An Unbreakable Covenant

Notes:

An Unbreakable Covenant    See Session Slides Here

A covenant lists the benefits of the covenant and how they were to be distributed.

The Old Covenant: We were not included in this. It was a covenant between God and Israel, Deut.4:8; Deut.5:1-3. They entered the covenant, Ex.24:7 and broke it. It is now obsolete.

The New Covenant: Through the prophets a new covenant was promised, Jer.31:31-34.

  • Matt. 6:28, Jesus ushered in this covenant, which made the previous covenant obsolete, Heb.8:13.
  • Who made this covenant? We can see when God and Israel made the old covenant, and both parties committed to it. But not the new covenant.
  • God made the covenant with Jesus who represents us and God, Isa.42:6; Isa.49:8.
  • Job 9:32-33. Jesus is the Mediator; not only able to represent both parties, he was able to be both parties, 1 Tim.2:5.
  • The covenant is a union between two parties, 1 Cor.6:17.
  • The covenant was not made with us but with Jesus. It is has nothing to do with our performance therefore is impossible for us to break it, 1 Jn.2:1.
  • God does not bestow blessings on a merit base now. We are all blessed with every blessing in Him.
  • Heb.9:15. The covenant would only come into force after the death of the testator, Heb.9:16. No death, no covenant.
  • What kind of death is this? In the case of both covenants the death was not that of old age but a sacrificial death where a victim was slain for the sins of those represented in the covenant, Heb.9:17-18.
  • Therefore it was a blood covenant, Matt.26:28.
  • ‘Forgiveness’ is from the Greek word aphiemi meaning to send away. On the Day of Atonement sin was dismissed, though not permanently, Heb.10:4. Contrast John 1:29.
  • Cain knew the way to be accepted with God. His offering was evil, 1 Jn.3:12. There is no greater evil than to reject God’s way of salvation. Those in covenant with God come to Him through the blood.
  • Contracts exchange properties: ‘This is mine and this is yours’. But covenants bind persons together: ‘I am yours and you are mine’.
  • A contract is temporary; a covenant is permanent. What makes a covenant permanent is the swearing of oaths which binds a person to fulfilling the words spoken. This was the guarantee of its fulfilment.
  • In the new covenant God swears by Himself and takes both sides of the fulfilment of the covenant – human and divine, Heb.6:13-16. Since He swore it is irrefutable. All depends solely upon Him. This is the only way it can be sure, Heb.6:17-18.
  • This is illustrated when God told Joshua to make no treaty with the inhabitants of the land because of their false gods. The Gibeonites, a tribe of Canaan, tricked them. The elders failed to check out their story, Josh.9:15. This brought them into covenant with Israel.
  • How would they treat them now they were discovered to be liars? See Josh.9:18-19.
  • The covenant was further put to the test when Gibeon was attacked by five Canaanite tribes. God delivered them through Joshua and even performed one of the greatest Old Testament miracles.
  • God will always honour the covenant, not because we are faithful but because He is, Heb.13:5.
  • God does not make a covenant and swear with an oath with us so that He cannot back out, but to impart confidence that He will fulfil the covenant. The new covenant is about what God will do, Jer.31:33-34; Ezek.36:25-27). ‘If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself’ (2 Tim.2:13).
  • Faith, then, is never inward looking. It looks outside of itself to who God is, what He has initiated and what He has promised. Faith does not say ‘Yes, I will try to do it’, but ‘Yes, do what you have said.’
  • God is faithful. ‘For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God’ (2 Cor.1:20 NIV).