An Introduction

COVENANT THEOLOGY PART 1 - AN INTRODUCTION

THE WHYS

Why are we doing a podcast?

We have gathered and grown in our first year as a church plant. We've gathered others to this church plant and we've grown together as one people. And now we're entering into this next stage of life where we can do more together and continue to grow from a church plant into a church. The "more" ministry we want to do is to simply pursue the means of grace a little more. The ministry of the church is not a complicated thing. And that’s because Jesus Christ, the King of the church, appoints a simple way of ministry. Ministry is simply about devoting ourselves to the means of grace that Jesus has given us in dependence on the Holy Spirit. The means of his grace are the Bible, prayer, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship. The main avenue and the most frequent and regular avenue where we practice and devote ourselves to these means is Sunday morning worship. And, in addition to that main avenue of Sunday worship we have to pursue a church life filled with 1) prayer and 2) fellowship and 3) teaching the Bible outside of Sunday morning worship. Hence, this podcast.

Why are we talking about Covenant Theology?

We just started a new church. So let’s look at the beginning of the story of how we even got to the church. To put it most concisely, the church is a covenant people. Which means if we want to understand the church we’ve got to take a look at covenant theology. That’s the beginning of the story of the church.

Covenant Theology is arguably the most important framework for understanding the Bible, the whole story of salvation, what Jesus did, what grace is, Jesus' love for you, and our relationship with each other and with the world.

RESOURCES

This series of lectures is based on and in many instances taken directly from the works of Meredith Kline, Lee Irons, Gordon Hugenberger, Rick Lints and many conversations with pastor friends and fellow covenant theologians. I am in their debt and I thank Jesus for them. For further reading:

Introductory Brown, Michael G. and Zach Keele, Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explained. Grandville, MI: Reformed Fellowship Inc., 2012.

Kline, Meredith G, Genesis: A New Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2016.

Intermediate Report of the Study Committee (28th GA, June 2000). http://pcahistory.org/pca/studies/creation/report.pdf

Advanced Caughey, Chris and Lee Irons, The Glory-Cloud Podcast. https://glorycloudpodcast.libsyn.com/

Irons, Lee, The Upper Register. https://upper-register.com/papers.html

Kline, Meredith G, God, Heaven and Har Magedon: A Covenant Tale of Cosmos and Telos. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2006.

Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview. Overland Park, KS: Two Age Press, 2001.

THE BEGINNING

We begin at the beginning. And the big question we are trying to answer is, what does the beginning of the Bible tell us about the beginning of God’s people.

Read Gen 1:1. One big point the Bible affirms in Gen 1 is that God is the Creator of all creation. The first verse in the Bible, Gen 1:1, says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Meredith Kline writes in Genesis, A New Commentary, that “God stands at the beginning of Scripture, the Eternal and there is none else...Creator of everything visible and invisible. This truth is the foundation of all knowledge…” (9).

God is the Architect of creation, which must mean that there is a specific design to creation. And what Gen 1 also affirms is that there is a specific design to the way God reveals his design for creation. That is, Gen 1, which is the revelation of God’s design for creation, itself has a specific design.

THE REALMS/KINGDOMS OF CREATION

Read Gen 1:2-13. What are some general descriptions that could help us see a theme developing? What is the big picture?

Day 1, vv.3-5, God creates light and dark, day and night. And it says God SEPARATES the day and the night.

Day 2, vv6-8, God creates water and sky. AGAIN, it says God SEPARATES the waters and the sky.

Day 3, vv.9-13, God creates the dry land. AGAIN, it says God SEPARATES the dry land from the waters.

Is there a theme developing? Yes! Days 1-3 describe the SEPARATING and the bounding of these vast entities. Earth is separated and structured into three realms:

Day 1 is the realm of day-and-night. Day 2 is the realm of the sea and the sky. Day 3 is the realm of dry land.

THE RULERS/KINGS OF CREATION

Read Gen 1:14-31. Do we see this theme being further developed?

BIG HINT - We are tipped off at the development of this theme in vv.16 and 18 with the repeated word, “RULE.” Days 4-6 describe different RULERS.

Days 4-6 are about the appointment of RULERS over the REALMS of Days 1-3.

Day 4 Rulers, the sun and moon, rule over their Day 1 realm of day and night by regulating the day-night cycle (cf Ps 136:7-9).

(Side note: the stars are NOT divine rulers, like you read about in pagan mythology. The stars themselves are creations of God, serving mankind with illumination and calendar signs (cf 104:19-23)).

Day 5 Rulers, the birds and the creatures of the sea (v.20-23, 26,28,30), rule over their Day 2 realm of the sky above and the waters below. How do birds and fish rule and have dominion over the sky and sea? V.22 says that God blessed them and that their dominion was that of occupying their realm through multiplication, and it’s God who blesses them with that blessing of fertility.

(Side note: This is a nature parable foreshadowing the kingship of mankind - God gives mankind a similar blessing-commission in 1:28; cf.2:5; 5:2)).

Day 6 Rulers, the animals and mankind, are given dominion and rule over their Day 3 realm of the dry land.

THE DESIGN OF GENESIS 1

Gen 1 affirms that there are kingdoms and there are kings in God’s creation. Gen 1, by design, is not organized chronologically. It is not intended to be understood as, “God somehow made light and night on the first day and then days later on the fourth day he finally made the sun and moon and stars to make that light and night that he made back on the first day.” It is not meant to be understood sequentially. That misses the point!

Gen 1, by design, is organized THEMATICALLY. AND, Gen 1 really happened. It’s true. BUT, the question remains: what is Gen 1 saying? Gen 1 is not strictly Hebrew prose,

historical narrative and it’s NOT strictly Hebrew poetry. The literary genre of Gen 1 is the epic tradition.

The ESV Literary Study Bible explains the literary genre of Gen 1 is the epic tradition. “A long narrative having the following characteristics or ingredients: expansiveness and grandness; the story of a nation or group (nationalistic emphasis), not simply an individual; a unifying hero; motifs of warfare, conquest, kingdom, rulership; presence of supernatural characters and events (what literary critics have traditionally called ‘the marvelous’); exalted style. Epics are very important to societies; in fact, they sum up what a whole culture wants to say about itself and about life.”

What is being portrayed in Gen 1 are ordinary days with their evenings and mornings. That’s the language, that’s the picture being portrayed. These are regular days, not ages. But the question is: is this picture of a week of normal days as a whole to be understood literally or figuratively; is the whole thing a figure? This picture of a normal week is NOT to be understood literally but figuratively.

Think of the parable of the sower, Mt 13, Mk 4, Lk 8. What’s the literal picture there that Jesus paints for us? The literal picture is that the farmer goes out with real seed and he sows the seed and some of the seed falls on the path = birds eat it; some falls on rocky ground = the sun scorches the seeds; some falls on thorny ground = the thorns choke the seedlings; but some seed falls on good soil and produces a crop. Is Jesus talking about agriculture? Is agriculture the point of his parable? No. Literally, that’s the picture that he paints for the people listening but the point of that whole parable is the Son of God going forth and preaching the gospel. It’s not about agriculture at all.

Back to Gen 1 - What is the literal picture? A week of days. But the bigger question is this: is that intended to be understood literally or figuratively? The biggest contextual tell is that the seventh day never ends - it’s still ongoing!

THE FRAMEWORK INTERPRETATION

Gen 1 is not legendary, it is not mythical. It is history, but it’s told in epic style. Gen 1:1-2:3 intentionally has a very particular structure to it, a very particular design, a very particular framework to it and it’s a work of genius. Its particular framework is a figurative framework. This is what’s known as the Framework Interpretation of Creation. And this framework orders all the data of creation in a logical, topical, structural grouping that is full of meaning. The events are grouped into two triads of days.

Days 1-3 (creation’s kingdoms) are paralleled by Days 4-6 (creation’s kings).

DAYS OF CREATION

REALM/KINGDOM RULER/KING

1 LIGHT (DAY) & DARKNESS (NIGHT) 4 SUN, MOON, STARS

2 SKY & WATERS 5 SEA CREATURES & BIRDS

3 DRY GROUND & VEGETATION 6 ANIMALS & MANKIND

IMAGE OF GOD

And it’s man who is the crowning jewel of creation - the last to be created - the king of creation, who is created to be just like his Creator.

Vv.26-28, Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

We’re created to be like God, to reflect him, to image him.

MAN’S DOMINION

According to Gen 1 part of man imaging God involves mankind’s rule over creation. V.28 “fill the earth and subdue it.” Man’s creation was a coronation. Man is created a king. In both God’s decree (v.26) and in the fulfillment of that decree (vv27,28) man’s likeness to God is linked to his royalty (cf 3:22; 9:6). He was made lord over the animal (v.28) and plant (v.29) kingdoms. And reaching beyond the land realm, man’s dominion included all the realms of days 1-3 and all the rulers of days 4-6.

Through procreation, blessed by God, the original couple would people the planet. The creature king’s royal labor imitates the Creator-King’s royal labor. And God blesses his little creature king’s work. He commands him to go create babies = that royal labor would bring the earth increasingly into man’s service until his mandated work was completed.

DAY 7 & MAN’S GLORY

But there’s another part of man’s likeness to God that we can see here. Climatically, we have Day 7. If days 1-3 lay out the kingdoms of the earth, and days 4-6 the kings, on day 7 God is proclaimed as King of Kings over all creation.

“He rested…” in Gen 2:2 is another “loftier coronation scene.”

There are all these passages in the OT and NT that say this day 7 of creation is when God takes his seat on his throne and rests from all his work:

Psa. 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.

Psa. 103:19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

Psa. 115:16 The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.

Is. 66:1 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?

Gen 1 (and Gen 2:1-3) also affirms that God is the beginning and the end; the Alpha and the Omega. God’s 7th day, Sabbath reign, knows no ending.

Day 7 continues forever and mankind is invited to participate in it from the beginning.

Even though Gen 1 is not primarily organized chronologically, there is some very important chronology in Gen 1. The build up to the seventh day is crucial. God works for 6 days and when his work is completed, on day 7 God rests.

God tells Adam to imitate Him in his work (1:28ff): multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion and reign over all the kingdoms and kings. Remember God creates Adam in his own image which means man is supposed to imitate God. And the pattern God lays out for Adam is simple: 1) Do your work and 2) then you get to rest.

This is what the NT book Heb 4 and 7 says. Adam is to be like God. Complete the work given him to do with the promise of entering God’s “sabbath,” God’s eternal “rest”.

We know what happens in the next few chapters BUT God’s Sabbath reign knows no ending. It continues forever and believers are still SOMEHOW invited to participate in it:

Hebrews 4:3-10: 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”

Heb. 4:6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Heb. 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

That original 7th day, sabbath rest, was a sign from God to Adam, promising him 1) ultimate entrance into a glorified, heavenly existence, 2) the perfecting of God’s glory-image in mankind, 3) and the culmination of man’s historical mission of building God’s kingdom on earth

And so that Sabbath day: 1) commands mankind to imitate this Sabbath pattern of working and earning glory. It is THE pattern set by the Architect Designer Creator 2) and in living out that pattern mankind to confess God as the Alpha and the Omega and confesses mankind as his little image bearer 3) and it calls man to celebrate and worship God’s lordship over creation and to submit to doing everything that we do to his glory

So, according to Gen 1, what is man supposed to do, in this life?

We’re supposed to be kings and have dominion over all of creation. And, yet, even here in the first chapter of the Bible there’s an even bigger purpose to man’s life and existence.

Our very great purpose is to worship the Lord of Creation, the King of kings. And if that’s true of the first man and woman it should prepare us to expect it to be true of God’s people today, the church.

What does that have to do with Covenant theology?

That is the background and the context necessary for seeing that there is a covenant here in Gen 1 and 2. And you need that background and context to see what kind of covenant is here at the beginning.

COVENANT THEOLOGY FOR KIDS PART 1 - AN INTRODUCTION

Main point: -What does Gen 1 tell us? It tells us, who is God. And it tells us, who is man.

READ Genesis 1:1-2:3

Questions: Who is man? Who is God?

-Man is king of the world. -God is King of all creation and man. -So everything man does he's supposed to do out of love for his Creator-King who is his God. -But man has failed to do this. -But the good news is Jesus came as the perfect man and he did everything we're supposed to do and loved God perfectly. -And Jesus also died to pay for our failure. -So Jesus earned the ultimate kingdom of heaven for himself and for us! -Jesus is your King who has saved you and that means right now Jesus really is King over your life and he takes care of you and loves you. -It’s a good thing Jesus is King and not us because he’s always good and knows what’s best for us.

Illustrations:

[Jesus King over all] The Lion King: There is a scene in the movie The Lion King. Where Mufasa takes the young Simba to place where he can look out over the land. He tells his son: Mufasa: Look, Simba. Everything the light touches is our kingdom. Young Simba: Wow. Mufasa: A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new king. Young Simba: And this'll all be mine? Mufasa: Everything. Young Simba: Everything the light touches...

Point - Jesus wasn’t just King of the Jews but of everything the light touches. Jesus isn’t just king of churchy stuff you do on Sundays. Jesus is king over every part of your life.

[Desire to be own king] “Where the Wild Things Are”: Max wants to be his own king, and then gets to be his own king of the monster Wild Things. But then he realizes that if he is King, then there is no one greater to love on him, so he gets lonely and goes home to his mom. Point - A picture that we need someone greater than us, a greater King to love us and take care of us and we should love them back and recognize they really are greater and that’s a good thing.

Questions: Is this earth our final kingdom? Will we live here forever? Answer: No, God will bring us to heaven and make heaven our final kingdom and we get to live with him.