Zeal For Truth

This is the first in a multi-part series on Christianity and covenants. Other topics are:

• Overview
• God and Christians
• Christians and Marriage
• Christians and Employers
• Christians and Finances/Debt
• Christians and the Local Church
• Christians and Governments
• Christians and Animals and the Environment

God and Man
This topic is one which, even in beginning to think about it, overwhelms me with gratitude towards God. This is because the contract between God and man is completely and utterly one sided - it is a unilateral contract initiated by God towards people who have wanted absolutely nothing to do with him and, in fact, have been openly hostile and at war with God.

But this is a difficult concept to grasp - especially in light of the fact that we see nothing like this in our world, in our church and even in ourselves. Each and every day, we hold grudges, remember wrongs, complain, gossip, slander one another and set up all kinds of conditions for our relationships. We love those whom we perceive as loving us and we scorn and dislike those who we believe (real or imagined) have wronged us. Our “love” is drowned with conditions and clauses - and all of these are rooted in sinful, selfish, self-righteous pride which is quick to condemn and slow to forgive.

I can think of no better contrast then Ephesians 2:4-9 (NKJV). After laying out the pure and perfect wretchedness of mankind, Paul contrasts this with the great mercy and grace of God:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

God, in order to demonstrate his grace and kindness, has chosen to save us - despite our being completely dead.

For the purposes of covenants, this is an apt image of a unilateral act - a corpse being raised to life. A corpse cannot make contracts - it is dead. There is no life in it. A dead thing, in order to act, must first be acted upon - it must be made alive. God, in his grace, made us alive, and thus enabled us to have faith and receive his grace.

Contrasting God and Man
As sinful people, what is it that we would do with our enemies? If we could avoid the consequences, we would see them made dead, not alive. We desire vengeance, justice (by our own hypocritical standards) and often enduring punishment through ostracism, exile and exclusion. When someone has wronged us, even as Christians who have experienced God’s grace, we find ourselves incapable of generating the godly characteristics to forgive - it is never our first response. This is because we are obsessed, by nature, with conditional covenants.

But God has instead chosen to act upon man, making promises to him about what he, as a sovereign free being, will do. Moreover he has followed through on those promises in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who provided the promised deliverance of sins. God made the promise and then did all of the work himself.

There is no greater example of a unilateral covenant.

The Benefits of a Unilateral Covenant
If God’s covenant with man is a unilateral covenant, then man can breathe a little easier. If salvation is dependent upon the grace of God, and not on conditional works of man, then salvation is held by God. The bible reveals that God is just, honest, forgiving, loving, unchanging and keeps his word - therefore, his promise and delivery of saving grace is not revocable by man. Those who have placed their faith in Christ are protected by Christ and “sealed” by God the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22 and Ephesians 1:13, 4:30).

Another benefit of a unilateral covenant is a right perspective of sin. Knowing that it was God who saved us, and that our works and decisions are not conditions of grace, frees us from seeing our sin as putting us in jeopardy of breaking any covenants. Rather it stimulates us towards deeper worship, knowing that in spite of our sin, God has still graciously saved us. Our thanks to God is not tainted by any sense of accomplishment.

Moreover, it points us towards a sustainable and powerful solution for our sins - God himself, rather than our own initiative, methods and tricks to simply change our behaviour or external appearances. A lot of Christians go through cycles of guilt and and self-righteousness as they temporarily adjust their behaviour and put away some sin - and then it comes roaring back and the cycle starts again. But if we realise that it is only God who can completely deal with sin, then we acknowledge that our abilities are meaningless and we stop trying to simply change our behaviour and appearance of sin. We can go to God and petition him for his grace and ask him to change us from the inside out, as only he can.

Also, knowing this should trickle down to our relationships with each other. If grace is of God, then we need not compare ourselves to each other and seek to judge one another. We can be honest and open about our sin, and we can receive rebuke, encouragement and correction without being “hurt”, “exposed” or “wounded”(which is really just our pride and self-righteousness revealing itself). Knowing that our sin is not going to rob us of grace, allows us to be used by God to help one another confront and cut-away sin.

Summary
God’s covenant with man is one-sided. Unlike men, who are vengeful and unforgiving towards our enemies, God is forgiving and merciful to those who have wronged him. The bible says we are “dead” in transgressions, and therefore, we are the receivers of grace and cannot initiate or seek out a contract with God - rather, God seeks out us.

Being the recipient of God’s promises gives us a right view of sin, a deeper worship and provides complete and total assurance of our salvation. It also provides us the opportunity to have healthy and intimate relationships with other Christians where we can pursue holiness together.