The Write Place

While it is often missed in our contemporary evangelical culture, we can understand the nature of the world and salvation in light of the concept of covenant. Covenant curses are the state of man due to his infidelity to God (Isaiah 24:5-6, Revelation 19:17-19). Judgment extends throughout the earth in light of covenant.

Covenants is deeper and more binding than contract, operating on the basis of blessings and curses between a lord and a covenant servant. We see this from the very beginning.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:28

Here we see the blessings that come as they often do, with a commandment. Notice the commandment is necessary for the blessing, and the blessing furthers the commandment. To be fruitful and multiply, you have to cultivate the world to feed your children. As you have more children, you do more so and when they grow, they continue the pattern. God made the world with covenant and blessing in mind.

Genesis 1 is an accounting of the creation with a focus on God as the creator. The two are one event, but two accounts concerned with two different emphases. In the account of creation that focuses on the creation of man, we also see covenant.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[a] of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 2:15-17

Genesis 1 clearly has a command and blessing; Genesis 2 has a command a warning (alongside a blessing to eat of every other tree than the one forbidden). He is gifted Eden in Genesis 2, and the whole creation in Genesis 1 as blessing and signs of the covenant. Adam is set up as a covenant servant to a gracious covenant lord.

Unfortunately, if you’ve read on you see that Adam and Eve disobey the covenant by eating the fruit of that same tree. In so doing they break the covenant by attempting to supplant and equal the covenant lord.

 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:17-19

The earth that man was taken from, and which he was meant to cultivate, will now consume him in return. The creation also suffers the curse, having been fruitful before now working the ground becomes laborious for Adam. What once was paradise awaiting it’s glory is no a cursed realm for a fallen vassal king for his rebellion against his covenant lord.

Covenants also involve ceremony, whether the blessing and naming of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 or otherwise. Covenants can involve gifting, memorials, naming, and other things. After the fall (now with death in the world) death to signify the curse for disobedience. That death signifies the penalty, even as it can indicate something more.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Leviticus 14:11

An innocent party not only dies to make a covenant, but it can also serve as a representative, giving it’s life and the righteousness it possesses to another. The Life in the blood can cover another, giving the guilty party something he did not possess, the righteousness of the one who died.

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 9:22

It is only with a covenantal substitute that sins are forgiven, because a life was given. The forgiven party is covered in the life of another as if he had lived that life for himself.

Just as importantly, covenants can be between a Lord and a federal head. This is why Paul tells us…

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:22

Adam was our head, in him we fell. But in Christ we have an alien righteousness, and receive the riches and blessing of a faithful covenant keeper.
This is why it is only in union with Christ that our sins are forgiven, and never without his substitution for us on the cross.

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Luke 22:19-20

Mankind broke the covenant and gained curses not blessings, yet in Christ we are participants of the New Covenant and receive active blessings both in the present and the world to come. With this in mind, you can now truly understand Ephesians 1.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known[c] to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee[d] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,[e] to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:3-14