There was a time when I had no clue about this sovereign relationship with God. Yes, as a baptized believer, I have known Jesus as my Savior for decades. I have taught Bible classes for years in my local church, in home meetings, in schools, in prison Bible classes, even in corporate offices where allowed. I have been published, have traveled and taught in invitational forums, both in the USA and abroad about different Biblical issues, some participants hearing the gospel for the first time; most, though, old hands regarding the scriptures, many much more versatile with the Word than me.
Through that time, my teaching was not haphazard, nor without depth. Jesus, our Savior, His saving blood, grace, His forgiveness, His compassion, His unending Love. All appropriate and truthful.
I was content, satisfied with the Truth I knew, eagerly taught all that until I was introduced to the “root,” the “proof,” of God’s Love, patience, continual forgiveness, the “called out,” the ecclesia, the church, our relationships with God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That set me on a years long journey of learning to “see” the unseen, the obscure, the hidden reality, intuitive introspection of the message, understanding relationships that cemented the sometimes disparate, even hard to explain passages in the scriptures. Yes, I let the Spirit speak to me through the scriptures and show me things I had never seen before. It changed my Walk with God.
For me, this journey has been exhilarating on most levels yet frustrating on others. Exhilarating because of the newly discovered spiritual landscape that can be seen only through “covenant eyes.” And frustrating in trying to share that with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are unknowingly blinded to those same vistas. This blindness is not because of the inability to “see” but rather from years, lifetimes, of (often lazily) accepting the traditionally taught surface story of God’s people. Results? Comfort, ignorance, and sometimes even resistance to deeper Biblical insights.
The Hebrew writer spoke pointedly about this in Hebrews 5 and 6 where he chastised those who still needed “milk” and admonished “us” to move past the “elementary teaching about Christ” and go on toward “maturity.” That challenges the status quo and moves us toward a certain discomfort.
Once after introducing the topic of “covenant” and pressing the wonderful, sovereign pervasiveness of God’s covenant in the Word to a large group of believers in a single meeting, I was afterwards complimented by an older preacher who had been in the pulpit for about three decades or so at the time. As he shook my hand, he said: “That was quite a concept you talked about!” I countered by replying: “It’s far more than just a concept.” The conversation went no farther.
But it should! The conversation should continue because God’s covenant is a real time, present reality that will continue forever. Heaven is the culmination of the new covenant and all that it entails.
So, that is what we will do here. We’ll explore together and “see” what has been missing. If your experience will be like mine, you will be changed as you realize more and more what God has done for you (and me) through this sovereignly ordained partnership. And how He has limited Himself for our sake in this same agreement, this same contract, this covenant.
For God is a covenant God.
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