Covenants Made Simple
Our Westminster Confession of Faith says, “The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.” What are they saying? In short, God deals with no man except through covenant. Covenant structures everything from the order of our Bibles, the order of our wedding services, even the very order of our lives. Then why do we understand so little of them today? Jonty Rhodes seeks to alleviate that problem with his book, Covenants Made Simple. In this book, Jonty Rhodes takes large ideas and breaks them into carefully crafted graphics, insightful anecdotes, and a host of familiar words and phrases so that all can understand how covenants work.
Rhodes discusses covenants in two overarching frameworks - covenants in history and covenants in practice. He wants us to see the warp and woof of covenants in Scripture and why they matter to our lives. One cannot but appreciate such a simplistic, applicable aim. As I have often said, “If it is not practical, it is not important.” All doctrine is given to us for both faith and practice, and none more so than covenants.
Now, what is a covenant? A covenant is an agreement between two parties with certain obligations and promises. We all know what covenants are, don’t we? Marriage stands a type of covenant, along with last wills and testaments. Covenants form some of the largest decisions in our lives, so we should not be surprised to find them in Scripture. The first covenant we find in Scripture is between God and Adam, along with all those who descend from him. We call this the “Covenant of Works,” and all mankind is born under this covenant. God held forth to Adam the promise of eternal life if he kept the obligation of perfect obedience. Unfortunately, we all know that Adam sinned in the Garden. Sin brings covenant curses - death and all the miseries of this life. We all lie under those curses, do we not? Does not our conscience convict us of our failures in the perfect, personal, perpetual obedience required of us? Do we not see swatches of lost souls seeking to live by performance alone? These and many more are the signs of the Covenant of Works still at play in our lives. This should alert us all to the applicability of covenants and the danger fallen man is in.
Besides the Covenant of Works, God has been pleased to extend a Covenant of Grace in Jesus Christ. Jonty Rhodes takes us from the edge of the Garden of Eden to the edge of the Garden outside Christ’s tomb to show us the unfolding of God’s gracious covenantal purposes. What we see in each era of redemptive history is the continuity of God’s promises that are further escalated as the time of Christ draws near.
Though after the Fall Adam received the promises as a seed, we now enjoy their bountiful fruit. Once we see how God interacts with His people through time, we will grow in our appreciation in how graciously He deals with us in times of affliction and sorrow, times of sin and discipline, times of joy and growth. From what we do on Sunday to what we do in our prayer closets are directly influenced by this gracious covenant. Our God has bound Himself to us with many great and precious promises, with a covenant. We must learn what it means to live in covenant with God.
Church, do you want to know your Bible better? Do you want to know your God better? God deals with man in no other way but covenant, so join us on Wednesday nights as we learn exactly how and why God deals with us in such a way. If you have not picked up a copy, please let Pastor Zach know. Copies are available for free.
