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God’s Covenant – Love Vs Law

Lately I’ve been talking about God’s covenant of love. If we’re to love Him, we must first know His love. This is not a covenant of convenience or need. It’s a commitment to participate in each other’s lives.

In this post, I want to talk about covenant.

And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’

Acts 3:25 NIV

Most Christians don’t understand what covenant they’re in. Today’s teachings in the modern church are so mixed up. We get into arguments over the Sabbath and graven images.

The fact is that whenever covenant taught in the New Testament, it’s in relation to Abraham. We’re always called the children of Abraham, not Israel.

You have to understand that Abraham was given the covenant of love. This brings up a number of questions. What do we as believers follow? What’s the place of the law? How about the Ten commandments?

In talking about the people of Israel, Paul says…

Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.

Romans 9:4b NIV

Wait a minute, according to this verse the covenant and the law are two separate things. Wasn’t the law the last covenant?

Paul explains it this way.

What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

Galatians 3:17 NIV

We have to understand that the law didn’t replace Abraham’s covenant. When the law was given, the covenant of Abraham was remodeled. Why is that?

What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.

Galatians 3:19 NIV

The law was not a new covenant. It was added to the covenant to remodel it. You could say that the law was an addendum to the covenant of Abraham.

This is because Abraham didn’t need laws to serve God. He was called a friend of God (James 2:23). The word used for friend meant an emotional love for God. Abraham liked being with God.

This shows me that a covenant of love needs no rules. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph also liked being with God. You can tell by their lives they had an “Anything for you, Lord” attitude.

However, as time went on, eventually the children of Israel lost that friendship. Because of transgressions – the constant breaking of the covenant – God added the law. This became an addendum to the covenant.

It was the same covenant, but it had to be tweaked. Basically, God was telling them, “This is what it means to be My friend. You must live differently than those around you.” So God put the demands of the covenant in writing.

But God never wanted this arrangement to be permanent.

“This is the covenant I will make with the house 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.”

Jeremiah 31:33 NIV

He made it clear that there was coming a day when He would restore the covenant back to the way it used to be. That was Christ’s mission. To show the LOVE of the Father. To end the addendum of law, and remodel it to a covenant of love once more.

In my next post I’ll continue along this line.

Question: Why is it difficult to serve God by following a set of rules?

Contracts and Covenants

16 Aug

Do you know the differences between contracts and covenants? If you’re a Christian, then that distinction is very important. Understanding it can be the difference between a blessed life and total frustration with your spiritual walk.

As we continue looking at Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he begins to talk about covenants. That’s important because we’re in a covenant relationship with Christ. The unfortunate thing is that we don’t usually talk about covenants in our culture. We’re most familiar with contracts.

Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.
Galatians 3:15

Let’s start with contracts. They’re based on mistrust and works. We don’t really trust each other to do what we’ve agreed to, so the contract details out all or our responsibilities. For instance, you fix my roof in a professional manner and I’ll pay you $5000.

Contracts also have an escape. If you don’t fix the roof, I don’t have to pay you the money. If you complete the work, then I can’t legally refuse to pay you. The contract forces us to do the things we said we would do.

Covenants are a totally different thing. They’re based upon faith and love. In a covenant, two people pledge their lives to each other. There must be a great faith in each other in order to do this. Under covenant, I complete my part regardless of what you do.

Also, there’s no escape from a covenant. They’re in effect forever. They even affect the descendants of those who made the covenant.

The closest thing we have to covenant in our society is a marriage. God has designed marriage to be a covenant, but in many cases, we’ve reduced it to merely a long-term contract.

In Paul’s example, he explains that a covenant can’t be annulled and another covenant can’t be added alongside it. As I said, once entered into, it’s in effect forever.

The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
Galatians 3:16

A covenant is in effect throughout the generations. In Abraham’s case, it was spoken to Christ through Abraham. That’s because Jesus entered the earth through Abraham’s family line.

But here’s the important piece that we often miss.

What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.
Galatians 3:17

There are some who erroneously teach that the Law of Moses was a new covenant that God made with Israel. They say that once the Law was given, salvation was only obtained through the sacrificial system. This verse exposes the fallacy of that kind of teaching.

The good news is that the covenant of Abraham is still in effect. Over the past few posts, I’ve been talking about how the Apostle Paul explained this truth. As believers, we can walk in the blessings of the covenant.

Of course, there’s still the question about the Law of Moses. What exactly is our relationship with the Ten Commandments and all the laws associated with them? We’ll deal with that subject over the next few posts.

Question: Why is it important to know that we’re in covenant with God?

The Spirit and the Word

Tag Archives: covenant of Abraham

God’s Covenant – Love Vs Law

Contracts and Covenants

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