Fight the Good Fight of the Faith: The Greatest Love Story

As mentioned in the previous post, we are bringing this series on the book of Joshua to an end with the sermon on Jos. 24 in this post. I hope you have enjoyed this book and learning about living the Christian life as much as I have. I hope God has used it to bless your soul as much as He has used it to bless mine.

To introduce this sermon, let's review ever-so-briefly: This book shows us the Kingdom of God spreading physically into the land of Canaan as the people follow Joshua and Joshua follows God in the conquest of the Promised Land. And, again, as we have said almost every week as we have gone through this book, they had to fight by faith in God who truly fights for them. Well, in a similar way, our lives are mirrored but spiritually; not physically. Today, we’re following Jesus—the Commander of the Lord’s army to whom Joshua points us—we’re following Him as He spreads the Kingdom spiritually in our hearts and throughout the world. Yes, for us it’s spiritual and our enemies are not literal people like they were for Joshua and the Israelites, but our battles are no less real. And, their battles, just like ours, rested on spiritual principles—fighting by faith—and those principles are the same throughout space and time. So, we’ve learned a lot so far about faith and living by faith from this book as we’ve worked our way through it, and here the story of this book ends with God’s people coming together before God one more time to renew the covenant. And, this covenant renewal shows us the greatest love story of all time—a love story that not only draws us to Jesus but motivates and compels us to live for Him.

If you want to hear more, you can listen to the sermon here or read the transcript here.

I pray that God will use it and this whole series to magnify His glory in your heart and fortify you for the battles of this Christian life.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Fight the Good Fight of the Faith: Recounting the History of God's Grace

Well, we have made it through the book of Joshua. This Sunday, the sermon posted will look at the final chapter and see how God and Joshua end this wonderful book that teaches us how to fight the good fight of the faith.

In the previous sermon, we saw Joshua's final words to the leaders of Israel that teach them about living by faith. In this final chapter of the book, Joshua leads the people in renewing the covenant with God, which is an act of rededicating themselves to His service before Joshua passes into glory and they are on their own. The way the covenant renewal ceremony is laid out in this passage is very similar to the covenants of the other peoples of the ancient near east surrounding Israel. God chose to make His covenants with them in a way that would be familiar to them (in and of itself and act of grace!).

The ceremonies generally opened with a preamble where the parties making the covenant introduce themselves, and then they go on to a "historical prologue" where the history of the relationship between the parties is recounted (i.e. everything that is leading up to the covenant ceremony). The covenant renewal ceremony in Jos. 24 follows that pattern, and it is the historical prologue that I want to focus on for this devotional. We will talk about it a little Sunday, but we will not be able to go into detail there. So, here are a few theological highlights from the recounting of the history of God and His people to this point (reading Jos. 24:1-13 first would be helpful):

• Unconditional Election: Joshua starts out by reminding them that God took Abraham from Ur while Abraham was still a pagan. And, Abraham was chosen; not his brother Nahor, yet Abraham deserved it no more than Nahor. Abraham was no saint when God found him. He was plunged into pagan worship probably just as much as the Canaanites. Abraham did not become a believer because he was somehow inherently better than his father or brother. Abraham did not deserve it any more than anyone else. No, it was because God "took" him and "led" him. God loved Abraham when he deserved only wrath. The fact that Israel exists at all is simply an act of God's free grace and unconditional election. And, this is consistent with the rest of Scripture. The Bible constantly reminds us of who we were, but it is not to bring us to despair but to show us the incredible grace of God. Francis Schaeffer once wrote:

Whether studying the Old Testament or the New, we are reminded that we are not where we are because of a long, wise, and godly heritage. We come from rebellion. Individually, we are children of wrath. After we are Christians, we must look at others who are still under God's wrath and always say, "I am essentially what you are. If I am in a different place, it is not because I am intrinsically better than you, but simply because God has done something in my life." There is no place for pride.

• Slow growth: Joshua tells us that God multiplied Abraham's seed, but it was really, really slow. He only gave him Isaac. Isaac only had two sons, one of which would not produce people of God (i.e. Esau). Finally, with Jacob's twelve sons, things start to speed up. So, we see from this that God does what He promises, but sometimes it is so gradual that we do not notice until it has been going on for a long time. We need to keep this in mind and walk by faith; not by sight. As one commentator says, "We easily lose sight of what Yahweh has done by demanding too much too soon."
• Rough spots: Joshua also points out that Esau and his people (not God's people) get their inheritance right away but Jacob and his sons (God's people!) go to Egypt and become slaves. What? Why do the covenant people get slavery while the others get their land? Sometimes history seems to conflict with God's design, which is, again, why we have to walk by faith and not by sight. God always accomplishes His design, but sometimes it is not at all when we would expect it (cf. e.g. He. 11:32-38). The Scriptures are realistic about this and do not hide the "rough spots" from us, and that shows God is honest, realistic, and always faithful. God showing us the "rough spots" and confusing parts of history is not to make us relish the difficult aspects of the life to which He has called His people but to show us that He is faithful to hold us in and bring us through the "rough spots."
• God's power: In vv. 5-12, Joshua recounts God's incredible power to deliver His people from Egypt (the greatest power in the world at the time), conquer the kings east of the Jordan, and conquer the Promised Land. Joshua sums it up with telling the people that it was not by their sword or bow that all this was accomplished but by God's mighty power. Time and time again God's people are outnumbered, outgunned, or even completely helpless, and God fights for them by His mighty power. This shows us what Jonah learned in Jon. 2:9: Salvation is of the LORD. Paul also tells us this in 2 Co. 4:7. This is not to say that we just "let go and let God," for God uses our struggles, as we fight by faith, but it does show us that our struggles would be nothing, useless, futile without God's mighty power. (We will talk more about this in the upcoming sermon.)
• God's provision: If we look at vv. 7, 13, Joshua shows us God's provision in necessity and abundance, but also note that His provision is the basic stuff: manna, grain, towns, houses. It, with the exception of the manna, is ordinary stuff that we take for granted every day, but it is all of God's grace. God always provides for His people, but we need to remember too that God isn't some kind of genie that just grants our wishes. He gives us our needs; not necessarily our desires. And, most often He does it through the normal, ordinary means of a job, a family, etc.

You see, Joshua does not recount their history just to show them their past but to show them the great God whom they serve. That is the basis for the rest of the covenant renewal ceremony, which we will talk more about on Sunday. Until then, think about your own history, and I bet if you think long and hard enough, you could find some very similar displays of God's grace, faithfulness, power, and provision even during the rought spots, and if you do that, it will refresh your soul.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Fight the Good Fight of the Faith: After Sin

Because we had a limited amount of time in the book of Joshua over the summer, I needed to skip some content. Ideally, we would have work through every passage on Sunday mornings, but we did not have the time for that, as I have described in past devotionals. But, as I have also mentioned before, what I could not cover on Sunday mornings, I tried to cover at least briefly in the Friday devotional emails that I sent to my congregation over the summer. Those emails I have turned into these devotional posts, and that is what we are going to do with Joshua 8 in this post.

Two Sundays ago, I posted the sermon from Joshua 7, where we saw the destructive power of sin in the camp, both individual and corporate sin. Sin is far more deadly than we often think it is, and it must be dealt with. This next part of that episode--ch. 8--tells us the story of how God restored the people after the sin of Achan was dealt with and how, even though Achan had sinned and they had sinned, His plans could not be derailed by anything. The sin of God's people cannot overcome the glorious plan and work of God.

Again, I did not have time to look at ch. 8 specifically in a sermon, so let's look at a few highlights from ch. 8 in this post:

First, note how God encourages Joshua right from the start: "And the Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not fear and do not be dismayed.... I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land.'" With such a devastating loss because of sin fresh in his memory, Joshua may have thought that they had blown it and God was done with them, but, again, the sin of God's people cannot mess up the plan of God. Two quick points from that:

• Think about our battles against sin in the Christian life. When we give into sin and temptation, satan is often right there with us as the accuser of God's people, whispering, "You've done it now. God's done with you now. You might as well go on and keep on sinning." He may also say to us, "God's name will be dragged through the mud because of you. You're such a scumbag!" Those are lies from the pit of hell, and they smell like smoke. Conviction of sin is never intended by God to drive us down into the dust simply to stay there bemoaning our sinfulness. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is meant to bring to Him in repentance, hear His words "Do not fear and do not be dismayed," and then move on in gratitude to serve Him again. Sin should never spiritually paralyze us. As the old hymn goes, "Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all my sin." Or, as the modern hymn says, "Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here. Sin would reduce me to utter despair, but through Thy free goodness my spirit's revived, and He that first made me still keeps me alive." Learn from this episode and do not listen to the lies of satan: once you have repented of your sin, move on to serve God again in gratitude for His great mercy.
• Think also about our battles to share the gospel with friends, neighbors, and family members. Again, here satan attacks us and says, "Your sin is going to drag God's name through the mud. No one will listen to you because you're such a sinner, so get it together before you go out and try to share the gospel." That too is a lie from the pit of hell and smells like smoke. Just as God dealt with their sin and then brought them to victory over Ai, so God deals with our sin in Christ and sends us out as His messengers for the gospel. And, listen: your sinfulness is part of your witness. You are a great sinner going to other sinners and saying, "Look, I have nothing for you personally. I am big sinner whose only hope is Jesus Christ, and He's your only hope too." If we give into the lie of satan and think, "I really do need to clean up my act before I witness to my friend," what subtle message does that send to them (i.e. our friends)? It sends them the message that they have to clean up their act before they come to Jesus, and that is not the true gospel. Jesus doesn't say to anyone, "Clean yourself up some and then we'll talk." No, He says like God says here, "Do not fear and be not dismayed: there is more grace in me than there is sin in you."

Second, note the sad ending to Achan's story. It is subtle, but it is in v. 2: "...its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves." When they "fought" against Jericho, all the plunder was to go to God, and Achan stole from God for himself. The sad ending of Achan's story is this: if he had just waited for a little while, he would have had all the plunder he wanted. But, Achan let his desire override his devotion to the LORD. Church family, often times our desires are not the problem. Often those desires in and of themselves are good desires. The problem comes in when we let those desires get out of order and we go after them before seeking God. For example, the desire for money to meet our physical needs is not the problem because God knows we need that for our physical needs. It becomes an idol when we go after it more than God, thinking that it will fulfill our needs. Or, the desire for sexual gratification is not in and of itself a bad desire because God created man and woman to be one flesh in marriage. That becomes a sin and an idol when we go after it more than God, seeking to fulfill it before God's timing and outside of God's plan for us, which is fulfillment in the context of marriage between a man and a woman. The sad conclusion to Achan's sin is that if he had just waited on God; if he had just sought God first, he would have had the plunder in God's timing. Is this not the OT equivalent of Jesus' teaching in Mt. 6:25-33 (cf.v. 33)?

Third, note that God's plan for His people is very different for this battle than it was for Jericho. Here, the whole army has to fight and they use an ambush strategy. Remember, while parts of God's plan for us in the battles of this life are constant, like using the means of grace (the Bible, prayer, and worship), we cannot put God in a box and think He will work the same way every time. We cannot think that because one strategy for evangelism worked for one person, it will work for all of them. We cannot think that because God met our needs in a particular way in one situation, that is always the way He will meet our needs. Our Lord is not a tame lion who shows up whenever we want and in the ways we want. So, we need to seek the counsel of God first, and then act after seeking godly counsel, knowing God may not work the same ways He has before (we will talk more about this in Sunday's sermon).

Finally, notice out Joshua renews the covenant at the end of this episode. This seems abrupt and even out of place in the narrative, but it is a very appropriate way to end the episode of chs. 7-8. One commentator notes: "After Israel had just experienced the curse of Yahweh’s anger (ch. 7) and the boon of Yahweh’s aid (ch. 8), what could be more appropriate than Joshua’s reading ‘the blessing and the curse’ (v. 34) of the Torah?" They have felt God's anger and seen God's blessing, and so what has happened to them in the space and time of life needs to be interpreted for them by the Word of God. But, even though it is appropriate, it is still and abrupt change: from war to worship. Yet, that abrupt changes brings back up one of the lessons we learned from ch. 1: Success for the Israelites was not primarily about defeating the Canaanites and taking the land. The land was simply a place where they could have rest from their enemies so that they could be prosperous in their relationship with God. Here, by bringing them to worship right after restoration and victory, God reminds them to keep first things first: their relationship with Him as His people. And, Church family, the same is true for us. In the battles of this Christian life, God gives us victory so that we can "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to [us]." In all the whirlwind of life, jobs, professors, family, friends, politics, struggles with sin, and everything else this life throws us, we need to keep first things first: our relationship with our Savior as His people and His Church.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Solus Christus: The Covenant of Consummation

For this week of Advent we’ve been looking that the covenants God made with man in the Old Testament, and we’ve seen how they’re related to one another since they’re all under the one covenant of grace that Jesus fulfilled for us in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Remember, think of the covenant of grace as an umbrella that covers all of Scripture from the fall of Adam to the end of Revelation. Under this umbrella, the individual covenants of the Old Testament build on each other as ever-increasing waves of revelation about the covenant of grace until they climax with Christ’s fulfillment of that overarching covenant. We’ve looked at the covenant of commencement made with Adam and Eve after the fall, the covenant of preservation made with Noah, the covenant of promise made with Abraham, the covenant of law made with Moses, and the covenant of kingdom made with David. We’ve seen that with each covenant God’s fellowship with man was increased and that each ultimately pointed to Jesus Himself. For today’s Advent meditation we’re going to look at the “new covenant” from Jer. 31:31-34:

³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Does this fit into the unity of the previous covenants? It does. In fact, it represents the promised fulfillment of the earlier covenants, which why it’s sometimes called the “covenant of consummation.” First and foremost, the covenantal refrain is clearly stated in v. 33, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” connecting it to the thread that weaves through all the previous covenants. Furthermore, in this passage God promises the covenant of consummation will be better than the covenant of law, but it still connects the two. This covenant will still have the law, but it will be written on the hearts of God’s people. Also, just a few verses later, in Jer. 32:39-41, Jeremiah prophesies that in the covenant of consummation God will “plant them in this land,” clearly alluding to the promises of offspring and land in the covenant of promise and connecting those two covenants. Finally, in a parallel prophecy found in Eze. 37:24-26, the covenant of consummation is overtly connected to the covenants of promise, law, and kingdom, all in one statement:

²⁴ My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd [covenant of kingdom connection]. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes [covenant of law connection]. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived [covenant of promise connection]. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever [covenant of promise connection], and David my servant shall be their prince forever [covenant of kingdom connection]. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them [covenant of consummation establishment]...

Here Ezekiel shows that in the covenant of consummation all the promises of the God in the previous covenants find their fulfillment. So, the covenant of consummation doesn’t appear on the scene as something previously unknown to the people of God, but rather represents for them “the collation of all the old covenant promises in terms of a future expectation.” That future expectation is Jesus, and Jesus Himself claimed to fulfill this covenant when He instituted the Lord’s Supper:

¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Lk. 22:19-20)

It’s through the new covenant—the covenant of consummation—that believers have even greater fellowship with God than the Old Testaments saints could’ve ever imagined. With the incarnation of Christ (what we celebrate at Christmas), John tells us in his gospel that God became flesh and dwelt—literally “tabernacled” (alluding to the Old Testament Tabernacle)—among man (cf. Jn. 1:14). With Christ the very presence of God walked, dwelt, “tabernacled” among men. Yet, the greater fellowship of the covenant of consummation didn’t reach its zenith there. Christ purchased salvation for His people and through their union with Him believers have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters so that they might be able to cry out to God, “Abba! Father!” Such an intimacy and fellowship with God (calling Him the Hebrew equivalent of “daddy”) would never have been imagined in the Old Testament. Yet, the covenantal trajectory of ever-increasing fellowship and presence has another level still to come. The final stage of intimacy and fellowship in the covenant of consummation has yet to come. Soon Jesus will return again (in His second advent) to finalize the presence and fellowship that He inaugurated in His first advent. Re. 21:1-3 describes what God’s fellowship with His people will be like at that time:

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

God’s covenantal refrain finds is pinnacle in the covenant of consummation. In the present age, believers are adopted as sons and daughters of God through their union with Christ and can call God “Abba.” In the new heavens and the new earth, the ever-increasing trajectory of fellowship seen in all the previous covenants will climax when God recreates all of creation and grants uninhibited, unmediated fellowship with “God Himself.” He will walk and talk with His people just like He did with Adam before the fall.

This is what we celebrate at Christmas, and it’s also that to which we look forward and for which we pray, for we know that the best is yet to come. When one considers God’s work of redemption throughout the ages in His covenants, what He has already done in Christ (in the first advent), and what He will soon do in Christ (in the second advent), the only proper response is praise. We should say like Paul in Ro. 11:33-36:

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵ “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”
³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

On this day of Advent think about “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God” in His work of redemption that He began with His promise to Adam and was fulfilled in Christ. All these covenants and God’s redemptive work in them provide the foundation for all the hope we have in Christ and celebrate at Christmas. When we observe Advent, whether we consciously think about it or not, all these covenants have brought us to where we are in Christ today. Praise Him for His glorious work that brought redemption in Christ. Ask Him to magnify His glory in your heart so that you can’t help but break out into spontaneous praise of “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.”

By His Grace,

Taylor

Solus Christus: The Covenant of Kingdom

The next covenant at which we need to look for this week of Advent is the covenant God made with King David: the so-called “Davidic covenant” or, as some call it, the “covenant of kingdom.” We can read about this covenant in 2 Sa. 7:12-17, 1 Chr. 17:7-14, and Ps. 89, but since the Samuel and Chronicles passages are parallel passages and Ps. 89 is a little long for a devotion, we will use Chronicles as our meditation for this day of Advent:

³ But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan….
⁷ “Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel, ⁸ and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ⁹ And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly, ¹⁰ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the LORD will build you a house. ¹¹ When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, ¹⁴ but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’”

In this covenant God promises to establish David’s throne forever, which would ultimately be fulfilled in Christ (cf. Lk. 1:32). This covenant, like the others, does not annul any of God’s previous covenants but rather builds on them and reveals more about the covenant of grace. Each of the kings that followed David would be judged according to the covenant of law, and when the kings or the people broke the law, judgment came (eventually culminating in the Babylonian Exile). Yet, the covenant of kingdom isn’t merely regulated by the covenant of law, but is also based upon God’s covenantal refrain (like the previous covenants). Ezekiel discusses God’s covenant with David in terms of the covenantal refrain: “And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them.” Here, as a covenantal representative, David substitutes for the people of God. He belongs to the Lord; so all the people belong to the Lord. They will be His people, and He will be their God. Furthermore, God’s promised fellowship with His people finds even greater fulfillment in the glorious, permanent dwelling of the Temple (cf. 1 Kgs 6; 2 Chr. 7). So, like the previous covenants, the covenant of kingdom doesn’t replace the others but supplements and builds upon the previous covenants. In doing so, it also reveals a little more about the Messiah: He would be an eternal King who sits on the throne of David. And, a thousand years after God made this covenant, the angel Gabriel told Mary that Jesus fulfills it:

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Lk. 1:26-33)

It’s Jesus’ kingship (as fulfillment of this part of the covenant of grace) that makes our salvation possible, as Paul tells us in Colossians:

¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13-14)

Jesus is King—King of this universe and King of believer’s lives—because He sits on the eternal throne in the eternal kingdom promised to David in the covenant of kingdom. Believers are now citizens of this eternal kingdom and in it we find redemption and the forgiveness of sins from its King.

On this day of Advent remember that you might be a citizen of the United States of America or another earthly country, but if you belong to Jesus, you are first and foremost a citizen of His kingdom, in which there is salvation and of which there will be no end! America, Britain, Russia, and all the other countries of this world will fall, but Jesus’ kingdom is eternal. Thank God for qualifying you and transferring you to Christ’s eternal kingdom so you can have redemption and the forgiveness of sins (cf. Col. 1:12-14). Remember that Jesus—the eternal King who sits on David’s throne—is King of this universe and your life. Remember that because He is the eternal King, you can know that there are no ultimate terrors or surprises in this universe for He controls it all. You can also know that your life has no ultimate terrors. We live, work, and even die under Christ’s kingship. As our eternal King there is nothing that can befall us, which isn’t under Jesus’ complete control. Praise Him as your King and rest in His kingly sovereignty.

By His Grace,

Taylor

Solus Christus: The Covenant of Law

For today’s advent meditation we’ll continue our journey through the covenants of the Old Testament to see how they center on the covenantal refrain—”I will be your God and you will be my people”—and how they point us to Jesus. We’ve looked at God’s covenant with Adam and Eve (after the fall), God’s covenant with Noah, and God’s covenant with Abraham. That brings us to God’s covenant with Moses and the Israelite people given at Mt. Sinai: the “covenant of law.” The specific passages about this covenant, since they lay out the covenant law for God’s people, are numerous. The covenant covers Ex. 19-24 and the entire book of Deuteronomy. That’s obviously far too much to read in a single devotional, so we’ll focus on God’s words to Moses when He first promised to redeem Israel from Egypt and then talk a little about the covenant of law:

² God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. ⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. ⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. ⁶ Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. ⁷ I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’” (Ex. 6:2-8)

This is not only the story of Israel’s redemption from Egypt but also our story of our redemption from sin. Like God promised to give the Israelites the land of Canaan, so He promised to give us heaven and eventually the new heavens and the new earth in Jesus. Like God heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians held as slaves, so He heard the groaning of His elect whom sin held as slaves. As God said, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment,” so He brought us out from under the burden of slavery to sin and redeemed us from the power of death through Jesus. And, as God promised to bring them into the land He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and give it to them as their possession, so He will soon send Jesus back to bring us into the land we have been promised—the new heavens and the new earth—and give it to us as our possession. All of this was done for the Israelites and for His Church so He could fulfill His covenantal refrain—the thread weaving through all the covenants (italicized in the above reading): “I will be your God and you will be my people.” God’s physical redemption of Israel is a type—a foreshadowing—of what He would soon do for all His people in Jesus. This is why we have something to celebrate at Christmas and why we can observe the season of Advent. God brought us out of slavery into freedom in Christ; “He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”

Now, let’s talk specifically about God’s covenant with the Israelites that He gave to Moses. Why add this covenant under the umbrella of the covenant of grace after the covenant of promise given to Abraham? In Ga. 3:19 Paul asks and answers this very question, “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made….” The covenant of law was added to the umbrella of the covenant of grace “because of transgressions.” It provided the covenant law and sacrificial system by which God’s people could fellowship with Him—He as their God and they as His people—until “the offspring should come,” i.e. until Jesus Christ came to fulfill the covenant of grace. The covenant of law mediated the covenant of grace for God’s people until Christ, and it ultimately pointed to Christ who was foreshadowed in its ordinances, laws, and sacrifices and who would one day fulfill and mediate a better, ultimate covenant (cf. He. 7:22). It didn’t replace the covenant of promise but built upon it: again, giving more information about the covenant of grace and greater fellowship with God. This is clear from the beginning when God rescued Israel from Egypt: “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” God redeemed them from Egypt to give them the land which He “swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,” and He did so He could “take [them] to be [His] people, and [He] will be [their] God” (the covenantal refrain).

The covenantal dealings Israel had with God before He made the covenant of law with them at Mt. Sinai were founded upon His covenant with Abraham, and this didn’t change with the introduction of the covenant of law. Indeed, the covenant of promise was the foundation for redeeming the Israelite people from Egypt and giving the covenant of law. Even after the covenant was made at Mt. Sinai, God often repeated His covenantal refrain that He made to Abraham, and in the covenant of law God’s mercy and grace to the Jews were traced back to His covenant with Abraham (cf. Lv. 11:45; Dt. 4:20; 29:13). Finally, the fellowship promised in the covenantal refrain, and partially fulfilled in the covenant of promise, found even greater fulfillment with His presence in the Tabernacle among the people of Israel (cf. Ex. 40:34ff; Lv. 26:11-12). It was only upon the foundation of God’s covenant with Abraham (and with Adam and Eve) that the covenant of law could be built, and it was in the covenant of law that God’s covenant with Abraham found a basic fulfillment. More was to come in His later covenants and ultimately in Jesus Himself, who would bring final fulfillment. Thus, far from abrogating God’s covenant with Abraham, the covenant of law built upon it, further revealed God’s covenant of grace, increased His fellowship with His people, and foreshadowed Jesus in its ordinances and sacrifices.

Even though the covenant of law may seem like a lot of rules and regulations, remember that it is founded upon the promises of redemption and grace given in the covenant of promise. Remember that all the laws, ordinances, and sacrifices were not ends in themselves but pointed to Jesus who would fulfill them all forever. Christ’s advent didn’t replace the covenant with Moses; it fulfilled the promises, shadows, and types in it that had pointed to Him all along.

On this day of Advent remember that the covenant of law revealed more about God’s covenant of grace and increased His fellowship with His people. Also remember that we are even more blessed than the Israelites were because we know the Savior to which their laws pointed and He lives in us through the Holy Spirit. We’re even more blessed because they could only hope for the coming of the Messiah but we can look back on it and celebrate it in Christmas. Praise God for the amazing history of redemption that we have recorded for us in our Bibles. Remember how the redemption of the Israelite people from Egypt is a type and foreshadowing of your redemption, which Christ came in His first advent to accomplish. Ask Him to give you a new, fresh appreciation for the covenant of law and to reveal to you how that law points to Jesus. Ask Him to show you the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in it and to use that grace to conform you daily into the likeness of Christ.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Solus Christus: The Covenant of Promise

This week we began to look at God’s covenants and how they point us to Jesus during this Advent season. We first talked about the Old Testament covenants in general and how they all fall under the “umbrella” of the covenant of grace. We next looked at the covenant of commencement God made in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Then we looked at how God’s covenant with Noah fits into the context of the covenant of grace. Today for our Advent meditation we’re going to look at the Abrahamic Covenant or, as it is sometimes called, the “covenant of promise.” This covenant was given in separate portions and recorded for us in Ge. 12:1-9; 15:8-22; 17:1-14:

¹ Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
⁴ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸ From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. ⁹ And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

⁸ But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” ⁹ He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹ And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
¹² As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, ² that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” ³ Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. ⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
⁹ And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹² He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, ¹³ both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Now, there is so much in this covenant that I could spend dozens of posts talking about it. I don’t intend to go that far, but I do want to point some things out about the continuity of this covenant with the previous covenants and how it points us to Jesus. In His work of redemption in history, God covenants with Abraham to set aside a people for Himself through which the Messiah—Jesus—would come. In this covenant (like His covenant with Adam and Eve but with more detail) God gives His covenantal refrain and promises Abraham “to be God to [him] and to [his] offspring after [him].” (Ge. 17:7) This level of detail shows the settled character of God’s covenant of promise and guarantees an intimate relationship with Abraham and his offspring (i.e. greater fellowship). This covenant with Abraham must be in the context of the covenant of grace, for such an intimate relationship with a holy God presupposes the removal of sin and imputation of righteousness, which Abraham received through faith (Ge. 15:6; cf. Ro. 4:3) and had sealed in his circumcision (Ro. 4:11). God also promises that Abraham and his seed (alluding to Ge. 3:15) would be a channel of universal blessing (Ge. 12:2-3; 22:18). It’s through this promise that Paul says the Scriptures “preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham,” and it is this very promise that Peter says Jesus fulfilled (Ac. 3:25-26; cf. Ga. 3:16). Remember how we said that all the covenants are under the umbrella of the covenant of grace? Here, in the covenant of promise, God’s plan of salvation through the covenant of grace is further explained: the seed promised in Ge. 3:15 would come through Abraham’s offspring (Jesus), would be a blessing to all nations (salvation for Jews and Gentiles), and would make fellowship with God possible (“I will be your God...”). This pledge of a Redeemer would be realized through God’s other promises to Abraham given in the covenant of promise: land (Ge. 17:8) and numerous offspring (Ge. 15:5). The people and the land would provide the necessary environment (under the security of the covenant of preservation) from which the Messiah could come (what we celebrate at Christmas). They would also foreshadow the ultimate fulfillment of this covenant in a spiritual ancestry (cf. Ro. 4:16-17; Ga. 3:7, 16) and a heavenly land (cf. He. 11:10), which Jesus would accomplish in His work of redemption. Thus, God’s covenant with Abraham gives more information about the covenant of grace, and it does not replace the previous covenants but rather builds upon them.

God’s covenant with Abraham, like the promise of the seed in Ge. 3:15, is not some other way of salvation that has come and gone. It pointed them to Jesus and prepared God’s people for the advent of their Messiah. Now we—God’s people—celebrate that advent and look forward to the future, second advent of Christ (i.e. His second coming) when He will take His spiritual people into the new heavens and new earth—the ultimate fulfillment of the land God promised to Abraham.

On this day of Advent remember that God’s plan of salvation hasn’t changed but has always and ever been through faith in Jesus alone. Remember that we have fellowship with God in Christ, which is something we never could have achieved on our own. But, also remember that there is even greater fellowship to come: being in the very presence of God in the new heavens and new earth for all eternity. Jesus’ first advent guaranteed that for us, and His second advent will usher it in. Praise God today for sending Jesus to guarantee that we would be His people and He would be our God, and ask Him to “haste the day when [our] faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend” to bring us into the new heavens and new earth. Perhaps today could be the day.

By His Grace,

Taylor

Solus Christus: The Covenant of Preservation

Yesterday we started looking at the covenants of the Old Testament, and we saw how they’re increasing waves of revelation about God’s covenant of grace and ultimately point to Jesus (the one who fulfilled the covenant of grace). The next covenant and today’s Advent meditation comes from Ge. 9:8-17:

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³ I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

This covenant is sometimes called the “covenant of preservation.” It’s called this because in this covenant God provides the preservative structure necessary to “all future generations” for His work of redemption in history to continue to Jesus and beyond. God’s sign of this “everlasting covenant between [Him] and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth” is the rainbow, which we can still see today when the sun breaks through the clouds after a storm. It’s generally a sign that God is maintaining this world for all people, but it’s particularly a sign of the preservative framework He provided in which His covenant of grace would be accomplished. For in order for the Messiah to come, there had to be a stable, universal order in which He could be born, live a perfect life, die for His people, and be raised from the dead. God commits Himself to maintain this order in the covenant of preservation that He made with Noah and “all flesh.”

You might wonder, “Where is the covenantal refrain in this covenant?” Well, this covenant breaks the pattern of all the others but for a very good reason. The other covenants of the Old Testament are all redemptive covenants—they mark an increase of God’s fellowship with man, reveal more about His covenant of grace, and they are made with man (God’s creatures that are liable for sin and in need of redemption). This covenant is not redemptive but preservative, and it is made with “every living creature,” i.e. the world itself. God doesn’t increase His fellowship here or reveal anything else about the covenant of grace, but He does put in place the preservative framework necessary for the covenant of grace to be wrought in history. So, this covenant is still incredibly important for the advent of Christ. Without it, there may not have been a world to which He could come and redeem God’s people.

Today, remember that Advent has the very important covenant of preservation behind it. When God destroyed the world with a flood He didn’t have to promise never to do that again. He could’ve left that option open, but He didn’t. Instead, He chose to promise a stable, universal order for this world so that history could progress to the coming of the Messiah—the advent of Jesus—and beyond to the future second coming of Jesus—His second advent. Jesus could come into the world and we can celebrate Christmas because God promised never again to destroy “all flesh” by a flood. Praise God for His patience that prompted Him to preserve this world and for His patience that He continually shows you when you repeat the same sins over and over again. If you’re anything like me, you sometimes think, “God, why do you keep taking me back? I would’ve abandoned me a long time ago.” Our God—the true God—however, is one who shows patience to His creatures, and Jesus’ coming into this world is the ultimate proof of that divine patience. That advent of Christ—what we celebrate at Christmas—was made possible by God’s divine patience in the covenant of preservation.

By His Grace,

Taylor

Solus Christus: The Covenant of Commencement

For this week of Advent we’re going to take a turn away from prophecy and look at Christ in the covenants of the Old Testament. Looking at the Old Testament covenants individually can be confusing sometimes because we’re told they point to Jesus but sometimes we’re really not sure how. Plus, there are so many of them, so the natural question is, “How do they relate? If they even relate at all...” Well, all the Old Testament covenants do relate because they are all part of the one covenant of grace that Jesus fulfilled for us in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. (Think of the covenant of grace as an umbrella that covers all of Scripture from the fall of Adam to the end of Revelation.) The individual covenants of the Old Testament build on each other as ever-increasing waves of revelation about the covenant of grace until they climax with Christ’s fulfillment of the overarching covenant of grace. The Westminster Confession of Faith has a wonderful statement about the unity of the covenant of grace in chapter seven:

The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works [i.e. God’s promise of life to Adam if he obeyed the prohibition of the Garden of Eden]… Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ… This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law [i.e. the OT], and in the time of the Gospel [i.e. the NT]: under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all foresignifying [i.e. foreshadowing] Christ to come… Under the Gospel, when Christ, the substance, was exhibited [i.e. His advent, life, death, resurrection, and ascension], the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper… to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles… There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations.

As the Westminster Confession of Faith points out, after Adam’s fall all the Old Testament covenants were not different ways of salvation for different peoples in different periods of time. They were different administrations of the one covenant of grace, i.e. different ways the same covenant was mediated to God’s people. And, they all point to Jesus who is “the substance” and fulfillment of them all. That’s what we’re going to look at during this week of Advent.

Before we get into the individual covenants of the Old Testament, we need to see a thread—a motif—that runs through all the Old Testament covenants. They all (with the exception of one, which will be explained tomorrow) center on a singular refrain that God repeats over and over again in some fashion: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” That’s the heart of God’s work of redemption—God redeeming a people for Himself. This refrain weaves its way through the Old Testament covenants in an escalating presence of God among His people and fellowship of God with His people. This trajectory of increasing fellowship with God is made possible by Christ and finds its ultimate consummation in the future new heavens and the new earth where “the dwelling place of God [will be] with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.” Do you see the refrain in there? “He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.” This refrain is the thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation, and the substance of the thread is Jesus Himself. He has made it all possible by His advent and work of redemption.

So, where is the first covenant that reveals part of the covenant of grace? We’ve actually already looked at the passage that contains this covenant, but we’re going to study it again today. It is in Ge. 3:15:

¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.

It all begins immediately after the fall of Adam. This promise sets into operation God’s mission to fulfill the covenant of grace in Jesus and to redeem a people for Himself. This covenant is often called the “covenant of commencement” because in it God commits Himself to redeem a people for Himself, i.e. He will be their God and they will be His people. It’s significant that Paul alludes to this covenant to guarantee the triumph of the redeemed over satan: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” This shows that God’s curse on the serpent in the hearing of Adam and Eve pointed to Jesus Himself, and we who are in Christ share in His victory (His fulfillment of the covenant of grace) over sin, death, and satan. But, where is the covenantal refrain? Well, in this covenant its presence is general (God committing Himself to redeem a people for Himself), and it’s stated negatively: the enemy of satan is the friend of God.

On this day of Advent remember that Jesus became incarnate to fulfill the covenant of grace, which began here in Ge. 3:15. From the very beginning, God commits Himself to redeem a people for Himself. Remember that after the fall of Adam God could have left us in our sin, but He chose to redeem His rebellious people. He chose immediately to set into operation His plan to send Jesus into the world to defeat sin, death, and the devil for His people and to redeem them so He could be their God. Remember that God’s plan of salvation wasn’t different in the Old Testament. Adam, Eve, Abraham, Moses, and all the other people of God were saved by looking forward in faith to the Messiah, and we who live after His first advent are saved by looking backward in faith to the Messiah. There is but one way of salvation for all ages, and it’s Jesus (cf. Ro. 3:23-26; 4:1ff; 1 Co. 10:1; Ga. 3:8, 14; 4:4; He. 11:13). Praise Him for sending Jesus to crush sin, death, and the devil for you. When you read the Old Testament, ask the Holy Spirit to show you Jesus in what you’re reading because Christ is the substance of the Old Testament just as much as He is of the New.

By His Grace,

Taylor

Solus Christus: Is There Hope?

Is there hope? As we saw in yesterday’s meditation, Adam’s sin caused the fall of the entire human race. In it, we lost communion with God and were plunged into sin. Is there hope for us? Fortunately, God didn’t leave us without the hope of a Redeemer. Our devotion on this day of Advent moves us forward to the first mention in Scripture of the good news of the gospel, and we find it in the most unlikely of places—God’s curse on creation after the fall of Adam and Eve. Even in the midst of the curse that God places on all of creation because of the sin of Adam, He promises a Redeemer:

¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel. (Ge. 3:15)

This is often referred to as the “protoevangelion” because it’s the first promise of the good news of a Savior—God’s first promise of redemption through the Messiah. It’s also sometimes called the “covenant of commencement” (which we'll talk about in a later devotion), for here God commits Himself to redeem His people to Himself and destroy satan, who used the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve as his tool. It is significant that Paul alludes to this commitment in Ge. 3:15 to guarantee the triumph of the redeemed (Christians!) over satan: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Here begins the work of redemption that Christ would accomplish by becoming one of us, living the perfect life we couldn’t live, and dying the death we deserved to die. Here begins the good news of the story of Advent.

While the beginning may have looked bleak and sin seemed to have triumphed, God gave us a glimmer of hope that anticipates the coming of His Son to redeem His people. Sin may have won a battle in the Garden of Eden, but the war was far from over. God would fight for His people. Indeed, He would send His only Son to fight and die for His people.

On this day of Advent remember that God didn’t waste a moment after Adam and Eve fell but immediately set His plan of redemption into action. God never fails His people, even when His people fail Him. God never leaves us for a moment without hope, even when we put ourselves in seemingly hopeless situations. God is always faithful to His people. That’s the God we serve, and that’s the God whose becoming man we anticipate in Advent and celebrate in Christmas. Ask Him to make His faithfulness so real to you today that it overflows in you and you can’t help but share that faithfulness with a lost sinner. Then, ask Him to give you the strength to do it.

By His Grace,

Taylor

The Gospel According to Joseph: The Prequel to Joseph

Wow, it has been quite a long time since I have had a chance to write. I apologize for being MIA for so long. It has been quite a busy past few months, and I have barely had enough time to get done what I have needed to get done for my family and church over the past few months, so I have just let writing fall to the wayside. I still do not have a lot of time to write presently, but I have also started a new sermon series at my church, (GCPC), and it should give me enough for a couple of posts per week.

The sermon series is called "The Gospel According to Joseph," and it is on the story of Joseph, Jacob, and Judah from Ge. 37-50. And, each week I write a short devotional that relates to the passage on which the sermon will focus and, of course, preach a sermon from that passage. So, I will put all that up here as the series progresses. I am actually already three weeks into the series, but I will probably post them a week at a time so as not to give my regular readers information overload.

The first weekly devotional for this series was a short summary of the story of Genesis leading up to the story of Joseph, Jacob, and Judah. The prequel provides important information for understanding this wonderful story. So, here it is. On Sunday I will post the first sermon entitled, "The Gospel and Sin."
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In Ge. 3, we read about the fall of Adam and Eve that introduced sin into this world and to all of mankind that followed. Their fall created a huge problem for them and for the rest of humanity: how will we ever be able to get back into right relationship with God and have peace with Him? How will we be redeemed from our sin? But, God in His grace doesn't leave us without hope even for a moment. In Ge. 3:15, in the midst of His curse on the serpent, He promises a Redeemer who will crush satan and save His people. That Redeemer will come from Adam and Eve's "offspring" or "seed" (you can read about this covenant in more detail here). Then, the story of Genesis progresses, and the immediate offspring of Adam and Eve are certainly not the promised Redeemer, so we must continue to wait, trusting God's promise.

Then, in Ge. 12, God calls a man named Abraham, and God promises to make him into a great nation and bless "all the families of the earth" through him. And, as Abraham trusts God and follows Him, he gets more information about how God will fulfill this promise in the covenant God makes with him in Ge. 15:8-22; 17:1-14. There, we learn that the "offspring" or "seed" that will Redeem His people promised to Adam and Eve will come specifically through Abraham's line. God promises to make his descendants more than the stars in the sky or the sands on the seashore, and one of those descendants will be the Redeemer (you can read about this covenant in more detail here). And, Paul tells us later that it's through this promise that the Scriptures "preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham," and it is this very promise that Peter says Jesus fulfilled (Ac. 3:25-26; cf. Ga. 3:16). Jesus is the "offspring" or "seed" promised to Adam and Eve and Abraham! He would one day come from the line of Abraham to redeem the world through His life, death, and resurrection.

After God made His covenant with Abraham, the story of Genesis continues and we must continue to wait, trusting that God will fulfill His promise. Abraham sees the seeds of that fulfillment in the miraculous conception of his son Isaac, who will continue the line that would one day produce Jesus. Isaac has two sons--Esau and Jacob--and while Jacob is the younger, God chooses him to be the one through who the Redeemer would come. Jacob gets the covenant God made with Abraham and Isaac confirmed to him in Ge. 35. Yet, we still have to continue to wait, trusting that God will fulfill His promise of a Redeemer.

That brings us to the story of Ge. 37-50, which will be our summer series. In this story, we see that there is a crisis in the family line of Jesus. Jacob's family is a complete mess and there is a famine coming that threatens to wipe them out. Will this messy group of people actually produce the Redeemer who will save them from their sin? Will the line of Abraham continue or will the hope of the "offspring" or "seed" promised to him die with this family as they starve in the famine? We, of course, know that God does save them and Jesus does eventually come, but as we study this story, we'll see God's great providence working to accomplish His promise of the Redeemer and His gospel working in the lives of this messy family to make them faithful followers of Him who live by faith and not by sight (cf. 2 Co. 5:7).

By His Grace,
Taylor

Solus Christus: The Covenant of Consummation

For this week of Advent we’ve been looking that the covenants God made with man in the Old Testament, and we’ve seen how they’re related to one another since they’re all under the one covenant of grace that Jesus fulfilled for us in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Remember, think of the covenant of grace as an umbrella that covers all of Scripture from the fall of Adam to the end of Revelation. Under this umbrella, the individual covenants of the Old Testament build on each other as ever-increasing waves of revelation about the covenant of grace until they climax with Christ’s fulfillment of that overarching covenant. We’ve looked at the covenant of commencement made with Adam and Eve after the fall, the covenant of preservation made with Noah, the covenant of promise made with Abraham, the covenant of law made with Moses, and the covenant of kingdom made with David. We’ve seen that with each covenant God’s fellowship with man was increased and that each ultimately pointed to Jesus Himself. For today’s Advent meditation we’re going to look at the “new covenant” from Jer. 31:31-34:

³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Does this fit into the unity of the previous covenants? It does. In fact, it represents the promised fulfillment of the earlier covenants, which why it’s sometimes called the “covenant of consummation.” First and foremost, the covenantal refrain is clearly stated in v. 33, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” connecting it to the thread that weaves through all the previous covenants. Furthermore, in this passage God promises the covenant of consummation will be better than the covenant of law, but it still connects the two. This covenant will still have the law, but it will be written on the hearts of God’s people. Also, just a few verses later, in Jer. 32:39-41, Jeremiah prophesies that in the covenant of consummation God will “plant them in this land,” clearly alluding to the promises of offspring and land in the covenant of promise and connecting those two covenants. Finally, in a parallel prophecy found in Eze. 37:24-26, the covenant of consummation is overtly connected to the covenants of promise, law, and kingdom, all in one statement:

²⁴ My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd [covenant of kingdom connection]. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes [covenant of law connection]. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived [covenant of promise connection]. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever [covenant of promise connection], and David my servant shall be their prince forever [covenant of kingdom connection]. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them [covenant of consummation establishment]...

Here Ezekiel shows that in the covenant of consummation all the promises of the God in the previous covenants find their fulfillment. So, the covenant of consummation doesn’t appear on the scene as something previously unknown to the people of God, but rather represents for them “the collation of all the old covenant promises in terms of a future expectation.” That future expectation is Jesus, and Jesus Himself claimed to fulfill this covenant when He instituted the Lord’s Supper:

¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Lk. 22:19-20)

It’s through the new covenant—the covenant of consummation—that believers have even greater fellowship with God than the Old Testaments saints could’ve ever imagined. With the incarnation of Christ (what we celebrate at Christmas), John tells us in his gospel that God became flesh and dwelt—literally “tabernacled” (alluding to the Old Testament Tabernacle)—among man (cf. Jn. 1:14). With Christ the very presence of God walked, dwelt, “tabernacled” among men. Yet, the greater fellowship of the covenant of consummation didn’t reach its zenith there. Christ purchased salvation for His people and through their union with Him believers have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters so that they might be able to cry out to God, “Abba! Father!” Such an intimacy and fellowship with God (calling Him the Hebrew equivalent of “daddy”) would never have been imagined in the Old Testament. Yet, the covenantal trajectory of ever-increasing fellowship and presence has another level still to come. The final stage of intimacy and fellowship in the covenant of consummation has yet to come. Soon Jesus will return again (in His second advent) to finalize the presence and fellowship that He inaugurated in His first advent. Re. 21:1-3 describes what God’s fellowship with His people will be like at that time:

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

God’s covenantal refrain finds is pinnacle in the covenant of consummation. In the present age, believers are adopted as sons and daughters of God through their union with Christ and can call God “Abba.” In the new heavens and the new earth, the ever-increasing trajectory of fellowship seen in all the previous covenants will climax when God recreates all of creation and grants uninhibited, unmediated fellowship with “God Himself.” He will walk and talk with His people just like He did with Adam before the fall.

This is what we celebrate at Christmas, and it’s also that to which we look forward and for which we pray, for we know that the best is yet to come. When one considers God’s work of redemption throughout the ages in His covenants, what He has already done in Christ (in the first advent), and what He will soon do in Christ (in the second advent), the only proper response is praise. We should say like Paul in Ro. 11:33-36:

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵ “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”
³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

On this day of Advent think about “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God” in His work of redemption that He began with His promise to Adam and was fulfilled in Christ. All these covenants and God’s redemptive work in them provide the foundation for all the hope we have in Christ and celebrate at Christmas. When we observe Advent, whether we consciously think about it or not, all these covenants have brought us to where we are in Christ today. Praise Him for His glorious work that brought redemption in Christ. Ask Him to magnify His glory in your heart so that you can’t help but break out into spontaneous praise of “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.”

By His Grace,

Taylor