One of the least-understood aspects of Biblical culture among Christians today is covenant. We read of God’s covenants with Noah, Abraham, David, and the nation of Israel without understanding their significance. We speak of the covenant between David and Jonathan or the New Covenant in Christ without really knowing what covenant is. Western thought has largely disregarded what used to be universally understood around the world – that the blood covenant forms the most binding, solemn, sacred relationship in existence.

What is covenant?

A covenant is a solemn agreement between two parties that binds them to each other and to the terms of the covenant. The covenant is nearly always sealed by blood, and it forms a tie stronger than that of friends or even blood relatives. As a result, the two parties are united in a deep, abiding relationship; and in many ways, they function as one.

For thousands of years, covenant has been one of the most foundational elements of cultures around the world. It has been the method of making peace with other tribes, individuals, and even foreign missionaries; and it is still practiced today in many primitive cultures. When a tribal head enters into covenant with another person, both people are promising to protect, nurture, and look out for the good of the other person, his family, and anyone else who identifies with him. For hundreds of years, Christian missionaries entering a new village or tribe have first sought to establish covenant with the leader. The missionaries are then promised safety, protection, and familial love from the entire tribe as a result of the covenant.

Key covenants in Scripture

Scripture records several covenants between individuals, including Abraham and Abimelech (Genesis 21:22-34), Isaac and Abimelech (Genesis 26:30-31), Jacob and Laban (Genesis 31), and David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 18:1-5). However, the five most prominent covenants are between God and man:

• God’s covenant with Noah: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth . . . Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. . . . But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. . . . Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. . . . Behold I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you . . . . never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. . . . I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant” (Genesis 9:1-17; see also 8:20-22).
• God’s covenant with Abraham: “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly. . . . You shall be the father of a multitude of nations. . . . 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. . . . Every male among you shall be circumcised . . . and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you” (Genesis 17:1-14; see also 12:1-3; 13:14-17; 15:1-21; 26:4-7).
• God’s covenant with Israel (through Moses): “You shall have no other gods before me. . . . If you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, . . . I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand. . . . Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. . . . The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession . . . Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them” (Exodus 20:3; 23:22, 31; 31:13; Deuteronomy 7:6-9; see also Exodus 20-31; Deuteronomy 1-31).
• God’s covenant with David: “[To David:] I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. . . . I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. . . . [To Solomon:] If you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father. . . . But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, . . . then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight” (2 Samuel 7:10, 12-13; 1 Kings 9:4-7; see also 2 Samuel 7; 1 Kings 9:1-9; 1 Chronicles 17:3-15; Psalm 89).
• The New Covenant in Jesus: “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. 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. . . . And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Jeremiah 31:33-34; Ezekiel 36:26-27; see also Isaiah 61; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:21-38; 37:15-28; Hebrews 8).

Elements of covenant

The process of covenant-making typically involves multiple of these elements: a representative, conditions, promises (blessings for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking it), a sacrifice, a sign, and a meal.

First, a covenant may involve a representative acting on behalf of a group of people. The first four of God’s covenants with man involved the man (Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David) acting on behalf of a group (his descendants, the nation of Israel, or the entire world). The New Covenant is unique in that Jesus is the representative or mediator of the covenant. Being both God and man, He represents God to man and man to God.

A covenant typically involves conditions, as seen in each of the covenants discussed previously. Noah was commanded to multiply and fill the earth, Abraham to walk before God and be blameless, Israel to love God and keep His commandments, and Solomon to walk before God as David had done. Likewise, the New Covenant requires obedience to the commands of Jesus:

• “We are not in any great anxiety or alarm about the persecutions we suffer from the ignorance of men; for we have attached ourselves to this sect, fully accepting the terms of its covenant. As men whose very lives are not [our] own, we engage in these conflicts, our desire being to obtain God’s promised rewards, and our dread lest the woes with which He threatens an unchristian life should overtake us.” – Tertullian (c. 200)

The terms and conditions of the covenant outline the blessings for keeping the covenant and the consequences of breaking it. For example, as part of the Mosaic covenant with the nation of Israel, God repeatedly outlined the blessings for obedience and the punishments for disobedience. According to Deuteronomy 28, God’s promised blessings for obedience included fertility, abundance of food, victory in battle, prosperity, and remaining as God’s chosen people. The curses for disobedience included barrenness, famine, defeat in battle, sickness, and bondage. Likewise, the New Covenant also involves blessings for keeping the terms of the covenant and consequences for breaking them:

• “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. . . . If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” – John 15:2, 6-8

A covenant is ratified, or made effective, by means of a blood sacrifice. When individuals made a covenant together, they killed an animal, and both people walked the path between the bloody remains (see Genesis 15) as a solemn reminder: may I be as these pieces if I fail to keep the terms of the covenant. A covenant was the most binding of contracts; to break it was unthinkable. Symbolically, the blood of the covenant is what ratifies it, or makes it effective and binding. Hebrews discusses the importance of blood in ratifying both the Mosaic covenant and the New Covenant in Christ:

• “[Jesus] entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. . . . Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. . . . Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” – Hebrews 9:12-14, 18, 22

The early Christian writers likewise understood that blood is the means by which salvation, the promise of the New Covenant, is accomplished:

• “In all respects, therefore, and in all things, we are brought into union with Christ, into relationship through His blood, by which we are redeemed” – Clement of Alexandria (c. 195)
• “For the sign of the scarlet thread, which the spies . . . gave to Rahab the harlot, . . . also manifested the symbol of the blood of Christ, by which those who were at one time harlots and unrighteous persons out of all nations are saved, receiving remission of sins, and continuing no longer in sin.” – Justin Martyr (c. 160)
• “I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life.” – Ignatius (c. 105)

When a covenant is ratified or initiated, each party is given a sign or seal of the covenant. For hundreds of years, the sign of the marriage covenant has been the wedding ring. The sign of God’s covenant with Noah was the rainbow. The sign or initiation rite of the Abrahamic covenant was circumcision. Likewise, those who surrender their lives to Christ are initiated into the New Covenant through baptism:

• “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 2:38
• “Blessed are they who, placing their trust in the cross, have gone down into the water. . . . We indeed descend into the water full of sins and defilement. However, we come up, bearing fruit in our heart, having the fear of God and the trust in Jesus in our spirit.” – Barnabas (c. 70-130)
• “Before a man bears the name of the Son of God, he is dead. But when he receives the seal, he lays aside his deadness and obtains life. The seal, then, is the water. They descend into the water dead, and they arise alive.” – Hermas (c. 150)
• “When do we bear the image of the heavenly? Doubtless when he says, ‘You have been washed’ [1 Cor. 6:11], believing in the name of the Lord, and receiving His Spirit.” – Irenaeus (c. 180)

Finally, a covenant ceremony typically involves a meal. In the culture of the Bible, eating together symbolized a unity of thought and practice, and this was especially true in the celebration feast of the covenant. Both parties literally ate of the same bread and drank of the same cup, symbolizing their unity in the covenant. At the Last Supper, Jesus said, “This is my body, which is given for you. . . . This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:19-20). He shared the covenant meal with His disciples and promised that He would one day share it again – this time with the millions of believers of all time who have entered into His covenant.

What must I do?

In today’s culture, becoming a Christian is often defined as praying a prayer, walking the aisle, being baptized or confirmed, giving to the church, or doing good things. However, Jesus didn’t define it in any of these ways. What did Jesus say it means to be a Christian?

• “Follow me.” – Matthew 16:24
• “Abide in me.” – John 15:4
• “Believe in me.” – John 17:20
• “Keep my commandments.” – John 14:15

Why? Because becoming a Christian means entering into a covenant relationship with Jesus. The promise of the covenant is salvation – eternal life. The sacrifice is Jesus’ blood. The offer is open to all: “Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life” (Revelation 22:17 NLT). But the conditions still need to be met:

• “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” – John 14:15
• “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” – Micah 6:8
• “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” – 1 John 2:3-6
• “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31-32
• “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. . . . By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” – 1 John 3:6-8, 10

The Apostolic Constitutions, compiled around AD 390, summarize the conditions of the covenant – Jesus teachings:

• “Jesus did not take away the law of nature, but confirmed it. For He who said in the law, ‘The Lord your God is one Lord’ [Deut. 6:4] also says in the Gospel, ‘That they might know You, the only true God’ [John 17:3]. And He who said, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself” [Lev. 19:18] says in the Gospel, renewing the same precept, ‘A new commandment I give you, that you love one another’ [John 13:34].
• “He who forbade murder now forbids anger without a cause. He who forbade adultery now forbids all lust as unlawful. He who forbade stealing now pronounces him happy who works hard to supply the needy. He who forbade hatred now pronounces him blessed who loves his enemies. He who forbade revenge now commands long-suffering; not as if deserved revenge were an unrighteous thing, but because long-suffering is more excellent. Nor did He make laws to root out our natural passions, but only to forbid the excess of them.
• “He who had commanded to honor our parents was Himself subject to them. He who had commanded to keep the Sabbath, by resting in order to meditate on the laws, has now commanded us to consider the law of creation and God’s providence every day, and to return thanks to God. He abrogated circumcision when He had Himself fulfilled it. For He was the one ‘to whom the inheritance was reserved, who was the expectation of the nations’ [Gen. 49:10].
• “He who made a law for swearing rightly, and forbade perjury, has now commanded us not to swear at all. He has in several ways changed baptism, sacrifice, the priesthood, and the divine service, which was confined to one place; for instead of daily baptisms, He has given only one, which is the baptism into His death. Instead of one tribe [the Levites], He has appointed that out of every nation the best should be ordained for the priesthood; and not that their bodies should be examined for blemishes, but rather their religion and their lives.
• “Instead of a bloody sacrifice, He has appointed the reasonable and unbloody mystical one of His body and blood, which is performed to represent the death of the Lord by symbols. Instead of the divine service confined to one place, He has commanded and appointed that He should be glorified from sunrise to sunset in every place of His dominion. He did not therefore take away the law from us, but the bonds. . . . ‘Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart’ [Ps. 119:1-2]. . . . And the Lord says: ‘If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them’ [John 13:17].”

Breaking the covenant

Entering into covenant with Jesus means keeping the conditions He has outlined – following Him, obeying His commands, and loving Him above all. This is why the Bible contains such stern warnings about falling away – because by disobeying Jesus’ commands, we are breaking the covenant we have with Him:

• “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” – Hebrews 10:26-29
• “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” – Hebrews 3:12-13
• “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” – Romans 8:13
• “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.” – 2 Peter 2:20-21

Many churches today teach a doctrine called “eternal security” or “once saved, always saved,” claiming that those who have trusted Jesus once for salvation are always saved regardless of how they live. However, this is clearly not how the early Christian writers understood the above passages:

• “To neglect these things any further, and to persevere in the former error, what is it else than to fall under the Lord’s rebuke . . . : ‘What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers’ [Ps. 50:16-18]. For to declare the righteousness and the covenant of the Lord without doing what the Lord did, what else is it than to cast away His words and to despise the Lord’s instruction, to commit not earthly, but spiritual thefts and adulteries?” – Cyprian (c. 250)
• “Those who do not obey Him, being disinherited by Him, have ceased to be His sons.” – Irenaeus (c. 180)
• “‘For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries’ [Heb. 10:26-27]. But continually and successively repenting for sins is no different from the case of those who have not believed at all. . . . And I do not know which of the two is worse, the man who sins knowingly, or the one who, after having repented of his sins, transgresses again.” – Clement of Alexandria (c. 195)
• “We should not, therefore, as that presbyter remarks, be puffed up, nor be severe upon those of olden times. Rather, we should fear ourselves, lest perchance, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but are shut out from His kingdom. And for that reason, Paul said, ‘For if [God] spared not the natural branches, [take heed] lest He also not spare you’ [Rom. 11:21].” – Irenaeus (c. 180)
• “Let us glorify and bear God in a pure and chaste body, and with a more complete obedience, . . . lest He should be offended, and forsake the temple which He inhabits. . . . ‘See, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you’ [John 5:14]. He . . . more severely threatens him who is again enslaved by those same things of which he had been healed, because it is doubtless a smaller fault to have sinned before, while you had not known God’s discipline; but there is no further pardon for sinning after you have begun to know God.” – Cyprian (c. 250)

Keeping the covenant

To those who remain faithful to His covenant, God promises eternal blessings and rewards:

• “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.” – Ephesians 1:7
• “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” – John 15:7
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” – John 14:12-13
• “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” – 1 Peter 1:3-4
• “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us – eternal life.” – 1 John 2:24-25
• “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.” – Revelation 22:14 (NKJV)

The friend of God

When two people are in a covenant relationship with each other, they are referred to as covenant friends. The term friend is often used by modern culture to refer to casual acquaintances; but within the covenant relationship, there is no greater joy and honor than to be someone’s friend. The term implies unity, acceptance, and a deep abiding relationship with the other person. In Scripture, Abraham was called the “friend of God” (James 2:23). What would we give to have that kind of relationship with God? Yet in Jesus, we who love God and keep His commands are already His friends. Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

One with Christ

When two people enter into covenant, they are united with each other. In many ways, they function as one. When God instituted marriage, He designed it as a covenant relationship between a husband and wife. The love, devotion, and commitment within the marriage relationship is a picture of a far greater love – the love, devotion, and commitment of Christ and His covenant bride, the church. Paul writes of this union in Ephesians:

• “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” – Ephesians 5:31-32

Jesus prayed that we as believers would be one not only with Him but also with each other:

• “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” – John 17:20-23

A covenant relationship is also unique because it grants a lesser party the same rights and privileges of the greater party. The lesser party can conduct business in the name of the greater party. So when we come to God in prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, we come as though Jesus Himself were asking the Father for our requests. Perhaps this is why Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).

Knowing Jesus

One of the greatest joys of covenant is knowing another person in a deep, abiding relationship. While people today often use the word know to refer to a head knowledge or a mere acquaintance with something or someone, the Biblical definition is much more significant. The Hebrew word yada (pronounced ya-DAH) means “to know, to understand deeply, to know through experience” and is often used to portray the intimate relationship of a husband and wife. However, this same word is used over 900 times in the Old Testament, more commonly in verses like these:

• “Be still, and know (yada) that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10
• “O LORD, you have searched me and known (yada) me! You know (yada) when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know (yada) it altogether. . . . Search me, O God, and know (yada) my heart! Try me and know (yada) my thoughts!” – Psalm 139:1-4, 23

God created us with a hunger for knowledge – and not just the intellectual knowledge of facts, but the experiential knowledge of trust, acceptance, and knowing and being known by another person. Even more, God created us to know and to be known by Him. In fact, Jesus said that knowing Him is the essence of salvation:

• “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” – John 17:3

Paul said that his ultimate desire was to know Jesus:

• “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” – Philippians 3:10-11

John said that those who truly know Jesus will keep His commandments:

• “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” – 1 John 2:3-6

Likewise, the early Christians also understood that knowing Jesus means following His commands and living as He lived:

• “The one who truly knows God is fashioned after the image and likeness of God. He imitates God as far as possible, deficient in none of the things that contribute to that likeness. He practices self-restraint and endurance, lives righteously, reigns over his passions, gives of what he has as much as possible, and does good both in word and in deed.” – Clement of Alexandria (c. 195)
• “It is then that we are truly fashioned in the likeness of God – when we represent his features in our human life.” – Methodius (c. 290)
• “Seek the Lord even late; for long ago God forewarned by His prophet, saying, ‘Seek the Lord, and your soul shall live’ [Amos 5:6]. Know God even late; for Christ at His coming admonishes and teaches this, saying, ‘And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’ [John 17:3].” – Cyprian (c. 250)
• “No other hope of life is set before man, except that, laying aside vanities and wretched error, he should know God and serve God. He should renounce this temporary life and train himself by the principles of righteousness. . . . For we are created on this condition, that we pay just and due obedience to God who created us, [and] that we should know and follow Him alone.” – Lactantius (c. 304-313)

I in you, you in me

The ultimate depth of covenant love is to know another person deeply and fully. Psalm 139 tells us that God knows us completely. He knows us in all of our failures, our shortcomings, and our weaknesses. Yet He calls us out of those broken things to a deep, abiding relationship with Him. He calls us to know Him, to walk in harmony with Him, to have His heart for people, to love what He loves, to hate what He hates, and to live as He lived.

In everything we do, Jesus’ life flows through us. We communicate with Him as friend with friend. He shares in our weakness; we share in His fullness. There is no greater joy than the covenant joy of knowing Jesus.