The Everlasting Covenant - 6.7 The Everlasting Covenant

Home > Abraham to Sinai >
Email | Print | 
.

6.7 The Everlasting Covenant
by Hubert F. Sturges, www.everlastingcovenant.com, October 2009

Topics:
The Everlasting Covenant
Features of the Everlasting Covenant
I Shall be to them a God
They shall be to Me a People

The Everlasting Covenant

To keep order in all of His creation, God has a law. There are the physical laws we study in high school. And there is the moral law that tells us what is right and wrong.

All the angels, and all created beings want to do what God says. Of course! If they had any sense they would keep the law. To break the law you might fall down and break a bone. If you kill somebody, steal, or commit adultery, think of the trouble and chaos that would happen! God made this law to keep everyone happy and loving each other.

Everybody willingly kept the law . . . . until Adam disobeyed God and sinned. In doing so, he sold himself to the devil and all the human race. To break the law is to separate from God; and to separate from God is to die.

Even before this world was created the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit went into a council and set up the Plan of Salvation. This was also called the covenant, the everlasting covenant. Please note, this covenant was made by God Himself. No human beings were there to take part. In this council God worked out what He would do to rescue, ransom, or redeem man from sin.

Jesus, Jehovah, the second person of the Godhead, offered to come and live as a man and take the punishment of the broken law by His death on Calvary. This plan was called the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel, or the Everlasting Covenant. Even though Adam sold us out to Satan, God would not abandon His creation. He would Himself take the punishment of death and save man.

What is this “Everlasting” covenant (6)? I thought there was an old covenant for the Old Testament and a new covenant for the New Testament. Now wait just a minute! We will talk about this. For now, what does “everlasting” mean? The dictionary says that everlasting is eternal, or lasting for an indefinite time. Hmmmm, well . . . The everlasting covenant was made before Creation. 1 Peter 2:9 is quoted from Exodus 19:5,6 indicating a covenant that spans both the old and new testaments.

Finally, in Revelation 21:3, God is pictured as making His home on earth with us, and the covenant promise is repeated! No question! There is just one covenant between God and man. God has always been proud of His creation. He loves His creation (John 3:16). And He wants to live with us in His creation for eternity!

Features of the Everlasting Covenant

What exactly, makes up the everlasting covenant? What things should a person look for to identify the covenant? Here are a few:

Substitution – Jesus would take man’s sin and die to pay the price of the broken law
Through the gift of grace man is reconciled to God, forgiven, restored, and blessed
In grateful response, man exercises faith in Jesus Christ and consents to grace in his life
Divine Presence: “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” Heb. 8:10
God’s people commissioned to take His message to the world
God’s people to be a witness of the blessing of God in their lives.

The covenant between God and man offers a framework for our understanding of God. Every time that God declares Himself and every time He makes a promise He is invoking His everlasting covenant with man. This covenant makes plain His will so we pray more intelligently. Truth fits into a logical pattern. In gratitude for what He has done, God becomes the center of our lives and we seek to honor His name.

The “covenant of redemption” is a term applied to the covenant after Adam sinned.

The “covenant of grace” describes the practical application of the everlasting covenant through history. God offers life and salvation through Christ to all who believe. Belief or faith, is the sole condition of the covenant. It is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8 - 9) but even a gift requires that we submit to the glorious plan God has for our lives.

There is only one covenant made by God “before the foundation of the world.” All repetitions of the Covenant of God are applications of this covenant with special blessings needed by the people at the time. There were also a number of human covenants whereby men dedicated themselves to the Everlasting Covenant of God. Since this covenant was made by God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, it is everlasting, unbreakable, and sure. For “His mercy endureth forever” (Psalm 136). Please read this over so that it is clear!

Men may refuse the covenant, reject it, remove themselves from it, but they cannot change the covenant or add to it.

God did not tell this to mankind all at once. It may be hard to understand everything the first time. Feel free to register on the Gospel and Covenant Forum and post questions and comments. You will get answers from me as well as others who are registered participants. You are also invited to email me at hfsturges@gmail.com

I will be to them a God

The Divine Presence is the underlying promise of the covenant. God still works through His creation, and He will restore all things. What is God like? Here are some verses:

    “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).
    “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
    “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).
Sounds wonderful. God is not just trying to catch a person in sin so He can throw him in the lake of fire. He is using all the resources of Heaven to save him! Jesus Christ, the Creator God, even came to earth to live and die to save mankind. That is what God is like.

Since Adam sinned, man has tried to hide from God. God was not happy with this. He wants to visit and to work with man to the full extent of his mental and spiritual powers. In every repetition of the Covenant He is “Emmanuel, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). He is the God who accompanied Israel through their desert wanderings. And He is the God who desires to come close to us in all aspects of our lives. “Lo, I am with you always,” said Jesus to His disciples (Matthew 28:20).

What exactly is a “god?” We use the term to describe something that fills our thoughts and becomes the focus of our lives. Today, our “gods” might include sports figures, Hollywood characters, politicians, money, fame, material things, even our opinions. In Ancient Israel the temptation was to idolatry, the worship of other “gods.” Thus the emphasis for Israel: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4), and the first commandment of the ten: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Now as well as then, we must make God first.

Jehovah, the great Creator God is Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord. He must be to us the God of all; first in our lives, in our thinking and in our plans—or He is not to us a God at all!

They shall be to Me a people

The Presence of God in our lives will also change us. We will become to Him “a people.” We humans are always impressed by power. The Bible tells us that God is all powerful. “Is there anything too hard for the Lord” (Genesis 18:14)? But God is rarely shown in a display of fireworks. The rare occasions were at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19), Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18:36-38), and maybe a few other places. When God passed by and allowed Moses to see Him as he moved away, he declared, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).

The glory of God is not shown primarily in brilliant light, loud noises, or powerful demonstrations. It is best shown in His character. And this is how He chooses to show His power today—to restore man to His image, to change men's lives, to make of them “new creatures.”

Through obedience to His law the image of God in man is restored. The ten commandment law is preceded by this covenant statement: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:2). The God who brought them out of bondage and slavery in Egypt, will also deliver them from sin and make of them “an holy nation (7).”

To read this verse before each of the ten commandments is to understand that these commands are also promises of what God will do in your life through grace. God will make us again “His people.” Heaven is the place where “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

In accord with modern times here is a beautiful statement:

    “All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.
    “Those who decide to do nothing in any line that will displease God, will know, after presenting their case before Him, just what course to pursue. And they will receive not only wisdom, but strength. Power for obedience, for service, will be imparted to them, as Christ has promised.” White EG: The Desire of Ages, 668.