Cutting through the Klinean fog

In all the covenants of the Old Testament (including the promised “New Covenant”) the establishment of the relationship precedes the outward conclusion of the covenant and is independent of its acknowledgment. After God has established a relationship by his grace and man has responded by accepting God’s gift of love as it is visualize in the covenant form and specified by the promise content of the covenant, God rightfully expects a life which exhibits this believer’s new life in the Man of Promise. Even the so-called unconditional covenants made with Noah (Genesis 9.9) and Abraham (Genesis 12, 15), the covenant imposes upon those who receive it certain implicit and explicit obligations which are afterward repeated and amplified. The covenant with its “given word” is a “declaration” of “good news.” Thus the Old Testament is the story of God’s single promise as amplified in a succession of covenants and Jewish men and women. This promise with its numerous expanding specifications throughout the course of Old Testament revelation was addressed first of all to the response of faith in the Word and Will of God. But once received, such participation in the grace of God entailed the obvious demands that Lordship brings: Abraham’s departure from Ur (Genesis 12.1), his call to a holy and blameless life (Genesis 17.1), his observance of the sign of circumcision (Genesis 17.9-14), and his willingness to obey in the sacrifice of his son Isaac (Genesis 22.1–19).

Read the whole great article: 14-1-pp019-028_JETS.pdf application/pdf Object.

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