Some thoughts on Covenant

[Cajun Huguenot]

We are not faced with an either/or situation here. Both are true. The children of believers are, in all of Scripture, viewed differently by the Lord than are the children of non-believers.

Question: Does this mean my children (I have four) are automatically saved?
Answer: NO!! Not at all. They must repent and believe on Christ as their mother and father have, but they are yet in the covenant from their birth. The Lord, because of the faith of their parents, unlike the children of non-believers, sees them as holy (as saints --1 Cor. 7:14).


Question: Why were Noah’s sons and their wives saved from the flood?
Answer: The Scriptures tell us that it was because of Noah’s righteousness and not they’re own (in Gen. 7:1 we read "And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation").


Many Christians today think God’s covenant with Abraham was an individualistic relationship alone. When God Covenanted with Abraham He covenanted with Abraham’s house and his seed as well. Remember what we read in Gen. 17:7 "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."


God’s covenant with Abraham was not individualistic only, but was much more dynamic. Just as God saved Noah’s son’s and their wives, because Noah alone was righteous. God promised to be in an everlasting covenant with the descendants of Abraham.


Question: Did the Hebrew people benefit in ways in which other peoples did not simply because God had covenanted with Abraham?
Answer: They certainly did.


Question: Why did God save them from bondage in Egypt?
Answer: Because He remembered His Covenant with their fathers (see Ex. 2:24; 6:5)

Paul in Romans 3 says that the Jews of the Old Covenant greatly benefited from their relationship with God, because they (unlike other peoples) had the oracles of God and this is why Jesus could say in John's Gospel that "salvation is of the Jews."


We live in an individualistic age, and we find it hard to discard the paradigm of individualism in which we dwell, BUT individualism is an alien concept to the Word of God. We must not play down the importance of individual belief (we moderns don’t have a problem here), but at the same time we must not ignore the familial/covenantal aspects that are so prominent throughout God’s Word. This is just as true in the New Covenant as it was in the Old.


Coram Deo,
Kenith

 

[AndOne]

Very Good points, Kennith -

I find it very interesting as I study this issue in some detail that every covenant God made with someone in the old testament included his family/household.

Of even more relevance - to my study - is that the Old Testament prophecies concerning the New Covenant also included the benefactor's family/household. Joel 2:1-29 is a clear cut example of this. Note vs. 16: "Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride out of her bridal chamber..." This is a clear reference to the church as Christ's bride and I was shocked to see the reference to infants and children.

Ya know - Kennith - I wish you could have pointed that one out to me - do you know how much digging I had to do to find that one??? I'm just kidding - it has been an interesting journey!

Also of relevance concerning Old Testament prophecies concerning the New Covenant are Ezera 37:24-26, Zecheraiah 10:6-9, Isaiah 59:20-21, and Malachi 4:5-6. The Old Covenant examples are good but with out the prophecies concerning the New Covenant including children I wouldn't have put much weight on them.

Here is where I am right now with this. The question I have to answer for myself is in light of these OT prophecies is: am I to deduce from them that I should baptize my infant children? I'm still working on the answer - stand by....

 

[Cajun Huguenot]

Don't forget Jer 31:31 "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah"

The New Covenant promise too follows the OC pattern it is made with with house and family and thereby generational.

In Christ,
Kenith

 

[CoffeeSwirls]

If we follow your logic, that means that the founding fathers who wrote the constitution were also speaking for modern day citizens of the US. How absurd! (Just gettin' in to the groove, don't mind me!)

 

[Cajun Huguenot]

If we follow your logic, that means that the founding fathers who wrote the constitution were also speaking for modern day citizens of the US. How absurd! (Just gettin' in to the groove, don't mind me!)

Yep. IT is a good thing we have had liberal judges on the court, who through original intent out the window so we could have a "Living Constitution." It would be terrible if the Federal Government actually had to adhere to the original intent of the Constitution as Law of the Land.

If that were the case, we would have to do away with Roe Vs. Wade and States could still have laws against homosexuality. Now that is crazy.

Kenith