God’s
covenant,
the inner dynamic of creation
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A series of
four studies on the matter of covenant. |
| by
Grant Thorpe |
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What lies
at the heart of this world and of our life? Is it evolutionary
process? Is it self-generation? Many think that it is.
Many can point out that evolutionary thinking has been
good for science, helpful to our understanding of the
natural world, and so, good for our progress in life. |
| This may
or may not be so. The question is whether our postulations
can speak to the depths of what a human being is. Is there
nothing but a complex of processes, a mystery of chance
and a survival of the fittest behind our life? These ideas
do not account for the grandeur of a human being or of
the mystery of what takes place between us–or above
us. |
| Rather,
the Bible tells us of a covenant in which God is bonded
to us. He pursues this actively and specifically and no
person or nation or any part of the creation is excluded
from his compass. |
| God has
never abandoned what he has made. This creation is his
and he loves it. He has never jettisoned his purpose to
have creation come to its goal and perfection. With a
view to this, he has revealed the nature of his relation
to the creation and that relation is revealed to us as
a covenant–or, in a series of covenants. |
| Nothing
should take away from the simple majesty of God creating
the heaven and the earth. This must constantly bring us
to awe and worship and thankfulness. What I am saying
is that, by covenant, God has opened himself up to us,
and opened us up to himself–and shown us that the
creation is to be understood in the way he has come to
us covenantally. |
| Because
of our sinfulness and fears, our scepticism and hostility,
this bond has been revealed in the context of our sad
history and in the midst of great need. It has been sealed
or confirmed to us in a particular ways–usually including
the spilling of blood. |
| The covenants
are revealed to us–through Israel in particular–to
show that God has accepted responsibility for what he
has made. They have told us the next stage in his purpose,
and have provided for us while things are still unfinished
and even chaotic in this world. They have been given so
that we can live in the present by the dynamics of the
final and perfected age. |
| They specifically
show that responsibility for the relationship between
us is borne by God, that he will not allow our sinfulness
to foil his purpose for us and that he will bring us to
responsible participation in all that he has purposed. |
| If this
is going to quickly, then let me tell more of the story. |
A
covenant with Noah |
Take Noah
for a start. In his day, ‘the LORD saw that the wickedness
of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination
the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.
And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the
earth, and it grieved him to his heart.’
|
Genesis
6:5—6 |
| This was
the reason for the great flood that wiped out all human
creatures–except Noah and his family. The question
for us is: Can we expect to be wiped out every time we
pollute the earth with our violence and greed and fear?
This question exercises many people today. |
| God confirmed
his covenant with us all after that flood. He said he
would never again allow the elements to destroy the earth.
Rather, there would always be a cycle of seasons to provide
food for the world. |
| The message
God has given is: He will preserve our race even though
our violence grieves him to his heart. The rainbow is
the sign of this covenant and it is still the basis for
God’s relating to us. |
| God’s
preserving of the creation was not a new thing of course.
What God promised was that he would continue to do what
a faithful Creator always does. The difference now is
that he has promised this to a race which has conclusively
demonstrated that it cannot do it of itself. |
| It appears
that God was confirming an existing arrangement when he
confirmed this covenant–that is, confirmed rather
than made it with them for the first time. God’s
bondedness to his creation arises from his being Creator.
Covenant is the opening up of this relationship. In other
words, from the beginning, God has been in covenant relationship
with his creation. |
| From the
story of Noah, we begin to see what a covenant is. It
is certainly not an agreement or a contract. We had no
say in it. We did not need to have any say in it–God
was the only one obligated! But we certainly need to know
about it and to live in it. |
| Who can
live with the naked results of their own living? Every
day we spend some time hoping for a forgiving environment.
Even if people live by a stern law, they hope that there
will be no discovery of their wrongs. Better to have the
covenant which God has made with his creation than to
hope for luck or to hope that our sinning will remain
unknown. |
| The whole
earth may be full of violence, but it is also full of
the loving kindness of the Lord. Loving kindness is what
God showed to Israel–but the whole earth is full
of it So people in all countries may call on him in their
distress–though they have no worthiness to do so. |
Psalm
33:5 |
A
covenant with Abraham |
The story
of God’s care for the creation continues with his
calling Abraham to travel to a new land where he would
know the blessing of God. As a man with no family, God
promised to give him a son, and, through him, to build
a nation through whom blessing would come to the world. |
| Again, God
made this promise a covenant. ‘I will make you exceedingly
fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall
come from you. I will establish my covenant between me
and you, and your offspring after you throughout their
generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to
you and to your offspring after you’ |
Genesis
17:6—7 |
| This was
the beginnings of Israel. If nations acknowledged the
truth revealed to that people, and thanked God for them,
they would be blessed. If they despised this revelation
and the nation through which it came, they would be under
a curse of God. It was a covenant with Abraham but it
was for all the world. |
| The promise
sustained Abraham and his family after him. It sustained
the nation of Israel as they took up their place in the
promised land. They had the promise of blessing upon them.
But this blessing was so that they could be a light to
all the nations–they knew their God, they knew that
their relation to him was not of their own making and
it was not deserved by their merit. |
| Through
their history, they were taught to look to their God and
to a Messiah who would come and who would fulfil the promises
of God to them. Their righteousness consisted not in their
deeds but in their faith in God concerning this. |
| When Israel
thought that their deeds were worthy of merit, or that
their traditional roots in God would save them, God gave
them up to disaster and defeat–but still promised
them a future and a hope and reaffirmed that everything
about their life depended on him. He told them again and
again that they could trust in him and in his Messiah
to put them in the right. |
| Adam (and
all of us) had wished to be his own legislator and judge.
He wished to find the resources of goodness within himself.
This went right against the truth that everything–especially
goodness–flowed from the Creator. Covenant reveals
this centre of created life and casts us back on our Maker.
There we find, wonderfully, that he has remained bonded
to us. |
| Human beings
cannot truly live without covenant. It is the statement
by God, and embedded in Israel’s (and our) history
that he is God and not us, that he is good and not us,
that he is faithful and not us, but, that we are brought
to what God has for us through his promise. |
| Covenant
is the true home for our development of a way of life.
Without it, culture becomes a hiding place from God, the
battlements we erect to make him redundant, the fortresses
from which we assert ourselves and destroy our neighbours.
|
| God’s
covenant relationship to us is the affirmation–in
the presence of our stubbornness–that our life flows
from our Creator and not from ourselves. In covenant we
have continuity with God, life flowing from him–in
peace, fruitfulness and joy. |
Are
any excluded from covenant? |
The stories
of Noah and Abraham have shown that God relates covenantally
with every living creature. Clearly, some are outside
of the benefits of covenant. They are children of wrath.
But God’s covenant remains the way of God for his
whole creation. It is the rationale and hope of the creation.
It has been this way from the beginning and our sinfulness
has only further revealed the unchangeable nature of God’s
purpose. |
| Not to be
in covenant relation with God–who sustains covenant
relation to all things–is to be unknown by the one
who knows all things; it is to be ‘outside’
of him in whom we live and move and have our being; it
is a living death. But if covenant has been revealed to
a person or people, that knowledge works powerfully to
bring them into the good of that truth. |
| Israel’s
special history was for the benefit of all peoples–the
blessing was for all nations, their temple was to be a
house of prayer for all nations, their life was to be
a light to the nations and so that they in turn could
walk in that light. |
| In the church,
God has a covenant people. But the church is not separated
from the world by this privilege. Rather, they are a light
to the world, a true exponent of creation, a servant of
God for the good of all. |
| When Jesus
rose from the dead, he commanded his disciples to proclaim
his good news to the whole creation and to make disciples
of all nations. He did not see any culture, or any person,
being outside the benefit of what he had done in his life
and death and resurrection. |
| God does
not speak to those who are not his. All the nations belong
to the Lord. He sent Jesus Christ for all the nations
and every person. He sent him for the sake of the whole
creation. |
| When Jesus
Christ died, he died for all. He died for the sins of
the whole world. He offered himself to make atonement
or reconciliation for the whole creation. God’s purpose
in him was to unite all things in him–things in heaven
and things on the earth. |
| Everything
could now take its proper place. Jesus said: ‘if
the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed’.
The slavery to which people submitted would be abolished
and they could live to God as they were created to do. |
©
Grant Thorpe |
