2011-07-15
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Family can be called “Dear Ones,” and since we belong to the family of God as brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s perfectly appropriate for me to address you this way. Last week, we completed the segment on “God is Faithful” in this “Our Covenant” series, and today we will begin the new segment called “God Initiations Relationship” by taking a look at the mechanics of a covenant relationship. The Hebrew word, “beriyth” [pronounced, ber-eeth] means “covenant”, a solemn, binding two-way agreement made by passing through flesh pieces. In ancient times as a rehearsal of the original covenant made in GN 15: 17, two men would pass their hands between their thighs as a symbol of the flaming torch and smoking fire pot that God used in making the Abrahamic covenant. Everything God does with mankind is based on the covenant relationship.
The two parties to a covenant are not always equal. While David and Jonathan in, 1 SAM 18: 1-4, were closer to being equal, since both were sons of kings of Israel, even their covenant of friendship had a third Party to it that most certainly was superior to them. That third Party was God. Any covenant between God and man is never equal, with God being the more powerful, wise, and superior Partner. In his book, Systematic Theology, Louis Berkhof says, “The word, beriyth denotes a mutual voluntary agreement…but also a disposition or arrangement imposed by one party on another.” A true and godly covenant is always a voluntary agreement, never carried out by coercion. For example, if a man agrees to serve God, he will thus inherit God’s blessings. Repeatedly in my own experience, I have seen God taking care in one way or another of His own. Certainly I can testify it has been the case in my own life.
We find an example in Paul’s words on forgiveness for an offender in 2 COR 2: 5-9. “Now, if anyone has made somebody sad, he has not done it to me but to all of you-in part, at least. (I say this because I do not want to be too hard on him). It is enough that this person has been punished in this way by most of you. Now, however, you should forgive him an encourage him, in order to keep him from becoming so sad as to give up completely. And so I beg you to let him know that you really do love him. I wrote you that letter because I wanted to find out how well you had stood the test and whether you are always ready to obey my instructions.” We can see in this the need to obey RO 14: 13, “So then, let us stop judging one another. Instead, you should decide never to do anything that would make your brother stumble or fall into sin.” Preserving faith and being forgiving is all a part of being a truly faithful believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can depend on the fact that if the offense continues becoming a lifestyle that God Himself will adjudicate the case. This too, I have seen happen more than once.
There are some important words in RO 5: 6-11 that help us to better understand what God did for us in initiating our covenant relationship with Him. “For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose. It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good person. But God has shown us how much He loves us-it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! By His death we are now put right with God; how much more than, will we be saved by Him from God’s anger! We were God’s enemies, but He made us His friends through the death of His Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has now made us God’s friends.” Dear Ones, this is huge! It means that even someone like me, brought up to reject Christ as the Messiah, unaware of His presence in my life until my mid-twenties, and on my way to serious trouble for vandalism in my teens, can not only be forgiven, but can be brought to real inner peace by my faith in Him. And I’m sure there are many others with even more colorful pasts than mine, who have been given faith, forgiven, saved from spiritual death, and are living “in Christ” fully justified. Consider Paul, who began his adult career working for the Sanhedrin persecuting the early believers in Christ, or David who was both a murderer and an adulterer. This list is longer than we can imagine. Our weaknesses, infirmities, past sinfulness are all forgiven in favor of the faith shared with every other believer in Christ.
Christ’s Atonement is a ransom paid to buy us out of the marketplace of slavery to sin. Now that’s a blessing! As I’m writing this, it is the next day after we celebrated Easter. This holiday is not eggs or bunnies or Peeps candy to me. It is the celebration of the hope Christ’s resurrection as the “First among many brothers” [RO 8: 29]. Think about what kind of blessing that is and realize that each and every brother and sister in Christ is given that blessing. And to think, all we had to do was repent of our past sins, agreeing to try not to sin any more and believe that Christ is Who He is- our personal Savior [Messiah], Who gives us the blessings of salvation, justification, eternal forgiveness, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the hope of the resurrection! That should be sufficient motivation for anyone to be in a covenant relationship with Him.
PRAYER: O Lord, but for Your grace, here we are-the recipients of all these wonderful blessings and more. The beriyth [covenant] that we have with You is cut once and for all by our Lord Jesus, bringing us into this very special relationship with You [HE 10: 10]. While You are in leadership in our lives, working actively to perfect us and to ready us for the time when You will bring us back to Your side in heaven, we must cooperate with You in every way. We look at Your part of the Covenant of Grace in reviewing JN 3: 16 and RO 3: 23-25a, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life…For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace. Through the redemption that came in Jesus Christ. God presented Him as a sacrifice of Atonement through faith in His blood.” And then, there must be our part, as seen in confessing sins and stopping whatever the thoughts and behavior might be, just as David did. PS 51: 10-12, “Create in me a pure heart, O Cod, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not case me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Another such expression of a contrite heart is found in PS 19: 12-13, “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” It is then that we can understand, Dearest Abba, what You inspired Paul to say in RO 10: 9-10, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the death, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, that it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Thank You, and let us offer praise to You for Your faithfulness and love. You are a great and wonderful God. In Christ’s mighty/holy name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: In dealing with God initiating a covenant relationship, we must understand free agency and why God tells us what is and places limits on what is righteous. The potential believer is left to invite his god (s) to a relationship with them in other belief systems. But in Judeo-Christianity a covenant relationship is initiated by our loving, wise, and compassionate God. That’s a major difference between other belief system and ours. This is what leads this hopefully humble author to believing our God is the One and only true God. In Christ’s words spoken for us, we are reminded, in JN 15: 16-17, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then, the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. This is My command: love each other.” Loving each other to me means being forgiving, never doing anything that would destroy another’s faithful resolve to believe and follow the Lord, being humble and reverent, speaking the truth in love, witnessing with gentleness and sensitivity, and genuinely caring about the needs of others. The list of how to be righteous is better enumerated in the Bible than by me in this devotion. But I can leave you with my witness that God does reward those who choose to live righteously in accordance with Biblical teaching [PS 89: 14-16; PS 92: 12-15]. The Holy Spirit directs me to end with reciting 1 PET 5: 6-9, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may life you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your bothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” How can we refuse to thank and praise our living God, Who is right here with us?!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15