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THE COVENANTS OF THE BIBLE

Please turn to and read Luke 22:20. What does Jesus mean by 'covenant' and more specifically by 'the new covenant'? Covenant is a very important concept in the Bible and we can trace God's plan of redemption right through the Bible by investigating the covenants. So what is a 'covenant' in the Bible?  

First, what a covenant IS NOT: it is not a mutual agreement between God and man; nor is it a negotiated treaty.

Second, it IS - always initiated by God; grounded in HIS love, law and justice; and the result of HIS sovereign grace and promise. 

In His covenants God                                                                                

(a) offers fellowship with man, and

(b) commits Himself irrevocably.

We can even go so far as to say that ...

GOD NEVER HAS FELLOWSHIP WITH ANYONE EXCEPT BY A COVENANT

In the OT, after the Fall, there are 5 covenants which God makes with His People or with individuals - Hebrew scholars recognise them too, they are not a Christian invention. They are revealed as Christian, as we interpret them as pointing ahead to Christ.                                                                                                                 

These 5 covenants are with Noah (antiquity), Abraham (c.2000 BC), Moses (c.1200 BC), David (c.1000 BC) and Jeremiah (c.600 BC).

By investigating the characteristics of these covenants we are can discover how God progressively revealed what He was going to achieve through His Son.

 It is as if God refracted the light of His plan through the prism of history at its various stages. Work through the covenants in the table below by looking up the references and identifying the characteristics suggested.

Do you see how God's plan of salvation in Christ is progressively revealed through the characteristics of these covenants. See how those characteristics noted in the third column of the table all apply to what Christ did for us in the new covenant. 

Does not God give us a new start under His favour (Noah)? 

We are a new people born out of death and hopelessness (Abraham), aren't we? 

Surely we have been redeemed from slavery- to sin and death (Moses)! 

And we have a new King whose Kingdom will last forever and in which we are secure (David)!

And in the new covenant we have a new relationship with God through Christ, with a new understanding because of the Holy Spirit's work (Jeremiah). 

And it is all based on the forgiveness of our sins (Jer.31:34 'For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more') This is the foundation of the new covenant. See also Jer.32:37-41 particularly v.40.                                                                 

Although Jer. 32:40 speaks of God making a new covenant with "them", it is better to say that God's new covenant is with Christ rather than with us. This is because it is Christ alone who has obeyed God's law completely and perfectly: only He has kept the Old Covenant. But the wonder of the Gospel is that He did it on our behalf.  

Jesus is the new Israel - succeedingin all in which Israel failed. We are incorporated into the new covenant through faith in what Christ has done for us. We are in Christ and in His covenant. So the new covenant is absolutely secure because it depends on Christ's perfect law-keeping, not on our ours!

Finally please read Hebrews 8:6 and 9:15 and lastly 7:22 "Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant".

A very useful paperback book is 'Understanding the Bible' by John Stott, pub by Scripture Union, 192 pp, ISBN 1 85999 225 0. This includes chapters on the purpose, story(2), message, authority, interpretation of, and use of the Bible.

 2 Cor.9:15 "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

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