This contribution is about the connection between the covenant that God establishes with people and the teaching of faith that one generation passes on to another. I would like to say something about this by paying attention to these three points:

1. What is the relationship between covenant and instruction in the Bible?

2. What does the Reformation contribute to us in regard to this matter?

3. What is the meaning of the covenant for the teaching of faith in our present time?

Biblical data⤒🔗

It strikes us that in the congregation of Israel in the Old Testament the covenant of God with his people forms the basis for education and instruction. In this book about the covenant, we have already dealt with the question of how we should understand the covenant in the Bible. That is why I can be brief about this now. I would like to put it like this: that the covenant is the gracious relationship that the Lord God initiates with people. That is a miracle. Of themselves, people are not looking for God, but in the covenant God is looking for those people. That is why the covenant is a covenant of mercy. It is only by grace that the Lord wants to have fellowship with sinful people.

As the God of the covenant, the Lord promises something: his salvation, in the all-encompassing sense of the word. But the Lord God at the same time also asks something from us, namely that the man he incorporates in his covenant would also respond to this covenant relationship in faith and repentance. That is however not a counter-compensation by man. But that also is God’s work, who through his Spirit works in the heart of man the response to his covenant.

You could also say: in the covenant God makes himself known to people, and now it matters that people get to know him through this. Then they will start to live with him and unto him.

And so we have arrived also at the connection between the covenant and the instruction of faith. This teaching is the learning process of the congregation of Israel through which people come to respond to the covenant relationship with God.

We can think, for example, of the "Bar mitzvah" of young boys and the "Bat mitzvah" of young girls at about 13 years of age. It is at that time that one becomes "Son (or daughter) of the commandment" and then also receives the rights and obligations that belong to a life within the covenant.

In this connection I am thinking about the rite of circumcision in Israel. At this occasion the foreskin of the child was removed. This actually demands the circumcision of the heart. Instruction in faith is therefore the learning process that seeks to bring it all together.

What is the situation like in the Christian congregation of the New Testament? I believe that the covenant also plays a very important role in this. The church is the church of the covenant. Here it concerns the new covenant, which has as its foundation the salvation of Christ. When the congregation is called "holy," then this is an indication of the covenant (1 Corinthians 1:2). Baptism is the sign that you belong to the church of the covenant, or in other words, that you belong to Christ. The children also belong to this church. They too are holy (1 Corinthians 7:14), just as their parents. We must therefore also see the instruction in this context. People, including children, must learn to live as children of the covenant. In the New Testament baptism is the sign and seal of the covenant. The water of baptism cleanses the body. But ultimately it is all about the heart of man being cleansed. This requires the learning process that leads people to this goal. In Matthew 28:19 this goal is described as being a disciple, being a follower of Jesus. It comes to expression in the profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

Think of Timothy’s profession (1 Timothy 6:12). In these data it concerns the teaching prior to the baptism of adults. Content-wise, the teaching within the covenant leads to the same goal for infants. When we see the teaching of faith within the framework of the covenant, this also colours the nature of learning. It will affect the whole person. You are in fact called to respond to the covenant in the totality of your existence. That is why children learn with head, heart and hand in the instruction of the Bible. They incorporate the content of faith into their conscience, but they also learn to choose with their heart, and they are summoned to live accordingly in their walk and talk. It is clear that this is a matter of life-long learning.

When it comes to the question of what constitutes the content of this learning, which leads to this goal, this again becomes clear from the covenant itself. In short, the curriculum consists of faith, hope and love, or, in other words, the Confession of Faith, Prayer and the Commandments. They serve so that young people may know what it means to respond to the covenant.

It is beautiful to discover that it is ultimately the Lord God who teaches people to respond to his covenant. However, he does so indirectly: that is, he works through people. It concerns two learning fields, namely the family and the church. Those two fields are closely connected. In the family the foundations are laid for the entire period of their life. Time and again we hear the call to parents to teach their children the first principles. For example, in Deuteronomy 6:7 we read, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” And in Ephesians 6:4 we read, “Fathers [and then we are also thinking of the mothers], do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

In the congregation of Israel, it is often the priests who instruct the people. In addition, there are the leaders of the people, such as Moses, Samuel and Ezra. In the New Testament we read of shepherds and teachers (Ephesians 4:11) and also of catechetes (in other words, those who are taught; Galatians 6:6).

In this way, the church teaches young and old to respond to the covenant in a lifelong learning process: by preaching and repeating, by rituals and symbols, by stories, and by doing.

Instruction in the time of the Reformation←⤒🔗

So far this summary overview of the biblical data. We will now pay attention to the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, to see how the instruction of a new generation took place.

We could call the time of the Reformation the time of the rehabilitation of the teaching of faith. It is impressive to see how the Reformers themselves provided leadership in this regard: Luther in Wittenberg, Calvin in Geneva, and so also the others. Catechism teaching is introduced; catechisms are being produced. In it all we taste a great eagerness to provide instruction.

New in the Reformation is the setting up of separate children’s catechism sessions. Here we see a return to the Scriptures, in which, as we have seen, the instruction also received so much attention. This is now the case with the covenant as well. Also in the Reformation, whether we look to Luther or Calvin, the covenant figures prominently when it comes to the instruction of faith. The big picture is as follows. Children are baptized as a sign and seal of the covenant (see Heidelberg Catechism, q/q 74). Now it is essential that these children learn to understand what their baptism means and learn to respond to the covenant. just as was the case in the Bible. How does that work? By the question and answer method in the textbooks. A question is asked, to which the child responds. The child learns that answer. It is an answer in which the church expresses in the “I” or the “we” form what it believes. Now when the child learns the answers, the intention is that the child identifies with the “I” in the answer, so that the answer becomes his own confession. That is a fascinating learning process, precisely because the idea behind it is that the Holy Spirit is the real Teacher. When children are together in a catechism room of the church, that room can be seen as the workshop of the Holy Spirit. We might even say that in this way the child “learns to believe.”—not as a predisposition, which it has innately from itself, but as a work of the Holy Spirit. In the Reformation, that learning process based on the covenant is given a new goal. It is the public profession of faith at the end of childhood. With Calvin, this occurred at about eleven to twelve years of age. This profession comes in the place of the confirmation, as was usual until then. After the profession of faith, the youth are admitted to the celebration of the Holy Supper. At the same time people continue to learn also after their profession—for a lifetime.

In catechesis, in the instruction of faith in the context of the covenant, we see two lines being intertwined. First, the personal line. You were brought personally from baptism to the profession of faith. But secondly, there is also the line of the church. The church is being built in this way. The structure: "baptism; instruction; profession; supper" thus refers to someone’s personal walk of life, as well as the manner by which the congregation is being built up.

It is great to discover that the Reformation also returns to Scripture in terms of the subject matter. In almost all textbooks we come across these three topics: the Articles of Faith, the Law and the Lord’s Prayer, also known as the Apostolicum, the Decalogue and the "Lord's Prayer."

That is how learning takes place in the family and the congregation. But also at school. Since the days of the Reformation there has been a triad in the teaching of faith: the family, the church and the school. Within that triad, many generations have been taught in the Christian faith. All that time it has been a blessed instrument, and in many places that still holds true today.

Faith instruction and the covenant in our age←⤒🔗

It is very obvious that today we are living in a totally different culture than in the time of the Bible and that of the Reformation. Social and ecclesiastical structures that had been established for centuries have, in our time, become detached and replaced by new ones. The place of church and faith has been pushed from the centre to the margins of society. Many things, also when it comes to religious instruction, have become uncertain. Secularization, decline in ecclesiastical involvement, and conflicts between generations are things that everyone encounters.

What should at this time be our position regarding ​​the covenant when it comes to religious instruction? The covenant reminds us of passing the faith from one generation to another. Has that become a fiction these days? The covenant presupposes a climate in which young people grow to live as children of the covenant. But is this not an unrealistic representation of how things are today?

I believe we should be careful not to identify the covenant with a romantic vision of something like a Christian nation, also called a Corpus Christianum. That simply no longer exists. People can regret this, but that is just how things stand.

But living out of the covenant, raising and instructing children from the covenant, is something different than that children gradually grow up in a Christian culture.

From a spiritual perspective, our present time resembles more the time of the exile. At that time the people of Israel lived as a small community of faith amidst a religiously pluralistic environment.

Our current situation also resembles the time of the New Testament, where the Christian church lived in a pagan Greco-Roman culture with its many religions.

And yet, the church may still live based on God’s faithfulness, for whom God’s promises and commandments are the mainstay in the midst of all threats and uncertainty.

Especially in our day and age, which looks so much like that pagan time, may I stress once again these aspects of God’s covenant faithfulness and his covenant promises?

Also in our time children are being born, who, in our view, should belong to Christ’s church—a church that is going through a crisis. To these children as well, the Lord promised his salvation, and he aims to work in their hearts as well that they will respond to his covenant.

Seen from this perspective, the idea of the covenant becomes a strong impulse to instruct a new generation in the faith. While many things are tumbling, God’s faithfulness is never shaken. Parents may proceed confidently in their way with their children based on God’s promise. In the Christian church we may look for creative ideas to teach the children and youth to participate in the church. This cannot happen with coercion, but it can be achieved in an inviting and urgent manner. The younger generation is especially in need of people in whose lives they can observe what it means to live unto God. To make choices, also when these are counter to contemporary values and standards. To see how you make choices, and why.

Is it not so that especially in our days the task of parents becomes ever more important? The task of instruction in faith, which in the past was often unconsciously outsourced to others, such as the school, will need to be conducted more and more by the parents themselves. That is not easy, for especially nowadays this task has become so complicated. How do we teach our children to pray? How do we handle the Bible? How do we celebrate Sundays? How do we teach our children how to interact with television, and with the internet? I believe parents need other parents, which they can find in the church. The church of the covenant binds parents together in their task. It is therefore of the utmost importance that parents are given a helping hand by the church: in catechesis, in nurturing circles, and by other means.

Parents need the instruction of the congregation for their children. Up until now both these fields are far too loosely connected. The instruction in faith by the parents and the church needs to be integrated much more than it is happening until now.

It will be a challenge for the Christian church to give shape to this, especially to involve parents in the instruction by the church. This requires proper awareness and organisation. In quite a few congregations we already have committees or teams who are involved in this task. I believe this to be a good development.

Also in our time the Lord God wants to bring young people to a response of his covenant. Structures are required for this. If no structures are applied to the learning processes for youth they will hold together like loose sand, and have little effect. By my estimation, the classic structure of "children’s baptism; instruction in faith; public profession of faith" is a structure that can serve well, when applied with the necessary flexibility. All stakeholders—the children, the parents, the youth, catechetes and all who participate in the instruction of faith (where possible, also in the school)—can get their place in a coherent whole.

In conclusion, I have attempted to show the value and the substance of the covenant for education and instruction, also for our present time. I trust it has become clear that based on the idea of the covenant, we cannot assume that instruction in faith will lead automatically to a response of faith. How often it happens that the covenant does not get the proper response, that youth say “No” to it.

It is clear that what we are seeing here is a field of tension between parents and children, between adults and youth. But right in this tension the covenant may show its true value. It is namely such that it may represent a solid ground of appeal in the prayer of parents, educators, catechetes and all those who are involved in the faith instruction of a new generation, in the firm confidence that the Lord has at one time promised them his salvation. There is comfort and encouragement in the words of Psalm 105, stanza 3 (rhymed version, in the Book of Praise):

He is the LORD, our God unfailing,
his judgments everywhere prevailing.
He will remember and uphold
his covenant made in days of old.
The steadfast words of his command
a thousand generations stand.