Biblical Perspectives

Biblical Perspectives

In the beginning of this class I had a limited view, by choice, of the Bible. Two weeks before I was to be baptized by grandfather, who was a pastor, passed away. I was fourteen years old. After his death, my mother's side of the family started to fight over every little thing from the flowers at the funeral to my grandfather's clothes. I couldn’t understand why God would do this to my family. After this incident I shut part of my life off to God. I still believed in Him, but I didn't understand why he allowed such suffering. Through this class, I have grown to realize that everything is not God’s fault or His doing. In the following I will describe what I have learned through this class about righteousness, the covenants, and the kingdom of God.

Righteousness

The role of righteousness is hard to define. At dictionary.com, it defined righteousness as morally upright; without sin or guilt. In the Old Testament of the Bible, righteous meant to follow all of God's rules and laws. The rules consist of the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai. The first four commandments deal with the relationship one has with God, and the remaining deal with the relationship we have with one another.

Old Testament law, on the other hand, doesn't apply to Christian’s today because many of the laws were to show the Israelites how the please God. Through the Ten Commandments the Israelites were shown how to worship God, and how to be a different nation. The Ten Commandments are not that hard to follow. Following the Ten Commandments would through total obedience would, in a since, make you righteous. The Ten Commandments still do apply to us today (www.gotquestions.org). Abraham was righteous because he believed in God and God rewarded Abraham by saying he was in fact righteous. As written in Romans 3:22, righteousness comes from God through the faith in Jesus Christ to all those who believe. Righteousness comes from putting your faith in the work of Jesus Christ. We are seen to God as righteous because God now views us though Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, which was righteous. Romans 5:18-19 says even though one man, Adam, made many sinners that through the obedience of one man, Jesus, many will be made righteous. To be righteous is to do what is right, follow the Ten Commandments, ask for forgiveness, and walk in the kingdom of God.

Covenants

A covenant is an agreement between two parties. Two different types of covenants were mentioned and discusses in class. One being conditional or suzerain-vassal, which is an agreement that is binding on both parties for its fulfillment. Both parties agree to fulfill certain conditions and if either party fails to meet the expectation the covenant, it is broken. The conditions agreed upon in the covenant are not obligated to be upheld. The other is unconditional, or a royal grant, meaning only one of the two parties has to do something in order to fulfill the covenant. In class, we discussed four main covenants: the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and the New Covenant.

The Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional covenant between God and Abraham. God promised Abraham that if he left his country God would bless Abraham by stating

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”(Genesis 12:1-3)

So Abraham left his land and set out for the place God wanted him to go. The promise to Abraham that he would have as many descendants as there were stars come together in Genesis 17. God told Abraham, age ninety-nine, that his wife Sarah, age ninety, would bear a son, named Isaac. God will have an everlasting covenant with Isaac and his entire descendants after would come from his line. Also, that Ishmael would be blessed with being the father of twelve rulers. The significance of this covenant is for God to establish a special group of people, the nation of Israel.

The Mosaic covenant is a conditional covenant made between God and the nation Israel at Mount Sinai. This is called the Mosaic Covenant because God told the covenant to Moses, and Moses was God's chosen leader for the Israelites at that time. The covenant is found in Exodus 19 and 20. This covenant consists of the Ten Commandments, and the promise to make Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. At the time of the covenant God reminded the people of their obligation to His law and if they upheld His law the nation of Israel would be His treasured possession (Exodus 19:5). This would set the nation of Israel apart from all other nations. If Israel is