Understanding Covenant
So far, I think we have done a pretty decent job of explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Now our aim must be to understand exactly how all this works, and how we can apply this fundamental knowledge to our lives.
If you have been following me in our gospel story, then you have heard me emphasize the difference between knowing Jesus verses knowing about Jesus. Let me assure you, there is a vast difference between the two, especially where your salvation is concerned.
Why is this important? Because knowing about Jesus will not grant you entry into His kingdom.
When we come to Jesus Christ for salvation, we enter into a covenant relationship with Him remarkably similar to that of a marriage. In fact, I believe the relationship between a man and a woman through the covenant of marriage was given to us to beautifully illustrate this concept.
Most people today, even bible believing Christians, do not know what a covenant is, let alone what it means to enter into one. So, for clarity sake, let’s start there.
A covenant is a kind of ancient term for what we would refer to today as a contract. It is a legal instrument that acts as a binding agent between two parties. It would be an agreement that would hold up in a court of law. There would be legal ramifications for breaking it. Examples of a modern-day covenant would be a will, a lending agreement, or a business trust. By far, the most common form of covenant that we are familiar with today is that of a marriage.
In ancient times, a covenant was created to unite the two parties into one entity. This would have been done, for example, when two tribes created an alliance against a common enemy. It would have been done to create property boundaries and to protect water and grazing rights.
The two parties would come together to perform an act that was called “cutting” a covenant. In this ceremony, various rites would be performed that would enact the legal union. These elements usually included such things as:
- Defining the terms, or the responsibilities and expectations of the involved parties.
- A garment or personal item that represented each party would be exchanged as a symbol.
- Sometimes, parts of their names would be exchanged or incorporated into their own.
- Witnesses were present.
- Blood was shed whereby an animal would be killed and separated into two halves. The two equal parts would be laid opposite of each other. The two parties, or their designated representatives, would pass between the two halves. This was done as a symbol of what would happen if either party failed to uphold the terms of the covenant; the “one” entity that was being created would be separated, or “cut” into two, thereby breaking the covenant.
- Typically, afterwards the two parties would sit at a common table and share a meal.
From this, you can see where many of our wedding ceremony traditions come from. The terms are established through the repeating of the vows. Rings are exchanged as a sign. Witnesses are required, and customarily, some type of celebratory meal is shared. The bride then relinquishes part of her own name and takes the name of her new husband. She then dwells in his house and lives under the protection and provision of her new identity. Any children she bears, any fruit of her womb, will be born under the name of her husband.
One of the aspects of the wedding ceremony that has lost its significance in recent decades is the symbolic act of “consummating” the marriage. I am speaking, of course, of the physical union that occurs between the husband and wife through sexual intercourse, the “two becoming one”. In many cultures, the marriage was not considered legally binding until this union had been established. And if it had not, the marriage contract could be legally revoked without severe ramifications.
This act provided the “shedding of blood” that was necessary for the covenant to be binding. The virginal blood that ruptured during the first physical encounter was proof that the bride had not before entered into a marital relationship with any other man. It could be done only once. The physical union was the act that completed or fulfilled the covenant.
By now you may be asking yourself just how all of this has anything to do with knowing Jesus. Well, bear with me because I am about to get to that.
It all boils down to the biblical meaning of the word “knowing”. At its core, that word, in certain biblical contexts, is a sexual word indicating the intimate physical relationship between a husband and a wife. It is first used this way in Genesis 4:1 where it states, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived…”. Matthew 1:25 says, speaking of Joseph taking Mary as his wife, that he “knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son...” This means that Joseph refrained from having a sexual relationship with his wife until after giving birth to Jesus. It indicates the physical union that occurs between a man and a woman, when the two become one.
When you come to Christ for salvation, you are entering into a covenant relationship with Him whereby you become “one” with Him. I am going to leave you with a few verses from the gospel of John. In my next post, we will unpack all of this a little further and you will begin to see how the gospel is applied to you and your life through a covenantal relationship that strikingly parallels that of a marriage.
I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
John 17:11,12,21