Chapter 3. God and Covenant.

Chapter 3. God and Covenant.

The Bible depicts man’s relationship with God as a covenant relationship.

Some interpreters talk of several covenants of God with man but, in reality, there is only one.

Ephesians 1 outlines the nature of God’s covenant with man. Though the word “covenant” is not found in this chapter, it is full of ideas that are part of the covenant complex of ideas. The following words are all covenant concepts: blessing (1:3), chosen (1:4), adopted (1:5), grace (1:6, 8), head (1:10, 22), inheritance (1:14, 18), faith/belief (1:19) and body (1:22). This is to say nothing of the repeated use of the phrase “in Him, in Christ” in the chapter, which means “to be part of his corporate or covenant body” and this is used over 20 times in the chapter. So it is clear that “covenant” is the key underlying idea of the chapter.

What Paul teaches us about this covenant here is the following:

1. This covenant concerning man was made by God “before the foundation of the world (1:4),” with himself, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is thus an eternal covenant.
2. The aim of the covenant is “to bring all things into unity with Himself, through Christ (1:10).”
3. God’s desire was that, in this covenant, he might share the wonders of his glory and grace with mankind (1:3, 7, 8). Mankind was to be made “sons of God,” and this phrase has the meaning of being heirs of God’s possessions and also it means to be God’s co rulers, to be kings on earth.
4. God knew that man would fall from the covenant relationship, so before it even began he built into the covenant a way for man to return to covenant relationship through “redemption (1:7).” This redemption was to be brought about by the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God himself; the Word who was appointed mediator of the covenant.

All of this was decided by God before he even began on creation, before there was a man, or even an earth for man to live on. So the covenant is a gift of God’s grace to man. It was a covenant of redemption.

Because it was made before time began, in eternity, it is an eternal covenant: “May the God of peace, who through the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus (Heb 13:20).”

In this eternal covenant there is eternal salvation: “He entered the Most Holy Place (Talking about heaven) once for all by his own blood, having obtained an eternal salvation (Heb 9:12).” “He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him (Heb 5:9).”

As a result we can receive the inheritance God originally promised mankind that was lost through sin: “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant (Heb 9:15).” Because this covenant is eternal we see in this verse that it covers the needs of mankind for all time. It is not only effective to forgive our sins, the sins of those who have lived since Jesus died and rose again. It is effective to forgive the sins of those who lived before he came to earth as well. It redeems the sins committed under the first covenant.

So we will again share in God’s glory as he originally intended: “The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory (1 Pet 5:10).” We are again part of God’s eternal kingdom: “You will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of out Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet 1:11).”

These principles of covenant and redemption God built into the very fabric of the universe. When mankind aligns himself with these principles he aligns himself with the true operation of the whole universe. Everything then works together for his good.

God foresaw the Fall of man and built into the covenant a way of redemption. Redemption is not something tacked on to the original covenant by God as a result of man’s sin. No – it is part of the original covenant plan. It is inseparable from the covenant. This redemption was to be undertaken by the Logos, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus the Christ. And the decision that this would be so was made before the foundation of the world. Then, before the foundation of the world, it was decided that the Logos would be born as a human baby into the world, live as a man and die on the Cross for the sins of mankind and that, through his death, the full provisions of the covenant relationship with God would come into being.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COVENANT THROUGH TIME.

In the Bible we see how God brought man into this covenant relationship through Adam. Again the word “covenant” is not found in Genesis 1-3 but the underlying idea is that of covenant and this is implied by the use of ideas such as ruling, sons of God, blessing and cursing. In fact the whole literary structure of Genesis 1-3 is based on the suzerain covenant treaties of the Hittite empire. The covenant relationship is one defined by faithfulness and obedience. Thus the two keys to enjoying the blessings of the covenant are faith and obedience. While living in covenant relationship man was able to freely partake of the covenant benefits, or blessings.

As God foreknew that he would, man fell from covenant relationship through sin. As a result man passed from a state of covenant blessedness to being in a state of living outside of God’s blessing, or in a state of curse. To be cursed is to be living in disobedience to the covenant and so be liable to the consequences of being outside of covenant relationship, or, to be cursed. Thus mankind was thrown, by the sin of Adam, into a position of being covenant breakers, outside of the covenant relationship and consequently partakes of the covenant curses. “The Fall” literally means “a fall from covenant relationship.”

God then began to work out the process of restoring man to covenant relationship, or redemption.

When we look at the covenant God made with Abraham we see that it is not a separate covenant from this eternal covenant, but is simply a phase in the execution of it.

In order for the Christ to be a man there had to be a human family and a human nation he would be born into, so God chose Abraham to be the start of that human family and nation. Thus God, out of sheer grace, brought Abraham into the covenant he had planned. Thus the call of Abraham and the covenant with Abraham is not a different covenant to the original covenant. Rather it is simply another stage on the path of the fulfillment of the original covenant. It was a necessary step in order to see the original covenant fulfilled.

And what was the original plan? Well it was to bless mankind with all of the blessings of God: “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Gen 12:3).”

In covenant relationship with God Abraham received the benefits of living in covenant relationship – the blessings: “I will bless you …you will be a blessing …I will bless those who bless you (Gen 12:2-3),” “and the Lord had blessed him in every way (Gen 24:1).” Every area of life was touched by the life of God. Abraham was successful, rich, powerful politically, healthy, he lived to an old age. It was these blessings that God intended to spread to all mankind through Abraham and his seed.

Abraham’s family grew and the covenant promise was extended to Isaac, then to Jacob. Their children went down into Egypt and lived there as privileged people for many years. The bondage in Egypt and the slavery were probably only for a period at the end – probably no more than 80-90 years extending through the life of Pharaoh Rameses and his father before him. The bondage was necessary in order to motivate Israel to move on to the next phase of God’s plan for them. Egypt had got too comfortable for them.

God wanted to bring them, as a nation, into the covenant blessings he had for them and he did this at Sinai. Before Egypt the blessings had come on them as a family unit, but now they were a nation, so the relationship had to be redefined for this new reality. But they had to leave Egypt to get there. They could never be the nation of God while they were living in servitude to another nation. At that time, and also later with the conquest of Canaan, a “mixed multitude” were melded into the new nation of Israel through the covenant. This shows it was never strictly about birth and physical descent from Abraham, but it was about being faithful to the same covenant relationship Abraham had with God.

Again, the Sinai covenant should not be seen as something fundamentally new. It was simply a necessary phase towards the fulfillment of God’s original plan. In fact the Apostle Paul, in both Romans and Galatians, indicates that Sinai was not the introduction of something fundamentally new. The Law, given at Sinai, was not fundamental, it was “an addition (Gal 3:19)” and was temporary in nature “until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” The key thing is the covenant with Abraham, as it is through the “Seed (Gal 3:16)” of Abraham that this will come to pass. And that seed is Christ, “the Seed of the woman (Gen 3:15),” who will bring the blessing of the covenant to the whole world. At Sinai Israel, as a nation, became partakers of the covenant and the promises and blessings contained in it.

What the Law did do that is significant is that it gave Israel a national constitution and structure and a religious form that prepared for the coming Messiah. It allowed Israel, should they choose to do so, to live in the blessing of God and show the world what God wanted for all men - his blessing.

The Law also defines what covenant blessings and covenant curses look like in real life experience in Deuteronomy 28.

The key is this: To live in the covenant blessings one needs to live in faithful obedience to the covenant requirements: “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God (Deut 28:1-2).”

Finally Jesus came, and he established a New Covenant. This is not “new” in an absolute sense. It is “new” when compared with the “Old Covenant” made with Israel at Sinai. It is not absolutely new – it is, in fact, God’s original plan and covenant, a covenant of redemption through Christ, planned before the foundation of the world. Because it was made in eternity it is the “eternal covenant (Heb 13:20),” giving an “eternal redemption (Heb 9:12)” leading to eternal life for those who receive it (John 3:15).

Because this eternal covenant was made “before the foundation of the world” its blessings and provisions are also eternal. As such they are timeless in the sense that they have no time restrictions on them. The blessings were available from the time the covenant was made, before time. Thus the Jews before Christ could experience them. They still apply today – as what is eternal cannot pass away.

The important thing to realise about this covenant that Christ has secured for us is that it is completed or sealed.

When the covenant was broken by Adam man was put into the position where it was impossible for him to ever do anything that could restore the covenant relationship. Sin made an impossible barrier.

So God had planned to enter this human existence as a man himself, in the person of his son for the purpose of restoring the covenant relationship. Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant (Heb 12:24). Here we need to understand the Hebrew idea of mediatorship.

A mediator is not, as we perceive it in the West, an independent third party who brokers peace between two opposing factions. The Bible idea is quite different. A Bible mediator is one who must, in himself, embody both of the parties requiring mediation, in this case both God and man. The reason for this is that a Biblical mediator is not a broker of words; rather he has to do the work of mediation himself. The mediator has to do all that is required of both sides of the conflict so that he can present the mediation to the warring parties as a gift. God could have done the work required on his side of the mediation, but man could not do theirs. So God became man in Christ so that he could do our part of the mediation for us.

What we needed to offer God to enter into covenant relationship with him was a perfect sinless life. This we could not offer. Christ came and lived a human life of perfect obedience and faith, a sinless life. Thus he perfectly fulfilled all that was humanly required for the covenant to be established. He also did all that was required of God to establish the covenant relationship again. Thus the covenant was completed, sealed, in him, in his own perfect life. Having completed the covenant he then offers it to us as a gift, to be received by faith. There is nothing we can do to make the covenant work for us or to bring the covenant blessings on us. All we are required to do is receive the covenant as a gift – and that is to do nothing. How much does the recipient of a gift actually do to make the gift and present it? All we can do is say, “Thank you.”

The conditions for receiving the blessings of the covenant also remain the same no matter what time period we are talking about. The nature of covenant relationship is faith, in the sense of faithfulness, fidelity. The blessings of covenant are received by faithfulness, steadfast love. This is where Israel misunderstood the covenant. They thought that the covenant blessings were theirs by virtue of birth, race, religious rite or legalistic obedience to Law. The Apostle Paul spends much time in both Romans and Galatians to show this was a misunderstanding: “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes (Rom 9:30-10:4).”

It was never about keeping the Law. The Law was only given to show men that we could not keep the Law so we had to rely on God, which is to say, have faith in God.

The covenant blessings come by faith. Faith is an attitude of simply receiving the gifts God has made available through the covenant, recognising that we can do nothing to earn them, Christ has done it all. The blessings of the covenant come by sheer grace – from the bounty of the hand of the Covenant Giver. They come to those who receive them in simple trust, not trying to earn them for themselves.

When God made covenant with man each party became responsible for fulfilling certain terms. Every promise in the Bible has an “if” condition. The conditions on the side of man are faith and obedience.

God knew man was incapable of keeping a covenant because of the power of sin in them and because he didn’t want anything to hinder the blessing he eventually fulfilled both sides of the covenant in Christ. Christ perfectly fulfilled all that faith and obedience that was required of us so that we can enjoy the blessings of the covenant.

So there is a sense in which our personal faith and obedience are irrelevant as to whether or not we can enjoy the blessings of the covenant. The faith and obedience that brings the blessings to us is the faith and obedience of Christ – which was perfect. So God does not ask or expect perfect faith and obedience from us before he will bless us with the covenant blessings. All he asks is that we take the promise of his word as being true and act on that.

UNDERSTANDING “BLESSING” AND “CURSE.”

I have already defined the word “blessing” but so that we are clear on what it means I’ll cover it again. Covenants were descriptions of a relationship between a superior and an inferior. In that relationship certain benefits were made available to the inferior from the superior so long as the inferior kept their side of the covenant relationship. These benefits are technically called “blessings”.

Conversely there were certain consequences if the inferior did not keep the covenant. There were punishments, or consequences, of breaking the covenant – these were called “curses.”

So the words “blessing” and “curse” are words that are integrally tied in with the idea of covenant. “Blessing” indicates the positive benefits that flow from living in covenant relationship. “Curse” indicates the consequences that flow from breaking the covenant relationship, or from living outside the covenant relationship.

The next point I want to make in this chapter is vitally important and many are confused about what I am about to outline so it is very important that you listen carefully.

Alongside of the two principles of covenant and redemption God also wrote into the fabric of the universe other laws. One of which is the law of sowing and reaping: “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the (Holy) Spirit, from the (Holy) Spirit will reap eternal life (Gal 6:6-8).”

This is a law of increase and God so designed it so that his goodness would be multiplied to mankind beyond measure. If we live in faithful obedience to the covenant then our good works act as an input into the law of sowing and reaping with the result that the goodness is multiplied. This multiplied goodness is what the Bible calls “blessing.” “Blessing” is the word that defines what it is to get the benefits of living in faithful obedience in covenant relationship.

The problem is that the law of sowing and reaping is impartial – when man is not living in covenant relationship the law of sowing and reaping still works – and then the inputs of unbelief and disobedience, or sin, are multiplied and the result is the unleashing of forces of destruction so great that we find it hard to imagine where they came from. This destruction is called “curses” - the word “curse” is the word that describes what it means to be reaping the consequences of rebellious actions against the covenant relationship.

The apostle Paul tells us here that the man who lives in sin, pleasing his own sinful fleshly nature will, “FROM THAT NATURE reap destruction.” Where we sow is where we will reap. If we sow to sin, then, eventually we will reap, in our bodies, a harvest of destruction. Now this does not just mean sickness and death – our fleshly natures include all that we are outside of Christ. We can reap destruction in finances, relationships, health, career, ministry, - all sorts of areas. Anywhere we let our fleshly motives have the rule we will reap destruction.

Paul teaches this again in Romans 1 where he outlines a sliding scale of sin. There he says that sinful men “receive in themselves the due penalty for their perversion (Rom 1:27).”

We probably should not see the words “blessing” and “curse” as words describing God’s direct action towards a man or men. In the Old Testament these words are often, but not always, used in the context where, on the surface, it looks as if they are God’s direct action. This is because, in the Old Testament, the perspective of God and his actions is one where the fundamental assumption is that everything that happens, good or bad, comes from God. In this sense the Old Testament picture of God is a bit crude, in the sense of unformed. The true nature of God is not revealed until the New Testament, where it is revealed in Christ. So in the Old Testament we are told God brings the curse on people, but we probably should understand this in the sense of the law of sowing and reaping operating. God instituted the law and, because he did, he takes responsibility for the outcomes of the law. But this is not the same thing as saying God directly curses people. Rather the curse is the output of the operation of the law of sowing and reaping. Thus the responsibility for the curse belongs to the person who puts the inputs into the law – that is, the sinner. We cannot charge God with evil – or with sending a curse. God can only send what he has and heaven has no curse.

He does, however, have blessings and so he can directly send these and thus the responsibility for blessing remains with God so that the praise and glory go back to him.

So there are two sources of blessing: Gods direct blessing and the outcomes of the law of sowing and reaping on our faithful deeds. But there is only one source of curse -  a man’s own sin operating in the law of sowing and reaping.

So when we read about the curse in scripture how we should probably understand it is in the following two senses. First, curse is the output of the law of sowing and reaping when the inputs are sinful. Second where the curse is itemised (e.g. Gen 3, Deut 28 and elsewhere) what we are NOT seeing is God DECREEING A CURSE, rather what we are seeing is God DESCRIBING A CURSE – he is describing what the outputs of the law of sowing and reaping will look like in the experience of man as a result of sinful inputs. This is an important distinction because if we see the curse as God decreeing rather than him describing then we can end up with doctrinal distortions that we don’t want. For instance, many interpreters, seeing the curse as God’s decree argue from Genesis 3 that women should be subject to men. This was not God’s intention – rather he made the woman to be man’s helpmeet, to stand beside him, an equal partner. Sin distorts that relationship so that it becomes abusive, but this is a result of sin, not of the decreed will of God. Some interpreters justify the demeaning and servitude of women because they misunderstand the curse as God’s decree instead of God’s prophetic description.

That the blessing and curse are probably best seen as the operation of the law of sowing and reaping is indicated by how the blessings and curses are described as “coming.”

“All these blessings shall come upon you and accompany you (Deut 28:2).”

“All these curses shall come upon you and accompany you (Deut 28:15).”

There is a sense of inevitability here – it is controlled by law and it is inviolable.

The KJV has a slightly different rendering. It says these things shall “come upon you and overtake you.” Derek Prince had a humourous way of seeing this. He said, “We may be travelling down the road of life at 50 miles and hour but the blessings of God travel at 100 miles and hour so they overtake us. We can’t outrun God’s blessing.” But the same is true of the curses – they will also overtake us, we can’t outrun them. As the Apostle Paul said, “Do not be deceived. What we sow we will also reap.”

THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE.

The most detailed description is found in Deuteronomy 28. This is couched in terminology that would be relevant to an agrarian culture of that era but it covers several main areas of human existence that are true for all men, so we can derive general principles from the chapter.

Derek Prince divided the blessings into seven areas of blessing which we can experience:

1. Personal Exaltation.

2. Reproductiveness.

3. Health.

4. Prosperity or Success (in vocation and finance).

5. Victory.

6. Being the Head and not the Tail.

7. Being above and not beneath.

The curses are the opposite of the Blessings:

1.       Humiliation.

2.       Failure to reproduce, or barrenness.

3.       Sickness of every kind.

4.       Poverty and Failure.

5.       Defeat.

6.       Being the tail and not the head.

7.       Being below and not above.

The important thing for us to note in this book is the reference to sickness. We need to see what God says here to be clear on the promise of blessing.

 “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.  The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish (DEUT 28:20-22).”

 “The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind (DEUT 28:27-28).”

 “The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head (DEUT 28:35).”

 “…the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed (DEUT 28:59-61).”

The thing we need to note here is that every type of human ailment is listed as part of the curse – mental illness, emotional trauma and confusion, physical sickness. And in case we don’t get the point God says “all the diseases of Egypt” are a curse – and Egypt is one of the most disease ridden places on earth. Just about every sickness known to man occurs in Egypt, but just in case God missed any he says “every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this book of the law.” How plainly does God have to say that every sickness is a manifestation of the curse?

Many people argue that these were blessings that were true of Israel through the covenant made with Moses but that these were only for that time. Now that Christ has come things have changed. By implication the same is true of the curses.

This is not the case. As I have outlined there is actually only one covenant and the Bible covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David were only necessary stages towards the fulfilment of the promises of that covenant. Thus, because there is only one covenant the covenant blessings are the same for all time – and the same is true for the covenant curses.

But the Apostle Paul explicitly denies the claim that these blessings are not for us today in 2 Corinthians: “For all the promises of God are in him (Christ) yes and in him Amen to the glory of God by us (2 Cor 1:20)(KJV).” What Paul says here is astounding. Every promise of God – and this is a Jewish way of referring to the entire Hebrew Scriptures, or our Old Testament, - every promise of God is in Christ. Not only that Paul tells us the all these promises are “Yes” in Christ – he says it two different ways to emphasizes the fact – “Yes and Amen.” Then he says that through the promise God gets glory – but how does he get this glory? It is “by us” by the church. When we Christians claim and enter into the promises of God we bring God glory. And all the Old Testament promises are available to us to claim.

The covenant blessings are God’s promises.

 “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith (GAL 3:8-9).”

In this discussion Paul uses a Rabbinic principle of interpretation called Gezera Shawa. This principle says that when the same word appears in two or more places of scripture you are justified in interpreting one against the other to get the meaning.

First he applies the principle to the word “blessing.” He takes the promise of blessing given to Abraham and he says that blessing is the same as the blessing we Christians receive through Christ.

Then he applies to principle a second time – to the word “faith.” Taking the reference to Abraham believing God, that is, having faith in God, Paul says this is exactly the faith we have when we have faith in Christ. He has been talking about faith in Christ in the lead up to this statement.

Then he goes on and applies the principle a third time to the word “curse.” He takes one reference to curse from Deut 27:26: “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law (GAL 3:10)." Then he lines it up with another reference to curse from Deut 21:23: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree (GAL 3:13)." What he is saying then is this: A curse is a curse is a curse. It doesn’t matter which curse you are talking about they are all the same curse. And because of this they bring the same results.

Then he goes back to the idea of blessing again and defines what the blessing of Abraham was that we Christians are now experiencing: “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit (GAL 3:14).” The promises of God, the entire provision God has made for us in Christ, is summed up in the gift of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us. (See my book, Like Spring Rain for a detailed proof of this point.)

 Now what he has done here is used the principle of Gezera Shawa again – a fourth time, this time on the word “promise.” God gave a promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him, and then later God gave another promise – that the faithful would receive the Spirit. The principle of Gezera shawa says the two promises are the same.

Then Paul does a bit of creative reinterpretation – but he has justification for doing so. He takes the word “seed” which is a word that is both plural and singular. We “plant seed” but by that we don’t mean one seed – we mean lots of seed. But in fact the word is singular. So Paul plays on this fact: “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ (GAL 3:16).”

But by implication he has already used the idea of “seed” at the beginning of this argument - even if he hasn’t used the actual word – he talked of those who have faith who are blessed along with Abraham – but it is understood that those who get Abraham’s blessing are his children, his descendents, his seed. After all, it is the father who gives a blessing to his son in scripture.

But now he takes the word seed and narrows it down to its literal meaning of a single seed and he argues it must mean just one person. This immediately, in the mind of a Jew, would bring them to the promise given to Eve – “the seed of the woman” would “crush the serpent’s head.” So Paul is intuitively using Gezara shawa again – without overtly using it, if you know what I mean. A Jew would pick it up but we Gentiles might not unless it was explained. He is talking about the Messiah, the coming redeemer of the world who would take away sin and the curse sin has brought into man’s experience.

Then Paul goes on to explicitly deny the idea that some things were for one period of time only: “What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise (GAL 3:17-18).” The promise is the blessing of God. Paul’s point is that this was a “promise” – so by definition it is received by “faith.” After all, when someone promises you something that means you do not have it yet. It is, by definition, promised. It is not, by definition, your property yet. Because there is no actuality when a promise is made the only way you can receive it is by “faith” – by believing the word of the Promiser and trusting that he will do as he says.

Because the “promise”, the “blessing,” is received by “faith” then it is axiomatic that it could never have been received by keeping the Law. So in the big scheme of things the Law of Moses changed nothing. The way to get “blessing” was always through “faith.” The only thing the law did was describe what the blessing and the curse would look like, not how one would appropriate it. We will return to this idea of appropriating the promise at a later stage so let’s leave it hanging for now.

For now we are dealing with the ideas related to covenant so we need to bring this to a climax. The climax is, of course, the provision of the covenant blessings through Christ: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit (Gal 3:13, 14).” A curse is a curse is a curse is a curse – they are all the same. Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us. He took the curse on himself so that we could be free from the curse and all its consequences.

In exchange he gave us the blessings of the covenant God made with man so that we could live in them. God’s provision is blessing for every area of our life: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us… Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that, through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Pet 1:, 4).” See it is all to do with promises and the only way to receive a promise is by faith. Through promises God has given us “everything we need for life and for Godliness.” Notice it is not just for the spiritual stuff - it is everything we need for life. And the aim of God is that, through taking the promises, we will “escape the corruption in the world through sin.” But more than that it is so we can partake of the Divine nature. Do you think the divine nature is full of sickness, or crippled by disease in some way? All of this is talking about our lives now – not in heaven. The word “corruption” is the same word Paul used in Gal 6:8 to describe the reaping of sin.

Back to Paul again, finally Paul applies all of this to us by punning again on the word “seed”: “…if you are Christ’s you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise (Gal 3:29).” Here he draws on the idea of covenant again – those who enter the covenant relationship have to do so through a leader, a head, and are therefore parts of the body. Another way of saying this is that we are “sons of the covenant”. So Paul tells us that, through our relationship with Christ, we are sons of the covenant that God had with Abraham and thus heirs of all of the promises of the covenant – including healing.

Before closing this chapter I want to look at one more scripture related to covenant and healing.

 “…There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you (EX 15:25-26)."

This is a covenant of healing. Again it is steeped in covenant language. And it is a covenant of healing that is given to Israel before they received the Law, so it is independent of keeping the Law. The Law can change nothing to this covenant promise.

This was not only a promise; it was a “decree and a law” – it has all of the force of heavens legal rights behind it. But as it is an Old Testament promise we can claim it too – “All the promises of God are in him (Christ) yes and Amen to the glory of God by us (the Church).” (2 Cor 1:20).

The Hebrew again is slightly different to our translations: Literally it says: “I will not permit any of the diseases to come on you I permitted to come on the Egyptians.” This gives a different perspective – God does not come and send us sickness – but he does grant permission to the Devil to afflict through disobedience. But it is the Devil afflicting, not God. God is not the author of disease. God doesn’t have it in heaven to give it to you; if we step out from under the umbrella of his protection we can be afflicted.

This was a covenant given to Israel on the basis of redemption – the blood of the Passover lamb secured for Israel deliverance from Egypt, forgiveness of sins and relationship with God. But it also brought healing.

That the Jews understood Passover in this way is illustrated by this passage: “They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the temple of the LORD... (v18) Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God- the LORD, the God of his fathers - even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary." And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people (2 CHR 30:15-20).” Here we see the connection between sin and sickness – Hezekiah asks for pardon and God grants healing. What could be more obvious than a direct connection?

Because this was a faith covenant blessing we read that every person who came out of Egypt was kept in health for the whole 40 years of the wilderness wanderings – except those who died in some plagues that came as a result of sin in the camp: “And from among their tribes no one faltered (Psalm 105:37)” – the word “faltered” means to be weak, feeble, decayed or sick.

Jesus healed every Israelite who came to him – why? On the basis of the covenant made in Exod 15 1500 years before. But we too are the “seed of Abraham” because we have the same faith. We can expect the same consideration from the same merciful and compassionate God.