Now if there is one area among Gentile believers where misunderstanding reigns, it has got to be in the area of biblical covenants.
This is most unfortunate because this is precisely the area where understanding is of vital importance.
Because it is through the covenants that God made with Israel that anyone is saved.
The Gentile believer is grafted into the covenants God made with Israel via his faith in Yeshua.
In the same way, the Jewish person has his or faith completed via his or her faith in Yeshua.
Let’s take a look at Webster’s definition of “covenant”.
Covenant:
(1) Binding agreement
(2) Agreement among church members
(3) Formal contract
First, Webster’s definition is NOT the biblical definition of a covenant.
To make matters even worse, the Greek word “DIATHEKE” used for covenant in the New Testament also misses the true Hebrew flavor of the word.
The simple truth of the matter is there are some Hebrew concepts that simply don’t exist in other cultures.
And “covenant” is one of them.
The Hebrew word for covenant is “BRIT“.
“BRIT“, most literally, means to cut or divide.
During a covenant-making ceremony in the ancient middle east, an animal was cut up and divided into two.
The participants would then walk between the two pieces with the understanding that if they failed to keep their end of the covenant, their own bodies would end up like the animal that had just been severed in two.
Christians have long believed that a “will” or “testament” is the modern day equivalent to covenant.
THIS IS NOT TRUE!
First, a biblical covenant is permanent unless God makes it clear that it is conditional.
This is usually indicated by the qualifying word “if“.
IF you obey or IF you do this, then in response I will do this.
If man has to uphold some part of the covenant in order for it to remain valid, then it’s a conditional covenant, which means it can be broken and therefore a consequence will ensue.
Second, when God makes a covenant, the spiritual and physical universe is never again the same.
A God-made biblical covenant literally becomes a physical law of the universe.
In fact, the Hebrew word for covenant “BRIT” is the same word also used to indicate the laws of nature.
From a Hebrew perspective, it would not be strange to say, the covenant of gravity as opposed to saying the law of gravity.
God’s eternal covenants literally become woven into the very fabric of the universe.
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