3. The Importance of the Covenant
William Bridge
Fifthly, suppose I am in covenant with the Lord, or suppose I am not. Someone may ask, If I am not, is there any great hurt? Suppose I am, is there any great good? Much every way; allow me to give you a little taste of it.
If you are not in covenant with God, how can you expect any blessing, mercy, or deliverance from God? Do but look into the Scriptures and you shall find that all blessings, mercies and deliverances come to the people of God by virtue of the covenant and according to the covenant. Will you instance outward deliverances? The world is not drowned again. Why, but because of the covenant? Will you instance spiritual deliverances? The Psalmist says, “He hath remembered His covenant”. He makes redemption effectual by remembering the covenant. Or will you instance both together? See what is said in Zechariah 9:11: “As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water”. It includes both outward and spiritual deliverances; so that if you are not now in covenant with God, what deliverance can you expect, or what mercy, seeing they all come by virtue of, and according to, the covenant.
But on the other hand, if you are in covenant with the Lord, then are you exalted and honoured – greatly honoured. For if it is an honour to be in a league with a great prince, what an honour it is to be in covenant with the great God! When God spoke to Abraham of striking a covenant with him, he fell down on his face, as if he should say, Who am I that the great God should be in covenant with me?
Again, if God is in covenant with you, whatever excellence there is in God, that is made over to you for your use. And as that king said to him that was in a league with him, My horse is yours, and my men are yours, and my money is yours; so when God enters into a covenant with a poor soul, He says, My wisdom is yours My power is yours, and My love and mercy are
1Taken with editing from a sermon on “And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Heb 12:24) and entitled, “Christ and the Covenant”. It comes from The Works of William Bridge, vol 3. Last month’s article answered the question, “With whom does God make a covenant?”.
yours; whatever excellence there is in God is made over to you, being in covenant with Him.
And if you are in covenant with the Lord, all His retinue, His creatures and His servants are also in covenant with you: “It shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord. I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel” (Hos 2:21,22). Why? “I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgement, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. . . . And it shall come to pass . . . I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth” (Hos 2:19,21). So if you are in covenant with God, then all His retinue, all His creatures and all His servants are in covenant with you too.
And if you are in covenant with the Lord, then He is in covenant with you, both your soul and your body – not only with your soul but also with your body – with your whole man. Therefore if you die, the covenant is not dissolved between God and you. The covenant may be dissolved between a man and his wife at death, but this covenant can never be dissolved. Though you sin and break with God, God will not break with you. He says, I hate putting away.
Then you may go to God as on a throne of grace, and look on God as sitting in a rainbow. What a mercy, what a blessing it is to be in covenant with the Lord!