Sovereign Grace Community Church

The biblical covenants are often considered and interpreted through the lens of particular doctrinal concerns and premises, rather than in terms of the scriptural storyline and its orientation and development. Each of the covenants finds its meaning and significance in relation to the others, but as they are situated and function in the developing salvation history that culminated with the person and work of Jesus the Messiah. This is the perspective from which this message examines the background of God's covenant with David.

God's covenant with the Levites is often overlooked in treatments of the biblical covenants. Studies will often jump from the Sinai Covenant to the Davidic Covenant, but the truth is that the Levitical and Davidic covenants are inseparable and mutually interpreting in terms of their prophetic contribution to the Old Testament's messianic revelation and its fulfillment in Jesus.

This message completes the treatment of the Sinai Covenant. It examines the gold calf episode as Israel's foundational act of covenant-breaking, and it considers the process, under Moses' mediation, by which the covenant was renewed and the covenant relationship between God and Israel was restored.

This message introduces the Sinai Covenant. It examines Israel's preparation to receive it, the two parts of the covenant (the "ten words" and the "ordinances"), the covenant's ratification, and the fellowship meal that celebrated it.

The Sinai Covenant has been a focal point in Christian theology since the medieval period, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike. This is because matters of "law" were central in the theological and soteriological formulations that developed through the Middle Ages and were formalized during the Reformation period. This focus on the role of "law" in salvation and sanctification continues to this day, and not surprisingly the "Law of Moses" is a key aspect of it. But far too often the Law of Moses (the Sinai Covenant) isn't treated in its historical, Israelite and covenantal contexts, which is the goal of this consideration.

This message examines the circumstances and particulars of God's covenant with Abraham, but especially as that covenant served His designs for His creation and functioned within the Israelite history that culminated with Jesus the Messiah.

Noah was God's chosen man to inaugurate His "new" post-diluvian world, and He chose Abram out of that world - still groaning under the curse - to be His instrument for ushering in the actual new creation that the post-flood world prefigured. This message examines the human and historical context for God's covenant with Abram, which is crucial for understanding the covenant's purpose in its own time, in the life of Israel, and in God's larger purpose for His creation fulfilled in the Messiah.

Most Christians agree that Jesus' resurrection is crucial to the truth and significance of the Christian faith. But perhaps most associate that event with simply God's affirmation that the death of His Son had met His just demand against human sin. This message considers the broader, more comprehensive issues in the resurrection and how it determines and informs the Christian's ethics and mission in the world.

This message examines Noah, the Noahic Covenant, and the flood as they function within the progress of the Genesis narrative and help build the case for God's day of purging and renewal that was to come in the offspring promised to Eve.

The Noahic Covenant was unique in the Old Testament history in that it was a covenant God made with the earth and all of its creatures, including all of mankind. This covenant is characteristically associated with the Flood event, but all too often the creational and circumstantial context of the covenant is overlooked. This message examines that context and its crucial importance to the meaning and purpose of the Noahic Covenant.

This message examines the question of a creation covenant, but from a scriptural and redemptive-historical vantage point rather than in terms of systematic or philosophical considerations.

This message examines the dynamic of promise and fulfillment as a fundamental structural and functional feature of the scriptural storyline, its message, and its progress culminating with the messianic person and work. As such, the promise/fulfillment dynamic is critical to rightly understanding the biblical covenants and their function and interrelationships.

Covenant is a core theme in the Scriptures, even as God's actions and interactions in the world are most often set within explicit covenant arrangements. Both of the major theological systems (Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism) recognize the importance of covenant (and the individual covenants) in the redemptive history, yet they fall short precisely because they are organized systems, and the Scripture doesn't present a system, but a storyline culminating with the Messiah and messianic work. The scriptural text itself, on its own terms and according to its own concerns, is the only valid lens for examining the concept of covenant and the various expressions of it in the Bible. This is the task of Biblical Theology.

This message briefly considers the concept of covenant in relation to Dispensationalism, which is the second predominant evangelical theological system. Like Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism is structured around the concept of covenant, but the two systems approach this concept and its biblical manifestations from different perspectives leading to different interpretations.

This message introduces a new series addressing the topic of covenant and its significance as a key structural, organizing and interpretive feature of the Scriptures. The first task is to provide basic definitions and consider how the two predominant theological systems interact with and color our understanding of the theme of covenant, the various biblical covenants themselves, their interrelationships, and their role in God's purposes and work in accomplishing them.

Many think of God's final judgment in terms of human destiny in either heaven or hell, but a careful examination of the scriptures shows that this judgment is ultimately concerned with God's intent for His creation to be sacred space - His dwelling place in which He is present and rules through His human image-children, just as He indicated when He ordered and filled the creation in the beginning. Judgment, then, is about vindicating truth by seeing to it that all things are made to fully conform to their created design and purpose. This is why John's final judgment vision in the Revelation is followed by his vision of the "new heavens and new earth," which vision completes the scriptural record even as it depicts the consummation of God's design for His creation - "Behold, I am making all things new."

The concept of final judgment is one that most people, Christians included, aren't eager to give a lot of thought to. In general, people hope that, if there is to be a final reckoning, their good will outweigh their bad and things will work out well for them. For Christians, many puzzle over the idea that they, too, will be judged according to their works since they are saved by their faith in Jesus. But the final judgment associated with Christ's appearing has a much broader scope and purpose whose goal is the consummation of God's new creation such that all things will be "summed up" in the Messiah and God will finally and forever be "all in all."

For many Christians, the idea of a future resurrection has little significance in their thinking, expectation and hope. Instead, the focus is often on the destination of one's soul after death. And where some thought is given to the future resurrection, it usually focuses on a new body free from mortality, disease and dysfunction. But the Scriptures insist that the resurrection at Christ's return, not the soul's destiny at death, is the focal matter in Christian hope. And yet not in the individualistic sense of getting a new body, but as this general resurrection event will initiate the creation's renewal and "summing up" in Christ so that the Creator-God will at last be "all in all."

The Parousia is often understood as referring to Jesus' "second coming," but it actually designates Jesus' one appearing - His presence in the world - that occurred with the incarnation, continues through the present age, and will be consummated when He is openly and bodily revealed at the last day. This reality of Jesus' abiding presence as Lord over all has profound impact on the nature and orientation of Christian hope and how Christ's people perceive and carry out their mission in the world.

The New Testament writings speak to the internal life of the Christian community and its mission in the world, but another crucial aspect of the Christian life and testimony is enduring, manifest hope. Few would deny that hope is an important Christian virtue, but many fail to understand the concept of hope according to its biblical meaning and orientation. This message examines that topic and considers the doctrine of the Parousia as the immediate object of the Christian's hope.