Covenants vs Contracts

Contracts

- Are made in suspicion - Limits one's responsibility - Exchanges goods - Forms business bonds - When broken, the relationship is broken - Is legally enforceable and breakable - Prompts one to obey

Covenants

- Are made with trust and grounded on promises - open ended/unlimited responsibility - exchanges people - forms kinship bonds - When broken, persons are broken - Is not legally enforceable and breakable - prompts one to love

What is the purpose of covenants presented by scripture? What is God doing in making the covenants we find in the Bible?

- He is forging sacred kinship bonds. He is saying to His people, "I will be their God and they shall be My people...I will be a Father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to Me" (see 2 Corinthians 6:16). - By His covenants, God is taking the "creatures" He made and raising them to the status of divine offspring, divine children. By His covenants, the Creator is fathering a family. The human race is being transformed from something physical and natural into something spiritual and supernatural. Humans are being changed from merely a species sharing common traits and characteristics into a divine brotherhood and sisterhood, a family of God. The story line and the drama of the Bible all plays out against this backdrop of divine family-making.

Key differences

First, contracts involve promises whereas covenants involve oaths. The second big difference between contracts and covenants is this: contracts exchange property whereas covenants exchange persons. c. Covenants are generally not legally enforceable, contracts are. d. Covenants break the person or persons(s) when they are broken; contracts break the law, a legal agreement or legal relationship when broken.

Keys to remember:

God offers us a covenant, not a contract, regarding our salvation: Note: the OT and NT or Old Covenant and the New Covenant In contemporary society, many live contractually in relationships that, according to scripture, should be lived in the form of a covenant: marriages, parent-child, some vocations (teaching, policing, politics and preaching) In contemporary society, many reject the Catholic belief that one is morally obligated and has a duty to live out certain relationships in the form of a covenant (marriages, parenting, etc.). Nowadays, many believe that one has the right to choose whether or not they will or will not live in specific a human relationship in a covenant or contractual manner (marriages, parenting with legal abortion, brothers and sisters, police officers, etc.).

Note how God expands the covenants in scripture:

from man and wife, to family, to extended family, to the clan, to the tribe, to the nation and finally to all people through Jesus Christ.