134. An Everlasting Covenant
Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
When God makes a covenant we can be sure He will keep His end of the bargain. Of that there is no doubt. What is in doubt in a divine covenant is whether the “people” will keep their obligations to the covenant. And, of course, they didn’t keep their end of the bargain. A two-way (bilateral) covenant is thus annulled. Jesus, the Son of God, became one of the people and kept our part of the covenant for us. Therefore, by faith in Christ we have also kept the covenant, binding the Lord God to keep His part of the covenant. He must do what He says. He says blessing and life will be assured.
Here God promises to make a everlasting covenant with His people. This is a unilateral covenant, in which God binds Himself to keep the covenant, whether the other side keeps it or not. This is like the one-way covenant the Lord made with Abraham. In this verse, He says it is like the unilateral covenant He made with David (in 2 Samuel 7). This is the “sure mercies of David.” God fulfilled this covenant of a King from David’s line, who will rule on the throne forever: it is Jesus. This covenant is a guarantee that God will do what He promised: He forgives sins and grants eternal life and salvation. Jesus Christ seals the promise to us in Holy Communion when He said: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. [Luke 22:21]” This covenant is binding forever; it is eternal; it covers all time and space and even beyond time and space. God made an everlasting covenant.
The Lord says: “Listen to me, come to me and hear, and I promise you your soul will live.” When we come and listen we hear the Gospel: your sins are forgiven, you have eternal life, and your soul shall live. The soul is not immortal; it does not live forever beyond the grave unless it is cleansed of sin. If the soul hears this message and believes it the soul is living now and will never die. Thus, when the soul separates from the body in physical death, the soul goes on to live with God forever: the soul will live eternally. And that life is ours now, today. The soul lives. And that is an eternal promise of the everlasting covenant. Come and hear.