The covenantal God
by Pastor Tim Castle-Schmidt
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I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances (Isaiah 49:8b).
God seems to like covenants. Covenants are agreements between parties; typically, they involve an exchange, a transaction. The Old Covenant, typified by the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments, was an example of such a covenant. If Israel would keep the Lord’s commands, he would protect them and prosper them. And yet, we all know what happened. Time and again, the people of Israel failed to keep their part of the covenant, and yet time and again, God forgave them and despite that and stuck with them.
In Jesus though, the New Covenant is not so much based on a transaction as it is on a relationship. We, God’s people, are brought right into the intimacy of family; we enter into a relational covenant with the Father.
But more than that, just as Israel was to be a blessing for all nations, we are now God’s emissaries to a world in need of good news. We, God’s people, not through the law but through faith, are called on to shine God’s love, justice and peace into the world, to illuminate the world not through threats but through the invitation into the royal family. This covenant is formed, not through a transaction, but through the life-giving invitation to be part of the family, and so to share the benefits of our royal inheritance with whomever God might lead into our path.
Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us into the family through Jesus. Help us to allow your light to shine through us into this world of yours. Amen.
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