The Covenant as an Interpreter of Scripture

           A Covenant, a treaty, an agreement, a negotiated contract between two parties.  That is the basis of my understanding of Biblical theology.  On the one side is God and on the other is us.  There were covenants made with Abraham, with Moses, with David, each on behalf of the people.  The final covenant is that which came to us through God Incarnate, in Jesus.

          The basic theme of the covenant is pretty consistent.  “I will be your God and you will be my people.” 

          This is definitely NOT a treaty between equals.  There is the senior and the junior partner to be considered.  God is the senior, humanity the junior.  Which makes sense, considering God made us. 

          There is a reason for the string of treaties that can be found across the Scriptures.  That reason is us, humanity.  The basis of this promise is faithfulness between partners.  God faithful to us and vice versa.  But that covenant gets broken, by the junior partners, us, continuously. 

          Until Jesus, the way of the Covenant was the way of Works, of Obedience, of us working obediently to hold up our end of the Covenant because God, all-perfect and all-powerful, always did.  This was defined in blessings and cursings.  We people of the covenant would be blessed when we were obedient and cursed when we were not. 

          For much of Biblical history, these were tangible effects.  Blessings were rather specific.  Like sufficient rain to turn the Promised Land into a Garden.  Like material prosperity and empire-building (as under David).  Cursings were also specific, drought and foreign incursion, finally even Exile for seventy years in Babylon.

          But in Jesus, the covenant shifted.  Instead of being cursed and punished for our disobedience, Jesus took on those curses and that punishment.  So, in Jesus, God is the giver of blessings AND God is the recipient of cursings. 

          Which leaves humanity in a very interesting position.  Instead of our proper actions indicating our proper heart of obedience in upholding the covenant, we enter with the proper heart to uphold the covenant and our proper actions follow.  Good works become the illustration of our covenant commitment instead of the requirement for that covenant commitment.  Which is a good thing because the one thing that humanity proved through all the covenants before is that they could not carry the work of the covenant. 

          Tomorrow, why a covenant at all?

Peter Hofstra