Dr. Scott Swain explains how God’s covenant promise unfolds throughout Scripture and finds its fulfillment in Christ.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
How do we correctly confess our sins?
The Covenant of Grace actually serves a number of different purposes. In the covenant, God reveals his name to his people. He reveals his promises and reveals his will for his people as well. The Covenant of Grace also provides a framework for our understanding of the gospel. Jesus Christ not only fulfills all of God’s covenant promises but is the mediator of God’s covenant blessings as well. But the ultimate purpose of the covenant of grace is fellowship between the Triune God and His people. We see this in a number of different ways. First, we see it in the central promise of the covenant, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” This promise is repeated across every single administration of the Covenant of Grace. In Genesis 17, God promises to Abraham, “I will be a God to your offspring.” Leviticus 26:12, in the context of the Mosaic Covenant, the Lord says, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.” In the Davidic Covenant, this promise takes on a familial tone where God promises to be a father to David and David’s sons, and that David’s sons will be a son to God. Jesus came not only to give himself for us; he came to give himself to us as our bridegroom and to take us as his bride.Then, in the New Covenant, God promises to renew this covenant bond. The thing that drives the point home is that in Revelation 21, when God brings to fulfillment his entire work of creation two times, he repeats this promise, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” He says this is the heritage of the redeemed. But the second way we also see the ultimate purpose of the Covenant of Grace is in the imagery that Scripture uses to describe the covenant bond between God and his people. In Ezekiel 16, God describes the entire history of the covenant relationship with Israel as a marriage relationship. He says that he found Israel when she was left alone, and he married her and beautified her. But in spite of all of God’s blessings, Israel was unfaithful to the Lord. The language that Ezekiel uses is that Israel failed to remember her Lord, and she failed to remember her covenant promises. But the great conclusion of that chapter is when the Lord says, “Though you have forgotten, I will remember, and I will remarry you.” And of course, this is what Jesus came to do in the gospel, to fulfill that promise. Jesus came not only to give himself for our sins and through his death, to ratify and guarantee all the promises of the Covenant of Grace. He came not only to give himself for us; he came to give himself to us as our bridegroom and to take us as his bride. And so it’s in and through Christ that the ultimate purpose of the covenant of grace is fulfilled, and it’s in and through Christ that we can use the language of the Song of Songs. I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine.
