That
God is a God of covenant is a given. When reading through the Bible, one cannot
help but notice that God creates a covenant with Adam (Gen 1:28-30), Noah (Gen
6:8, 9:8-9,11-17), Abraham (Gen 15:18), Moses (Ex 6:5, 24:1-8, 34:10-28), and David
(2Sam 7, 23:5). They are all written by God and directed to His people. If you look closely at all of those covenants,
you will see that though they each build on each other in terms of complexity
and understanding, they each say something to us to the effect of, “God is our
God, we are His People”. They are all
really the same covenant. They each lay
out what we are to do to honor Him as King, and how God will bless us as His
people. In each, the penalty for dishonoring God is death. Each is a solemn
commitment we enter into by His unilateral command.
But the Lord makes a new covenant through His Messiah,
Jesus (Jer 31:31-34, Matt 26:28, 1Cor 11:25). The New Covenant (from which we
get the words, “New Testament”) is not like the Old Covenant, because it offers
forgiveness for disobeying the terms of the Old Covenant. On that basis alone it is a greater
covenant. But it is far greater yet,
because by it God offers us full reconciliation with Him, so much so that we
might enter His presence day by day! Yet
it is the same covenant - in that it is made with the same God (through His
Son), and the penalty for disobeying is still death. Though it is “New”, it is at its core the
fullest expression of God’s heart for His people. It is the fulfillment of the
Old Covenant, and to that end we can rightly say that the earlier expressions
of His Covenant merely pointed to it.
Two of those expressions were most pertinent to the
Jews. The covenant with Abraham – which established the Hebrew race, and the covenant
with David, which exemplified the epitome of the Hebrew people. All Jews knew all the covenants, but it is
these two that they would look at to see the demarcation of their nation as
unique out of all the nations of the earth, and the pinnacle of their nation at
its best. That Matthew begins his Gospel
with, “A
record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:”[1]
is a pointed statement that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Jewish people
group could aspire to. That Matthew also starts off by naming Jesus as Christ –
meaning, “anointed one”, and “son of David” (a messianic title), means we can
understand that he writes from that viewpoint.
Thus, the Gospel of Matthew should not be read as a treatise, arguing
toward understanding Jesus as Messiah. Rather,
it should be understood from the start as record of the genealogy of Jesus the
Messiah. A record that starts with who
He is, but ends with all who come after the disciples. For this is what Jesus the Messiah offered –
that we, mere fallen human beings – might become perfect children of God
through Jesus Christ (see also John 1:12-13), and that not only the Jewish
nation, but all nations, might be discipled (made into God’s own people by
recognizing Him as their covenant King).
Glory to God!
·
In what way will you honor God as King today?
How are you purposing to disciple all nations
(other people groups)?
No comments:
Post a Comment