How Covenants Work: Background

There is a Spirit Realm and there is our Fallen Realm — two entirely different entities. Humans can not possibly comprehend the former, and can’t escape the latter. Indeed, the reason we cannot comprehend Eternity is because we are fallen. However, there is a divine revelation, a moral sphere that doesn’t warrant capitalization because it’s not really a domain unto itself. Rather, it is the invasive extension of God’s hand into this world. It’s the space where the Spirit Realm overlaps the Fallen Realm.

We can talk about the Fallen Realm of existence factually. We can describe it. We can’t even understand, much less talk about the Spirit Realm. We can discuss the moral realm only by parables. We can indicate features of the moral realm, but we can’t describe it factually. The human soul is capable of sensing divine truth within this realm of existence through the heart.

We are wired by God to sense His revelation in the heart-mind, as it were, even without spiritual rebirth. Granted, that’s very difficult, but it is part of our design. The idea was that we should pursue divine truth in our hearts until we gain recognition of our spiritual nature. It was a demanding process, and was a critical element in what the Covenant of Moses was supposed to provide. And while it was possible with the Covenant of Noah, it was much more challenging because it lacked the specifics and the concrete approach offered in Moses.

This is part of what Jesus did coming into our realm of existence. By His death and resurrection, we were granted the opportunity to discover spiritual birth before digging into the Law Covenants. But the whole point is that, once spiritually alive, we are supposed to now bring that anointing back to the Law Covenants so we can understand them better, and engage in the blessings of shalom. Every moment of human life in shalom increases God’s reputation; it calls attention to Him and His revelation. He has skin in the game; He benefits from our living by His revelation.

Still, Moses was tightly bounded: that people, that time, that place. It was never designed to fit any other context. It was a very clear statement of what Noah had implied all along, but giving it such clarity meant it could only be one precise example of all the very many different things Noah could be. Noah is the generic version; it’s still binding. We see the image of God still displaying the rainbow over His throne to emphasize that (Revelation 4:3).

The final clarity of God’s revelation was the Person of Jesus Christ. He came to fulfill Moses in the sense of bringing to life what Moses was supposed to accomplish. Instead of a narrow contextual statement in factual terms, He presented the full meaning of Moses and Noah together in moral terms. We refer back to Moses so that we can understand how it promised the Messiah, and what He would be and do for us. Nobody lives by Moses today; that covenant was closed at the Cross. It had a distinct shelf life.

Noah is not closed. It lasts as long as rainbows in the sky are possible. Noah is Christ in the form of law. To have Christ in your heart means you have Noah in your hands. Noah, as exemplified in Moses, is what being a Christian looks like. Humans can’t see Christ in the flesh any more, unless they see Him in His followers. And His followers use Noah/Moses as the reference points for what Christ looks like.

When you commit to following Christ as your feudal Lord, you commit to manifesting Noah. We can talk about the Covenant of Christ, but that moral covenant pointing to a spiritual reality has a law component that applies to the facts of his world. You have brothers and sisters in Christ who should respect all of that. You deal with them via moral truth, the parable expression of Eternity.

You have a domain He gave you, and you use it for His glory. It belongs to Him and you are His steward. In a certain sense, fellow believers entering that domain of your service. In doing so, they submit to your moral authority; otherwise you cannot bless them. It is typically an ephemeral thing, but some people will eventually submit more permanently to the moral authority of some elders and pastors in a covenant community. The sheep of your flock know what to expect because they understand Noah.

When you deal with folks who do not follow Christ — as best you can tell from the witness of the Holy Spirit in your heart — coming into your domain, they don’t have that connection to Eternity. You can’t count on that moral sensitivity. Rather, you are compelled to handle them more specifically by the Law of Noah. Alternatively, a lot of your presumed brothers and sisters are so badly crippled in their moral awareness, they also must be handled mostly by Law. Now, since Noah is rather generic, that means you’ll need to offer some kind of expressed provisions of Noah’s Covenant, written and/or spoken in words. And yes, some fellow believers need reminding, too, but it’s really essential with nonbelievers. They have nothing else to go on.

So we tend to organize our faith communities around a covenant statement of some sort, something that echoes Christ on one level, and Noah on another. Rather like Moses, it’s a contextual expression that points to a mystical connection to the moral realm, which in turn points to the Spirit Realm. It would naturally differ between communities because the context is different.

This is the background for a post on my other blog (it’s gone).