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The Easter Weekend is, in many places, one of those few moments when it is safe to shut down the laptop, to turn off the emails, and to put the mobile ‘phone out of reach. It is a moment when we may get an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our work and of our lives. Easter is an invitation to see our work and our lives in the context of three realities: of the world as God’s good creation, of redemption won at the cost of Christ’s death on Good Friday, and of the new creation inaugurated and guaranteed by Christ’s resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday. The indissoluble link between those three events is affirmed by Revelation 13:8, which describes Jesus as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
The astonishing secret at the heart of the world is that, from the creation of the world, God’s plan all along had been to rescue creation, even though the cost of doing so would be unimaginable pain absorbed in o the heart of God.
The audacious, extraordinary, and expansive nature of God’s plan can be seen when we trace the theme of covenant through the Bible, a composite library of books, with human authors ranging over a period of more than one thousand years. The biblical idea of covenant (berit in the Hebrew) draws on two analogies to God’s actions towards God’s covenant partner to two things: the attitude of a husband toward their wife and the attitude of an overlord toward their loyal vassal. The essence of a covenant is loyalty, enduring faithfulness, the kind of long-lasting, wholehearted commitment that a husband and wife commit to when they covenant to stay together “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part”.
Although the word ‘covenant’ is not used in Genesis chapter 1, it is implicit in Genesis 1:26-29 that God promised human beings, when he made us, that we would have dominion over the earth and that we would be able to enjoy its plants as food. Humankind as a species was commanded to be fruitful and multiply and to exercise dominion (best understood as loving, supportive care bringing creation to its full potential).
Genesis chapter 3 describes how quickly humanity defaulted on its covenant obligations. The Flood is a moment of genuine peril, in which God would have been fully justified in wiping out humanity from the face of the earth because of the evil we committed (Genesis 6:5-7). The salvation of Noah is an act of divine grace (Genesis 6:8) that culminates in God renewing God’s covenant promises “with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature … on earth” (Genesis 9:8). The covenants with Adam and Eve and with Noah show the extent of God’s commitment to creation. God has been committed, from the beginning, to nothing less than the restoration, renewal, and transformation of creation.
After God’s covenants with Adam and Eve and with Noah, representatives of all humankind and responsible actors on behalf of all creation, the next divine covenant is with Abraham. Abraham is called in Romans 4 and in Galatians 3:7 the father of those who have faith. The covenant God makes with Abraham is a covenant God makes with Abraham as the representative of God’s people (Genesis 12:18; 17:7). God promises Abraham and his descendants a relationship with God and a homeland.
After Abraham, and his immediate descendants Isaac and Jacob, the next covenant God makes with Moses. The covenant with Moses is, in Exodus 19:3-6, a covenant in which God calls the people of Israel to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Moses’s inauguration of the priesthood is balanced by God’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7:16. King David is promised by God that his house and his kingdom will be established for ever.
The covenants in the Old Testament are like concentric circles, like the circles on a dartboard. God’s covenant purposes extend to all creation, but they focus in on a people who will be a kingdom of priests, and within that on the royal line of David. In the face of human incorrigibility, God’s faithfulness expresses itself in a series of covenant promises that create a sense of longing and hope to see them fulfilled.
The events of the Incarnation: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, are the moments at the heart of history; this is the time when the fulfilment of each of the Old Testament covenants is proclaimed.
The whole of creation and history is at stake in the moments of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, as God’s purposes for every individual human being, for the nations, for the world, and for the universe is concentrated on the cross and the tomb.
The revelation of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning is the start of an explosion. Just as God’s covenant promises had become focussed to a point, so now the movement is in the opposite direction, outwards from a single man to a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a renewed creation.
The full manifestation of the truth of these new covenant promises, the revelation of the sons and daughters of God, will release creation as a whole from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:19-21). Then, in a renewed heaven and a renewed earth, God will dwell in the midst of God’s people and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:1-4).
A besetting sin of lawyers is the sin of responding to any given set of facts with the automatic question: what should I do? This Easter weekend, take a moment to smell the roses (and if it is your taste in music to listen to Michael W. Smith’s Above All) and to rejoice, gratuitously, in the wonder that God’s covenant promises were accomplished on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and that God’s new covenant promises include not only the salvation of us as individuals but extend far beyond that to the establishment of a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a renewed heaven and earth full of justice, harmony, love, and shalom (2 Peter 3:13).
You’ll receive a monthly email with new resources, updates, event information and other curated content to help you live a life where the faith you profess and the law you practise are integrally connected. (Do note: We too hate spam and take your privacy extremely seriously. Please see our Privacy Policy to understand how we use and protect your data).
