"There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God." --Psalm 46:4
- Mark Sumpter
- Serving God with His people at Faith OPC has been a great joy and blessing. When I grow up, I want to umpire Little League Baseball. I will revel on that day when I can say to a 10-year-old boy after four pitched balls, "Take a walk in the sunshine." My wife of 30+ years, Peggy, consistently demonstrates the love of Christ and remains my very best friend. Our six children, our four lovely, sweetie-pie daughters-in-law, and our four grandchildren serve as resident theologians.
Monday, December 15, 2008
A Richly Textured, Higher Life
When the church loses control at the wheel and she swerves and spins going down the slippery slope of covenant absent-mindedness, then we all suffer. For example, with absence of covenant mindedness and covenant living, then why consider church membership with church vows? And another, with a down-play of covenant teaching, then there's no wonder when businessmen renege with respect to contracts, and/or do away with follow-through.
Listen to the value and the place of covenant-mindedness and living on the basis of word, promise, obligation and commitment. This piece comes from Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck, he writes in the book, In The Beginning:
“But the doctrine of the covenant of works is based on Scripture and is eminently valuable. Among rational and moral creatures all higher life takes the form of a covenant. Generally, a covenant is an agreement between persons who voluntarily obligate and bind themselves to each other for the purpose of fending off an evil or obtaining a good. Such an agreement, whether it is made tacitly or defined in explicity detail, is the usual form in terms of which humans live and work together. Love, friendship, marriage, as well as all social cooperation in business, industry, science, art and so forth, is ultimately grounded in covenant, that is, in reciprocal fidelity and an assortment of generally recognized moral obligations.
It should not surprise us, therefore, that also the highest and most richly textured life of human beings, namely, religion, bears this character. In Scripture 'covenant’ is the fixed form in which the relation of God to his people is depicted and presented. And even where the word does not occur, we nevertheless always see the two parties as it were in dialogue with each other, dealing with each other, with God calling people to conversion, reminding them of their obligations, and obligating himself to provide all that is good.”
From In The Beginning, Baker Book House, p. 203
The local church must hold fast to her Bible-teaching terms and expressions within her own assembly; she must hold fast to covenant life, for such covenant life sets the pace for all of life, 24/7.
G. Mark Sumpter
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1 comment:
I am reading Ralph Smith's book, Eternal Covenant: How the Trinity shapes covenant theology.
Presents the case that a covenant of love existed between the 3 persons of the Godhead for all eternal past and that man being a covenant being is part of being created in the image of God. That is, covenant was not something created by God after the creation.
This book is worth reading, pondering, and discussing.
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