Covenant Relationship With God

Covenant Relationship With God

A Personal Relationship With God

covenant--A solemn agreement or compact between two or more parties. "My covenant shall stand fast with him" (Psalms 89:28).


Gen 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 17:2And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly

What is the significance of God’s covenant with Abraham? This covenant represents the development of faith from so-called “blind” faith to faith that becomes great through spiritual understanding.


The most oft repeated feature of the promises to Abraham can be easily overlooked. Notice how the personal pronouns are the key words: " I will establish my covenant…between me and you and your descendants…to be your God…I will be their God" (Gen. 17:6-8).

God Almighty is committing Himself to Abraham and Abraham's seed in a way so insistent and so awesome that only contemplation of it can invoke the true sense of wonder which we ought to have at being in covenant relationship with God Almighty.

The fact that the basis of our relationship with God is an eternal covenant means that we do not drift in and out of fellowship with God according to our awareness of Him. We are His people. Every hour of every day.


What is indispensable to the proper observance of a covenant? A substantial understanding and a willingness to observe the terms and provisions of the covenant. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”


Gen 17:9 And God said unto Abraham, And as for thee, thou shalt keep my covenant, thou, and thy seed after thee throughout their generations. 17:10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee: every male among you shall be circumcised.

What significance to us has the rite of circumcision? “Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter.” It signifies clean, upright, unselfish, faith-centered life, with everything that would interfere with its proper functioning eliminated.

53. His disciples asked him: "Is circumcision useful or not?" He replied: "If it were useful then they would be born already circumcised. On the other hand, true circumcision in the spirit is entirely beneficial.' (The Gospel of Thomas Saying 53)


Jeremiah, one of the greatest of the Prophets has the vision of God making a covenant with man. And he says, “I will put my law in their inward parts and in their heart while I write it, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.” It was probably the first awareness of the law of consciousness, the law of mind action, the law of cause and effect.




Jeremiah, for example, prophesized that the new covenant will not be written on tablets of stone (externally recorded) but rather on the heart, meaning within the mind. See Eph 1:18 Note S. "Jeremiah sees the terms of the new covenant written not on tables of stone, i.e., promulgated externally, but written upon the heart, i.e., understood by the mind of each member of the restored Israel (31:22f)." (244)

“I WILL BE WITH YOU”

There are two other things promised to Abraham and his descendants: “I will be their God…I will be with you” (Gen. 17:8; 26:3; 28:15 cf. Ex. 6:7). The Lord Jesus Christ is ‘God with us’ (Emmanuel, Is. 7:14).




In what way did Jesus Christ become the “mediator of a new covenant”? Jesus proved anew that, by loving the things of spiritual significance and seeking to express them, man enters into a vital relation with God and finds the satisfaction that is “life indeed.” This bringing of life and immortality to light gave men a new understanding of God and led them to enter into a new relation with him.



Third, Paul illustrates that an oath of God stands behind Jesus' priesthood. "Another distinctive mark of the new covenant is that an oath (of God) accompanied its establishment. Priests in the Levitican order took their office without an oath. The high priest of the new covenant was addressed with an oath. Through the prophetic scriptures PS 110:4, God assured him [Jesus] that his appointment was firm and unchangeable. God is not going to change his mind [Paul concluded]. Jesus is, therefore, the surety of a better covenant because behind him and his mission stands the determination of God himself, who has bound himself with an oath and thereby firmly established his promise to men" GEN 7:20-22