To Remember His Holy Covenant (Part 3): You and the Covenant

In part one and part two of this series on Luke 1:67-79, we looked at "his holy covenant" and how God remembered it by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, the redeemer. Now consider how you are related to this covenant. Not only has God remembered his holy covenant and raised up a Savior in David’s house, but he also makes known his covenant so that people might enter into it and benefit from it.

Zechariah not only spoke of the coming of Christ, but he also spoke of his own son, John the Baptizer. John would be the “prophet of the Most High” to “go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:76-77). John’s message of repentance and forgiveness would also be proclaimed by the apostles and by all who proclaim the apostolic gospel, the difference being that John spoke of the coming Christ and the apostles proclaimed the Christ who had come. At the end of Luke 24, Jesus told his apostles, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46–47).

As God raised up John the Baptist, so God still works through the preaching of the word today, to give the knowledge of salvation, to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Christ’s name. This is given to all nations. Believing Gentiles are grafted on to the people of God (Rom. 11:17-20).

This covenant of grace is held forth for the salvation of sinners. It is sure and steady. God is faithful to it forever. The covenant stands upon the solid foundation of Christ and his redemptive work.

How then should we respond? Everyone should respond by entering the covenant and keeping the covenant and praising God for his faithfulness and mercy. Christ came to redeem God’s covenant people, and we call everyone to enter into this covenant with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Within the covenant is safety and blessing through Christ.

You who have visibly entered into this covenant, being marked by baptism, are bound by the covenant to believe in Jesus Christ, that you might be saved, and to turn from sin and obey the God who has redeemed you, according to his commandments.

While both faith in Christ and repentance unto new obedience are conditions of the covenant of grace, required of sinners, yet they are not conditions in the same way. (1) Neither one is a condition in the sense of being the basis for our salvation - that is to be found in Christ alone. He obtained the blessings of the covenant by his life, death, and resurrection. (2) Faith alone is a condition in the sense of being a instrumental cause of the good promised to us. That is, only by faith do we receive Christ, and in him, all the blessings of the covenant. (3) Repentance unto new obedience is a condition, not as a satisfaction, nor as an instrument by which we are united to Christ, but as something that God requires of us if we would be saved. Repentance unto life and saving faith are inseparable, and so both are required of us. The Bible says things like “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out…” (Acts 3:19), and “…unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). As the Westminster Confession of Faith says, you must not rest in your repentance as a satisfaction or any cause of pardon; yet it is of such necessity to all sinners that no one may expect pardon without it (WCF 15.3).

So respond with faith and repentance. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. He is the mediator of the covenant. Therefore, if you wish to be in this covenant and blessed, receive him as your redeemer. The way by which someone participates in this covenant is through union with Christ through faith. In Romans 11, Paul describes the visible covenant people as an olive tree. He wrote that some of the natural branches (some of the Jews) were broken off, but others (some of the Gentiles) were grafted in. Why? Paul said, “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith” (Rom. 11:20). Those who reject the Savior through unbelief shall be cursed, but those who hold fast to him by faith shall be blessed forever.

Christ is willing to receive those who receive him. Even those who were broken off, if they do not continue in their unbelief, but believe, shall be grafted in (Rom. 11:23). Receive the Lord Jesus as he is freely offered in the gospel, as your redeemer, as your prophet, priest, and king. As a wife receives her husband as her husband, giving herself as a wife, so receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, giving yourself to him. Continue to exercise this faith in Christ, resting upon him your whole life. Hold fast to this horn of salvation that God raised up in the house of David.

And repent from your sins unto God. God in Christ calls us away from bondage to sin and Satan, unto his blessed service. Those who would have God to be their God must turn their back on rebellion, renouncing the world, the flesh, and the devil, and turn to God. God delivers his people through Christ so that they might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all their days. What is repentance unto life? “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience” (WSC 87). Thus, when God’s people make or renew their covenant with God, they promise, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Ex. 24:7) and “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15). As we say in Psalm 119:106, “I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.”

God’s law is given not only to convict us of sin, driving us to Christ, and to restrain sin in society, but it is also given to direct his covenant people how to service him in holiness and righteousness. This was the context of the Ten Commandments. They were given by God to his covenant people. In them, he declared himself to be their God and redeemer and told them how to live as his people. God’s covenant of grace further obligates us to obey his universally binding moral law. It also provides in Christ the grace of sanctification, enabling us to obey, and it motivates us to do so in gratitude to the rock of our salvation. This obedience is not yet perfect — we still sin and rest on Christ for salvation — but it is sincere and increasing as we continue to repent, putting to death the deeds of the flesh and walking in newness of life in Christ. This path of repentance is the way God has appointed us to salvation, leading to glory (Rom. 4:13, 2 Peter 1:3-11, Eph. 2:10; see also WLC 32).

We are taught to "keep" God’s covenant in Scripture (Ps. 103:18, Ex. 19:5, Gen. 17:9), not in the sense of providing its basis, but in the sense of observing its obligations, living in accord with it through faith and repentance. As the OPC Directory for Public Worship says, “In our baptism, the Lord puts his name on us, claims us as his own, and summons us to assume the obligations of the covenant. He calls us to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, to renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, and to walk humbly with our God in devotion to his commandments.” May all of us, young and old, be covenant keepers who embrace the promises and obligations sealed in our baptism. For as Psalm 25:10 says, “All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

Do not be like the generation who experienced the Exodus but perished in the wilderness because they broke the covenant by rebelling against the Lord in unbelief. Do not despise the Savior and turn back to bondage and death. Forsake the darkness, and walk in his light, for he will guide our feet into the way of peace.

Praise the Lord for his grace and mercy! Give thanks to God for his holy covenant! God did not have to enter into this covenant of grace. God did not have to bind himself to save any sinner, who was but justly receiving what he deserved. Even God’s initial covenant of works was voluntary on his part, and man broke it. But out of his tender mercy, God chose to save a people from sin and misery and entered into this covenant to accomplish this even through the incarnation, obedience, and cursed death of the eternal Son of God. The triune God is faithful, and he keeps covenant forever. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has visited and redeemed his people. Blessed be his name.