The Living Faith

Our entire life as human is fully based and centered on promises; this is hundred percent true in our deals with other human beings. It includes also our dealings with God. In the Scriptures our Christian life is described as a covenantal journey to reach our destiny of glory. It depends solely on the covenant God made with us and mutually on how we freely respond and be committed to it in our daily life.

This historical covenant is of three dimensions. The first dimension is the fact that it was the Creator who took the initiative in making the covenant with his human creatures and substantiated it through his mighty deeds in their midst. In OT we read God confirming: You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself…I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…You shall be my people and I will be your God.

Secondly, through the gift of commandments God gave to humans directions to govern the relationship between him and humans (Ex. 20: 3-23:33); and as the third dimension of the remarkable covenant, we are told that covenants between God and Israel were often confirmed as a seal by the sacrifice of an animal, whose blood was offered to expiate sin and whose flesh was cooked and shared as a sign of communion between him and his people (24: 9-11).

We know the sad fact that several such covenants were made and broken throughout Israel’s history. However God’s Prophets continued to dream and proclaim of the covenant of God as unconditional and everlasting. Unlike the stipulations of previous covenants, which were carved in stone, the terms of the covenant, envisioned by Prophet Jeremiah, would be recorded in the human heart, and all, from least to greatest, would be privileged to know God. This covenant would also bring forgiveness of sins. Humankind would be forever free of guilt, for God would remember their sins no more.

Those promises remained only as mere dreams until Jesus came. It was only through Jesus and through his embrace of the cross that this covenant was realized. Jesus, seen in the Gospels, has been emphatic in confirming the fact that his entire life together with its challenges had only one raison d’être, namely to establish, solidify and ratify the new and eternal covenant that the Prophets had dreamed and promised centuries before. Jesus did this amazing covenant coming true by revealing God in human flesh and blood and by enunciating, in his every word and deed, the love God has for sinners. Love of God and love for one another became the law by which this covenant would stand. To guarantee this unending love relationship, Jesus used his bleeding and death, as a grain of wheat falling to the earth and dying, for sprouting new life. He offered himself to be lifted up on the cross so that sinners would be forgiven. (Ref. Jn. 12: 20-33)

Attesting to the historical contribution of Jesus toward the renewal of God’s covenant with humans, the Letter to the Hebrews announces that it is not just the moment and act of death of Jesus that has great effect on God’s covenant with us but it is his entire life in which he obeyed God’s will every moment of his life. He was conceived in obedience; he was born poor in obedience; he was tempted in obedience; he earned his daily bread by sweat and blood in obedience; he encountered trouble after trouble daily in obedience; thus he made himself as a perfect sacrifice that was most fitting seal for the covenant made between God and humans. (Ref. Heb. 5: 7-9)

Like Jesus, we have to become a fitting sacrifice in the covenantal life with God. This is the goal of every Christian as we travel this earthly journey of covenant. Like him we have to grow in wisdom and grace; we should grow in obedience by suffering the flings and arrows of unpredictable life. We gradually grow in grace by traveling the dusty road of everyday events. That is the way to make our filthy, vulnerable, fragile life a perfect sacrifice of covenant with God.