Summary
In the “Introduction” to this coherent and concise book, O. Palmer Robertson asks a sincere and timely question: “Do you want something to keep you close to God? Something that will give you confidence that you are never without him?”[1] For those seeking to cultivate confident-familiarity with God, Robertson explains, “Then you’re searching for God’s covenant, his underlying promise.”[2] What promise? Robertson says it is the “formula of hope” which can be traced from Genesis to Revelation — “I will be your God and you will be my people.”[3] Robertson explains that knowledge of God’s covenants, i.e., that “God has committed himself so that he can be forever your God and you can be his people,” will “stabilize your personal life” and “sensitize your soul to a new awareness of God’s agenda in the world.”[4] Robertson confidently contends that “God’s covenants provide the foundation and structure for life.”[5]
In the following 13 chapters, Robertson traces each of the divine covenants in the Bible. For each of the covenants – Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New Covenant – Robertson highlights respective emphases but also explains how each of the divine covenants “illuminates the cross.”[6]
Chapters 1-3 defines what a covenant is, discusses the covenantal beginnings, and the “cosmic implications” of the covenant made with Adam.[7] Chapter 4 is appropriately titled “Preservation for Salvation” and discusses the covenant during the time of Noah. [8] The promise of the Noahic covenant embraces “the whole of creation,” resulting in that “every living creature benefits from its blessing (Gen. 9:10).”[9] The Noahic covenant ensures the preservation and stability of creation in accordance with God’s salvific purposes. Why have a creation-wide covenant? Because “Redemption is as broad as creation.” [10] Creation is preserved so God’s decree and redemptive will might be actualized in time, i.e., there must be a figurative theater stage for the actors in the story of redemption. This covenant is not redemptive in the same sense the latter covenants are. In the following sense, however, it is indirectly redemptive: “Because of the regularity of day and night as established in the covenant with Noah all men and women receive testimony of the grace of God.”[11]
Chapters 5-7 discuss the covenant made with Abraham, the sign of the covenant, and explains how the “signs and seals of the old and new covenants are also the same in essence.”[12] The patterns of the Abrahamic covenant reveal that “God is concerned to redeem families, not merely individuals,” and the new covenant prophecies of Jeremiah “also speaks of God’s continuing commitment to redeem households.”[13] Robertson transitions in Chapters 8 and 9 to an insightful discussion on the Law and Mosaic covenant. Robertson emphasizes the Mosaic Law and covenant “must not be confused with the original covenant of works made with Adam,” e.g., in contrast to the covenant of works the Mosaic “law code” contained the “provision of sacrifice in the event of sin.”[14] Next, in Chapter 10, Robertson discusses the Davidic covenant, i.e., the promise that “David’s house, kingdom and throne are established forever (2 Sam. 7:16).”[15] Robertson elaborates and explains that “God tells David that his descendant who rules after him will be designated as God’s own son: ‘I will be his father, and he will be my son.’”[16] The consistent testimony of the New Testament it is Jesus Christ “the Messiah of David” who is God’s own Son who “sits on God’s throne, which is David’s throne.”[17]
Robertson concludes his book with three significant chapters. In Chapter 11, he discusses the New Covenant and how Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises of the former divine covenants. The New Covenant is “the last covenant” because “that which God has intended all along in redemption” will be accomplished in the New Covenant.[18] In Chapter 12, Robertson gives helpful suggestions for tracing continuity from the former covenants into the New Covenant. Robertson explains, “Balance must be found between continuity and newness in the relation of the old covenant to the new.”[19] There are both contrasting as well as continuous aspects of the old and new covenant, but the contrast is “drastic” which means “the new covenant must not be seen merely as a renewal of the old covenant.”[20] The New Covenant is definitively and meaningfully different than the old. Robertson tells his readers that “the newness of the new covenant must be appreciated more fully.” [21] This newness is most appreciated when we study the scriptures of the Old and New Testament and understand and appreciate how the “new covenant completes the redemption promised under the old.”[22] In the final chapter, Robertson surveys each of the divine covenants and explains how each “covenant highlights the majesty and might of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[23] As mentioned earlier, it is Robertson’s contention that “the covenant magnifies the cross.”[24] Robertson throughout this short book demonstrates precisely how the divine covenants magnify the cross.
Personal Application
Personal application for myself is largely drawn from Robertson’s clarifying and powerful final chapter on how “all roads lead to the cross.”[25] This is chiefly why knowledge of the covenants can stabilize your life, i.e., there is nothing more foundational or comforting than the cross of Christ. Experientially speaking, I can personally attest that knowledge of God’s covenants has and continues to be a stabilizing force for my personal life. The old covenants promise, and the New Covenant affirms, that God through Christ has committed himself to be our God and we his people forever. Robertson succinctly demonstrated that Christ and the Cross can be found in the Garden, at the Flood, in the life of Abraham, with Israel in the wilderness, and in King David.[26] All of these former divine covenants are “old-covenant shadows” and they “come to consummate realization in the cross of the new covenant.”[27] Robertson’s main takeaway for me is this, and I think it should be life changing for every believer: “Since the cross serves as the center of history there can be no other focus for your life.”[28] It is always a good reminder to be focused and centered on the cross of Christ, especially these days! When a believer understands that they “are bound in covenant relation with God just as firmly as was Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David,” it is truly illuminating – because God’s “ancient bond with particular peoples is the only way to unravel the complex issues of [twenty-first]-century politics.”[29] The present American political-scene is deeply underwhelming. The present world-wide Covid-induced economic and political fallout is depressing. Local, national, and international political and social trends are seemingly bad, but when I remember God’s ancient bond and the ancient formula of hope (Gen. 17:7-8), all those complex issues are quickly unraveled by God’s Good News that “into the arena of human history one single saving hero [has entered].”[30] Indeed, the time between Adam and Christ is the unfolding of the “the long history of the two seeds” per Genesis 3:15, but it is still unfolding as we anticipate the consummation of the Kingdom.[31] That is not a bad thing. The divine covenants and promises were not enacted in an instant, which reminds us that we also need to be patient like our holy forefathers.[32] For now, this book was a good reminder to patiently rest and repose in the Christ of the cross. “Because covenant and cross are bound together, [I] can live every day with absolute confidence that whatever comes into [my] life originates from the loving hand of [my] Father. He has bound himself [to me] in love through the bond of the covenant in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[33] Thank the Lord!
[1] O. Palmer Robertson, Covenants: God’s Way With His People (Suwanee: Great Commission Publications, Inc., 1987), 5.
[2] Robertson, Covenants, 5.
[3] Robertson, Covenants, 5.
[4] Robertson, Covenants, 5.
[5] Robertson, Covenants, 6.
[6] Robertson, Covenants, 121.
[7] Robertson, Covenants, 18.
[8] Robertson, Covenants, 29.
[9] Robertson, Covenants, 36.
[10] Robertson, Covenants, 31.
[11] Robertson, Covenants, 37.
[12] Robertson, Covenants, 61.
[13] Robertson, Covenants, 67-68.
[14] Robertson, Covenants, 75.
[15] Robertson, Covenants, 96
[16] Robertson, Covenants, 94.
[17] Robertson, Covenants, 97.
[18] Robertson, Covenants, 108.
[19] Robertson, Covenants, 111.
[20] Robertson, Covenants, 112.
[21] Robertson, Covenants, 113.
[22] Robertson, Covenants, 113.
[23] Robertson, Covenants, 121.
[24] Robertson, Covenants, 121.
[25] Robertson, Covenants, 121.
[26] See Chapter 13 (Robertson, Covenants, 121-129).
[27] Robertson, Covenants, 128.
[28] Robertson, Covenants, 129.
[29] Robertson, Covenants, 129, 6.
[30] Robertson, Covenants, 26.
[31] Robertson, Covenants, 26.
[32] Regarding patient faith, see Hebrews 11.
[33] Robertson, 128.