Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Covenantal Blessings - Chapter 2, Covenants: God's Way With His People


This is a summary of chapter two of O. Palmer Robertson's book, Covenants: God's Way With His People (1987)*.
Robertson reminds us that God made with Adam a covenant of works.
"At creation God bound mankind to himself in a covenant of life and death.  He put Adam and Eve to the test.  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil played a key role in this testing procedure: obedience meant life and disobedience meant death.  In this original bond no provision was made for blessing in the event of their breaking the covenant.  Adam needed to understand that, although he was a glorious creature, he was not a sovereign creature" (pg 14).
Robertson also mentions something else about the creation of mankind.
"In addition to this special test, God constructed the world so that this unique image-bearer would have responsibilities consonant with his personal dignity as man.  He must marry and multiply; he must subdue the earth; he must lead the world in its consecration of all things to the glory of God.  Marriage, labor, and Sabbath-these are the creation ordinances which belong to the fabric of the universe.  Like the law of gravity, these ordinances stabilize the world God made" (pg 14).
Concerning the Sabbath, Robertson mentions that God "blessed and sanctified" it.  My pastor made a good point concerning the importance of God's blessing of the Sabbath a few Sundays ago.  He noted that when God blesses something He does not revoke His blessing.  For instance, God blessed Adam and Eve upon creating them and the command that the Lord gave them (Gen 1:28) is still relevant to people today.  Robertson makes a similar point,
"This blessing, this sanctifying, was not a word uttered into a vacuum.  It did something.  It affected the rudiments of the universe on a level that compares to the basic structure of matter.  Particularly for the sake of men and women, God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath" (pg 15).
Marriage is the second creation ordinance that Robertson goes into detail about.  This ordinance ought to be "heard and heeded":
  1. Get married
  2. Have children
  3. Raise those children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
Robertson recognizes that there are some to whom God gives the ability to serve Him and others "most usefully and joyfully in a single state" (pg 17).  Concerning marriage the woman is called to be a helper to her husband, but this calling could only be realized
"as she realizes her fullest potential as a person equally  made after the image of God's glory.  Only as her gifts and abilities reach their greatest maturity can she provide the help her husband will need" (pg 17).
The husband is to exercise leadership "in a way that guarantees that she [his wife] reaches her full potential" (pg 18) and he "functions as a lover, lavishing self-sacrificing care on the one to whom he is wed" (pg 18).

The third and final creation ordinance that Robertson goes into detail about is the ordinance of labor.  This is in the command to subdue the earth (Gen 1:28).  Work is an important part of life.
"Whether programming for a computer, beautifying the lawn or sanding the rust spots off of your old auto, work ought to be done with reverence and regularity" (pg 18).
Finally, the covenant of creation hinges upon man's "readiness to hear and to heed the voice of God simply because it is God's voice" (pg 19).  Adam failed to submit to God and forfeited the claim to life for all generations that followed.  But Jesus, the Son of God, displayed radical obedience to the will of God.
"Although never disobedient, he learned obedience on the deepest level of intensity" (pg 20).
Posts in this series
The Covenant: A Bond in Blood - Chapter 1, Covenants: God's Way With His People
Covenantal Blessings - Chapter 2, Covenants: God's Way With His People
Posted by Committed Christian at 1/10/2012 Labels: , , , , , ,

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)