What does the word ‘covenant’ mean?

The word ‘covenant’ simply means that God is bringing you into agreement with Him. We read in Amos 3:3, "Can two walk together unless they be AGREED?" God is not agreeing to our terms. We are agreeing to serve God under the terms He set by the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world.

When we say that we are coming into agreement with God through covenant we are saying that we are willing to ASSUME THE YOKE of His covenant.

The Jews understood that  ‘baptism’ prepared them to assume the yoke of God in order to come into agreement with Him.  This is what we read in the Jewish Encyclopedia:

"He (a proselyte) must bathe in the name of God--that  is--assume the  yoke of God's kingdom imposed upon him by the one who  leads him to baptism  or else he is not admitted into Judaism.”

If we do not assume the yoke of Christ, we can’t walk with God. In the article ‘How To Enter Into Covenant’ we have already explained how Jesus gives the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We saw how God uses this baptism to provide an entrance into His covenant. This baptism then prepares us to assume the yoke of Christ. We see again how the First Covenant types and shadows being fulfilled in Jesus.

When believers say that they intend to walk with God, but not come into covenant with God, they are in essence saying that they are going to try to walk with God without coming into agreement with Him, without assuming the yoke of Christ. This is not possible.

Deut.29:12, "That you should ENTER INTO COVENANT with the Lord your God, and INTO HIS OATH, which the Lord your God makes with you this day."

Deut.29:1, "These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses..." What we see in the First Covenant is fulfilled in Christ. The evangelist brings to the people the words of the covenant which the Lord God now commands through Jesus Christ, not Moses.

 Deut. 13:4, “Ye shall WALK after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.”

When believers say that they intend to walk with God, but not come into covenant with God, they are saying that they are going to try to walk with God without serving Him. That also, is not possible.

"For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, SERVE me: there will I ACCEPT them, and there will I REQUIRE your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things,"  Ezek. 20:40.

In each covenant God provided for man’s  service to Him. When we say that we are ‘walking’ with God that depicts a form of activity within the covenant that He has provided.

God’s commandments are given through covenant, this is why we see the types and shadows of Christ in the tables of stone that God gave through Moses. These tables of stone were called the ‘tables of the covenant’.

Ex. 34:28, “And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.”

Ex. 24:7,  “And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” This law written in stone is called the YOKE of BONDAGE.

Gal. 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

When  Jesus  said,  "My  YOKE  is easy and  My  burden  is  light," (Mt.11:30) He was pointing to Himself. HE is the yoke of the New Covenant. God made man’s participation with the yoke of Christ easy. HOW?  Jesus replaced the law written in stone with the law of grace and truth, written by the Spirit.

We can’t keep this law of grace and truth without the power of the Spirit, and without the instruction of teaching apostles. This is why God uses the baptism of the Holy Spirit as our entrance into covenant, and provides instruction through spiritual government authorized by the Headship of Christ.

When a believer is baptized with the Holy Spirit he is assuming the yoke of the covenant of Christ and being prepared by this baptism to walk in covenant with God.

Because the YOKE of the Second Covenant is easy, God called it the NEW and BETTER covenant. Heb, 8:6,  “But now hath he (Jesus) obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a BETTER covenant, which was established upon BETTER promises.”

Heb. 8:7,  “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the SECOND (COVENANT).”

Heb.8:8,  “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:”

Heb. 8:9,  “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt (not according to Moses); because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”

Heb. 8:10,  “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”

Heb.9:15,  “And for this cause he (Jesus) is the mediator of the NEW TESTAMENT, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”

God's promises are given through covenant. God said to Abram, "I will make my covenant between me and you for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you,” Gen.17:7.  If we want God to be OUR God, we must also accept the terms of the covenant He now offers through Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul, in writing to the Gentile Christians in Galatia said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek....... for you are all ONE in Christ." The things that God has provided for faith through Jesus Christ is known as the NEW or SECOND covenant and is the covenant God offers to both Jew and Gentile.

THOSE WHO WALK WITH GOD IN COVENANT ARE SAVED:

Deut. 26:17, 18,."You have AVOUCHED the Lord this day to be your God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statues, and His commandments, and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice."  These words are fulfilled in Christ. A believer must affirm Christ as the Son of God and accept responsibility to serve God in covenant with Him.

"And the Lord has AVOUCHED you this day to be His peculiar people, as He has promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments." These words are fulfilled in Christ. God confirms the faith of the believer through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and accepts responsibility for the care of that soul.

We read in Deut.33:29, "Happy are you O Israel; who is like unto you, O people SAVED by the Lord..."

When the children of Israel saw the dead bodies of the soldiers of the powerful and mighty Egypt washed upon the shore, they knew that God had 'SAVED' them from their enemy. But we see that their was a PURPOSE in this deliverance. God brought Israel OUT of Egypt to bring them INTO covenant with Him.

Deut.29:1, "THESE are the words (the KNOWLEDGE) of the covenant...." The evangelist is not sharing the mere STORY of the Jesus' death and resurrection. Yes, they do share this testimony, but the knowledge is not unfolded as a story, but as the words of the covenant that God is making with man. The repentant sinner is not asked to agree with a 'story', he is being asked to come into agreement with the testimony of Christ and come into covenant with God.

In the First Covenant, it was AFTER the Jews agreed to keep covenant with God through the observance of His commandments through Moses that they could call themselves the SAVED of the Lord, and they could say that the eternal God was their refuge (Deut.33:27).

Outside of that covenant, outside of observance of those commandments given through Moses, God was NOT their refuge and they were NOT the saved of the Lord as we see when their enemies overthrew them, and all but 2 of that generation died in the wilderness, not having seen the promise. God delivered them out of Egypt, but they did not inherit the promises of God because they refused the covenant (Heb.3:14-19; Heb.4:1,2).

Even so today, the term 'SAVED' is only in connection with ALL that God has provided through Jesus Christ in this better covenant made with better promises. We are saved if we walk in covenant with God.

God expects us to be MINDFUL of the covenant, mindful of our agreement to keep the covenant through the law of grace and truth.  I Chron.16:15, “Be ye mindful always of His covenant.”