Word of Salvation – Vol. 29 No. 45 – December 1984

 

Our Covenant Keeper

 

Sermon by Rev. W.J. Van Schie, v.d.m. on Luke 2:21 & Gal.4:4

Scripture lesson: Luke 2:21-52

Suggested Hymns: 336; 361; 419; 441: 1,2; BoW 805:1,2,3

 

Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ,

In the Christmas period we celebrated the great event of “God coming to us and being one of us”.  Christ was born in a stable because there was “no room” for Him.  This beginning of: “no room” was the start of a whole life of “no room” and would end with even no room for him with the Father on Calvary.  Why?  Because Jesus, our representative took our refusal to make room for God, our rejection of the Son of God upon Himself.

Now as we continue to look at Jesus life we note that He continues to live as our representative.  Living a life of obedience where we so often fail.  We can even see this in what happens to Jesus as a little baby, soon after his birth.  We read in our text that Jesus was “circumcised according to the Law”.

I.  THE COVENANT LAW.

Let us first take our Bibles and read about the institution of circumcision in Genesis 17:7-14.  As you can see in this passage we read that God makes a covenant with Abraham and his descendants.  God says that He will be their God and that they will be His people.  God makes a contract of allegiance with His people.  The old situation where there was not this special relationship is gone and a new situation of a special relationship has come.

To symbolise this new relationship God instituted the rite of circumcision.  As the foreskin was cut away and there was spilling of blood in this operation, so God symbolised His relationship with these people.  The old human nature was cut away, the old sinful person who lived in rebellion with God was cut away and through a sacrifice, the spilling of blood, the old person was cleansed and the new man now existed in relationship with God.

So every Jewish boy when he was eight days old, because he was born into this community that had a covenant relationship with God, also had to be circumcised.  Being born into that community meant that he too was part of that covenant and that meant that he too had to receive the sign of circumcision.  For him too the old sinful nature was cut away and through the blood sacrifice he, as a new man, belonged to that covenant relationship with God.

So when Jesus was eight days old He was taken by his mother Mary most likely to the synagogue in Bethlehem to be circumcised.  Mary being a devout mother wanted to do the right thing.  Her first-born child (as all her children would be) was a member of the covenant.  So she saw it as her duty to take Jesus to be circumcised.

So Jesus also entered the covenant.  God was his God and Father and Jesus has a relationship with Him.  Therefore Jesus also received the sign of the covenant.  Symbolically the old sinful nature was cut away.  Through the blood sacrifice the symbolically cleansed boy entered a new relationship with God.  All children being born in sin and born into the covenant were to be circumcised and therefore Jesus also was circumcised.

II.  JESUS UNDER COVENANT LAW

But, hey wait a minute!  Is this right?  Wasn’t Jesus sinLESS?  Wasn’t He born without sin?  Jesus didn’t need to have sins forgiven did He?  He didn’t need to be cleansed at all!  He didn’t need to be circumcised, did he?  He didn’t have to go through that ritual that symbolised the cutting away of the old sinful man; he didn’t have an old sinful nature!

Did Mary and Joseph forget that their child was special?  That their child was also the Son of God?  Did they forget the angel’s word that this child would be “holy”?  Did Mary and Joseph, out of custom and social pressure, just go along with the rituals and make a grave mistake?  No, there was no mistake.

It is true that Jesus was sinless; that He was born without sin.  It is true that Jesus was already THE Son of God and didn’t need to be brought into a covenant relationship with God.  It is true that personally He did not need to be circumcised.  For Him personally the whole ceremony was unnecessary.

Yet God required that this be done.  Somehow Mary and Joseph understood that they should let Jesus be circumcised.  It was very clear to Mary and Joseph that they were doing the right thing.  Jesus was not only the Son of God, He was also the SON OF MAN.  The man who represented all men.  So as a man he had to place Himself under the Law that God had given to His people.  He was not only a Law-Giver as the Son.  He was also the law-keeper as a man.  As man’s representative He had to experience obedience also to this law.

So Jesus, man’s representative entered the covenant.  As any other Jewish boy entered the covenant, He entered the covenant.  Because He was born into a covenant family he as an “ordinary” human being also entered the covenant.  And so He was circumcised.  As the law required of all Jewish boys so it now required of Jesus: ” you must be circumcised.”

He was not circumcised because He himself needed it.  No, the sinless one did not need it.  He was circumcised because He, as man’s representative, wished to identify with His people.  They were under this law so He also placed himself under this law.  He identified with them.  Well we may ask, why?  Why did Jesus have to identify to such an extent with his people?  It doesn’t seem to make sense.

Well, to understand why, to understand the sense of it, let us take our Bibles and read Galatians 4:4-5.

This passage basically tells us that God sent His Son to be born of a woman, born with a human nature, to submit himself under the Law.  He lived a life of obedience under the law for those other humans who lived under the Law and failed.  In the end the perfect law-keeper could pass on His benefits of obedience to those who had failed.

Congregation, we see ourselves as members of the covenant don’t we?  We are in a relationship with God.  He is our God and we are His people.  But, if you look at the conditions of the covenant then it has been broken, it is null and void!  It has been broken by every one of us.

To be able to have a covenant relationship with God we have to fulfil all the conditions of that relationship.  We should be perfect.  We should live lives of perfect obedience to His will.  We should be willing to do His will.  We should worship Him with reverence and awe without a flaw.  We should relate to Him without any selfishness, with total sincerity and truth.

Who of us can say that we have kept the covenant?  Who of us can say that we have lived obediently with perfect obedience?  That we have always worshipped with reverence and sincerity?  Who of us can say that we have always been His willing people?  If we are honest we must confess, none of us!  We are all covenant breakers.  By our lives, by our thoughts and words we have broken time and time again that covenant relationship.  Constantly we disappoint God in our relationship with Him.

You know what this means?  We deserve to be cut off from Him.  Cut off from the living God.  Cut off from having any relationship with Him, because we are such miserable failures, such miserable covenant breakers.

But, and this is the beauty of the gospel, the good news that comes to us through our text today is: JESUS COMES AND ENTERS OUR COVENANT AND KEEPS IT FOR US!  Jesus becomes a member of the covenant, submits Himself to the Law of the covenant and is circumcised.  As a baby already He is taking our place; representing us.

He grows up within that covenant relationship and he keeps it PERFECTLY.  He lives as a child in perfect obedience to God.  He willingly does the Father’s will every day.  He worships with awe and reverence and total sincerity.  He succeeds perfectly where we fail so miserably each day.  And the beauty of the Gospel is: He does it for us.

His obedience covers our disobedience.  His reverence covers our irreverence.  His willingness covers our unwillingness.  He, as THE covenant keeper, keeps the covenant where we can’t.  He as our representative does it for us before God and God accepts His covenant keeping as if it is our covenant keeping.  Through Christ we are perfect covenant keepers.

Look at Jesus being circumcised.  Look at Him as a covenant member entering the full obligations of the covenant.  Not for Himself; He, the sinless Son, didn’t need it.  No, He entered the full obligations of the covenant and kept the covenant perfectly, for His people.  So you and I can say, “In Christ, I am a perfect covenant keeper.”

APPLICATION

Parents, this means a lot to you.  As covenant parents we make so many mistakes.  Even our children know some of the mistakes we make.  As covenant keepers on behalf of our children we are such miserable failures.  If our children’s salvation depended on our efforts as Christian parents they would all be destined to perish, and we could as well give up.

So thank God that Jesus was circumcised!  Thank God that Jesus entered the covenant and kept the covenant where we as parents so often fail.  Thank God that His perfection covers our failures.  Thank God that His perfect grace enables us to go on training our children within the covenant.  Knowing that Christ kept the covenant for us means that we as parents do not need to despair.  We may be encouraged to go on because we go on with the confidence of Christ’s perfect covenant keeping.

And children, this means a lot to you too.  Do you sometimes wonder if you really are a child of God?  My little boy the other day said, “Dad, I have so much sin inside me I wonder if God wants me as his child.”  Do you ever feel like that?

And teenagers, do you ever wonder if you will ever have a steady faith?   ‘Wonder if you can ever reach the stability of some of the more mature Christians in the Church?  When time and time again those old doubts come back and hassle you?  When time and time again you say you are sorry for your sins and the very next day you commit the very same sins again, and you hate that insincerity in yourself, and you wish you were stronger?  And so you wonder, am I still a covenant child?

Listen to the good news of the gospel.  In spite of all your doubts!  In spite of your falling into sin and collapsing under the power of temptation!  In spite of all your hassles.  You can still be a PERFECT COVENANT KEEPER, if you claim Jesus’ covenant keeping for yourself!!  That you claim Jesus, the covenant keeper, as your representative.  And then a marvellous thing happens.  Knowing that in Christ you are a perfect covenant keeper this enables you and encourages you to live for Him in the covenant.

Look at Jesus being circumcised.  This is the beginning of a life of covenant obedience.  He was keeping the covenant where you so often fail.  He was keeping it for you.  In his circumcision he already gave a little of his blood for you.  On Calvary he gave it all.  For you.  Praise God for it.  In Christ you too are a perfect covenant keeper.

Amen.