How can we benefit from covenant theology, and why is it so important?
Two perennial questions that most Christians will ask focus on the meaning and message of the Bible as a whole. They might be expressed as follows: How do I gain […]
Reformed Thought for Christian Living
Two perennial questions that most Christians will ask focus on the meaning and message of the Bible as a whole. They might be expressed as follows: How do I gain […]
Two perennial questions that most Christians will ask focus on the meaning and message of the Bible as a whole. They might be expressed as follows:
How do I gain an integrated understanding of the huge number of stories and teachings contained in the Old and New Testaments?; and
Is there an underlying narrative that binds together both sections of Holy Scripture to form a single coherent theological message?
The answer to the first question lies in paying close attention to the meaning and significance of the divine covenant, revealed in two eras, beginning with the Old and concluding with the New. The answer to the second question is an unequivocal “Yes!”. However, in order to justify this claim, we need to examine how that coherent message may be deduced from the content of Scripture. By doing this, we shall hopefully arrive at some reliable and accurate answers to the questions that form the title of this article.
From the outset, we must first understand what is meant by the biblical divine covenant. The following summary definition will serve as a starting-point for our discussion: The biblical covenant is an intimate personal relationship between God and man, sovereignly initiated, maintained and fulfilled by God alone, and involves a commitment to life and death from both God and man.
Underlying this definition are two very significant convictions. First of all, when we come to study the Word of God and seek to understand its impact on our lives, we must always remember that it is the divinely inspired, God-given record of his relationship with his creation. That record is essentially an historical one, which sets out to reveal to us the nature of God and his words and actions in seeking to redeem and rescue humankind from its dreadful moral and spiritual condition. The essence of this history is the theme of God’s relationship with humankind throughout the ages.
The second of these convictions follows on from the first, namely, that the history that has been given to us in the Bible is precisely a covenantal historical record. Put another way, we might say that the Bible is essentially the account of an intimate bond between God and his chosen people Israel. ‘Covenant’, as a socio-historical phenomenon, is intimately bound up with relationship, and so far the Bible is concerned, it is an affiliation grounded in the divine promise of redemption that involves a mandatory response of obedient submission to the terms of that covenant from God’s chosen people.
At the heart of this covenant narrative of Scripture is the theme of redemptive history, that is, the record of God’s actions in history in bringing salvation to his people. The culmination of this historical narrative is the coming of Jesus Christ to earth – the Son of God, Messiah, and Redeemer. The New Testament makes it very clear that Jesus is the fulfilment of all God’s promises in the Old Covenant – promises that find their consummation in his person and work via his substitutionary sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world, his resurrection from the dead, and his return to heaven to reign as King of kings with God his Father for all eternity. All the redeemed people of God the world over, from all time, will be gathered into the new heavens and the new earth to reign with him forever.
Another key element of this redemptive history is its progressively unfolding nature, beginning at creation and concluding with the unveiling of the New Covenant era, revealed in the incarnation of Christ and the ensuing age of the Holy Spirit. The mode of this “progression” manifests itself in a series of covenant “stages” that embrace the entire body of Scriptural revelation from beginning to end.
These covenant stages may be summarised as follows.
This then, is why covenant theology is so important to affirm as the key feature of the entire body of Scriptural revelation. It is also critically important to maintain that the benefits associated with the revelation of this divine covenant amount to nothing less than the total eradication of sin and its disastrous effects upon our lives, if we confess our sin and put our faith and trust in what Jesus has done on our behalf. There is then the certain prospect of life eternal in heaven in the company of believers from the world over, worshiping God and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone makes all of this possible.
Stephen Renn has taught at SMBC.