Stereotype Terms⤒🔗

Words and phrases easily become stereotypes. The terms personal relationship and covenant do not escape the danger of being used by us as stereotypes. A stereotype phrase or term is a term which fits all and is a catch all. We think that we have said a lot when we speak of “personal relationship with Christ” and of “covenantally.” In reality we have left people guessing as to what we mean. Not everyone who uses the terms personal relationship and covenant means the same by them. The one person may mean by “personal relationship with Christ” a relationship which is established by the action of the person “deciding for Christ.” Another person may mean by it a relationship which has been established by God.

The same holds true for the term covenant. The one person holds that this is a relationship with God established by both God and the person him- or herself. The other person holds that the covenantal relationship between God and man is exclusively initiated by God and continues by the grace of God.

What to do with these Terms←⤒🔗

We have two options: we can either scrap them or reform them. There are those who favour the phrase personal relationship but who object to the word covenant. They consider the first to be warm and the latter to be cold. There are others who favour the word covenant and object to the phrase personal relationship. They consider the word covenant more biblical and the phrase personal relationship too individualistic, even Arminian. This makes it impossible to do away with either of these two terms. The terms will continue to be used in separation.

Reform them and Combine them←⤒🔗

My proposal is that we reform both expressions. We must rescue them from being stereotypes by reforming both. Mind you, not form them but reform them. Reform them, taking our cues from the Bible. Reform them and combine them: personal relationship with Christ covenantally.

When we begin doing that we notice that the two expressions are not far apart from each other. On the contrary, they are relatives of each other. Personal relationship with Christ takes into account that both Christ and the believer are persons. Although both are persons there is a distinction. Christ is Person and the believer is person. They are persons in relationship. Christ the Person is in relation with believer the person, and the person with the Person.

We begin with Christ. We do not begin with ourselves. Christ is God, I am created man. The personal relationship which Christ establishes with me is the personal relationship with God. There is a depth and height and width to this relationship which surpasses our understanding. It is awesome. Christ is the shepherd who found me and led me to God. I did not find Him; He found me. I did not pull His Spirit down from heaven into my life. On the contrary: God sent the Spirit of His Son into my heart (Galatians 4:6). It is by the power of Christ that I come to faith in God. It is Christ who enables me to be in relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

The first thing that I must do in this relationship is believe, trust. I must believe that Christ is the only one who can bring me into a peace relationship with God. The Bible tells me so and I must simply believe. I must honour Christ as the originator of this relationship. I must be thankful to God for it and love Him for it. I must thank and ask Him for His Spirit to live in me so that the relationship remains and remains alive.

Since God has entered into this gracious relationship with me through Christ, and through Christ’s Spirit, I am enabled by Him to be in a responsive relationship with God. I must be in the person to Person relationship. I must find in Him my all. I must walk with Him and before Him. I must make known to Him all my needs for body and soul. I must always trust and obey Him. I must be a living Christian. Since God in Christ does not hold back in His relationship to me, the person, I may not hold back on God in my relationship to Him, the Person.

Surprise←⤒🔗

Let us now go on to the word covenant to receive a surprise: All that belongs to the relationship from the Person to the person belongs to the word covenant. God establishes His covenant with us, not we with God (Genesis 17:1-2; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 10:15-18).

God gave Jesus Christ as the Mediator of the covenant (1 Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 9:15).

In His covenant the Lord God binds Himself to take away sins (Romans 11:27). Our inheritance comes to us from God who secured it for us by covenant in Christ the Mediator of the covenant (Galatians 3:15-18). The blood of Christ, which alone washes sins away, is the blood of the New Covenant (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).

Binding Himself to us through Christ, the Mediator of the covenant, we are now bound to live in covenant with God by faith through Christ the Mediator. Having had our sins washed away through the blood of the New Covenant we must trust and obey. The blood of the covenant cleanses us, makes us holy to God, sets us apart for Him. If we “spurn the Son of God, and profane the blood of the covenant by which we are sanctified and outrage the Spirit of grace we are judged by” the “vengeance” of God (Hebrews 10:26-31).

A covenant always consists of more than one person. The Covenant of God is the covenant between the Person and the person. The covenant of God is a living relationship from the Person to the person. The covenant of God may never be reduced to a stereotype. That God enters into a living covenant relationship with His believers through Jesus Christ is a miracle that should constantly amaze us and evoke in us love, trust and obedience to the God of our life.

Personal Relationship Covenantally Prevents Individualism←⤒🔗

We often speak of the worldly culture of our day as the “me” culture. Everything centers around “me.” As long as I am happy and filled things are all right. Never mind the needs of the neighbour. The Christian who cares for the neighbour generously can nevertheless be prone to have a “me” attitude. I, Christian and Christ. “I-Christians” have a personal relationship with Christ. Never mind about other believers. Or: the personal relationship which I have with Christ is better, richer, than the relationship which others have with Christ. All other believers actually should have the same relationship with Christ as I have. Misuse of the phrase “relationship with Christ” leads to rating, classifying believers in layers of more or less close relationship with Christ.

We must Remedy this Wrong←⤒🔗

Joining the phrase “personal relationship with Christ” with the word “covenantally” remedies this wrong. A personal relationship can be taken individualistically. It is impossible to live in God’s covenant individualistically. In God’s covenant I am never without the fellow believer. In God’s covenant I am commanded to “love the Lord our God” and “the neighbour as myself.”

In God’s covenant I, together with my fellow believers, enjoy the personal relationship which God has with us through the Mediator Jesus Christ. Together we have been made into members of His body. His Spirit dwells in the church as in His temple and in every believer as His temples (Ephesians 2:19-22).

We have not Scrapped Anything but Reformed Both←⤒🔗

What a joy to live with this God through Christ and His Spirit in this personal, covenantal relationship. By His grace we now look to Him by day and by night with faith, love and obedience. In our weakness He is our strength. When we stumble and cry in repentance to Him He forgives and raises us up; and we raise one another up Galatians 6:1-5). And we are never alone for He has come to make His home with us (John 14:21-24).