The Bible is full of God’s promises and it is not just a book. God speaks to our hearts through it, particularly in our devotional and quiet time. In a world that is broken by sin and suffering, it is these promises that anchor our souls, firm and secure, onto hope (Hebrews 6:19).
In such times as today, when everyone is in gloom because of the hard times caused by certain recent global situations, how can we be orientated towards the hope and promises we have in God? This hope can only come because we have a relationship with a covenantal God.
A Covenantal God
The word ‘covenant’ connotes a deep and abiding relationship. Our God has always been covenantal. We see this in the way the Bible is organised. From the start of creation, God has already shaped a covenant between Himself and mankind by granting the divine image to humans (Genesis 1:26), an act of immense significance because it meant a close fellowship between men and God.
Man was to walk together with God in the garden of Eden. That was God’s design for us. Sadly, the devil sowed the seeds of mistrust, the terms of the covenant were broken, and that close relationship was spoiled. Sin came into our hearts and it was a spiritual thing. After Adam and Eve left the garden, and very early from then on, mankind seemed resolute in forgetting and ignoring God (Genesis 3-11).
Despite the fickleness and sinfulness of man, God did not give up on us. It brings to view the central meaning of covenant in the Christian context. The covenant is God’s binding agreement to make creation whole again, to restore people lost to sin, and to move history to its fulfillment. It describes all that God wants and will do.
In Genesis 12, God announced a renewal through a new covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). Again and again, God reminds us of His design for us. We were to be close companions, made for fellowship with Him. After the covenant with Abraham, God gave another covenant to His people; walk closely with God, follow the commandments (intended to facilitate the relationship between God and man, as well as man with man) and He will make His people into a great nation. Lamentably, humankind has a poor record when it comes to keeping our covenant with God. Out of His extraordinary grace, God would establish a new covenant between Himself and mankind.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
New International Version
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
The First Advent of Christ Jesus
As we enter into the Advent season, we are reminded of Jesus’s first coming. The first coming of Christ Jesus was not something that was out of the blue. It came from the background of God’s great love and His mission to restore us and make creation new again, and it points to the Kingdom of God and the completion of history. It was already foretold many many years before, though in dim outline, by the Old Testament prophets – most prominently by Isaiah, but also by Jeremiah, Hosea, and Micah – in Genesis 3:15, and in many of the Psalms. All the previous covenants had failed because of human stubbornness and weakness. This one would succeed.
Hebrews 9:15
New International Version
15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
What the First Advent Brought Us
More than just the birth of a baby in a manger, the first advent of Christ Jesus set in motion a new type of covenant between God and mankind. This new covenant would involve inner human transformation. It would involve the supernatural working of God’s Spirit in our hearts (what Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 36:26: a new heart), bringing us new birth.
The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem was the new covenant come in human form. It was the beginning of the most significant event in history. Christ Jesus would become the Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. No wonder the angels celebrated and the wise men traveled miles to worship at His feet. During Jesus’s ministry on Earth, He taught and demonstrated to the people the Kingdom of God. He showed us how we can live life to the fullest.
Christ Jesus brought the new covenant to fulfillment through His sacrifice on Calvary. That sacrifice tore the curtain in the temple separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place into two (Matthew 27:51). It opened a new relationship between us and God. Previously, to enter into the Most Holy Place without going through the rite of purification would be instant death. Even the High Priest could enter into it only once a year.
Christ Jesus’s great sacrifice changed the dynamics of our relationship with God. It removed the barrier to an immediate relationship with God and opened a new covenantal relationship with Him. And this time that covenant was extended even unto the Gentiles, to the people like the Samaritans, for all of mankind. We can now be adopted and born again as children of God.
There is a paradigm shift but everything that Jesus did was part of God’s covenant from the start of creation. The advent of Christ Jesus brought the hope of salvation to mankind. It is the most powerful evidence that we can trust in all of God’s promises.
What It Means For Us Today
In Acts, we saw the birth of the Christian church and the anointing of Jesus’s disciples when the Holy Spirit came to them. This was also a fulfillment of Jesus’s promise to them (John 15:26-27). And furthermore, He also told them that they would preach the Good News in Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the world (Acts 1:8). This was more than a command; it was God’s promise to them. From a persecuted minority in Israel and Judea, the early church grew exponentially until it encompasses the entire world today.
What the early Christians experienced still holds true for us today. We can have complete access to God. We can walk in His authority and power. We can walk in the hope that is inherent in our identities as His children. We can wield influence and change the spiritual atmosphere around us in His name. In a time of despair, we can be the salt and light that Jesus was teaching about.
Ultimately, because we know that God is Truth and He brings all His promises to fulfillment, we also know that what He said He would do for us in the Last Days can be trusted upon. God’s purpose is patient, persistent, and loving. One day He will bring us home to a city prepared by Him; similar to the City of God described by Augustine. It will be a better place than this one, a place of rest and fellowship with God no adversary can spoil (Hebrews 12:28).
Note: This article is inspired and guided throughout from a book of Christian concepts that was published by Barbour Publishing. Used by permission.
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