Dear reader, 
Many people (including me) have said before that Christianity is a relationship not a religion. But it begs

the question what kind of relationship. Is it one of equals, of cooperation or tyranny? There are lots of images 

the Bible gives us. Father – son, Bridegroom – bride, King – subjects, shepherd – sheep, brother (specifically of 

Christ) and friend. 

Of the Holy Spirit it says He lives  in us and so the Father and Son live there too. 

One overarching view of our relationship with God is that of Covenant. Covenants were often used in Old 

Testament times as agreements between people and nations. One would make promises and demands with 

a solemn oath.  A key passage for the whole Bible is Genesis 15. In it God makes a Covenant with Abraham. 

A common practice was to “sign” a covenant by cutting an animal and the two parties walk between. 

The symbolism was “if either of us break this covenant, so this will happen to us”. This is preciselywhat God does 

but with one important difference. God asks Abraham to prepare the animals, but then puts Abraham into a 

deep sleep. He is just a bystander as God passes through the animals the Covenant at this point seems one way,

God is promising to Abraham (and his descendants, which by faith includes us). 

Yet He also makes demands of Abraham (and his descendants, which by faith includes us) which we have not, 

indeed cannot keep. Genesis 15 then points us to the cross, where God kept his promise by dying for us. 

This term we are going to look at how covenant is a theme that keeps poking its head up throughout the Bible.

Indeed even where the word doesn’t appear the idea doesn’t seem to be too far away. Covenant is such a

helpful idea in understanding what for us can sometimes be difficult ideas in the Bible. E.g. our responsibilities to

God and HIs will to keep us, the corporate nature of Church (we are the covenant community). Some of the

dealings between Father, Son and Spirit look “covenantal”. It also helps understand the meaning and place of

baptism and communion, including why the older Protestant denominations baptise babies, even though they

don’t believe that by itself baptism “gets them to heaven”. 

It is also a great comfort and challenge. A challenge because we are called to keep the covenant.

God deals very severely with covenant breakers. This means if we “call our selves Christian” or are baptised

(or seek our Children to be baptised) we must take God’s demands VERY seriously. For a start we must find

out what these demands are! But it is also a great comfort. God has made a solemn promise paid for by the

death of Jesus, which means we have something objective to look to. God will save all those who trust His Son,

because He has made a solemn oath with us to do so. Something we affirm every time we take the bread and 

the wine together. 

Yours truly,

Darren