in our inability to uphold our end of the deal. 

Spend a few minutes in prayer and ask God to reveal His perfect faithfulness to you.