Remember Your Covenant
God is a covenant keeping God who exercises His covenant with us. By doing this, God also brings His judgements (legal decisions) into play. These judgements will impose on our relationship with Him in many ways. Though God’s covenants are holy and pure, they have a way of judging people causing them to come to a place of repentance to achieve forgiveness or judgement ending in condemnation.
In the case of covenants with God, the covenants that are made between God and man are always confirmed by the shedding of blood. No promise or word of God between God and us can be fulfilled otherwise. Blood is the legal atonement for all of man’s sin because there is life in the blood. That is why it is so powerful against the devil. In the new covenant, we see the blood of Jesus working in all situations concerning our lives. Hence, legality in relationship is just as important as God’s love. For example, in the case of an unsaved person, before he is saved, he is subject to the wrath of God as he is not covered by the blood of Jesus because he has not yet appropriated the sacrifice of Jesus on his behalf. However, after he is saved, he comes under the blood covenant that he has entered into by faith. By his confession and acceptance of Jesus as Lord and God he is saved to be further saved by keeping covenant, a legal agreement. The love of God for him cannot operate for him till the legal side of things are taken care of. If he does not walk in the covenant and disobeys the commandments of Jesus, he is opening himself up to the wrath of God that comes on the children of disobedience. Demons then have legal access to him as well. Even though God still loves him, this person is subject to the forces of wrath and demonic activity because he has broken covenant even though God has not broken His covenant. Therefore, God’s grace operates to restore a person to a right relationship with God in covenant. When that person is under legal protection once again, he cannot be harmed.
Many Christians misuse the words of Jesus that speak on this wise. “I will never leave you or forsake you”. “Nothing can separate us from the love of God”. There are many such covenant words of Jesus in the Bible to us as believers. They are very re-assuring for our walk of salvation. Yet, these covenant words can be broken by us when we walk even away from God in a deliberate sense or in an ignorant sense. Both have consequences. The God of covenant keeps His side of the bargain, but we may not. This causes us to fall into all manners of evil and despair. Yet God restores us if we repent.
A God ordered journey on the other hand like in the case of Apostle Paul’s life had many bad situations take place in spite of his obedience to God. Yet, Apostle Paul kept his side of the covenant, which was, to believe and trust God in all his situations. Added to that, Apostle Paul praised God in all his situations and desired to fulfill his destiny. We see God honouring Apostle Paul by never forsaking him and using him in a powerful ministry that works even now in the world. Yet, in the end, Apostle Paul was martyred. Did God keep His covenant with Apostle Paul, or did God forsake Paul?
Many may think God abandoned Paul and wonder at the foolishness of this kind of a relationship. This brings us to Jesus and His relationship with His Father. God was with Him on earth till the end and then allowed Him to be crucified. We can ask the same question in the case of Jesus as well. Did God abandon Jesus? The answer is obvious. God did not but brought Him into glory as promised. Why? This was the blood covenant. The blood of Jesus was given to ratify an agreement between Father and Son through the Spirit of God to save us and glorify God.
Without this blood covenant, no man could have been saved or blessing come to us. We would all still be under the curse of the Law, the first covenant. Though blood ratified that covenant as well, it did not carry the value of the blood of Jesus in the sight of God. Though the Law was righteous and holy, it did not have the power that the blood of Jesus brought in grace and faith. The old covenant brought death to the one who tried to live by it. God gave it to man to make him see and know that there was no salvation for mankind except through Himself. No Law or offering of sinful flesh could give life. No man could obtain salvation or keep it by doing works.
Today, we have many who are trying their best to get to heaven by works and self-sacrifice. We know differently because our eyes have been opened. The covenant keeping God says, “by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourself”. We must come to that place where we abandon our lives to God and let Him be the Lord of our lives in every situation. When we walk in His commandments in love we will succeed. This journey of life is by no means easy and we all know that. Yet, we can trust God and live by His promises because He keeps His covenants. If our journey results in martyrdom or death of another kind, we know that God has prepared a place for us with Him because of His covenant that was ratified in Jesus. He who believes on His Son and His death on the cross including His resurrection from the dead will find this to be true.
Every covenant has clauses. Likewise, God expects us to walk in the statutes of His covenant. We cannot afford not to. Like any man-made covenant, if we break it, we lose. More so a blood covenant. My word to God is my blood covenant with God. I must not break it under any circumstances. If I sin or make a mistake I am restored by genuine repentance. As I seek to walk in understanding I mature so that I do not repeat sin and mistakes. Rather, I depend on God to see me through each time, based on His promises.
I long for the day, that I will see the Lord and thank Him for this blood covenant that has kept me in this life to make it to eternal life with Him. Do not take this blood covenant lightly. It is precious to God who gave His only Son on the cross that we might live and not die. Remember your word covenant with God.
Blessings &Love
Pst Noble -02/04/2021