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?
© 2026 Nick Zaccardi
The Spirit and the Word 