A long time ago, a favorite author presented this quote: “Out of wonder, worship is born.”[1] I have proven this true so many times as discovering some treasure of wisdom and knowledge in God’s word fills my heart with wonder at such gifts of grace that I can’t help but express worship to God for making himself known to me.
This was once again God’s gift as I considered the amazing expression about Jesus: “I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people”.[2] What struck me this morning was that the very concept of a covenant with God was more magnificent than my soul had yet considered (I love it when that happens!). It was as though a familiar scene in the Divine Tapestry suddenly drew me to look closer at the threads that wove the story. And as I looked at the fine artistry of the weaving, wonder quickly took my hand to led me on the journey.
The first thing I considered
was the definition of “covenant”.
Covenant: covenant n. — a contractual arrangement
between God and a person, or between human beings, which required binding
action from one or both parties; one party often had higher status in the
arrangement.[3]
Just to consider this description made me feel a wave of reverence and awe at the loving determination of God to make it happen. But it also made me want to know how a covenant was “a contractual arrangement” but was not limited to a contract. I looked and found this:
What is a Contractual Agreement?
A contractual agreement is a legally binding agreement between two parties. The contract's terms and conditions will require the parties to either do or refrain from doing specific actions. A contractual agreement is legally enforceable if it meets these specific requirements:
Offer and Acceptance: One party must make an offer, and the other party must accept that offer.
Mutual Consent: Offer and acceptance must occur
mutually and without coercion.
Consideration: Consideration means that something of value is exchanged between the parties, whether money, goods or services.
Competence: Parties entering the contract must be legally competent. Parties cannot be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, mentally deficient, or a minor.
Legal Purpose: The contract cannot require any
unlawful action.[4]
So a covenant is a form of “contractual arrangement” but is beyond it, or greater than a mere contract. What then is the primary difference between a contract and a covenant? Answer: a contract is null and void if someone breaks it, while a covenant continues even when it is broken. Wow!
In the overwhelming perfection of the steadfast love of God, God himself ordains a covenant that will not fail EVEN WHEN WE BREAK IT!!! It is permanently secure because of God’s side of the arrangement. It is “HE who began a good work in you” who “WILL bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”[5] And it is God “who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,” so that, “to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”[6]
This new covenant in Jesus Christ would so outshine the old covenant that when Jesus said, “It is finished!”,[7] the covenant between God and his elect could never be null-and-void!!!
As the pondering of God’s covenantal love overwhelmed me, I was drawn to another thread that seemed to be woven all through the Divine Tapestry: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”[8]
When I looked at this in context, I felt the wonder grow into even deeper layers of worship. When God searches me and knows me, and when he knows when I sit down and when I rise up, and when he discerns my thoughts from afar and searches out my path, and he searches out my lying down and is acquainted with all my ways, and even before a word is on my tongue he knows it altogether, even then, knowing all that about me, he is faithful and determined and love-consumed to hem me in both behind and before, and lay his hand upon me as a Father putting his hand on his son’s shoulder in the securest love ever.[9]
I share this in the hope that the wonders of the new covenant in Jesus’ blood will move you with how secure the child of God is because of the finished work of Christ. We can never empty the ocean of God’s grace by all our drinking of its undeserved provisions.
But I also
share this in the hope that you will desire to spend time with God in his word
and prayer every day of your life because the wonders of God never cease as we
attach to him in faith. As God himself says, his mercies are new every morning,
and the best way to find them is by opening the spotlight of God’s word to
shine light on the glories of his covenantal love.
© 2023 Monte
Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email:
in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless
otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by
Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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