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I commenced to build a covenantal foundation for governance in my last two government articles (part

Foundational to godly order within the institutions of family, church and state is self-governance or self-control. Now what do I mean by self-governance or control? Is a person who is self-governed/controlled autonomous? Are they a law unto themselves or do they decide what ethical framework to operate in? “The word autonomy means self-law, that is, a person makes his or her own laws without any regard for a higher law.”^[2] Is autonomy Scripture’s song? Should man govern any area of individual or societal life in a manner independent of God and His Law-Word? Throughout this series I will present the case that as God’s image we should seek to submit to His ethical mandates in all of faith and life. This relationship or bond between God and us is covenantal in nature. It is both individual and corporate (i.e. societal); it reflects the one and the many of the Godhead. In other words, our relationship with God should be shaped by the structural relationship within the Trinity and how He interacts with His people.

A central thread to history is how God deals with His creation over time. History is not a web of interconnected random events that, when added together, produce certain side effects. Rather, history is the beautiful, flowing song of the Creator conducted according to His will unto His own glory. It is a glorious melody written and directed by the Triune God of the Scriptures. There is order, direction, purpose, beauty and intentionality. One clear note flowing through Scripture is that of the covenantal nature of the relationship between God and His creation. The Trinity has redeemed and is now is re-ordering the world over the course of history through the means of His faithful people. Thus history itself is determined and shaped by the Triune God of the Bible. It is important for us to realise that “God’s way of managing history is by making covenants with His people. There is a succession of such covenants in the Bible, each more glorious than the previous, each absorbing and transfiguring the previous, until finally we come to the New Covenant in Jesus Christ.”^[3] There are two aspects to these covenants: “the activity of covenant making, the sequence of events entailed in brining in a new covenant. The second is the covenant document that summarizes the content of the newly established covenant.”^[4]

This raises a number of important concepts. As these articles are foundations for godly governance across the spectrum of creation it will be important to take a step back and understand that only “God is ethically autonomous. He is a law unto Himself, and His law is righteous and good because He is righteous and good. His law is a reflection of His character.”^[5] God is the sovereign who graciously sets aside His people, giving them His Law to live by and empowering them to re-order their individual and social lives both now and then impacting generations to come. Therefore, “since the law reveals God’s character, its fundamental content can never change. At the same time, God only reveals His law to man in specific forms and circumstances.”^[6] Thus through history the Lord has revealed more about His nature and character to His people via covenants. Each of those covenants (e.g. Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic covenants) found their yes and amen in Christ. Thus we understand all of the covenants in the history of the Bible as part of the one great covenant of grace, differently administered in the various stages of history. All of these covenants pointed to their reality, Jesus the Christ. They pointed forward to His faithful, all conquering, increasing and final administration. These covenants, and thus the people of God, are unified. They build upon each other until the day of the Lord came, when the ultimate, New Covenant was formulated and executed in the blood of Christ. All of the ethical mandates within the covenant are thus gracious in nature. They are given by the Lord of the covenant to direct His people in healthy, good lifestyles. They reveal how the individual, church and nation can bring glory to God. These mandates do not bring new life to people but are the unhewn rocks upon which the covenant people of God build their lives.

I think it may be beneficial for me to define what I mean by covenant. It is a term that I have been using and it can be understood in various shades of grey. Greg Bahnsen highlights that Scripture identifies “the kind of relationship…which existed between God and Adam a ‘covenant.’ We can define ‘covenant’ as a mutually binding compact between God and His people, sovereignly transacted by the Lord, wherein a promise is made by God which calls for trust on the part of His people and entails obligations of submission which are sanctioned by blessings and curses.”^[7] Building on this we can understand the covenant as the means used to identify “the personal, binding, structural relationship among the Persons of God and His people. The covenant, thus, is a social structure. To understand this, we must consider the doctrine of the Trinity. God, according to His Word, is a Person, and He is also three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three Persons have a personal relationship among Themselves: They love each other, and they communicate with each other…[T]he covenant is the personal structural bond among the three Persons of God. The interpersonal relationships among the Persons of the Trinity constitute a covenantal bond which involves Persons and a structure. This bond is simultaneously Personal and corporate. God’s personal relationships with men are therefore also covenantal. When God created man in His image, man was incorporated into this covenant among the three Persons of God. This relationship was not only personal, however; it was also structural…The covenant is a personal-structural bond which joins the three Persons of God in a community of life, and in which man was created to participate…God is no more One than He is Three, and no more Three than One. In the same way, the social life of man is no more important than his individual life, and his individual life is no more important than his social life. The Bible, thus, is concerned both with individual and with social morality. When we say, then, that the Bible is covenantal, one of the things we mean is that the Bible gives the rules for social life, as well as for individual life.”^[8]

For our purposes this working definition of the covenant illustrates that the Law of God reflects His moral character in context of individuality and corporality. In other words, the flow of the covenant is from God (i.e. 1. the sovereign) to us (His people) in order that we might be individually and socially re-structured (i.e. 2. hierarchy) and live lives of sanctified obedience (i.e. 3. ethics) to the revealed Law/Word of God in order to glorify and enjoy Him (i.e. 4. mandates) and continually raise up godly offspring (i.e. 5. continuity). “The law of God is a transcription of His holy character, both individual and social. The law tells us the structure of covenant life, but the law cannot guarantee our personal involvement in that covenant life. It is grace which brings us into personal involvement with the covenant life of God…God’s law is a description of His own moral character. It shows us our sin, and it also shows us how to live righteously within the covenant. It cannot empower us, however. We are dead in trespasses and sins until grace comes to us and gives us new life. Grace not only raises us from the dead, but empowers us day by day. So, law gives us the standard; grace gives us the power. In the covenant, law reveals the structure; grace enables the personal involvement, both social and individual…In summary, the covenant has three aspects. There is a legal bond. There is a personal relationship. There is a structure within the community.”^[9]

Thus the covenant provides people, God’s image, the framework for individual and societal life. This can be seen in two dimensions: 1. through reflecting the relational bonds within the Trinity and 2. living individual and corporate lives of obedience to the law of the covenant. Understanding the outworking of the covenant is foundational to the re-ordering of individuals and societies in a way that glorifies Jesus. People enter the covenant as individuals (i.e. the one) and then become part of the covenant community (i.e. the many). The covenant ethics speak as much to the one as they do to the many. Modern Christians often miss this. Grace (i.e. salvation) brings the individual into covenant with God and then requires the sanctified obedience of that individual in all societal realms he/she is involved in (e.g. family, church, and society). Gary DeMar^[10] highlights the governmental flow within this covenantal model well:

Published in : Worldviews, Ethics

Keywords : Worldviews, Ethics, Godly government, Ethics, God and government, Christian Law, God and politics

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