Covenant With the King

King of my life I crown thee now, thine shall the glory be." You may recognize these words from the hymn, "Lead Me to Calvary." The words of the hymn correctly signify that a covenant has been reached between two parties. One of those parties is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The other is anyone honestly singing the song and so proclaiming their submission to the will of Christ, the Savior of mankind.

When an earthly covenant is entered into, there is an official document which spells out the terms of the covenant and with signatures of the parties involved vowing to keep the terms of the covenant. That document exists in terms of our spiritual and eternal covenant in the form of the New Testament. The Old Testament contains God's covenant with the Jewish nation and was from its beginning intended to expire at the death of Christ on the cross.

In Gal. 3:19-25, the apostle, Paul, is explaining to the Galatian Christians that they should not seek to hold on to the teachings of the Old (Law) Testament. I urge you to read all those verses. I only have room to quote vs 24, "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." In Col. 2:14, Paul adds that Christ has resurrected us, "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

There are many educational and developmental stories, concepts, examples and such found in the Old Testament in which every student of the Bible should be well versed, but our covenant with Christ is recorded in the words of the New Testament. We can not honestly say we have crowned Jesus as the king of our life if we are not studying to learn the terms of our covenant with Christ as Paul told Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth."

The basic thrust of all the epistles recorded in the New Testament (and really this includes the gospels and Acts and Revelation) is to explain the terms of the Christian's covenant with Christ, the king. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work," 2 Tim. 3:16. "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness," 2 Peter 1:3. Our job is to study it, learn it, and incorporate it into our lives.

The signing of a covenant is serious business. That is what brings a covenant from the abstract to the concrete. Before it was signed it was just an idea of what might be. Once signed, it becomes a binding obligation to which one is held accountable.

Our covenant with Christ was not signed in the usual way. We might say Jesus signed it with blood. Hebrews chapter 9 is a good commentary on this concept. The will of Christ went into effect (and the Old Law was ended) with the shedding of Christ's blood in His death on the cross. That is a serious signature.

There is an old joke about the different ways that a person, a pig, and a chicken see breakfast. The person enjoys it, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. (Take a minute if you need to.) Too many of us want to enjoy the results Christ's sacrifice brings us, so we're "involved" in Christianity, but we are not "committed." We don't think deeply enough to see what is wrong with offering our involvement to match Christ's commitment. Shame on us.

The Bible talks about our commitment. In Romans 6:2, Paul refers to Christians as "we who died to sin." So Christ is not the only one who makes a commitment. We also must experience a death. Paul continues in Rom. 6:3-4. "Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Christ's death on the cross is the signature event of Christianity, indeed of world history. It is His signature in blood on His covenant that He will save those who submit to His will from their sins eternally. How do we place our signature on that document? We do what He did. Paul points out three steps that Jesus underwent. He died. He was buried. He was raised from the dead. When we repent (see Acts 2:38) we die to sin. When we are baptized (the Greek word is translated "immersed") we are buried. We rise up from the water to walk a new life, and Paul says this is just as Christ was raised from the dead.

Some would say, "You're imparting magic power to the water, but there is nothing special about the water." I'm imparting nothing to anything. I'm merely repeating what Paul said, and Paul didn't impart magic to the water.

In 1 Peter 3, Peter has been speaking about how the waters of the flood saved Noah from the wickedness of the world, and then says in verse 21, "there is a similar figure, baptism, which also now saves us (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Peter points out that there is nothing about the properties of water involved in this. What is involved is the fact that the people who are baptized are submitting to the will of God. That is how they are able to have a good conscience toward God.

What is happening here is similar to Jesus' baptism which is recorded in Matthew 3:13-17. Jesus says in verse 15 that He must be baptized "to fulfill all righteousness." It fulfills righteousness in that it is God's plan, and Jesus by submitting to it is following God's plan. It would have been unrighteous for Jesus not to be baptized. The same is true for me.

Paul continues in Romans 6:17-18 saying, "you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." What is the form (mold, or pattern in the Greek) that Paul speaks of? It is the death, burial, and resurrection of verses 3 and 4. How did "you" obey that pattern? You obeyed when you followed it by dying to sin (death), being immersed in water baptism (burial), and rising to walk a new life (resurrection.) Thus, you were set free from sin. (Notice that “being set free from sin” is Christ’s covenant with those who submit to Him.) Peter agrees, saying that baptism did that by giving you a good conscience before God.

But some would say, "you're claiming that you gain salvation by works." I'm not claiming nor saying anything other than what the inspired apostles Paul and Peter said. Paul was adamant in many places that we are saved by grace through faith, and that we're not saved by works lest we think we have something to boast about. The same Paul that said those things about grace said these things about baptism.

To summarize, the New Testament is Christ's covenant, same as God's covenant, with those willing to submit to His will. Christ signed this covenant with His blood on the cross, dying, being buried, and being raised to glory. Our signature is completed by re-enacting symbolically the pattern that Jesus established. We die to sin in repentance, bury our sinful former self in baptism, and are raised to walk a new life. That is our signature that we agree to this covenant and will submit our lives to the will of Christ.

With our 'signature' we have crowned Christ as the king of our lives. We have entered into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The covenant is that if we will submit our will to His, he will save us from the guilt of our sins. But so far, we just have a signature on a document. Now we need to seriously get on with the business of submitting our will to His.