CERTAINLY IN WESTERN society, we seem to have lost much of the significance and impact of what constitutes covenant.
We are good with contracts; we make them in just about every arena of life. We are equally very adept at arguing and easing ourselves out of them too, such that nowadays it is no major surprise for someone in business to break their contract, regardless of its agreed length.
The world of sports is a classic example.
As a keen follower of soccer (or football, as we call it in the UK), I have lost count of the number of times that I have heard that a player or manager has signed a two-year or three-year contract with a football club, only for it to be broken, often before half of the contract time has elapsed. Of course, as a result of the contract having been broken there are fees to pay and penalties to be incurred. But there really was very little that was binding about the agreement in the first place. The arrangement is no longer convenient for one of the parties, so the contract is reneged upon. On top of that, a team’s performance can have large sections of the club’s support demanding that the manager’s contract be terminated. Supporters can vote with their feet, stay away from the stadium, and wield influence.
All this is a pale shadow of what constitutes biblical covenant. If God describes His relationship with us as a covenant, we had better have a good idea of what that means. And if marriage is an earthly demonstration of oneness akin to our reconciliation with God and of our belonging to Him, then we would do well to take to heart its true value. Convenience does not have much of a role to play when it comes to covenant.
Focus is often made on the Bible’s word to wives to submit to their husbands. I imagine that its application has often been misunderstood. As we come to know the love of Jesus, are we not delighted to submit to Him? We wouldn’t want to do anything else, would we? That is why the word to the husbands is such an important key. Before we read that in Ephesians 5, look at how the chapter opens:
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
—EPHESIANS 5:1–2
Here is the example and here is the motivation: to walk in love as He has loved us and to do that in the power of the same Holy Spirit with which Jesus demonstrated that love while He was on Earth.
Loving as He loved is impossible without the provision of the Holy Spirit.
So, husbands, here is your part:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her . . . husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church . . . FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself.
—EPHESIANS 5:25, 28–29, 31–33
Husbands cannot achieve this with their own love alone; they need God’s covenant love to do this, His supernatural love active through them.
Alistair Begg comments:
Whenever I hear a husband “remind” his wife about his authority and her duty to submit, I know he is someone who does not understand the reciprocal nature of submission within marriage. Truth decay is already at work in such a marriage and will need to be drilled out and repaired if further deterioration is to be prevented . . . If a husband starts believing that his is the easier role in the marriage relationship, he should consider what it means to “love your wife, just as Christ loved the church.” While human men cannot match the degree of love Jesus displays . . . they are to love in the same manner.1
God’s covenants are especially powerful in that the One who takes the initiative toward us appears to benefit the least from it. We are beginning to have our eyes opened in the church to the riches of living in Christ Jesus. Could it be that, actually, we are considerably more precious to Him than we had ever imagined? You and I are worth being in relationship with. There’s a dose of medicine for our self-image!
You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
—JOHN 15:16
The Amplified Bible says:
You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I have planted you], that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit may be lasting [that it may remain, abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], He may give it to you.
My goodness, what a stunning commission and commitment this is on God’s behalf. Did you notice that we ask the Father in Jesus’ name? That name presents all that He is. Now that we are in Christ Jesus we have His name as our authority. He has entrusted His name to us. It is a wonderful picture of a marriage.
A covenant is a promise. A binding promise. It is a place where joy and solemnity meet. Once made, it stands and is not reneged on. God takes the first step in making a covenant with people, but people often fall foul of it. Nevertheless, He remains faithful!
Were I to count the number of times I have been faithless, I am not sure I would ever reach the total. But ask Him how many times I have been faithless, and He will tell you that I have never been so. He has chosen to forget. He has chosen to see me through the blood of Jesus, which cleanses me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Yay, God! I love you.
Once, before Jesus walked the Earth, there was a covenant, one between God and His people, one that bound God to Israel and Israel to Him. God gave men rules to live by and said that if the rules were followed, they would remain loyal to Him and that they would prosper. There were things that they had to do and things that they were prohibited from doing. You will probably be familiar with the Ten Commandments, and there are other laws that God stipulated as part of this covenant. These stipulations were designed to keep His people out of trouble and to help them keep their eyes and their hearts toward Him. “This is how you prosper,” God was saying to His people.
God, knowing the heart of man and its inclinations only too well, also stipulated what should happen when laws and regulations were broken. He knew Israel’s fallibility very well. Often, someone—or an animal on someone’s behalf—had to pay the penalty. Justice had to be served. It was part of the covenant agreement. Men could make restitution in their relationship with God and each other through the sacrifice of animals, such as goats, lambs, and small birds.
In other words, blood was shed. The shedding of blood maintained covenant.
However, this covenant was a halfway house. It was not the final destination of God’s intentions toward the humanity that He longed to once again know and be known by intimately. This perfect communion and relationship had not been alive since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Therefore, the original covenant was, in itself, insufficient to reconcile men’s hearts to Himself. Something more, something better, something more final was needed. It is evident that the covenant had not been hugely successful in keeping the hearts of God’s people turned toward Him. Indiscipline and rule-keeping had become the rote of their religion. God had made men for more than this. A love relationship could never work in an environment of religiosity and rules.
The coming of Jesus and His death and resurrection brought the institution of a new covenant, not one that contradicted the first but one that fulfilled it completely. This new covenant came to fruition as Jesus uttered the words, “It is finished!” upon the cross. This victorious cry has often been misunderstood as a desperate cry of a beaten man. The opposite could not be more true. Years and years of separation between God and man were now over! Reconciliation had been accomplished. Now, anyone who wished to respond to their Creator’s beckoning embrace had been liberated to walk out of estrangement and darkness into His Light.
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.
—MATTHEW 27:51
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
—JOHN 3:16
“Whoever” was, and is today, now free to be received by their Creator God. How awesome!
God will never renege on this covenant. It has been sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ. The King’s seal is made in the royal blood of His Son. You cannot get a more solid, firm, and irrevocable covenant than that.
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
—1 PETER 3:18
SHED BLOOD
In depictions of romance the choreographed and highly produced scenes from Hollywood tend to omit more earthy details when it comes to sex. How about the shedding of blood?
Those of you with your basic understanding of biology at hand know that blood is sometimes shed when a woman has sexual intercourse for the first time in the breaking of her hymen. Although this does not happen in all cases, the symbolism is wonderfully clear. A husband and wife coming together for the first time in the most intimate, physical act possible to them see their expression of covenant sealed in blood.
Some marriage ceremonies are very formal; others I have experienced have been characterized by joy, dancing, and fun! Church buildings have remained hushed until a buzz greeted the rumor that the bride had arrived. Others I have attended have had a more family feel. On one occasion, at the reception, the lady guests greeted the bride outside of the venue and sang and danced her all the way into the hall. You guessed it—that was an African wedding!
Whatever the style of the proceedings, something moves in heaven when God joins a man and woman together, especially when they are His and they come together to purpose. They may or may not know from the Lord many of the specifics of that, but His seal of approval is a wonderful wedding present! Covenant. He cannot but bless a marriage covenant that seeks to honor Him.
I tell you, if I get married, those solemn vows (for serious they are) are going to be accompanied by one heavenly celebration! Believe me, the Holy Spirit and angels will be invited! There is going to be some supernatural ministry in that service!
HEAVEN
In heaven, however, there will be no marriage. This might sound disappointing until we consider that there will be no need for the shadow of kingdom reality because the kingdom will have come in its fullness. If you are married, don’t worry. There will be no pain or regret for you. We will all be with Him, face to face, fulfilled in the knowledge of Him and in the unlimited substance of His presence. Marriage speaks of Jesus’ union with His church and in heaven that will be fully manifested and will be our present, indeed, our eternal reality. I believe that every relationship we have ever experienced, on any level, will be enhanced in heaven. You will not sense a lack of intimacy with your earthly husband or wife in a place where the King of intimacy is Lord and is reigning!
You may be married and have, perhaps, lost sight, a little, of the wonderful fact that you and your wife have been joined together in covenant. I pray that God will reveal to you aspects of this that have not yet been especially real to you. May you be strengthened in your “one flesh” together as He shows you what He has done between you.
Lord Jesus, thank you for my marriage. Please move within the very center of it. I acknowledge that you have made ___________ and me one flesh. Please reveal more of the wonder of it to us. Inhabit all aspects of our relationship and reveal Yourself to us in our marriage. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
He is about the business of restoring our lives and effecting reconciliation. There is glory to come!