Covenant Religion, Part 5: The Nature of Redemptive Covenants

After the fall, our fallen state becomes the backdrop of redemptive history.

God didn’t just let us alone after we sinned. The rest of the Bible from the account of the fall on presents a God who is sovereignly and inscrutably reaching out to humanity. The way He does this is through redemptive covenants.

In the next section I will lay out some more of the symbols that accompany God’s work with humanity after the fall, but for now I would like to discuss the nature of these covenants as we move forward.

The best way to organize the covenants is not to separate each one. Instead we can divide God’s redeeming work into two basic categories: promise and fulfillment. Now there are promises and fulfillment in all the covenants, but in speaking of their nature, I mean to say that the ones in the Old Testament are forward-looking and incomplete, while the New Testament gospel reflects and accomplishes the various aspects of the covenants before it.

We first see the mention of a new covenant from the prophets in the Old Testament. (Jer. 31:31-34) This covenant was unveiled and instituted with the coming of Christ. What we must understand from the beginning is that the New Covenant is not just another covenant; it is not simply an improved covenant; and it is not “Plan B.” The New Covenant is the perfection of God’s redemptive plan! God’s purpose in His covenants to His people in the Old Testament was not a let’s-try-this-and-see-if-it-works, Plan A, but was designed to set a stage for the covenant that would go into the entire world and be offered to all people.

To understand the nature of the New Covenant, think of a man who worked his whole life to accomplish something. Finally he finished it and everyone admired it. The whole Old Testament gives us the history of God’s work—all of it leading up to the presentation of “the kingdom of God.” (Mark 1:15, also called “the kingdom of heaven” in Mat. 3:2) The time between the fall (in Genesis) and Christ’s coming was a time when God was working and preparing for the induction of the New Covenant, where His Son would be glorified through the salvation of many from all nations. The purpose of the New Covenant (the kingdom of God on earth) is to glorify Jesus.

What we see plainly in the book of Genesis is that God planned to glorify Jesus through the evil that had entered the world. And His coming was the realization of that fact. However, one must ask, “If God’s purpose for fallen humanity was to be glorified through His Son in saving some, why didn’t Jesus come soon after the fall? That way we could have glorified him for 6,000 years instead of just 2,000.”

Well, the basis of the New Covenant is salvation by faith. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36) In other words, those who believe in Jesus will be saved, and those who won’t will remain in their fallen state. But God doesn’t expect us to embark on a blind faith in this perfected covenant. Belief in Jesus was designed to be reasonable. For example, that’s why Jesus performed miracles; He rose from the dead; no one could charge Him with sin (John 8:46); but most importantly, He fulfilled 4,000 years of promises! The Old Testament gives us hundreds of detailed prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ’s coming. But it was more than that: The events that were recorded in the Old Testament point indiscriminately at Christ’s life. And this is what Jesus pointed out to His disciples as soon as He rose from the dead. (Luke 24:27)

As a believer under the New Covenant, I have never seen Jesus perform any miracles, and I didn’t see Him rise from the dead. But I do see the awesome fulfillment of the Old Testament in Him. And that’s part of the reason I have no problem believing that He rose from the dead—even to the extent that I can put my whole trust in Him, and devote myself entirely to Him.

As we move forward, I believe it will be easy for you to see that the instatement of God’s covenants in the Old Testament are the revelation of the all-knowing mind of God as He prepares for the entrance of the Son. That’s what the Old Testament is about.