Reflection for the Week

Covenant, which connotes YHWH’s love, liberation, and identification of a people to be in community with Him, is a central theological motif in both the OT and the New. Grace, love, law, and holiness find their place in this broader category of covenant. YHWH both establishes (unilateral) and cuts (bilateral) covenant, where each requires an action by the giver and yet a necessary response on the behalf of the receiver. In covenant reception we find community, a mandate, and a call, which includes to love, to listen, and to do. These are three astonishing characteristics that YHWH’s people are to engage in and act upon in order to stand out and be known as those who are marked by covenant and its vision for the redemption of the world.