Children, do you remember what a covenant is? A covenant is a special agreement which binds you and everyone under your authority for a long time.

We have seen how God created Adam and Eve, entering into a covenant of life with them. But we have also seen how Adam and Eve broke covenant with God, refused the inheritance of life, and received instead an estate--or an inheritance--of sin and misery. So now our catechism asks:

Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

A. God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

You hear the foreshadowing of that covenant even in Genesis 3, where God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the seed of the serpent, but it is in Genesis 12-17 that God reveals the covenant of grace more fully to Abraham. And note that in Genesis 12, God promises Abraham an inheritance. "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing" (Gen 12:1-2). And in Genesis 15 God promises Abraham an heir, stating that Abraham's descendants will be as the stars of the heavens. And God "cuts" a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. He has Abraham cut a heifer, a female goat and a ram each in half, and two birds, and place them opposite each other. In ancient near eastern rituals, the two parties to the covenant would walk together through the divided animals, as if to say, "May I be cut in half if I do not fulfill my covenant." But here, God alone walks between the divided animals. God alone is binding himself to perform the covenant. Abraham is called to respond with faith and obedience, but Abraham's faithfulness is not the ground of this covenant. The covenant does not depend on Abraham, but on God alone. This is why throughout the history of Israel, God reminds Israel time after time of his covenant faithfulness, his steadfast love. In spite of Israel's failures, God will be faithful to the covenant, because he has bound himself to perform it. There is nothing that Abraham can do to nullify the covenant.

Remember that. Because there are conditions to the covenant: Abraham must believe God in order to inherit the promises. Abraham must obey God (if he never leaves Ur, then the covenant never happens). Abraham must circumcise his sons and his male servants. (Indeed those who were not circumcised were to be cut off from his people as covenant breakers--Gen 17:14.) But Abraham's faith and obedience do not constitute the ground of the covenant. There is nothing that Abraham can do to alter the covenant. And remember that Abraham tries to change it! In Genesis 17:18 Abraham tries to convince God to let Ishmael be the covenant heir. "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" But God says no. Isaac, the son of Sarah, will be the covenant heir. Abraham has no say in the terms of the covenant.

In the evening service we have seen how God established his covenant with Israel through Moses. The Mosaic Covenant was a particular administration of the covenant of grace, designed, as Paul says in Galatians 3-4, for the son of God in his minority. Israel was the son of God (Ex 4), but he had not yet reached maturity. And so God gave the Mosaic Covenant--the Torah (law)--as a means of disciplining his son until he reached the age of inheritance. And Paul says that in Jesus, the son has come of age. Hebrews 8-9 says this in another way. Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31 to show that in Christ we have a new covenant that is not like the Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant is earthly, and provides only pictures of the heavenly temple. But the new covenant is heavenly, and provides access to the heavenlies through the blood of Jesus Christ. The old covenant is still seen as an administration of the covenant of grace. After all, Hebrews makes it clear that Moses was pointing to Christ. But Moses was still deficient, because the Mosaic covenant could not truly deal with sin (10:4). All the sacrifices were designed to purify the flesh (9:13), but they could not purify the conscience (9:14).

The Mosaic covenant, then, should be seen as the pattern, the architect's blueprint, for the new covenant. Christ, however, is the new covenant himself. And how could anyone confuse a blueprint for the real thing!

Indeed, there was at least one priest in the temple who understood how the covenant of grace was still incomplete-still awaiting the redeemer.

[Luke 1:57-79]

Zechariah praises God that the Messiah is coming. God has remembered "his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham." Zechariah lived in the Mosaic covenant. He served in the temple, offering the sacrifices prescribed by Moses. But he understood full well that the salvation of Israel did not depend on their works, but on the covenant faithfulness of God. He praises God that HE has "visited and redeemed his people." HE has done what he promised by the prophets, "that we should be saved from our enemies." But what is the purpose of this salvation? "That we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all our days." Again, as we saw with Abraham, salvation is all of God. The covenant is established by him alone. But the covenant also has conditions. NOT antecedent conditions! God does not say, "If you walk in holiness and righteousness, then I will save you." But consequent conditions: God does say, "If I save you, then you must walk in holiness and righteousness."

In other words, in one sense the covenant is unilateral. God establishes his covenant. He is the one who will fulfill it. We cannot change it; we cannot alter it. But in another sense, the covenant is bilateral. You must believe God's promises. You must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Confession states both the unilateral and bilateral aspects of the covenant in 7.3, when it says:

Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe.

Faith itself is a gift of God, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, but without faith, no one will see God.

What God promised to Abraham has come true. He has fulfilled with his hand what he spoke with his mouth. And now Jesus Christ has proven himself to be the long-awaited Redeemer, through his death and resurrection. The reason we sing of the advent and birth of Christ, is because we remember the meaning and purpose of his incarnation. While the Bible does not set any particular time to remember the birth of Christ, the lengthy accounts of his birth in Matthew and Luke call us to remember that all that God has promised he has done. God promised that he would send a Redeemer who would deliver Israel from all their enemies, and who would remove the sins of his people. In Jesus Christ the promises to Abraham have come true. Abraham is indeed the father of many nations, and all the nations of the earth have been blessed through him, for through him was the Messiah--the Seed of Abraham, the Root of Jesse, the Son of David. 

Are you getting stressed out with holiday preparations? Some of you may be looking forward to the next few weeks with some apprehension over family relations. Some of you may wonder whether your budget can handle the strain of another round of Christmas shopping. The proclamation of the covenant of grace calls you to turn away from your fears. God has had mercy upon you. He has remembered his covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, and he has delivered us through the Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 

Let that sink in for a moment: "so that we might serve him without fear." What do you fear? Why do you fear it? Remember that our Lord Jesus Christ has destroyed all of his and our enemies on the cross. Serve him fearlessly. If God is for us, who could possibly be against us? When your fears arise, remember the promises of God in Christ Jesus. Serve him in holiness and righteousness. The covenant of grace is not just an abstract doctrine. Covenants are never abstract. Your marriage covenant is not abstract. That covenant is the bond of your relationship with your spouse. Likewise, the covenant of grace is the bond, it is the guarantee of your relationship with Christ. It is the reason that you may serve him without fear. God has said, may I be cut in half if I do not fulfill my covenant with Abraham. There is a certain beauty in that image of God passing between the halved animals. God declares that he will die before he allows his covenant to fail. And in Jesus Christ, God makes good on his promise. God would not allow his covenant to fail. He would even send his Son to become a man and die, before he would break his oath.

Remember that when you are tempted. Remember that when you are suffering. Remember that when you throw a pity party.

His oath, his covenant, his blood, 
support me midst the whelming flood. 
When all around my souls gives way, 
he then is all my hope and stay. 
On Christ, the solid rock I stand; 
all other ground is sinking sand.

Copyright © 2003 Peter J. Wallace