Christofferson, the Covenant Path

Obedience can be good.  Independence can be good.  But there is a tension between them.

They both have bad versions–unthinking conformity, prideful rebellion–and it should interest you that Satan appears to aim for both.  The conformist rebel is one of the defining archetypes of our age.

Covenants reconcile the tension between obedience and independence.

Covenant comes from the old latin word convenire, to meet or to join. The covenant path is the path of the meeting of minds.  It is the path of union.

In a covenant you and the Father commit to shared goals and you promise to follow them, but He gives you a great deal of flexibility how.  Independence within a framework of obedience.

A covenant is a voluntary agreement to obey based on the conclusion that your most important aims will be furthered that way.  Independence leading to obedience.

In the covenant God grants you more power and role.  Obedience leading to independence.

Taken by themselves, independence and obedience are both approaching life through the prism of will and power.  Covenants take us to the prism of relationship and love.  Covenants are about belonging.

 For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.