Complete Fulfillment, Part 2

God is a covenant keeping God. He keeps his word and intends his people to base their confidence and hope on his faithfulness to it. This is why from Genesis to Revelation—from creation to new creation—covenants form the basis for God’s relationship with humanity; this is why they form the backbone of the Scriptures; and this is why a faulty understanding of the Bible’s covenants leads to faulty interpretations and applications of God’s Word in our lives.

The chart at right* is a simple picture of the Bible’s covenants and their relationship to each other and to Christ. In Part 1 of this series, we traced it from God’s covenant with Adam at creation to his reaffirmation of that covenant with Noah to his narrowing of focus in the covenant with Abraham, “the man of faith” (Gal. 3:9). Next, God’s promises funneled through Isaac, the child of promise, then down to Jacob (aka Israel) and his twelve sons and the tribes they would represent. These twelve tribes became the next focal point for God’s self-revelation when—430 years after their arrival in Egypt where they had become slaves—God sent Moses to free them and take them for his own: 

“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deut. 7:6-8).

I would like to draw out two things from this passage. First, the basis upon which God entered into a covenant relationship with the people of Israel was the oath he had previously made to Abraham 430 years before. God’s promise to Abraham remained in force, and his commitment to it was the foundation and context of the covenant he would make next.

Second, notice the words “love” and “keep.” God expects his covenant people to respond to his loving covenant-keeping with loving covenant faithfulness in return. This is what faith does; it’s behavior is in keeping with what it believes. And, to quote the author of Hebrews: “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (11:6). Faithful obedience was the response expected from Adam, who “transgressed the covenant” (Hos. 6:7). It was the response expected from Noah and from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, each of whom, faithful though they were, sinned. They did not crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15) or abolish the curse of sin. They were not able to restore God’s holy image and dominion on earth, and they knew it (Heb. 11:7-22). They awaited a Savior.

Enter the Mosaic Covenant. Despite its name, it was not a covenant with Moses and his descendants, but with the nation of Israel. As with Adam (and Abraham), the covenant included a land where God would dwell among them. As with Adam, it included a law. But unlike the covenant with Adam, the Mosaic covenant would be characterized by sacrifice. That’s because, unlike Adam, the people of Israel entered the covenant as sinners and would continue to sin. The law, with its sacrificial system, was a temporary provision intended to reveal to Israel both their sin and the impossibly high cost of forgiveness:

“Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made . . . Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

“Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:19a, 21-24).

Neither law nor sacrifice were intended to solve the problem of sin, but to expose it and to point forward to the solution. The covenants of Genesis could only ultimately be fulfilled when sin was ultimately forgiven. Faithful hearts were expected to recognize this, and, most importantly, to recognize God’s salvation when it appeared.

In the next article in this series, we will, Lord willing, see the how God’s covenant with the Levites and with David fit in God’s covenantal plan of redemption.

*This graphic borrows several details from Fig. 16.3 in Kingdom Through Covenant, by Peter Gentry & Stephen Wellum. Wellum taught a biblical theology class I audited last summer. When I realized that his book contained a diagram similar to the one I had envisioned, I included several details of his diagram into my own.)