Genesis 9:16 “The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
A covenant is an agreement stamped with blood, set forth for eternity between God and man. It is kept by God and those who trust in the Lord. There is great blessing in store for those who live under its promises but there is also a dire warning.
To offend the covenant is prove oneself as someone who despises the holiness and sanctity of God’s promises.
All of the earth is held to God’s standard and eternal judgement falls upon the offender. For those who walk in relationship with God, they understanding the necessity of faithfulness.
Why is the Covenant so significant?
Genesis 17:7 “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.”
The covenant reflects the very nature of God. It isn’t a casual agreement but rather is binding, deeply personal, and often sealed in blood or sacrifice. When searching scripture you find God relating to His people through a Covenant.
- The Noah Covenant (Genesis 9): God promises to never flood the earth again.
- The Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12, 15, 17) When God promised a land for His people, descendants, and blessing.
- The Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19-24): When God gave the Moral law at Sinai.
- The Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7) When God gave the promise of an everlasting kingdom through David’s line.
- The New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34)(Luke 22:20): Which was fulfilled in Jesus who offers forgiveness of sin and eternal relationship with God for all who believe.
Genesis 17:19 “Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.”
God does not lie or fail in His promises. When He enters into covenant with His people His unchanging faithfulness is revealed once again.
Ezekiel 37:26 “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore.”
For those who partake of God’s covenant, they have promises that will never change.
- Promises of eternal faithfulness.
- Promises of peace.
- Promises that cascade down from generation to generation.
Jeremiah 32:40 “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.”
For those who enter into this sacred agreement, the promise of God’s continual goodness may seem like a hope too good to believe. He knows human frailty and so He supplies His people with the strength to remain diligent.
Entering In…
What does it look like to enter into a covenant with the Lord? If we sat down with God and He presented the scenario to a group of people and there was interest, what would be the next step?
Today, it is the New Covenant that brings people into relationship with the Lord. When Jesus gave His blood upon the cross at Calvary, He made a way for us to enter into relationship with God. Jesus’ sacrifice was great and the demand to accept and believe in Him is well defined. It calls for loyalty, obedience, and love. Attributes that come through a relationship with the God of love.
Sin separates us from God. but the call He gave to Israel is the same call He makes to His people today.
Leviticus 26:11-12 “I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
The dwelling place of God has become His own people. The anointing of God is given through His Spirit to those who trust and obey. Righteousness is to walk in covenant relationship with God and faithfulness is the response of love.
For those who walk in relationship with Him, the walk will continue for eternity.
Psalm 105:7-11 “He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
He remembers His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance,”
What seems like promises only for Israel becomes a promise to His people.
Adopted into the Flock
God’s people were those who were represented by the nation of Israel. The seed of Abraham received the Abrahamic covenant promise of blessings for the descendants, but now God has grafted into this same vine a people of faith. For both Jew and Gentile, the people who carry on the faith of Abraham are those called the children of God.
Romans 11:16-18 “For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.”
The root of faith was Abraham’s faith in God’s promises. The promise of a Messiah was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and now He has grafted all who believe in Him into the same root of faith.
1 Corinthians 12:13 “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.”
Jesus not only made the New Covenant, He fulfilled it by becoming the Covenant Himself.
Luke 22:20 “Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
This is why communion is so sacred…it represents the unbreakable bond true christians have with God in Christ.
The Unbreakable Bond
Because the Lord both formed and completed the New Covenant with His people, only He can truly break the bond. His people are sealed with His Spirit and now walk in His love.
He keeps them, guides them like as their Shepherd and protects them as they go.
Hebrews 9:15 “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
There is no other way in the world that carries such significance. There is no other hope that carries such promise.
If you want to enter into relationship with God, Jesus is the only way. When you confess your faith in Christ and believe in His salvation, you are sealed with His blood and enter into Covenant with God.
It will be a loving relationship that will endure forever.
U.T. 