Covenant Community: Connected Hearts Conveying Hope

The Church has a profound opportunity to lead out in the 21st century on, what we believe to be, the key components of the Kingdom of God and it’s full manifestation on earth.  But before we can lead out, we must live out these expressions in a determined, definitive way in our areas of life and ministry.

I am convinced that the theoretical past must give way to a practical present thus revealing a glorious and tangible future fully enjoyed by our Father and His family.  This, of course, will require faith at new levels.  We certainly understand that without faith it is impossible to please God or to bring joy to His heart.  But we must also come to realize that while our faith must be in God first, it is also something that becomes the basis of life with one another.  In other words, I am of the persuasion that faith in each other brings not only pleasure to the heart of God, but it brings the same to the hearts of His children.  This is one way that we can understand the term COVENANT COMMUNITY.  It is having faith in God first and then growing to have faith in those He has chosen to put us in community with in order to confidently build and express the Kingdom that God enjoys.  Otherwise, you have nothing more than mere existence without intended purpose and without a sense of destiny.  Our faith in one another cannot be dealt a deadly blow because of past hurt due to overwhelming betrayal but rather must increase because of the hope we have for the predetermined plans of God to become real.

Faith in one another due to the work of Christ in our hearts brings us to the place of experiencing covenant community.  Covenant community is an atoning work.  I love the concept of atonement for it indicates reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.  It also indicates reconciliation with one another.  The word ‘Atonement’ is derived from the early 16th century and it denotes unity or reconciliation, especially between God and man. Within the word itself we understand it to mean ‘at one’. It is influenced by the medieval Latin word ‘adunamentum’ which means to unite.  So not only are we made one with Christ through His atoning death and resurrection, but we also are united to one another to live in covenant community as an expression of our faith and our hope!

The idea of ‘Covenant Community’ is clearly a divine concept originated in the mind of God and expressed in the trinity.  It is conveyed from the onset of time when God said, “Let US make man in OUR image.” Immediately we see connected hearts in harmonious rhythm engaged in the creative process of bringing forth mankind in the image of God. His image immediately stands out as being corporate in nature and common in purpose. Man was made in the image of corporeity, of community. From the very beginning, it was God’s intent for man to live in communion with Him and ultimately with other human beings in order to display the glory of God in covenant expression. It is in this image that we were made and it is in this image that we are destined to return to in fullness of power. It is our BLESSED HOPE! As I John 3:2-3 tells us,

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. 3And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.”

It is common for the historic and contemporary church to define the blessed hope as simply the return of Christ. But I want to take it further as I am convinced that it isn’t solely about His return but it is also about the divine purpose for His return. As I John says, “Everyone who hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.” Hope is a purifier. It is something that empowers us out of our fleshly depression and anxiety and into a process of clean thinking and pure living.

Hope is a power that works in the sanctifying process of the human hearts and the human condition. It is intended to usher us into our ultimate destiny in Christ from the constraints of an earthly grip to a life of eternal significance.

The Nature of God: A Divine Community of Love and Holiness

I am a proponent of choice but only in the context of being ‘in God’ for only God has the extreme ability and/or right to choose as the sovereign God. The greatness of God is in His choice to love and to be holy!  If you are in God, you not only have the ability to choose to love and be holy, you have also had your rights to choose love and holiness restored. This removes the excuses that we have when we say that we cannot get along with someone or we isolate ourselves because of friction or frustration.  In Christ, we have the ability and the right to choose.  Therefore, we choose to love and we choose to be holy not out of duty (though it is good to simply obey) but the presence of Christ and the gift of grace empowers us to choose to love my brothers and sisters and live out holiness before God and others. This is the nature of God that is fully restored to those in the faith!  It is …

The Image of God: A Reflection of Covenant Community

As I stated earlier, we must see the corporeity of God and how the full release of that comes into the existence of man. We must first see it as God in community. I think it fairly obvious that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were and are fully communal in the Godhead.  The way they exist in the trinity is commuted to the image bearer and therefore it conveys the hope of glory (II Corinthians 4:4-18).

“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

This passage tells us a couple of things.  First of all, image bearers reflect (Verses 4-7).

We are made to reflect the image of God through the full release of the treasure that is within us.  In other words, through us and from within our lives, we are to give God glory. This is more than mere words of praise. This is a life that visibly and actively reflects His glory by living out the image. The image is a corporate one and therefore requires community to truly reflect the glory of God and prove value to the treasure that is within us.

Secondly, image bearers deflect (Verses 8-18).

Image bearers walk in the ministry of deflection.  To live in covenant community is not easy and brings with it challenges that requires the surpassing power of God in our lives. We are called to … deflect affliction and avoid being crushed, deflect perplexity and avoid despair, deflect persecution and avoid forsakenness, and to deflect being struck down and avoid destruction. We cannot isolate ourselves and think we can produce the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  It will not work for your people in your local congregation nor will it work for you.

To fully understand the image bearing purpose, we must not only see God in community but also man in community. Man is a corporate being!  Made in the image of God, he is … Spirit, Soul and Body! This creative design of God is purposed to convey the hope of new creation.

The goal of God in working on man is to bring harmony to the internal being of His creation.  The fundamental reason we have problems relating to others in community is due to our inability to live in community within ourselves. The soul is in conflict with the spirit and the spirit is in conflict with the body and so we live divided on the inside of us.  We live in personal conflict.  When this is true we tend to retreat into the more carnal third of our existence.  We either move to satisfy the body with all its needs or we want to satisfy the mind, the emotions or do our own will. This internal withdrawal causes external withdrawal and devastates community at every level.

It is important that we apprehend the purpose for which we have been apprehended. It is to conform to the image of Christ in every way beginning with internal alignment so that external alignment is possible. The Kingdom of God is oneness in every way.  Jesus prayed for His followers to become one even as the trinity were one. This requires understanding God’s purpose in the design, our flaws that affect the design and the necessary steps taken by God to reconcile us to His purposes. Our need is to learn of Him in order that we come into a place of purity and usefulness to bring about the kind of covenant community that pleases the heart of the Father. After all, this is the Kingdom of God!