As a child, did you ever make a pact with a friend: A promise to always do something, or to never ever do something, or simply to be friends forever? And as an adult, I’m sure you’ve had to meet certain obligations, keep your word, or fulfil a contract. How much more than any of those things is God’s covenant with us, his people!

BibleProject defines a covenant as “a relationship between two partners who make binding promises to each other and work together to reach a common goal.” James Wright describes it to be more like a treaty—a binding agreement between two countries.

Think about the examples of the covenants between Israel and the Gibeonites (Joshua 9), and between David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 18). In the former, the Israelites were obliged to uphold their covenant promise and defend the Gibeonites; and in the latter, Jonathan risked his life for David. As Palmer Robertson wrote, a covenant is a “bond in blood,” a “life-and-death bond.”

A new covenant of love and grace

For me, on a cognitive level, covenant connotes non-negotiable integrity—rather, integrity is inherent because you must do what you promised to do. But on a heart level, our Father God’s covenants make me think of his faithfulness, yes, but mostly of his grace. Time and time again, he has given us more than we deserve.

Jeremiah 31:31–33 (NIV, emphasis added) says:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

At a time when, by all appearances, the Mosaic Covenant is coming to a failed end, God reminds us that his covenant never fails and he promises to make a way. Then he demonstrates his grace and faithfulness yet again: the Mosaic Covenant is fully and beautifully expressed in Jesus, all the threads of His story are drawn together, Christ fulfils the law, and we are redeemed.

How do we respond?

In his interview with Rudolph Boshoff, James Wright answered a huge theological question: How should we interpret the conditional and unconditional covenants in the Bible?

Wright reminded us that God establishes his covenants unilaterally: Abraham didn’t negotiate; he simply believed God—and that’s our obligation too. Our response should be to believe him, trust him, and obey him with a faith that is fueled by our love for him. Paul, too, in his letter to the Galatians, reminds us that we do not have to earn God’s favor; his conditions are always conditions of grace.

God’s pursuit of us

Wright’s reminder that God’s new covenant with us is one of love and grace brought to mind a song that is very close to my heart: Reckless Love by Cory Asbury. The chorus says:

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God;

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the 99.

I couldn’t earn it and I don’t deserve it,

Still, You give yourself away.

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

I can still remember the first time I came across and sang this worship song: I was attending a home church service with a friend, at a time when it had become abundantly clear how God had placed these friends in my life to lead me back into an intentional and close relationship with him. How I praise him for that!

The next time this song crossed my path, I had just found my way to a search and rescue unit that felt like family from day one—a unit I hadn’t even known existed a few months before, made up of like-minded service-orientated rescuers who are all just a little bit crazy and a whole lot adventurous. God had placed me in a community I hadn’t realized I’d needed and one where I never dreamed I’d be a great fit.

And now I’m listening to it again as I sit in a foreign country, having had most of my original plans fall through, but oh-so-much-better ones fill their place. God has provided and is definitely the one closing and opening doors every step of the way.

In each instance, I have felt intimately known, lovingly cared for, dependably led, and faithfully provided for. God has proved over and over that he knows my heart best and that he will never stop pursuing me. That is what Cory Asbury’s song captures and what Wright’s explanation of the new covenant brought to the fore for me.

It is astounding, humbling, and brings peace to consider how God has continued to pursue his people through the ages and will continue to pursue you, too. My prayer is that you take him at his word and embrace the new covenant of love and grace unreservedly and wholeheartedly.