057 - SHOULD WE ENTER INTO COVENANT WITH GOD?

SHOULD WE ENTER INTO COVENANT WITH GOD? HOW TO ENTER INTO COVENANT WITH THE ETERNAL ONE?

INTRODUCTION

Certainly, you already heard phrases like: "You have to make a covenant (or, if you prefer, make a commitment) with the Eternal One." or "You have to accept Christ in your life." Everything seems perfectly right. Comes the question: to what extent is this true (if it is true)?

I hope that this article edifies you and allow you to find the answer to this question.

WHAT IS A COVENANT?

According to the dictionary, Covenant is:

 

·        Pact or treaty for a particular purpose, uniting harmoniously two things or different people from themselves;

·        The initiative of the Eternal One to make a pact with individuals, as well as with a people to form a family for Himself (Malachi 2.15).

 

An important thing to be highlighted is the ability of the Eternal One to unite two very different individuals so harmonious. One of the biggest mistakes when wanting to build relationships is wanting to join to similar individuals or who has quite an affinity with.

PURPOSE OF THE COVENANT

·       "And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth." (Mal 2.15).

 

Note that, when the Eternal One instituted marriage, He sought for Himself a seed, namely, a seed through which He could express His piety.

Although we glorify the Eternal One walking in purity and holiness, the time in which we glorify the Eternal One the most is when we forgive those who offended us and pass this witness ahead for all those who the Eternal One gives us (as occurred with Christ: although His life of perfection has been something beautiful, the acme of His life was when he gave His life to redeem the creation on Golgotha).

WHAT KIND OF COVENANT DELIGHT JESUS?

 

I have seen many individuals are proposing to make a covenant with the Eternal One (or a covenant with God, if you prefer). Unfortunately, there are few who meditate with depth in Holy Scripture. Analyze the covenants that the Eternal One made with mankind:

 

      1st -           It was the Eternal One who created Adam, made a covenant with him and gave Eva to ratify this covenant and give him conditions to fulfill it fully (Mal 2.13).

o   "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Genesis 2.24).

o   "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1.28)

    2nd -           It was the Eternal One whom called Noah and made a covenant with him:

o   "And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." (Genesis 9.11-13)

      3rd -           It was the Eternal One who called Abraham and made a covenant with him:

o   "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12.1-3).

o   "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." (Genesis 13.16).

o   "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Gen 15.5,6)

      4th -           It was the Eternal One who called Moses and made a covenant with him and, through him, with Israel.

o   "And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient." (Exodus 24.7)

      5th -           It was the Eternal One who called Joshua and made a covenant with him:

o   "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." (Joshua 1.3-9).

      6th -           It was the Eternal One who called Jeremiah:

o   "Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD." (Jer 1.4-8).

      7th -           It was the Eternal One who sent Jesus and made a covenant with His Church through Him:

o   “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3.16).

o   "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (1 John 4.10).

o   "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2Cor 5.18,19).

      8th -           It was the Eternal One, in Jesus Christ, who chose the apostles (and not the other way round):

o   "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." (John 15.16). 

Note in these and in other alliances that the Eternal One did, that always the initiative was of Him. And certainly it had to be thus:

 

o   "And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD." (Jeremiah 30.21).

o   "Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace." (Isaiah 59.7,8).

 

And glory to the Eternal One by the wonderful covenant that He made with the Church through Christ. Do you want covenant better or more excellent than it? Hence Jesus said:

 

o   "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." (John 19.30).

When Jesus said, "it is finished", He was, among other things, wanting to say that the covenant that the Eternal One had done with the human being is completely ready, there is more to be done and not another type of covenant that we invent to try to please Him.

Or we accept the pact that the Eternal One made with us or we simply we are deceiving ourselves and others with a religion that has nothing to do with His good, pleasing and perfect will for us (Romans 12.1):

 

o   "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." (John 13.20).

o   "Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6.28,29).

And the result is to be rejected as occurred with the five fool virgins (Matt 25.12) and the workers of Matthew 7.21-23 (Luke 13.23-28). 

WHAT IS THE CONVENANT THAT THE ETHERNAL ONE MADE WITH US IN JESUS?

Unfortunately, many do not understand even today the message.

 

o   "Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." (Matthew 9.14-17).

Even today, individuals are trying to build their family, fraternal, social relationships and even with the Eternal One based on rights and duties (laws), when the correct is we seek to unite to each other in Christ based on truth.

The covenant of Eternal One with us consists in receiving His grace in us (the life of Christ) and live by Him: 

 

o   "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." (see 1 John 4.8,9).

o   "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:" (John 1.12).

THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN: AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE COVENANT OF CHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.

 

·       "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5.25-27).

 

As the husband must love his wife as Christ loved the Church, nothing more indicated that use marriage as an example of how the Eternal One enters into covenant with us. Thus, to illustrate how the Eternal One assumed His covenant with humanity, let us return to Eden. Remember that the marriage was not the initiative of man, but of the Eternal One:

 

·       "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." (Genesis 2.18).

 

When the right time came, the Eternal One made man rest in Him (Genesis 2.21), took one of his ribs, made the woman and brought her to him. Note that Adam did not need to go behind Eve: The Eternal One brought her to Adam and joined both when Adam identified himself with the woman (Genesis 2.24).

In other words: when the Eternal One wants to join us, He makes us rest and wait on Him (Psalm 37.7), works the heart of the one through whom He wishes to operate in us (and we in him), and then brings the individual to us to knock on the door of our heart (Rev 3.20). If we open our hearts to this individual, we are receiving also the Christ:

 

·       "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." (Matthew 10.40).

·       " Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matthew 25.34-40).

 

In other words, the covenant of Christ is rooted in our lives every time we receive in us those whom Jesus brings (see 2 Corinthians 3.1-3).

WHAT IS THE CONVENANT OF JESUS WITH EACH ONE?

The principle you say: Jesus is our covenant!

Correct! However, there is something unique and special that the Eternal One wishes to express to the universe through each one of us:

 

·       "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant." (Psalm 25.14).

 

As the stars of heaven has its singular identity (Psalm 147.4) and brightness (1 Corinthians 15.41), so each one should make the light of Christ shine in this world in a singular way (Matthew 5.14-16). In other words, there is something unique that the Eternal One wishes to manifest in you of His manifold wisdom (Eph 3.10) and grace (1 Peter 4.10) that until now He didn’t, nor will in the years ahead. He will manifest this exclusively through you. 

And as this is a secret between the Eternal One and every living being, it is up to us to find out from Him what is the nature of His covenant with us (for which He created us). Nobody else knows (nor even the angels), inasmuch as it is a secret. And, unless you try to see His covenant in our lives, we are doomed to go through this world as clouds without water, propelled by the wind, i.e., without making a difference in the lives of anyone and vice-versa.

Unfortunately, the majority leaves the brightness of Christ in their life clear.

CONCLUSION

Well, what will our choice: live a life shy, struggling just to survive and grow in the pleasures of the flesh, without any more noble reason to live and to dedicate ourselves, or are we going to love your neighbor the way that Jesus loved us (John 13.34,35) (accept the covenant that the Eternal One establish with us in Christ)?