1. Introduction⤒🔗

The Bible is the book of the covenant of God with His people, and it has a very personal focus. There is always an “I” and a “you.” God says, “I will be your God. I will be God to you, God for you.” That is the formulation of the covenant. That formula is a promise. In some way you get to meet this God. The secularization process cannot stop this and is therefore doomed to failure. In light of Scripture we could characterize it even as a negative proof of God. You do not get away from God. You are not yet done with him. The end, the final judgment, awaits us. For whoever says ‘covenant’ also says ‘judgment.’ We confess about our Lord Jesus Christ that he will come to judge the living and the dead. That is why we are now living in the end times.

The circle of the covenant is continually being widened. All people are now confronted with the Gospel, whether you want it or not. More than ever it is a personal matter, a matter of the heart. God speaks to you. In Christ. By his Spirit and Word. That is why the covenant also occupies all of your life, all of your actions. That is not a heavy burden that is almost impossible to bear. No, now you are truly a free person. For the covenant means communion with God. It means to live before him, with as climax the celebration of the Lord's Supper. In the signs of bread and wine, Christ offers us himself. That is the New Testament, the New Covenant that is firmly anchored in his blood.

For us, humans, there is still a possibility of fellowship with God. We only really see this when we look at the cross and when we see the Lord Jesus. It is to this covenant that we ask your attention in this book.

2. The word ‘covenant’←⤒🔗

Hebrew word for ‘covenant’ is berit and is in all probability associated with the Akkadian (that is the Babylonian-Assyrian) word birîtu which means bond. Ezekiel 20:37 points in that direction: “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.”

The covenant has the character of a treaty. The Old Testament knows of two kinds of treaties: a) the parity treaty and b) the vassal treaty. The parity treaty regulates the relationship between two equal partners. The covenant between David and Jonathan is an example of this.

This is also how Malachi sees marriage. He blames the unfaithful men: “The Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant” (Mal. 2:14).

In the vassal treaty, the great sovereign arranges his relationship with a king who is subject to him. Such a covenant is a sovereign arrangement that is imposed unilaterally on the vassal. It is made up of two elements. The great sovereign explains what he has accomplished for his vassal. For example, he has come to his rescue when he was surrounded by his enemies. Then he establishes what he expects of his vassal: submission to his lordship and paying an (annual) tribute. Attempts to enter into such a covenant in consultation with other kings, or to stop payments, are understood as rebellion, pesja, one of the words for sin in the Old Testament.

The Greek word for covenant in the New Testament is diathèkè and goes back to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which originated in the third century BC in Alexandria. That is striking. Because a treaty between two equal partners is called a synthèkè. A diathèkè, however, is an arrangement that is established unilaterally, in Latin a testamentum, and can therefore also carry the meaning of a last testament, or will. The Septuagint thus conceived the Hebrew berit as a vassal treaty. Thus the Bible, as the book of the covenant, consists of two testaments: the Old and the New Testament. Diathèkè also appears in the letter to the Hebrews in the sense of a last will: “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood” (Heb. 9:15-18).

As so often, here we can note both meanings of the word diathèkè. The covenant of God with men is unthinkable without bloodshed, without the cross.

The Latina, the old Latin translation, follows the example of the Septuagint. The Hebrew word berit is here represented as testamentum. However, in the Vulgate, still the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church, we find the words foedus and pactum. That is striking. The church father Hieronymus – he is the great man behind the Vulgate – connects in this respect with the Jewish translations of Aquila and Symmachus, probably being influenced by the Jewish scholars with whom he was in contact. In the Judaism of that time, strong emphasis was placed on the two-sided character of the covenant. This points to a shift in emphasis from the sovereignty of God to the ‘holiness-through-works’ of man.

3. The covenant of life←⤒🔗

The first time we encounter the word for ‘covenant’ in the Bible is in Genesis 6:18. The LORD gives Noah the commission to build an ark: “For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you” (Gen. 6:17, 18).

But the matter itself goes back to Genesis 1. As the Creator of heaven and earth God places the earth under the control of man. Conversely, the LORD expects from man to be recognized for his supremacy. Here the contours or outline of the vassal treaty are pictured. Genesis 2 continues with the establishment of the covenant of life. It is also known as the covenant of works. But that term has been criticized strongly, as if the stay in paradise had been an accomplishment of man and not of God's favour. But that is not the case here. The LORD gives Adam a commandment to test him, as a commandment unto life (see also Belgic Confession, article 14). Now he gets the chance to show that he is not only a hearer of the Word but also doer. Hence the expression ‘covenant of works.’ The earth is a workshop. Standing in the field of tension between life and death, the LORD wants to strengthen Adam with the fruits of the tree of life. Calvin even calls this command a sacrament (Inst. IV, 19, 18).

4. The covenant of grace←⤒🔗

4.1. The fall into sin and the mother promise←↰⤒🔗

It is a miracle of grace that the LORD now still comes to us with the promise of the Gospel. For the transgression of the covenant of life by Adam and Eve in paradise makes the fall into sin into a breaking of the covenant bond. That has terrible consequences, for breaking the covenant calls for covenant wrath. Later on the apostle Paul will express it in different words, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

And yet – there is hope. In contrast to the first Adam, in whom we all are included, God places the second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. His blood cleanses us from all our sins. Through his resurrection, God wants to raise us up to a new life! So deeply does God bow down to us that he made the first Adam the anti-type of the second Adam and positions his own dear Son in the place of the son he lost. I now quote from the Belgic Confession, art. 17: “We believe that, when he saw that man had thus plunged himself into physical and spiritual death and made himself completely miserable, our gracious God in his marvelous wisdom and goodness set out to seek man when he trembling fled from him. He comforted him with the promise that He would give him His Son, born of woman (Galatians 4:4), to crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15) and to make man blessed.”

In the covenant of life, God is already seeing Christ. Whereas the covenant of life, that God had made with Adam, is disappearing, the contours will immediately be shown of the new covenant of grace of which Christ, the second Adam, is the Head. There is continuity in God’s action. He is not only the Alpha but he is also the Omega. With the creation the consummation has already been given. For the LORD does not let go of the work that his hand began. It does not slip out of his fingers - not even through the Fall.

Genesis 3:15 contains the mother promise. In the sentence that God pronounces over the serpent, he announces the coming of his Son. Scarcely had Satan struck his blow, or he is done with his realm once again – at least in principle. This is how God comes to visit Adam in a lost paradise. He says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” The crushing of the serpent’s head points to the victory of Christ; the crushing of Christ’s heel by the serpent reminds us of his suffering. There are times that he can barely go any further. The soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus' cross. On Golgotha we hear his call, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Already in the Old Testament we find a reference back to this covenant of works. In Hosea 6:7 we read, “But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.” The explanation is controversial. Yet it cannot be denied that Hosea refers also in other places to the ancient history of Israel (see 11:8 and 12:4).

4.2. The Old Testament as covenant history←↰⤒🔗

In the Old Testament there are several phases that can be distinguished in the covenant of grace:

• the covenant with Noah
• the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
• the covenant established at Sinai
• the covenant with David
• the new covenant in the prophecies of Jeremiah.

4.2.1 The universalist period←↰⤒🔗

In the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis, the covenant of grace has a universal character. The situation then was exactly as in our time, that is the end time. It seems as if the love of God would be worsted by the power of evil in the heart of man. The sons of God mingle with the daughters of men. We would say: the boundaries between church and world are being erased. Then the LORD repented that he had made man on the earth (Genesis 6: 6). All of creation has been disturbed. Hence the flood. Noah and his family are saved and protected. The people of Israel were led through the midst of the sea, ‘by which baptism was signified,’ as is stated in the classic form for baptism.

God establishes a covenant with Noah. Some people call this the covenant of nature. God promises that he will never again destroy the earth through a flood and that he will ensure that ... “while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). God makes the rainbow to be a sign of the natural covenant, once again called a sacrament by Calvin (Inst IV, 14,18).

After this, the power of sin manifests itself especially in culture: the construction of the tower of Babel. God’s reaction: he gives the confusion of tongues, which is again dissolved in principle at Pentecost: “And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language…?” (Acts 2: 8)

Just as for Christ’s sake the fall does not block the progress of God's action, so the universalistic period with which the covenant of grace begins – even though it seems to have failed in the godlessness, the immorality and the cultural pride of mankind – is yet a prophecy of salvation that will be revealed in the last days. The LORD guarantees his covenant. It is his sovereign decision and he will also carry it out.

4.2.2. The particularist period←↰⤒🔗

The particularist period begins with the calling of Abraham: “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (Genesis 12: 1-3).

A childless man is being proclaimed to be the father of all believers, worldwide. It is to make clear that what is impossible with people is possible with God. The LORD promises Abram a country. He further promises that he will make him a great people. To begin with, that is the people of Israel. In the land of promise it is about the Kingdom of God and in that people who have proceeded from Abraham, it is about the coming Messiah.

The covenant at Sinai is based on the saving action of the exodus: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, fulfills his promise to the patriarchs by the election of a slave people to be his own possession. That is why the covenant will now also extend through all of society. “Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.” The covenant  – completely in accordance with the model of the old-eastern vassal treaty – is unilateral (monopleuric) in its origin, while in its effect it is two-sided (dipleuric).

In the covenant with David two other elements are added to it: the selection of Jerusalem as the city of God, and closely linked with this the designation of the throne of David as the seat of the coming Messiah from the house of David. From the prophecies about the new covenant with the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, it cannot be inferred that the covenant with Israel ended in a fiasco. That is not the case with the universalist period of the covenant of grace, and not even with the covenant. God looks to Christ and therefore he can look beyond sin. That is why he is renewing the covenant, just as he gives us a new command, as the apostle John says. There is always a new start in Christ. In this way all lines converge in Christ, or better: they radiate from him in all directions. The LORD has given him to be ‘a covenant for the people’ (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8).

4.3. The fulfillment in the New Testament←↰⤒🔗

Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant. Already in the very first text of the New Testament, Jesus Christ, the Son of David, is identified as ‘the Son of Abraham.’ Christ is the culmination of the covenant. He himself also shows this at the beginning of his public performance. When John initially refuses to baptize him, the Saviour replies: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:5).

In the word ‘righteousness’ all covenant obligations are summarized. That fulfillment is given the character of a humiliation. Heathens, sinners, must be baptized. If it comes down to the point, you can still say that about John the Baptist, he thinks. But not about Jesus. Yet the Saviour chooses to be baptized – with a view to his people. In his humiliation there is a dimension of substitution: He for me. Jesus fulfills the Word of God. He does it in a very unique way, and now we may be called doers of the Word, in obedient connectivity with Him. He indicates this in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets [in other words., to disable them]; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).

In the miracles that Jesus performs, Israel receives the covenant blessing that the Lord promised to Abraham. The coming of the Kingdom of God basically leads to the restoration of the brokenness of human life. First for Israel, but then also for the peoples of the earth. The Canaanite woman is a precursor of this. She is also very well aware of this: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:27).

In the night of his betrayal Jesus institutes the holy Supper; and after the morning of the resurrection he institutes Holy Baptism. Because of his death and resurrection, by his atoning suffering and death and his victory over the powers of sin, devil and death, a new time has come, a new day. But it is still night. It is a theme that often recurs in Paul’s letters: “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime” (Romans 13:12, 13). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The command to do mission work and the institution of holy baptism are written in one and the same text: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19,20).

The words ‘all nations’ reminds us again of the promise of God to Abraham, in Genesis 12. In Abraham all generations of the earth will be blessed through Jesus Christ, the Son of Abraham. In this way we see how the beginning and the end of the Gospel of Matthew match up.

4.3.2 The Old Testament as dispensation of death←↰⤒🔗

The significance of the Old Testament is often undervalued or even denied among Christians. Such people will appeal to texts such as 2 Corinthians 3. It seems here as if the Old and the New Testament are contrasted to each other as the ‘ministry of condemnation’ (or death) and the ‘ministry of the Spirit in glory,’ appealing to 2 Corinthians 3:6: “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

However, this passage is speaking not so much of the Old Testament as such, but about the uncoupling of the Old and the New Testament. Being disconnected from the personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the Spirit raises us up to a new life, legalism takes hold of the Scriptures. That can be the effect of the Old Testament apart from Christ. That is what the apostle Paul has in view when he turns against a form of Judaism that is dominated by its own righteousness. That is also how Christians can treat the New Testament if they do not fix their eyes on Christ. In both cases then, apart from Christ, either Testament becomes a ‘ministry of condemnation.’

5. The covenant of redemption←⤒🔗

Covenant and election are closely related. Even before the foundation of the world, God in Christ chose his congregation to eternal life. The doctrine of faith then speaks of the covenant of redemption or the counsel of peace. The certainty of the election is the fruit of faith. God says: ‘I love you so much for Christ's sake,’ because the offer of grace is for everyone. Otherwise, the Lord Jesus could never have instructed his disciples to proclaim this gospel, this good news, to all people. But not everyone comes to faith. In Acts 13:48 we read of the people who listened to the preaching of Paul and Barnabas in Antioch: “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Not: ‘so few’, but ‘as many’. You can make that discovery by listening to the Word of God. Only in this way. Then faith counts infinitely more than your choice, it is a gift of God. He says, “My child, I love you. Can you see it now? That is how I have meant it all along, from the time of eternity.”

When you are speaking about the covenant, you are praising God, just as Paul did in Romans 11. You are in for some tremendous surprises. Pay attention to Israel! Take note of the course of the Word in this world! You stand altogether amazed, in the words of Romans 11:36:

For from him and through him and to him are all things:
To him be glory forever!
Amen.