We are on a series on the different covenants of God and today’s article deals with God’s covenant relationship with man. When God purposed to create man, God made His covenant with him. What is this covenant and what are the provisions or conditions included in it?

Here is an in-depth explanation of God’s covenant relationship with man by Bishop Moses R. Chungalao, the founder, president and senior minister of the Free Believers in Christ Fellowship International (FBCFI).

The Word Covenant Defined

Another word for covenant is an agreement or a contract. It is much like an employment contract or agreement between an employer and an applicant employee, where all the terms have been set by the employer and the employee only has to agree and sign to be employed.

It’s also like a Lease Agreement of Contract where all the terms have been set by the owner-lessor of the property and the lessee only has to agree and sign the contract to be able to use the property.

In the same way, God already set all the terms of His covenant with man, and man had no part in making the terms and conditions thereof. God’s covenant reveals and expresses His will for man.

The terms are all His commandments, laws, precepts, ordinances or instructions in His word, the Bible. The Bible is full of provisions saying, “These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow…” (Deuteronomy 12:1 NIV) or “Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).

Man has no choice but to obey the covenant of God. Remember Adam and Eve who were cut off from God and were cast out of the Garden of Eden to suffer the curse because they disobeyed God and broke the covenant.

The Basis of God’s Covenant with Man

The basis of God’s covenant is His immeasurable love because He is love; that is His whole being and character. God is Love, and we say, “All the time.” There’s not a bit of time that He is not Love. That is His nature and the nature of love is it is reciprocated or symbiotic.

Love seeks to be reciprocated; it seeks to be loved back in the same way and measure. So God planned and purposed to create man to be the object of His love. And He decided that the kind of relationship to the man is as a Father so that He would lavish His son with His love and blessings of great prosperity because of His love.

Because of His love, God could not avoid lavishing his son with everything He was going to create in this earth that is why He made and prepared the whole earth and all it contained for man before creating him.

Ephesians 1:4 (NIV) says, “He chose us in Him before the creation of the world…” In fact, God did not only choose to create Adam but He also “chose us” and even knew us by name (Jeremiah 1:5). So God chose (or decided) everything for man and His covenant with man (and with us) before He created the world, and man had no part in making the terms and conditions of the covenant.

They are all God’s terms and conditions. The whole Bible is God’s covenant and everything written in it is God’s terms and will. God’s will are revealed and expressed by His word or covenant.

LOVE
The First Requirement of God’s Covenant with Man

An expert of the law asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Jesus further said, “And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36-39).

It must be noted that Moses said the exact same thing in Deuteronomy 6:5. Loving your neighbor and yourself is only secondary, including family since your family is part of yourself. To love God is foremost and number 1 priority in God’s covenant with man. Jesus made this very clear in Matthew 10:37.

In fact, Jesus further says, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

Why is love the first and foremost requirement of God’s covenant with man? It’s because love is the nature and basic character of God, and the nature of love is reciprocal; it is symbiotic. By nature, love wants to be loved in return, and it wants to be loved back in the same way and measure.

Everyone who loves will always want to be loved back because we were created in the image and likeness of God.

OBEDIENCE
The 2nd Requirement of God’s Covenant with Man

God’s covenant with man requires absolute full obedience of man to all the laws, decrees, statutes, precepts, ordinances and commandments in God’s word, the Bible.

The commands of God are very absolute as we read in Genesis 2:16-17. When God said to the man that he will surely die when he eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, death here means separation or being cut off from God.

When man disobeyed and violated the command of God, man was cut off from God and was driven out from the Garden, the kingdom of God.

In many passages of Scriptures such as Deuteronomy 4:9, 23; Deuteronomy 5:1; Deuteronomy 6:12, 17-18, 24; Deuteronomy 8:1; Deuteronomy 11:8, 13, 16, 22; Deuteronomy 12:1; Deuteronomy 11:26-28; Deuteronomy 28:1-8 and Matthew 7:21, God’s covenant explicitly states absolute obedience demanded of man by God.

WORSHIP
Third Requirement of God’s Covenant with Man

From creation it can be understood from the Bible that God planted the Garden of Eden and put the man He created in that garden to work it and take care of it (Genesis 2:8, 15). Just like a landlord and a tenant, God already planted the garden and it was profusely bearing fruit.

God gave the garden to the man to work it by planting, harvesting and maintaining it, so the man gave all his time and efforts up-keeping the garden of God. The Garden of Eden was the property or Kingdom of God on earth, which He planted and gave to the man for his heritage as a son.

The garden had everything the man needed; it was a paradise. As the man worked the garden and harvested all the fruits, he worshiped God every day and offered the best portions of his garden products (“first fruits”) and fattest animals (“firstborn”) including the fruit of the 2 trees in the center of the garden, the “tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Sacrificial giving is basic worship, as it is commanded, “No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed” (Deuteronomy 16:16). So the man faithfully offered and worshiped God every day until the devil came to them in the garden and were deceived into disobeying God.

Even after the man and woman were driven from the garden, their sons Cain and Abel continued to worship God by offering the fruits of their works (Genesis 4:3-5). God looked with favor on Abel and his offering but not on Cain and his offering because it was not sacrificial.

We can, therefore, understand from all Scriptures that worship is basically honoring God with our whole body, heart, mind, soul, and strength, which is required by God as our expression of love to Him.

Worship was the first thing Noah did after God destroyed the whole creation on earth with flood and it pleased God not to destroy all lives again (Genesis 8:20-21). Worship was the first things Abram did when God called him and he obeyed. And God appeared to him and promised to give the land to his offspring (Genesis 12:7).

When God gave Abram victory over his enemies, Abram gave “a tenth of everything” in honor and worship (Genesis 14:20). Worship is the first thing God commanded Moses to do with his people after bringing them out from Egypt (Exodus 3:12).

SACRIFICE
An Expression of Man’s Love, Worship, and Obedience to God

In God’s covenant with man, sacrifice is the one word that underlines the love of God to man, the required love of man to God, the required absolute obedience of man to God and the required worship and offerings of man to God.

First of all, the love of God was characterized by sacrifice. When God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, He not only gave His life but also suffered to pay for the redemption of man.

In return, God requires sacrifice on the part of man as proof of his love for God. God commands man to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Sacrificial offering has been the express form of worship from the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the time of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:3-4), the time of Noah (Genesis 8:20), the time of Abram (Genesis 14:20) and the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 12:5-6).

The Israelites resolved to obey the laws of God and bring to the Temple all the duties required for the house of God (Nehemiah 10:30-39). The Bible says, “Honor (or worship) the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits (the best) of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your jars will brim over with new wine (Proverbs 3:9-10 NIV).

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). To “be careful to obey every command” is very difficult for sinful man to observe but with the sacrifice to deny ourselves and our self-will to become like Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can become like Him. To become like Christ is possible only if we offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1).

True worship is definitely and absolutely expressed in sacrificial offering. Giving the best of everything to God in worship is a sacrifice of worship. The devil reversed this principle of God when he deceived Adam and Eve into believing that they must reserve the best of their harvest to themselves and their families and offer to God only too little.

Closing Words

At the start of God’s covenant with man, the facts were established that God created man and put His Spirit on him to be God’s son (Genesis 2:7), lavished the man with everything he needed as proof of His love for him, and established that obedience, worship, and sacrifice are the requirements for man to show his love to God in return.