Once we know that the one amazing thing God wants to do with men is “good,” we next need to ask how God accomplishes this good.
The answer is simple. God accomplishes his good in and through men by the use of covenants.
A covenant is a contractual agreement between two parties that stipulates the responsibilities of the parties making the agreement and the benefits to the parties making the agreement.
A mortgage is a covenant between a home buyer and a bank or mortgage company. It stipulates that x number of dollars will be given to the borrower to purchase a home and that it will be paid back at a certain interest rate over a certain number of years. The buyer benefits by having enough money to by a home and the company benefits by receiving a return on its investment.
Other examples of covenants are marriage covenants, work agreements, covenant communities, and the “social contract” individuals have with their government. All of these covenants, agreements, contracts–call them whatever you will–have stipulations for the parties involved to keep and benefits for them to receive
When it comes to men, it can be said that men become valuable to society, to themselves, and to God only when they enter into and keep their covenants. When a man has no covenants with others, or when he breaks his covenants with others, he becomes a thug at best and a brute beast at worst. Like Cain, he wanders in the land of Nod.
There are many examples in the Bible of God making covenants with men. Some of the men God has made covenants with were Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Children of Israel and David.
This fact, that God is a covenant-making God and expects us to enter into a covenant relationship with Him, brings us to the covenant He has made with us as Christian men. It is this covenant that makes the good we do distinctive from all other goods. The reason our good is distinctive is because we are doing it under the express direction of our God while others do their good on their own terms.
To illustrate, suppose you hired a contractor to work on your home, but instead of signing a contract with you he told you that he’s a professional, he knows all about homes and he does good work. You don’t need to tell him what to do, he says, and he doesn’t need to sign a contract with you, he’ll figure things out on his own and finish the work whenever he pleases.
Would you let him work on your home? I’m thinking you wouldn’t. But this autonomous attitude is precisely what people who don’t know God and who don’t have a covenant with Him are doing when they do their good. They are essentially saying, “No one needs to tell me what good needs to be done. I can figure it out myself.” The popular phrase, “Practice random acts of kindness,” is a perfect illustration of this independent and rebellious mentality.
Now back to our illustration of the contractor. Before letting him work on your home, you would insist that he sign a contract, wouldn’t you? It would stipulate exactly what he is to do on your home and how he is to do it. It would list projects, materials, labor costs, a timeline, total costs and some kind of payment schedule. Then and only then would you allow him to work on your home.
It’s the same with God. He only accepts good “under contract,” as it were. God is God and He owns this world. The good we are to do is His good, not ours. We can only do His good when we agree to His terms and follow His instructions.
Period.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
_______________________________________________________________
Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
_______________________________________________________________
