Our Covenant God
Covenant Theology 101 (#2)
Covenant Breakers and the Covenant Keeper.
Picture an astronomer mapping distant galaxies light years away. Now picture an ant crawling on the ground. The astronomer could observe or even care the ant, but the ant could never comprehend the astronomer. The gap between them is seemingly infinite.
That’s something like the distance between God and us. He is infinite; we are finite. Yet the wonder of Scripture is that the Creator of the heavens stoops to make himself known. He speaks our language and binds himself to us in love through something called covenant.
To study the covenants in Scripture is to see the Bible’s big picture, what Michael Horton calls “an architectonic structure, a matrix of beams and pillars that hold together the structure of biblical faith and practice” (God of Promise).
Many think Reformed theology is just “TULIP” or the sovereignty of God. This misses the big picture. Tracing the covenants shows how the living God draws creatures into covenant or relationship with him. They open the mind and heart of God to us and ours to him.
As we continue Covenant Theology 101, let’s meet our covenant God.
Starting Point: The Infinite God
The Bible opens with staggering words: “In the beginning, God” (Gen. 1:1). That sets the foundation for everything. God is the starting point—uncreated, self-existent, infinite. The Westminster Confession reminds us that “the distance between God and the creature is so great” (7.1)—not a physical but ontological distance. God is God; everything else is creaturely.He alone is immense—unlimited by space; eternal—unlimited by time; infinite—unlimited in every way. When nothing else was, he existed. There was no time when he was not.
Because God is infinite, he is independent of creation—he does not need it. Moses saw this when the bush was not consumed by fire (Ex. 3)—the Lord is the Living and self-sufficient God. He is “most free…hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself” and “is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them” (Westminster Confession, 2.2).
Isaiah asks, “Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? (40:13) He says the nations “are like a drop from a bucket” (40:15). Psalm 113 declares he is “high above all nations,” yet “looks far down on the heavens and the earth” (vv. 5, 6). The God who is exalted beyond comprehension also stoops down and “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap” (v. 7).
“Reasonable creatures” like us “owe obedience unto him as their Creator” (Westminster Confession, 7.1). God is worthy to be worshipped (Ps. 18:3) because he is God!
The Need: The Condescension of God
He who is infinitely above us graciously comes near. Westminster continues: “yet they could never have any fruition [enjoyment] of him…but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part” (7.1). Because God is infinite, if we are to know him at all, he must come down to us.
Creation itself was such an act—a free decision to share his life. His decision to create was pure “condescension”—coming down to our level because he delighted to, so that we could benefit.
The Method: The Covenant of God
How does this infinite, self-sufficient God make himself known? “He has been pleased to express by way of covenant”(7.1).
Human covenants are between equals for mutual benefit. God’s are for our benefit. Francis Turretin said, strictly speaking, a covenant cannot exist between God and humans because we’re not equals (Institutes of Elenctic Theology). Johannes Cocceius described covenant as “the divine declaration of the way of receiving the love of God as well as the union and communion of becoming partaker in Him” (The Doctrine of The Covenant and Testament of God). We call this “a relationship with God.” It’s the deepest experience of happiness according to Herman Witsius (The Economy of the Covenants). “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant” (Ps. 25:14).
At the bush, God revealed himself as the covenant God of Moses’ fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 3:6). He had not forgotten his people’s suffering: he saw, heard, knew, and came down (Ex. 3:7–8). When Moses asked his name, God answered, “I am who I am” (Ex. 3:14)—“I will be what I will be.”
This “Tetragrammaton” (“four letters”)—Yahweh—is God’s self-revelation. We do not name him; he names himself (Bavinck, The Doctrine of God). What he was to the patriarchs, he was to Israel, and he will be forever to his people. That same promise is for those who know Jesus Christ: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
Covenant Breakers and the Covenant Keeper
To covenant breakers, I say: this is your covenant God—infinite, unbounded, self-sufficient, and yet mercifully near. The infinite One has made himself known, not through vague spiritual impressions, but through covenant promises that reveal his heart. He is the Covenant Keeper.
He is the God who speaks.
He is the God who stoops.
He is the God who saves.
He has revealed his heart to you by way of covenants—will you give him yours?