What Type of Relationship?

The blog post examines the popular evangelical saying, “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship,” which aims to emphasize a personal, transformative connection with Jesus over rigid rituals. While the phrase captures the intimate, grace-filled dynamic of faith, it falters by dismissing Christianity’s religious elements—sacred texts, doctrines, and rituals like baptism and communion. The post argues that Christianity is both a religion and a relationship, best understood through the lens of covenant: a sacred, binding agreement between God and His people that fosters both personal intimacy and communal purpose. Overemphasizing “relationship” risks shrinking this covenant into a solo experience, sidelining the broader, collective reality of God’s plan. The post proposes reframing the saying to reflect Christianity as a covenant relationship, balancing its personal and communal dimensions for a fuller picture of faith.

Read What Type of Relationship?

More than a Personal Relationship

God deals with people through the use of covenants. 

Carl Ketcherside in his book The Death of the Custodian wrote:

The fact is that God has chosen to relate to man on the basis of covenants. He is a covenant-making God. No one who ignores this fact will ever grasp God’s plan and purpose in any age. (p. 15)

I want to throw this idea out to you: We have a covenant relationship with God and not just a personal relationship with God. 

 

Yes, I understand that marriage is a covenant relationship, and you can't get a more personal relationship than marriage. 

Just like marriage, the covenant God established with us through Jesus creates a personal relationship. At the same time it sets apart a covenant people for Him. 

 

1 Peter 2:9 reminds us:

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light (NLT).

Christians are a chosen people, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. 

We have a personal relationship with God, but that personal relationship is lived out in the context of community. We are in this together. Which means we have a responsibility to and for each other. None of us should try to walk the journey of faith alone. It is crucial that we help each other as much as possible because our lives are linked through Jesus.

I bring this up because I think our focus on a “personal” relationship with God sidetracks us from what God has really called us to be—a covenant people. 

Leon Morris in The Atonement wrote:

It mattered intensely to Old Testament Israel that the nation was in covenant relationship with the one and only God. All its thinking and living revolved around this fact. (p. 22)

Israel is not a great example of covenant faithfulness, but I still wonder what the church would be like if our thinking and living revolved around the reality that we are in a covenant relationship with God. 

Knowing that we are in a covenant relationship with God, that extends beyond our personal relationship with Him, leads us to consider other people. We become responsible for helping, encouraging, forgiving, and teaching one another, because that is God expectation for His people.

Galatians 6:1-3 (NLT):

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Let this be the description of our lives as we live in a covenant relationship with God that is both personal and communal. 

Daily Thought: Accepting God's Covenant

God has chosen to relate to mankind on the basis of covenants. All of God's covenants with man have been designed to achieve the good of humanity. God has revealed himself as a covenant-making God. He has entered into agreements based upon His perfect character. He has placed himself on record by making immutable promises. The fact that one covenant supersedes another is not attributable to fickleness or caprice, but to the changing condition of the world of mankind. Our relationship to God must be a covenantal one. We must enter such an agreement freely as the party of the second part. It is a profound truth that the infinite Creator respects the sovereignty of the human will, to the extent that the created may reject the Creator. Finite man may refuse the hand that made him, but he cannot refuse the consequences that follow.

Ketcherside, W. Carl (2010-08-05). The Death of the Custodian (Kindle Locations 125-130). SCM e-Prints. Kindle Edition.

Video: How do we know which Old Testament rules still apply?

Daily Thought: We Belong to God

The new covenant is individual in nature. It is secure in the inner being, that is, in the heart of the faithful person. One does not belong God because he belongs to a covenant people. He belongs to the covenant people because he belongs to God. He does not arrive at a covenantal status by subscribing to a code, but by surrender to the Christ. God is the God of those who have bared the walls of their hearts to the inscription written by the finger of God. Those who have covenanted with Him are His people. Any person upon this earth who has entered into the covenantal relationship with God is a child of God, and that covenant pledges his allegiance to God. So long as life continues he must have no other gods.

Ketcherside, W. Carl (2010-08-05). The Death of the Custodian (Kindle Locations 648-653). SCM e-Prints. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: God's Covenant is What Matters

"If God deals with us as a covenant-making God, and men confuse the covenant with writings addressed to the covenant people, our relationship is not conditioned upon faith but upon our intellectual apprehension of abstract matters."

Ketcherside, W. Carl (2010-08-05). The Death of the Custodian (Kindle Locations 538-540). SCM e-Prints. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: God's Covenant is our Hope

"It is easy to develop a pharisaical attitude about the New Covenant Scriptures as about the Old. If we condition our relationship with God on the basis of knowing a compilation of sacred writings, rather than faith in Jesus, we actually make the Bible our God. As a result, we become inconsistent and insecure. Every interpretation, exegesis, or opinion that disagrees with our own is considered treason. Our problem is that we make the basis of our hope an agreement with men, not a covenant with God. One may be wrong about many things who is in a covenant relationship, but the covenant is not broken by his error. God's covenants are made with a variety of men. They do not all think alike, nor can they all do so."

Ketcherside, W. Carl (2010-08-05). The Death of the Custodian (Kindle Locations 513-518). SCM e-Prints. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: An Act of Divine Grace

"God's covenants with man are always acts of divine grace. They stem from the fact that God is love, and it is the nature of this love to be ever active and outgoing toward its object. There is no obligation owed to sinful man to compel the Creator to continue to act toward him in such a manner as to promote his welfare. The covenants of God grow out of the nature of God, and not out of the nature of man." ~ Ketcherside, W. Carl, The Death of the Custodian (Kindle Locations 115-117), SCM e-Prints. Kindle Edition.

Covenants are Important

As one studies the Bible one word that is easily overlooked is the word covenant.  Since we live in a society that is not based on covenants (rather we live in a world based on contracts) it can be difficult to understand exactly what a covenant is.  The man who taught me about the importance of covenants, Chuck McCoy (one of my professors in college), writes this about covenants; "In the ancient Middle East and Biblical world, a 'covenant' was a solemn, blood-sealed agreement between parties that both establishes and regulates a relationship between them and is made binding by an oath."
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One of the very important implications of the covenants we discover in the Bible is that God (YHWH) is different from the gods of the pagans.  People imagined these gods to be fickle, cruel, mean, and unreliable.  They could not be trusted, for they were really nothing  more than super humans using people as pawns in their sadistic games.  YHWH, the covenant making God of the Bible, is different.  He can be trusted and He has a desire for people to succeed.  Think about that reality for a moment.  When we have a covenant relationship with God He has a great desire for us to succeed!  We don't have to be fearful that God is looking for a reason to punish us, rather we can go boldly go to our Father in Heaven and ask for the wisdom, the strength, and the support we need to live the life He created us to live.  Ultimately knowing that we are in a covenant relationship with God means we can trust God to help along the way.
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Another very important implication of covenants is that in them we discover the expectations God has for people.  In other words we discover what it looks like to be faithful.  To be faithful doesn't mean that I will continue to have a belief that God exists, but rather that I remain true to who God is.  My marriage is based, not on the fact I believe my wife exists, but my love, loyalty, and service to her.  To be in a covenant relationship with God means that He has clearly explained, in the terms of the covenant, what is looks like to be faithful to Him.  We don't have to guess what we have to do.
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A third important implication of covenants, and especially in being in a covenant relationship with God, is that we can be secure and confident in that relationship. A covenant relationship reaffirms that our salvation is not based on what we do, but is based on God lovingkindness.  He is the one that took the initiative to save us, and He has promised to help us along the way.
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Covenants are not incidental to our theology, but they are at the very foundation of it.  Yes we have a personal relationship with God, but that personal relationship is based on covenant.  I think the more we understand about covenants, especially the New Covenant God established through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the more confident and hopeful we will be in our relationship with Him.

Entering into a Covenant Relationship

"All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant." ~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, p. 341

On Sunday as worship was beginning I was asked if I would read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 before Communion.  I agreed to do read, but I also decided to take the opportunity to talk about Communion as Covenant Renewal.  Afterwards, including last night at small group, I was not only thanked for my words, but was also told, "I had never heard that about communion."

I think we have tended to overlook Covenant when it comes to our relationship with God. This means that we have talked about "getting saved" or "having a personal relationship with God," but have missed out on why we can be secure in those things.  Our security comes from the commitment that is founded on God's New Covenant that was ushered in through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So if the security of our salvation as well as the promises and blessings that God has for us is found in a Covenantal relationship, then it is very important for us to ask: "How do I enter into a covenant relationship with God?"  The fact that many people haven't heard that communion is a time of covenant relationship renewal means that many people have never heard how to enter into a covenant relationship with God.

Some time in the next week I want to write a post devoted to Covenant, but right now I want to throw out that it is through baptism that we enter into a Covenant Relationship.  I will make the case for this later on, but for now I want to point out two very important passages.

The first is Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (ESV).

Regardless of your feelings on baptism we discover that according to Jesus baptism is part of the disciple making process.  Jesus establishes baptism as the moment when people are set apart from the world in order that they may follow Jesus.

The second is Romans 6:1-4:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (ESV).

According to the apostle Paul it is through baptism that we are united with Jesus.  It is the moment that we declare ourselves dead to sin and to the patterns of this world and discover that we now possess the life of Christ in our lives.

What I would invite you to do is to take some time and look at all the references to baptism in the New Testament, read the context of the passages, and identify the things of which baptism is a part.  Things like being set apart as a disciple and being united with Christ.  Perhaps that will lay the foundation of why I say that baptism is the way in which we enter into this great Covenant God has established with humankind.

To go along with my initial thoughts on baptism here is an essay by Greg Boyd that further explains my views on baptism: The Case for Believer's Baptism.

Understanding Biblical Covenants | Chuck McCoy

One of the many blessings I received by attending Nebraska Christian College was to have Chuck McCoy as one of my professor.  Mr. McCoy emphasized with to us the idea of covenants.  When we look at the Bible as a whole one of the ideas or themes that run through the entire book is covenant.  What sets the God of the Bible apart from all other gods is that He is the Creator and He is the Covenant Maker.

To begin with, understanding the Bible requires that we recognize that the God of the Bible (YHWH) is not what the Greeks and pagan imagined - whimsical, mysterious magnified humans who ride roughshod over people’s lives, operate in the shadows,  and hide their will from mankind!  The gods of Greco-Roman paganism were thought of in terms of “power” rather than principle.  On the other hand, the Hebrews were dealing with the God who presented Himself as a faithful covenant maker/keeper, who reveals His will to mankind and then, being holy Himself, He holds His people accountable for their actions.

I believe that as we read the Bible and think about God through the lens of covenant the better we will understand who God is and what He is doing in the world.

Understanding Biblical Covenants | Chuck McCoy

Saturday Link: Understanding Biblical Covenants

One reason, I believe, we have so much confusion and disagreement in the Church about theology and doctrine is a lack of understanding about covenants. Our God has chosen to relate to us through covenants, and the Bible reveals Him to be a covenant-maker and a covenant-keeper, so it would be good for us to understand what covenants are and the part they played in the Bible.

My Basic Bible Doctrine professor from college, Mr. McCoy has written about this. He points out one of the dangers of failing to understand covenants:

Every term/promise/command/blessing-curse is limited to the Covenant of which it was a part. The three are a unit and stand/fall together (Hebrews 7:12). When a covenant ends, like writing a new "last will and testament," it all ends and any "new" covenant will define its own parties, terms, promises and curses, and form of oath-swearing! Mixing and matching elements from different covenants has created a great deal of confusion. Many in our time want to claim for themselves OT material promises and NT forgiveness while ignoring the distinct definitions and limitations of parties and oath-swearing! A good deal of the theological confusion that exists in Christendom arises from confusion over how to handle the Biblical covenants.

If you have time I would encourage you to read what Mr. McCoy wrote, Understanding Biblical Covenants, and think about how it applies to how we relate to God.

Gnostic Teaching

Today as I began to study for the first sermon in the new series I am preaching (Listen: What Christ Wants The Church to Know, Revelation 1-3) I read this:

“Thus, John has not diluted the communal and covenantal aspects of the Exodus typology found in the prophetic writings. No doubt he is keen to emphasize this more corporate aspect of God’s love to counter early gnostic teaching, which viewed the effects of God’s salvation in individualistic and interior ways.” (New International Biblical Commentary: Revelation, Robert Wall, p. 59)

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t much of what we teach today about salvation individualistic and deals with matters of the heart and experience? Just this morning as I drove back from the nursing home I heard Charles Stanley talk about accepting Jesus as “you personal Lord and Savior.”

I realize that there is a personal component to salvation and that salvation is about receiving a new heart, but I think in order to appeal to the individual we have emphasized the personal aspect and ignored the covenant and corporate responsibilities. Following Jesus isn’t just about my “relationship” with Jesus, but also how I relate to other Christians in the context of the Church. So I am wondering: have we allowed gnostic teaching into the Church?

Covenant Theology

Ben Witherington (one of the scholars Lee Strobel interviewed in The Case for Christ, chapter 7 "Was Jesus Really Convinced That He Was The Son of God?") has written a post about covenants and the part they play in studying theology. I really appreciated the post for two reasons. The first reason is because I have long held the view that understanding covenants provides us with a better perspective on our relationship with God. The second reason is because the post helped me make sense out of a couple of questions I have been dealing with. The major one was: How can one man's death take care the sins of two people let alone thousands of people? I think viewing Christ's death in terms of covenant provides the best answer to this question. So I hope you will go and read Dr. Witherington's thoughts on covenants: Cutting a Covenant; and When Covenant People can't Cut It.

A Covenant Relationship

God deals with people through the use of covenants. Carl Ketcherside in his book The Death of the Custodian wrote:

The fact is that God has chosen to relate to man on the basis of covenants. He is a covenant-making God. No one who ignores this fact will ever grasp God’s plan and purpose in any age (page 15).

I want to throw this idea out to you: We have a covenant relationship with God and not just a personal relationship with God. Yes, I understand we view marriage as a covenant relationship and that relationship is also a personal relationship, but God’s covenant is not just for an individual person, but it is for a people. 1 Peter 2:9 reminds us:

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light (NLT).

This means we are in this together. We have a responsibility to and for each other. None of us should try to walk the journey of faith alone. It is important that we help each other as much as possible because our lives are linked (whether we like it or not).

I bring this up because I think our focus on a “personal” relationship with God sidetracks us from what God has really called us to be—a covenant people. Leon Morris in The Atonement wrote:

It mattered intensely to Old Testament Israel that the nation was in covenant relationship with the one and only God. All its thinking and living revolved around this fact (pg. 22).

Sure Israel is not a great example of covenant faithfulness, but I still have to wonder what the church would be like if our thinking and living revolved around the reality that we are in a covenant relationship with God. Should this reality (being in a covenant relationship with God) change our thinking and the way we “do church”?

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