As For You
- Quin. A
- Jan 14
- 4 min read
I don't know about you but I love how the Bible shows God entering into covenants with His people. Throughout the scriptures, we see God apparently loves to make legally binding contracts. God loves to make concrete, grand, beautiful promises to His people.
One of the most important and well known covenants God made was with Abraham. God made some amazingly good promises to Abraham in Genesis 17.
“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham .... And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you ... Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan ...” (Genesis 17:4-8 NKJV)
Notice how God said "As for Me"? God was explaining His part of the covenant. Essentially God was saying "This is what I will do" or "This is my part of the deal". But Abraham had his part in the covenant, too.
In order for the covenant to be binding Abraham had to "walk before Me and be blameless." (Genesis 17:1 NKJV). So, Abraham had to walk blameless before God. But he also had to be circumcised.
"And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; (Genesis 17:9-10 NKJV)
So, God said "As for Me", I'll make you great. I'll change your name. I'll increase you. God promised great and wonderful things to Abraham. But Abraham had to keep his part of the deal. "As for Abraham", he had to be blameless before God and be circumcised. These were the binding elements of the contract.
Now, what does this have to do with us? Well, in Colossians 2, Paul mentioned circumcision. The foundation of Christianity is we are promised restoration and peace with God the Father through Jesus Christ despite our sins. If we believe by faith, we are under a New Covenant with God through Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:6). This is a promise, much like the promise God made with Abraham. This is a covenant just like the old Abrahamic Covenant.
However, we are to be circumcised under this New Covenant just like Abraham was circumcised under the Old Covenant. Yet, our circumcision isn't a physical one, but a spiritual one. "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ" (Colossians 2:11 NKJV)
We are to cut off our sinful nature under the grace of this New Covenant. God has done His "As for Me" part of the contract by covering the "requirements" or the "legal indebtedness". (Colossians 2:14). We don't have to be enemies of God anymore because God covered the death penalty (our legal debt) caused by our sins with the blood of Christ.
However, the ball is in our court to keep the "As for you" part of the agreement. First and foremost, faith is part of the contract. Like Abraham first believed God for the promise, we must also believe in Christ as part of the covenant.
But we also have to undergo spiritual circumcision. Some people believe that our faith is the only part of the contract, but if that were so, why would Paul need to mention spiritual circumcision? If faith alone were enough, why did Paul need to write the letters to the churches to live holy? Couldn't they have just lived how they wanted to? As long as they had faith, they were upholding their part of the New Covenant, right?
I write this because it's important to remember that God has never entered a covenant with His people without expectations on our end. Abraham was called to walk blameless before God and to be circumcised. Likewise, we walk blameless before God because we are covered by the blood of Christ but we are also called to circumcise the flesh. Remember the words of Jesus:
"Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. (Luke 9:23 NKJV)
Cutting away our sinful nature or denying ourselves is certainly a part of the "as for you" part of the beautiful promises God has in store for us. If we desire to see a performance of God's promises in our lives, both in this life and the one to come, we must uphold our end of the covenant. And praise God that He is gracious enough to help us uphold our end.
"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV)
God is faithful!
We ought to hit a lil jig just like this baby because you mean to tell me God out here handing out amazing promises and giving us divine help to help us uphold our end of the deal? Show me anybody else who would help you keep your end of a contract? That just doesn't happen ... which further shows how loving and gracious God truly is.
God will help us uphold our end of the New Covenant. God's hands overlap our hands in cutting away the sinful nature. We are not cutting on our own. He's gently guiding the scissors, showing us where to cut with the eternal promise of love and glory on His mind as He does so. God is good, and we are without excuse.
Let's keep our part of the covenant. As for me, I plan to allow God to help me uphold my end of the New Covenant. As for you? What will you do?
Be blessed, reader. May God bless and keep you. Until next time, take care.
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Sincerely,
Quin Arrington