A solemn agreement, “negotiated or unilaterally imposed, that bind[s] the parties to each other in permanent defined relationships, with specific promises, claims, and obligations on both sides.”1
- Two examples from scripture:
Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lordhas spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:3-8 ESV).
But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:6-13 ESV).
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”
- From the London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689, Chapter 9:
1. The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
2. Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.
3. This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.
- From Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, page 135:
Biblical covenants come out of an ancient world where political treaties and formal relational agreements were well known. The various covenants in Scripture, like many of the covenants of the same era, are composed of identifiable elements. In general, we see seven elements associated with biblical covenants. There are three p-words: promises, prescriptions, and penalties. And four s-words: swearing (of an oath), seeing, statements, and signs. These seven elements aren’t present in every covenant, and they aren’t the only way to categorize things, but taken together these elements represent a common template. In biblical covenants, God makes promises, lays out commands, and threatens punishment. And in establishing the covenant relationship, there is often and oath, eyewitnesses, written documents, and symbols of ratification. Everywhere throughout the Bible, God relates to his creatures by way of these promissory agreements.
Learn more:
- Simply Put: Covenant
- Bible Study Tools: Covenant
- Michael Horton: Covenant
- Keith A. Mathison: What Is a Covenant?
- Paul R. Williamson: The Biblical Covenants
- Meredith Kline: What Is a Covenant?
Related terms:
1Concise Theology by J. I. Packer, page 87.
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