The Covenant as the Presupposition of Reconciliation
I. Summary
This document synthesizes key theological insights from the provided text, "Covenant Presupposition of Reconciliation," focusing on the foundational concept of the covenant in understanding God's relationship with humanity and the work of reconciliation in Jesus Christ. The central argument is that God's covenant with humanity, established "in and with the creation," is the presupposition for reconciliation. Reconciliation is not a new or provisional act, but the "fulfilment of the covenant between God and man," demonstrating God's inherent faithfulness and consistent will from the very beginning. Jesus Christ is presented as the embodiment and eschatological realization of this covenant, revealing God's "original and basic will" to be "God for us men."
II. Main Themes and Most Important Ideas
1. The Covenant as the Foundation of God's Relationship with Humanity
Definition of Covenant: The text defines "reconciliation" as "the restitution, the resumption of a fellowship which once existed but was then threatened by dissolution." This fellowship is explicitly identified as "the covenant, berith, διαθήκη, is the Old Testament term for the basic relationship between the God of Israel and His people."
Covenant as Original and Pre-existent: A crucial point is that the covenant is not a post-fall response but an "earlier divine decision" and an "original and basic will of God" established "in and with the creation." God "bound Himself to man by the creation of heaven and earth and all things."
God's Non-Neutrality Towards Man: The covenant reveals that God is not "neutrality in relation to man." Instead, He is "disposed towards man in a special way which could not be said of any other creature." This special relationship transcends His general role as Creator and Lord of all things.
"I will be your God and ye shall be my people": This declaration is presented as the core of the covenant, signifying God's self-binding and active interest in humanity: "in willing man God willed to be God for him, with him, in relation to him, acting for him, concerned with him, for his sake." This commitment marks God's "original emergence from any neutrality."
2. Jesus Christ as the Fulfillment and Revelation of the Covenant
Atonement as Covenant Fulfillment: Jesus Christ is described as "the atonement," meaning "He is the maintaining and accomplishing and fulfilling of the divine covenant as executed by God Himself." His work of reconciliation is not a new plan, but the consummation of God's original will.
Eschatological Realization: Jesus is the "eschatological realisation of the will of God for Israel and therefore for the whole race." His coming reveals that the particular covenant with Israel was always intended to encompass "the whole race."
God Incarnate as Covenant Action: In Jesus Christ, "God Himself enters in, and becomes man, a man amongst men, in order that He Himself in this man may carry out His will." This act of incarnation is central to how God's covenant will is actualized and revealed.
Faithfulness and Constancy of God: The work of atonement in Christ is characterized as "an act of faithfulness, of constancy, of self-affirmation on the part of God," demonstrating His unwavering commitment to the covenant even in the face of human sin. It is "the successful continuation of an act which God had already begun, from the very beginning."
3. Sin as an Episode, Not a Disruption of God's Original Will
Sin as an Obstruction to Fulfillment: Sin is acknowledged as "an element which disturbs and disrupts and breaks" the fellowship. However, it is fundamentally understood as an "episode" within the larger narrative of God's covenantal faithfulness.
God's Reaction Along a Pre-Determined Line: God's response to sin in Christ is "the contingent reaction of God in face of this episode." Crucially, this reaction "takes place along the line of that action determined from the very first in the will of God and already initiated."
Covenant Remains Even in Antithesis: God's covenant will "remains His covenant will in this antithesis, conflict and victory." The conflict with sin and its overcoming in Christ only serves to "reveal it for what it is" – an unchanging, primary will.
Transgression Cannot Destroy the Original Purpose: God "cannot tolerate that this covenant should be broken" and "does not permit that that which He willed as Creator—the inner meaning and purpose and basis of the creation—should be perverted or arrested by the transgression of man." He "honours it and finally fulfils it in this conflict."
III. Key Quotes
"Reconciliation is the fulfilment of the covenant between God and man."
"The fellowship which originally existed between God and man, which was then disturbed and jeopardised, the purpose of which is now fulfilled in Jesus Christ and in the work of reconciliation, we describe as the covenant."
"Jesus Christ is the atonement. But that means that He is the maintaining and accomplishing and fulfilling of the divine covenant as executed by God Himself."
"The whole actualisation of the will of God has its source there, in the 'kindness of God toward man' (Tit. 3:4)."
"God the Creator wanted to make and did in fact make Himself the covenant partner of man and man the covenant partner of God."
"It is not something provisional but final that takes place in the atonement accomplished by Him. In Him God Himself enters in, and becomes man, a man amongst men, in order that He Himself in this man may carry out His will."
"He becomes and is man in Jesus Christ...because He has bound Himself to man by the creation of heaven and earth and all things, because He cannot tolerate that this covenant should be broken, because He wills to uphold and fulfil it even though it is broken."
"The work of atonement in Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the communion of Himself with man and of man with Himself which He willed and created at the very first."
"What is revealed in the work of atonement in Jesus Christ, as its presupposition, is that God does not at first occupy a position of neutrality in relation to man."
"What God does to man and for man even as Creator has its origin in the fact that among all the creatures. He has linked and bound and pledged Himself originally to man, choosing and determining and making Himself the God of man."
"I will be your God and ye shall be my people."
"If the final thing is true, that in Him God has become man for us men, then we cannot escape the first thing, that it is the original will of God active already in and with creation that He should be God for us men."
IV. Conclusion
The provided text argues powerfully for the covenant as the fundamental theological category for understanding God's relationship with humanity and the very nature of reconciliation. Far from being a reactive measure to sin, reconciliation in Jesus Christ is the faithful and consistent actualization of God's original, pre-creation will to be "God for us men." This perspective emphasizes God's proactive love, unwavering faithfulness, and the deep, inherent bond He established with humanity from the very beginning, making sin an "episode" that is overcome, rather than a disruption that necessitates a change in God's fundamental disposition or purpose. The Incarnation is thus revealed as the ultimate manifestation of this eternal covenant will.
