The Covenant of Grace
3. The Covenant
Look again at our passage in Genesis 15:
8 And he said, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?"
9 So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
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17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.
18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, ..."
In the past, the ancient custom was to have a ceremony to seal a covenant. It was like making a binding contract. Two parties would agree to the terms of the covenant and they would seal their agreement by taking an animal and dividing it in half. Each person would walk between the two halves in an oath agreeing that they would suffer the same fate as this animal or worse if they break the oath of this covenant. Each party took the oath as the value of their own life. Literally, their pledge was, their life against their word.
This is the question Abraham is asking in verse 8. He is not asking if God can do it, but he is asking for a binding covenant. God called for the sacrifice for the covenant by requiring not one animal, but by asking for 5 animals. Each animal reflects a different level of prosperity. In Leviticus, the sacrifices for the sin offering required the best of the flock. Those who could not afford livestock could offer turtledoves or pigeons. God’s covenant was not only for Abraham, but for his descendants and this covenant was not limited by wealth.
The smoking oven and burning torch
The significance of the fire-pot or smoking oven and flaming torch shouldn’t be overlooked. This is symbolic of God’s wrath. When we think of wrath, we think of uncontrolled anger. Great wrath in the human emotion is explosive and is often characterized by a less than productive outburst. God’s wrath is not the same. Scripture teaches us that God stores up His wrath and pours it out as part of His judgment with a purpose. In Revelation 15 we are given a description of God’s wrath as a sea of glass mingled with fire. On the cross of Jesus Christ, we see the wrath of God poured out as Jesus became sin for us and became the object of God’s wrath that was reserved for those who have surrendered to God through faith in Christ. The same Hebrew terms used here in Genesis are also used as expressions of God’s wrath elsewhere in scripture. Two passages that are particularly descriptive are found in Psalms and Malachi:
Psalm 21:9 You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; The LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath, And the fire shall devour them.
Malachi 4:1 "For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch.
These two passages use the same Hebrew words that describe the smoking pot in Genesis. Here in Genesis we see God’s wrath presented with the covenant that the people will be judged after Abraham has died in peace with the promise that the people will be preserved and returned to the land of promise after four hundred years (Genesis 15:13-16). The judgment of God’s wrath was not against Abraham or his descendents, but against the Amorites who now possessed the land. In God’s longsuffering and patience, He did not judge the people for their wickedness until they became morally bankrupt. The people of the land of Canaan had the witnesses of God, but over the years, they became obsessed with idolatry and vile practices that God rejected. They had over 400 years to repent before they were judged. Remember, they have the testimony of the king of Salem who was the priest of the most High God. They chose the occult over the messengers of God. Following the revelation of God’s judgment, God chose to make Abraham’s descendents a light of His truth. He unveiled His promise and sealed it with a covenant.
Sealing the Covenant
Hebrews 6:
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
14 saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you."
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
The oaths of the covenant were not between God and Abraham, but between God and Himself with Abraham as the beneficiary. In Genesis 15:12, Abraham was not allowed to pass through the pieces, but instead a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and God passed between the pieces and was symbolized in verse 17 as a smoking pot and a burning torch. This is an important point. If the covenant was sealed between man and God, then the covenant would have been broken when man failed. God’s people would have been required to pay the penalty of the oath and the oath would have passed away without the promise. But because the oath was between God and Himself, the people did not have the power to break the oath. They could only walk within the boundaries of the covenant or walk away from the covenant. Each time the people sinned and turned away from God, the covenant remained. God was not bound by the people’s choice to obey or not to obey.
The new covenant of Jesus Christ is no different. The covenant of our salvation is not a covenant between God and us, but between God and Himself. Scripture teaches us to take seriously our duties that are given to us by the Holy Spirit to oversee the “church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). The covenant of our salvation was purchased by God with His own blood. The covenant cannot be broken. We can only choose to walk in the covenant or outside the covenant. Our redemption is not dependent on our actions or our ability to live sinless lives. If the covenant was between us and God, it would be broken the first time we sinned. Sin takes us outside of the benefits God has designed, but it does not break God’s covenant. The people were sealed by the covenant that Abraham submitted to by faith. They were judged for their sins, but their sins did not break that seal. When we submit ourselves to Christ by trusting in Him by faith, we enter into that covenant of where our soul was bought with a price. Entering that covenant requires repentance, laying down our lives of dead works and taking up our new life in Christ. We willingly enter into that new covenant and become a child of God. It is not an intellectual belief of just saying “I believe Jesus died for my sins”, but it is an act of faith, believing God and entrusting our lives to Him. We lay down our old citizenship to the world and take hold of our right to become the children of God (John 1:12). We are not sealed until we have the Holy Spirit of God within us and that only comes by the blood of the covenant of Jesus Christ.
4. Benefits of the Covenant
We enter into God’s covenant by faith in Christ. We can have faith in religion without having faith in Christ. Faith in religion – even Christianity – does not make us a child of God. John 1 tells us that we cannot become a child of God by our willing ourselves into the kingdom. It is not the will of man, the heritage of our flesh and blood or by the will of the flesh – working our way into heaven. We can only be born according to the will of God (John 1:13) and that is only through repentance and trusting in Jesus Christ alone. Many people fall from the faith because their faith is in things, circumstances, and works and not in Christ. Anyone can get discouraged, but we can’t turn completely from God if we are His own. God will never let us rest until we have returned to His fellowship if we are His child. Once we are a child of God, we are no longer living with a worldly perspective, but reaching toward the promises of God. To remain in the covenant, there must be a heavenly focus.
I have heard the term, “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good”. That isn’t possible if we have a true heavenly perspective. Our goal is not to get into heaven. Our goal is to do the will of God for the love of our God. Only a false view of heaven will take someone away from God’s purpose for them in this world. We have a purpose that God has called us to and anyone focused on Christ will have the desire to one day stand before Him in victory – having completed the mission we have been called to do. Our mission is not one act, but a lifestyle of pressing ahead and enduring until the end. Our joy is not only in our salvation only, but also in what God provides with our salvation. It is the joy set before us that encourages us to endure this life. Hebrews 6 says:
9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.
10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,
12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
It is the better things that accompany salvation that are the promises of God. With confidence in the promises of our inheritance we endure. The promises are to those who overcome and endure to the end, not to those who get sluggish and wait idling without a purpose. God’s promises are inherited through faith and patience.
The benefits of the covenant are found by remaining in the covenant and enduring in our labor of love toward His name. The covenant of God is not broken by our failure, but our promise is inherited by our position in His covenant. God does not reject us when we fail. Even the wrath of God is for a purpose. God’s anger is not a rejection against us, but it is a purposeful act to draw us back into His covenant. We can never use up all our chances. We can only repent and get back into God’s covenant. Forgiveness is not possible without repentance. If we are walking outside of God’s covenant, we are not walking with Christ and it is His relationship that cleanses us. The entire purpose of God’s covenant is to open the door for us to have a personal, intimate relationship with our God. Anything that falls short of that relationship is only religion. God doesn’t honor religious practices, He honors our faith in Him. We walk with God because we trust Him. We run from Him when we don’t have faith and can’t trust His plan.
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