The God That Keeps Covenant

I have been thinking and praying today about "The God That Keeps Covenant." I am considering the idea of covenant, especially the idea of the covenant of grace, the idea that God keeps both sides of the covenant. The covenant is simply God's promise, God's formal declaration that He will perform what He said He would do. God enters into an agreement with Abraham that He will make him a mighty nation and bless all nations through him (Genesis 12). In an ordinary covenant, both parties would be equally obligated to keep the terms of the covenant, and this is also true of the covenant that God makes with Abraham. However, God does something different here. God puts Abraham to sleep and keeps both sides of the covenant. In other words, God declares that He will make sure that His will cannot be frustrated by man's failure to keep the covenant: God will keep the covenant for him! And how will He do this? As it turns out, by keeping covenant in Christ. In other words, Christ Jesus keeps the covenant on our behalf. Through His death, burial and resurrection, Christ Jesus perfectly performs the terms of the covenant, and God keeps His agreement with Abraham and the children of Abraham in Christ. In Christ, all nations of the earth shall be blessed. In Christ, all things shall be made new. Of course, there is one more step in this process: the mediated presence of Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit enacts and performs the terms of the covenant (obedience) within us. God keeps covenant in Christ through the Holy Spirit within us.

This is such an incredible idea! God ensures that His faithfulness cannot be frustrated by perfectly fulfilling the terms of the covenant in Christ and filling us with His Spirit so that Christ may live out the terms of the covenant (perfect obedience) in us. So, then we must simply place our trust in Christ and be filled with His righteousness, with His perfect obedience. This perfect righteousness is manifest in Christ and exemplified in Communion. Communion is a matter of renewing covenant with God, but it is not a matter of us renewing a vow that we have made with God in ourselves—no, it is a matter of the covenant in Christ's blood, the covenant that God has made with us, that He will save His people from their sins and make all things new in the resurrection. When we receive communion, we are celebrating the covenant that God has made with us in Christ. We have been baptized into this covenant. We are plunged into the faithfulness of Christ. We are submerged in the perfect obedience of Christ. God keeps the covenant within us. He is the God that keeps covenant.