Other Aspects of the Covenant

One thing I’ve been thinking about recently is the fact that being in the covenant isn’t necessarily good news. I feel I’ll need to elaborate on that a bit more - one of the passages that has been in my head is this one:

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.”

Matthew 11:21-22

The reason for woe here is the privilege that these two cities possess. They have seen the work of the Messiah, witness the signs that he points to, and yet have not repented, and because of that their judgement will be worse than that of Tyre and Sidon. For although the cities of Tyre and Sidon may well be ‘worse’, they didn’t get to see God at work in the flesh. In one way of putting it, it’s expected of Tyre and Sidon, they knew no better (although it’s worth noting that this fact doesn’t mean they escape judgement), but for Chorazin and Bethsaida, what were they thinking? They knew better than to reject God, and yet did so anyway and will be judged more harshly because of their knowledge.

The basic point is one that is almost self-evident: To be privileged brings additional responsibility, and although the passage above isn’t explicitly covenantal, there are many places where the same point is made. The biggest example would be the the people of Israel in the Old Testament. The curses for disobedience of Deuteronomy 29 are part of the covenant Israel had with God, and not in spite of it; they would be judged specifically because of their knowledge of God’s law. Another helpful illustration is that of another God instituted covenant relationship: marriage. To quote something I’ve been reading recently:

“The unfaithful man remains a husband – even though he has a slept with Suzy, Sally, Shirley et al. The fact such a man is a husband compounds the guilt; it does not lessen it in any way. If we knew that a man was promiscuous, and then found out he was married, we wouldn’t say, “Well, at least he’s married!” His covenant vows make his sin worse. When a single man sleeps around his sin is great. [...] When a married man is sexually treacherous, his sin is multiplied many times over.”

Doug Wilson, A Primer on Worship and Reformation

The same must be true in the New Covenant. There are those who have entered, through baptism, into a covenantal relationship with God, and then openly rebel and teach falsehood about the God with whom they have a relationship with. They are in the privileged position of hearing God’s word, and yet turning their backs on Him. The temptation of many evangelicals is to label these people as not Christians, but to do so is to let them off the hook. For a non-Christian to deny the deity of Christ is sinful, but understandable, but for a covenant member to say the same thing is to place themselves in far greater condemnation. To people who profess the name of Christian but live in disregard to God, the covenant is no place of blessing, but will stand in judgement against them. And so there must be an urgency in trying to win our brothers over, by having a view of them both as brothers within the same covenant and as those facing judgement because of their evil, and we will do so by acknowledging the issue as one of church discipline rather than the more external one as it is presently currently conceived.