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A Covenant Primer (Further Up #9)

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INTRODUCTION

As we consider our moment in history, it is important that we not lose sight of the way God has always dealt with His people over the course of history: through covenant. Covenant is the name of the relationship God has determined to have with His people and ultimately the whole world. But because of who God is, the dominant theme is death and resurrection – which means that God will always keep His promises. We keep covenant in history by believing that.

THE TEXT

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should omake the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:16-24).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul has been explaining covenant history to the Galatians who have been “bewitched” into going backwards, covenantally speaking (Gal. 3:1, 2:18). Specifically, they have succumbed to the Judaizing heresy that wanted to accept Christ as Messiah but continue under the Old Covenant, making distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised (Gal. 2:12). Paul’s argument is that God does not forget or annul any of His promises (Gal. 3:16-18). What God was doing in the time of the law has to be understood in terms of what God began to do with Abraham. The law is not opposed to the promises of God, but it was a schoolmaster to bring us to maturity in Christ (Gal. 3:19-24).

THE COVENANT SCHOOLHOUSE

Paul uses the term “law” somewhat interchangeably with the Mosaic law and the Old Covenant. Clearly he’s talking about Moses in Gal. 3:17, but as he goes on, he seems to be talking about the entire Old Covenant leading up to Christ (Gal. 4:21-22), the era of “tutors and governors” (Gal. 4:2). This image underlines the fact that God’s covenants do not expire and become obsolete and therefore maturity means understanding how they were preparation for growing up into our inheritance in Christ (Gal. 4:7).

The first covenant was made with Adam, and it is called the Covenant of Creation (or sometimes the Covenant of Life or Covenant of Works). While Genesis 2 doesn’t use the word “covenant” all the elements are there, and Hosea says, “But they like men/Adam have transgressed the covenant…” (6:7). A covenant is an agreement between two or more persons, sovereignly administered, with attendant blessings and curses. We can add to this basic definition the common practice of giving covenant signs and seals. In the Covenant of Creation with Adam, the agreement was that Adam would live forever under God’s blessing as he was perfectly obedient to the commands of God, but if he ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he would surely die. The Tree of Life functioned as the sign and seal of the covenant.

THE COVENANT OF GRACE

The Covenant of Grace is what we call the overarching covenant that God made with Christ after Adam sinned. The promise is that the seed of the woman will one day crush the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and the requirement is that Adam believe. The sign of God’s covenant promise is the skins God clothed them with (Gen. 3:21). Within this one, overarching Covenant of Grace are the Old and New Covenants, and within the Old Covenant are a number of covenant renewals that function as those schoolmasters and tutors: covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Ezra. In each covenant era, the previous covenant is not annulled, but each one functions as a teacher to bring us to Christ. Think of it as one overarching story, or like a math course where the lessons are cumulative.

What God taught us in the Noahic Covenant is still true: the death penalty is still applicable for murder, and God will never destroy the world again with a flood. But God came and expanded that covenant to include particular promises to Abraham and his seed for the blessing of all the nations of the earth. Likewise, God remembered that covenant with Abraham and brought Israel out of Egypt and gave them the law and the tabernacle. And then God gave them kings and the temple, and after exile, He renewed covenant once again under the leadership of Ezra, teaching His people how to be faithful in an era of pagan empires. All of these covenants are talking about Christ. He is the seed of the woman, the ark of the gospel, the seed of Abraham/the heir of the world, the Word made flesh who “tabernacled” among us, the Son of David, the true Temple, and our teacher (cf. Lk. 24:27).

COVENANT & SALVATION

Two additional points emerge from reading the Bible this way: First, faith has always been the way of salvation. The Old Covenant saints were saved by believing God’s promises to send the Seed who would crush the head of the serpent, and in the New Covenant we are saved by believing that Jesus is the Seed that has crushed the serpent on the cross. Second, the New Covenant is not made out of stainless steel. It is a new and better covenant, the final covenant, that is far more potent and glorious (Jer. 31) that will fill the whole world, and our election is absolutely sure (e.g. Rom. 8:35), but the Bible teaches that we stand in this certainty by faith alone. New Covenant members can fall away just like in old Israel (1 Cor. 10, Jn. 15, Heb. 10).

CONCLUSION: THE FAITH THAT OVERCOMES THE WORLD

Fundamentally, saving faith is faith in the God of resurrection: “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able to perform” (Rom. 4:19-21). The same faith was on display when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (Heb. 11:19). This was the faith that overcame the world through obedient deliverance and suffering (Heb. 11:34-37). It is the same with covenant history: God takes His people (and the world) into graves and out again.

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Maturity in Ministry (Further Up #8)

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INTRODUCTION

Maturity in ministry means recognizing some of the common pitfalls in evaluating what Christ is calling us to do. The Spirit that knits us together into the body of Christ knows what He is doing, and we can rest in Him. His way of remaking the world is the best way.

THE TEXT

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?”

If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” (1 Cor. 12:13-21)

START WITH THE OBVIOUS

While God does occasionally do the extraordinary, He usually works through ordinary means of the Spirit. And this means beginning with what’s right in front of you: worship God faithfully, honor your parents, be faithful to your spouse and children, and do no harm to others (Ten Commandments). Your ministry in the body of Christ does not include lying, stealing, cheating, committing sexual immorality, or failing to worship Him. You cannot call your bad attitude “just having a different gift.” When the Spirit united you to Christ, He united you with all of your current responsibilities and obligations (1 Cor. 12:13). Whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, it is the same Spirit and the same body of Christ. But while we’re making this point, we really do need to note that many people are drawn to missions, evangelism, hospitality, and mercy ministries as a means of avoiding these central duties. “I’m sensing a call to missions” is not a pious path away from your parents. Jesus had harsh words for those who used traditions to try to justify their disobedience to God’s clear word (Mk. 7:9-13). It is true that Jesus demands absolute allegiance which sometimes means leaving father, mother, sister, or brother, but if that is required, it will ordinarily come as a clear obligation to following Jesus (Mk. 10:37-38).

NO NEW ORPHANS OR WIDOWS

The Bible famously says that pure religion is caring for orphans and widows in their distress (Js. 1:27), but it also says that the family should be first line of defense (1 Tim. 5:4). If any Christian does not provide for the needs of his family, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8). And remember that providing for our families is not a bare subsistence. A husband is required to love His wife like Christ loved the Church, which is generous and lavish, washing her with the water of the word, providing her with warmth and sustenance both physically and spiritually (Eph. 5:25-29). And fathers are required to bring up their children in the sustenance and culture of the Lord Jesus (Eph. 6:4). In other words, a mature understanding of the duty to Christian missions, evangelism, hospitality, and mercy must be held together with the duty of being faithful to the ministry right in front of you. Christians are called to learn to maintain good works that are fruitful for meeting needs (Tit. 3:14). Maturity here means making a distinction between occasional emergency “Good Samaritan” good deeds and the ordinary, ongoing good works of running a household, providing for a family, and using your skills and abilities for the good of the world. Whatever ministry you are called to, it does not include creating any new orphans or widows.

GIVING OUT YOUR ABUNDANCE

In a human body, when the organs do what they were made to do, they pour themselves out and can and do get tired. But their use is actually what causes them to thrive. If you don’t use muscles or organs, they tend to atrophy and grow weak. It really is the same thing in the body of Christ. One of the ways you know what you’re called to is based on what God has given to you and keeps giving to you. The Corinthians gave out of the abundance of their joy, and that combined with their poverty abounded to real generosity (2 Cor. 8:2). This means that they didn’t have a lot to give, but it was such a delight to give that they gave beyond what would seem reasonable, but not beyond what they actually had. God does not call us to give what He has not given to us. (2 Cor. 8:12).

Sometimes we find out that God has given us something because of the need/duty right in front of us (Mk. 6:37, Lk. 10:30ff). God does not intend for us ordinarily to give in such a way as to become a burden to others (2 Cor. 8:13). You should not be so generous one month that you have to apply to the deacons’ fund the next month. That isn’t really generosity. At the same time, occasionally it may be your duty to give what you have, not knowing how God will provide. Accordingly, you should not ordinarily have so many people in your house that your own kids ultimately don’t want to be there. Unfortunately, the “PK” and “MK” stereotypes exist for a reason. But those train wrecks are great blots on the body of Christ. So whatever Christ calls you to in the body, you should be looking for it to be the sort of ministry that your family thrives in. There should be abundance of joy in the sacrifice. Following Jesus always includes a cross, but if you are following Jesus, there is always joy set before you.

CONCLUSION: RADICAL OBEDIENCE

None of this should be taken as somehow soft-peddling the call of discipleship. No, Bonhoeffer was right: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” But we must not be so naïve as to think there are not disobedient ways to die. The sinful heart loves to get off the point. It is not enough to look pious and obedient. You must actually be pious and obedient.

Doing what God has assigned you to do, whatever that may be, both pleases Him and is good for us and the whole body of Christ. Do not underestimate the impact of faithfulness in the little things, and then having been faithful in little things, do not be surprised when you are promoted to bigger things. But remember that the Spirit that is knitting us together in the body is the Spirit of comfort (Jn. 14:16-17).

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Further Up #7: Maturity in the Arts

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INTRODUCTION

We have been indoctrinated by our culture in two great lies when it comes to creativity and the arts. The first lie is that there is no standard — beauty is purely in the eye of the beholder. The second lie is the flip side of the first one — you can create anything. But both lies deny God.

THE TEXT

And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the LORD hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; And to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work. And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work (Exodus 35:30–35).

OBJECTIVITY IN BEAUTY

Faithful Christians have largely held their ground on the objectivity of truth, and to some extent the objectivity of goodness, but we have largely sold the farm when it comes to beauty. We see the evidence of this in many discussions of worship, music, dress, jewelry, and it isn’t five minutes before the most staunch defender of the objectivity of truth, comes back with that great relativistic retort: “Who’s to say?” But the Bible teaches that God is to say. This applies to what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful. He is the ultimate standard. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined” (50:2). We must begin here or else all the other discussions will devolve into pure subjectivism. We do not need to begin by insisting that we know exactly what is beautiful, what is less beautiful, and what is ugly. Rather, we must begin by insisting that there is a standard, and that the living God is that standard.

SUB-CREATORS

The next step is still not having some kind of exhaustive decoder ring or reference manual where you can look up “dissonance,” “color wheels,” and “pink hair.” No, maturity means giving some thought to what God has said and done to reveal to us what true beauty is. The first great revelation of that beauty is His creation. He created the world with all of its beauty and glory, and this means that all human creativity and artistry is fundamentally an act of discovery: finding what God has already put in the world. As JRR Tolkien put it, we are always “sub-creators” under the great Creator. Or else we are blasphemously competing for the job. As sub-creators, we certainly can discover and invent and create in ways that have not been seen or enjoyed before, but anything truly beautiful is merely discovering something that God already invented, something He already thought of. In other words, creativity and artistic skills are fundamentally a humble enterprise not an arrogant one, submission not rebellion.

THE SPIRIT OF CREATION

Darwinism teaches that beauty is random, accidental, and the result of millions of mutations. And that in turn drives a philosophy of creativity that is antithetical to Christ. This is the genesis of modern art, flinging paint, random musical notes, and dumpster diving fashionistas. All of this is the complete opposite of Christian maturity. Random accidents are not things you practice or study or learn (even though people try). But God’s artistic skill can be taught/learned (Ex. 35:34). This skill is not merely an emotional high or some kind of Zen, it comes from “wisdom, understanding, and knowledge” driven and informed by the Spirit of God — the same Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation (Ex. 35:31, Gen. 1:2).

One way Christians have added to their confusion on these topics is through a sub-biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit. While it is true that sometimes the Spirit works in extraordinary and miraculous ways, that isn’t the way the Spirit usually works. The Spirit was the breath of God that weaved the whole world together (Gen. 1:2). The Spirit groans in us for the redemption of all of creation, the restoration of the natural order (Rom. 8:22-26). The Spirit is all about the restoration of our bodies and souls, reason and senses. The Spirit is not irrational; the Spirit breathed out the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16).

Closely related to these themes is the notion of fittingness. Just because something is good and beautiful objectively does not mean that it is fitting in any context. The Spirit created the universe in an orderly way, and part of our discovery and submission to His wisdom is the task of understanding what fits best where. “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion” (Prov. 11:22). “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” (Prov. 25:11).

CONCLUSION: STRONG MEAT

It ought to be firmly fixed in our hearts and minds the difference between refugees from the world and apostles of the world. We should have all kinds of grace and patience for the former and none for the latter. Refugees from the world will have habits, preferences, and tastes that were formed by their former lives in the world, as we all do. But when we come to Christ, we are crucified with Him (Col. 2:20). Your favorite movies, music, clothes, jewelry, fashion – all of it is crucified with Christ and raise back up in Him. The point is not that God doesn’t want you to enjoy the world, or be beautiful, or make anything lovely. He is the God of all beauty, all glory, and at His right hand is the fullness of joy and pleasures forever more (Ps. 16:11).

Our problem is that our tastes have been badly damaged by the Fall. What we think is beautiful and pleasing and lovely is often badly twisted. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Our desires are not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” So we must trust God and His word, learn from our fathers and forefathers, those who have exercised their senses to discern both good and evil (Heb. 5:14). And at the center of it all must be Christ and His glorious cross. It isn’t what you expected or what you were looking for. But it is so good, so true, and so lovely.

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