What does the Bible say about covenant?

The Bible passages below can be used in sermons, prayers, or worship planning focused on God's covenant.

• Genesis 12:2-3, God promises to make Abraminto a great nation
• Genesis 12:7, God promises to give Abram's offspring land
• Genesis 15:8, God promises to give Abram land
• Genesis 17:4-5, God changes Abram's name to Abraham and promises to make him the ancestor of many nations
• Genesis 17:7-10, an everlasting covenant between God and Abraham, marked by circumcision
• Exodus 19:4-6, if God's people obey and keep covenant, they will continue to be God's treasured ones
• Exodus 20:1-3, the people shall have no other Gods
• Jeremiah 31:33, God's law on people's hearts is a covenant with them
• Matthew 26:28, Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper by saying the wine is the blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins
• Romans 4:16, the promise to Abraham depends on faith
• Galatians 3:16-18, inheritence comes from a promise, fulfilled in Christ
• Galatians 3:28, all are one in Christ Jesus
• Hebrews 3:5-6, Christ was an even greater example of faithfulness than Moses
• Hebrews 8:6, Jesus has a more excellent ministry than Moses and is the mediator of a better covenant, enacted through better promises
• Hebrews 8:7-13, God's new covenant is the fulfillment of the old covenant

Sermon ideas about covenant

Covenants and renewals

What key points about God's covenants can we explore in sermons? There are several covenants or renewals of the grand covenant in the Bible. For example, in Genesis 9 God makes an unconditional covenant with Noah and every living creature on the earth. God promises never again to flood the earth and destroy its creatures. The reminder to God to keep this covenant is the rainbow in the heavens.  

In Exodus 19–24 God amplifies and specifies the conditions of the grand covenant: In particular, God gives the Ten Commandments and other laws that Israel is to obey to keep covenant. In Jeremiah 31 and by implication in Hebrews 8:8-13, which quotes Jeremiah 31, God promises in the future to write the law on people's hearts so that obedience to it will be natural. 

Covenants do not begin a relationship

Do covenants initiate a relationship? No, they secure and administer an existing relationship. Think of voluntary marriage, for example, which secures, legalizes, and regulates an already existing relationship. (The protest to a premature marriage proposal is "But I hardly know you.")  

So in the Bible, God calls Abram in Genesis 12 and establishes a relationship with him in Genesis 12–14. It's not until the end of Genesis 15 that God establishes a covenant with Abraham, and not until Genesis 17 that God more fully explains the blessings inherent in the covenant: Abraham is to be the ancestor of a multitude of nations which, in Genesis 12, God had already promised to bless through Abraham. God is to give Abraham's successors the land of Canaan. And God promises to be God to Abraham and his descendants. 

Mediator

What else can we share about God's covenant in our sermons? It appears from Romans 4:13 and following and Galatians 3:6-8 and 16-18 that the covenant with Abraham is still in force (though this claim and what follows from it are sometimes disputed). 

In the New Testament, it's no longer Moses who is the mediator or representative of the covenant with Abraham. Now it's Jesus Christ. Paul writes that our ancestors were baptized into Moses (1 Corinthians 10:1-2), but now we are baptized into Christ (Romans 6:3). The idea is that Moses and Christ are the representative personalities of the people of God. To be baptized into them is to be recognized ceremonially as belonging to the blessed community launched into history by their signature acts — for Moses, Passover and the exodus; for Christ, death and resurrection, with resurrection counting as the second exodus. 

Covenant of grace

Hebrews 8 states that the covenant of grace with Christ as mediator is better than the covenant of grace with Moses as mediator. One reason is that the new mediator is not a mere mortal but the eternal Son of God incarnate, the reflection of God's glory (Hebrews 1:3). Hebrews 3:5-6 puts the contrast like this: Moses was a servant. Christ is a Son. And instead of offering to God the blood sacrificial animals, Jesus the High Priest offered to God his own blood (Hebrews 9:12) and did it once for all (Hebrews 7:27). 

Further, unlike Moses, Jesus the mediator is without sin (Hebrews 4:15). When thinking of God's promise to bless all the nations through Israel, surely we may finally note that in the new covenant the great time of God's impartiality has arrived. All are welcome: There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female, for all are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28). In keeping with this expansionist tendency, the sign of membership in the Moses edition of the covenant was circumcision of Jewish males (and their slaves); in the Christ edition, the sign and seal of membership is baptism, available to anybody who is in Christ. 

Worship as a covenant renewal

How does the notion of covenant apply to worship? In worship God says, I am your God, and we say, We are your people. The sacraments within worship are covenant binders. By them God deepens the faith that attaches us to Jesus Christ. 

The fact that God is bound by promise to human beings reveals God's character. God is love. In the words of the author and theologian Lewis B. Smedes, God's promise "creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty" because God is love. 

Excerpts about covenant 

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org sermon resources about covenant: 

"On Transfiguration Sunday, we may proclaim with confidence the gracious character of God, who offers a second chance by renewing the covenant and remaining present among the community, as seen first in the face of Moses and then in the face of Christ." Sermon Preparation by Esther M. Menn from Working Preacher  

"In the Hebrew Bible, the covenant (Hebrew: berit) is the formal agreement between Yhwh and the people of Israel and Judah, in which each agrees to a set of obligations toward the other." Article about Scripture by Marvin A. Sweeney from Bible Odyssey 

Worship ideas about covenant 

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org worship resources about covenant: 

"This is my prayer, Lord, to you. My promise and my vow, strong and true. And the covenant I make on earth, let it be fulfilled in heaven. Amen." Hymn by John Wesley from Hymnary