Covenants

Galatians 3:15-18

We all have entered into covenants and in my case and in yours, they started at a very young age.  My first one, that I remember, was playing hide-an-seek with my brother Freddie and my sister Doris, and I promised not to open my eyes until I counted to ten.  I also recall Tommy Black and I making forts in the farmer’s maze field and promising each other that we would not attack their position till they had finished making the fort, yes, those were covenants.   That brings us to verse fifteen, “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.”  In our legal system a covenant is; a contract drawn up by deed and it is binding unless the parties agree to amend it. 

In the same way that we learned to enter into covenants at such an early age, we also learned the art of cheating, or being a covenant breaker at an early age; often we opened our eyes before the count had reached ten, or I got mad because my brother and sister went outside of the perimeters that were pre-set in our covenant, and I would go to the Judge (Mother) and make them abide by the contract drawn up in our living room.

The subtitle in my Bible is, “The Law and the Promise” and verse sixteen gives a very clear understanding of who is part of the covenant that this Scripture is referring to.  “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.  It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one. “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.  It is so amazing to look back on your life at the many covenants you and I have entered and also, to our shame, the many that we have broken, but the good news is that God is a covenant God, and He is not like us, He keeps his covenants.  Picking up the story of this covenant between God and Abraham and his seed, or (offspring) in verses 17-18, “This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annual a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.  For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.”

What a God!  I am so thankful our God is a “Covenant God”, that He does not change, and I am reminded that all who have entered into Christ by faith, have entered into a “New Covenant.”  Matthew 26:27-28, gives us clear understanding of this “New Covenant”, “And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  Look with me at Hebrews 9:14-15, “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God.  Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”  The blood of Christ has set us free!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice