175. Never Break Covenant
Judges 2:1 And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out o Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which sware unto your fathers; and I said I will never break my covenant with you.
One thing is certain and sure for us, as certain as can be, that God will keep His part of the covenant promises. There is an Old Covenant, or Testament, and a New Covenant, or Testament. They are one and the same. Both are based on the shed blood and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Old” means the earth time before Jesus came to earth; “New” means the time after He did what He did.
A Covenant is a solemn agreement, verified by oath, that each party to the covenant promises to do certain stipulated things for the other. The covenant between Man and God is different because one side broke the covenant and the other side kept it. The history of the Bible is the story of covenants between God and us, and it is the story of breaking and keeping. And we know which side does which. God promises to save and protect us, which He does. We promise to keep the Commandments, which we don’t. One gives death; the other gives life.
There is a one-way covenant, in which God alone enters into covenant promise and says He will do what He promises, whether Man keeps his part or not. The is a two-way covenant, in which both sides make promises, and if one side breaks the covenant it is null and void and does not have to be honored.
The one-way covenant is all grace. The two-way covenant is all works. The Good News is that the Son of God became a human being to keep the covenant completely for all humans. Therefore, the covenant is intact and God is bound to keep His word. The other part of the Good News is that the one-way Covenant of Grace is all God’s doing. He keeps His promises no matter what.
Moses and Joshua are now dead and gone; what will the people do? They still have God and His covenant promise. And all they need to know is that the Lord will keep His covenant with them. God brought them from the house of bondage to the Promised Land of freedom. Jesus brings us from bondage to sin to the Kingdom of God, from a world of darkness and death into His glorious light and life. God will never break His covenant promise. We know, because of Jesus and the Gospel.