The Bible organizes God’s salvation under covenants. Starting in Genesis 3 there is a promise of salvation. Genesis 12 reaffirms the promise of salvation to every family and is set in the context of a covenant. Deuteronomy 30 looks forward to the new covenant, which is then brought back into view again in Jeremiah. Matthew 26:28 quotes Jesus Christ as saying, “this is the blood of the covenant.” Hebrews 13:20 makes the theological distinction that the new covenant is an eternal covenant. No matter where one looks in the Bible, salvation is under covenant.
There are three types of covenants present in the Scriptures; those made between man and man, man and God, and God and man. A covenant is a promise of unreserved commitment to an end or with respect to some activity. The covenants made between men in Scripture (cf. Gen 21:27, 32; 26:28; 31:44) are those of a mutual agreement. The central principle does not have to be mutually agreed upon, but there is a sworn fidelity. One notices that there is an absence of detail or all of the fine print one would expect in today’s binding agreements. The emphasis is that of solemn faithfulness.
In Scripture there are times when men have initiated covenants with God. These attempts can be better viewed as commitments rather than agreements. For example in Joshua 24:24-25, Joshua appeals to God on behalf of a repentant people stating that they intended to be faithful.
God’s covenants with man are those that are salvific. God initiated covenants are entirely God’s activity- that is, God keeps his promise regardless of man’s actions. God initiated covenants, more specifically the Noaic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and the new covenant, should not be looked at as the end result of God and man working out an agreement. These covenants are established by God and will be kept by God, regardless of the faithfulness of man.
The Noaic covenant is a covenant of God’s pure, unconditional grace. Humanity and creation at large is utterly passive in this covenant. For this covenant is an act of grace rooted in God’s good pleasure and sovereign will that is not time limited and extends to today.
The Abrahamic covenant is similar to the Noaic covenant in that it was conceived by and conformed to by God. However, this covenant includes a spiritual component, specifically man’s communing with God and enjoying his presence. This covenant therefore is a reciprocal agreement in that divine grace demands a response of gratitude and faithfulness of the recipient. It would seem then that a human could break the covenant, but this is not the case. While a human could choose to not obey the command associated with the covenant, God would nonetheless remain faithful to the covenant. In other words, the very notion of God remaining faithful to the covenant, presupposes the covenant is already in effect. What then should one conclude about Genesis 17:14 (“He has broken my covenant.”)? Disobedience in the context of a covenant is principally unfaithfulness to a relationship established by the covenant and therefore what is broken is not the covenant itself but the promised blessing. This brings into the view the major difference between the Noaic and Abrahamic covenants. God’s promise to Noah was unconditional, whereas for Abraham and his descendants the promise was only given to those who obey.
The Mosaic covenant does not stand alone in that it is actually a partial fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. Those who obeyed God in the Abrahamic covenant were freed form Egyptian slavery. It was to this people that God handed down his law. It is not that God’s law eclipsed God’s grace. This covenant was established by God and presented to the people to be enjoined into it. God’s law was given so that those who chose to obey and remain faithful to God would be his procession. Those who were not faithful ceased being among God’s people.
The Davidic covenant found in 2 Samuel 7:12-17 is specifically called a covenant in Psalm 89, which comes on the heels of despair depicted in Psalm 88. The Davidic covenant is salvific; it specifically speaks to the coming of the Messiah (cf. Mal 3:1; Is 55:3-4). By the end of the Old Testament the Messiah and the old covenant are one, in that, through the Messiah, who had yet to appear on earth, God had made the way for human salvation. The Messiah fulfills the covenant of God without the necessity of a response of obedience.
The final covenant of the Bible is the new covenant found in the New Testament. The very birth of Jesus is covenant bound; it is the fulfillment of the promise made in Genesis 3:15. God incarnate is in complete continuity with his grace, mercy and sovereign pleasure. Interestingly, while we have just briefly reviewed 4 covenants, these 4 covenants ultimately make up one covenant- that is, God’s covenant that he established before the beginning of time (Eph 1:3-14, Eph 2:12; Heb 8:13). The new covenant is the greater manifestation of all the previous covenants. Through the blood of the new covenant, Jesus Christ, we see the culmination of God’s grace.
(This post is an adaptation of a lecture given at SEBTS, Christian Theology II, Spring 2008)
