The Difference between Covenant and Contract

God created everything

In the beginning, the earth was without form, void, and darkness covered the deep.

The Genesis narrative reveals how everything was made. Everything was created by the spoken word.

God said, “Let there be light,” and it was so. God saw the light, and he said, ” It was good.” And a glorious creation came into being.

Covenant

The first covenant was made in the Garden of Eden with Adam in Genesis 2:15-17. It is called the Edenic covenant.

God said to Adam, ‘eating you shall eat of every tree in the Garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ The price for eating from that tree is death, or as the literal translation says, ‘dying you shall die.’

God commanded Adam to dress and keep the Garden. Adam’s job was to make a sacrifice of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was to arrange the fruit of that tree. He was also commanded to keep the garden.

Adam was a steward  of the Garden of Eden and earth. As far as the earth was concerned, Adam had complete dominion.

There was also a second covenant made with Adam after he ate the forbidden fruit, which resulted in spiritual death. It is found in Genesis 3:14-21. It is called Adamic covenant. God gives Adam a new sacrifice. It is the blood of a sacrificed animal. One distinct feature of this covenant is that it contains the promise of eternal redemption.

Other Covenants

God made a covenant with Noah and his family after the flood.

God made a covenant with Abraham and his seed. God made a covenant with Israel through Moses.

God made a covenant with King David and his seed.

All of the covenants are fulfilled in the New Covenant. God offers eternal life to whosoever believes. God makes a covenant through his Son, Jesus Christ, and it is based on John 3:16.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

Covenants are a binding agreement between two parties. 

God’s covenants governed Adam and all his descendants. Today, we are still governed by covenants.

Contracts

The concept of contracts came into being around 4000 years ago in the city of Iraq.

The systems of man have taken the idea of covenant to form contracts. 

ECCLESIASTES 1:9-11, SAYS, ‘There is nothing new under the Sun.’

There could not be contracts or covenants unless God created them first.

The difference between covenants and contracts is that contracts are man made and deeply flawed. Contracts may be voided.

God’s concept of covenant is that the only way a covenant can be broken is by the death of one of the partners.

God’s covenant is stronger than the world’s system of contracts.

God’s covenant is based on the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ and HIS SPOKEN WORD.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1

“The SAME WAS in the beginning with God.” John 1:2

“All things were made by HIM; and without HIM was not any thing MADE that was MADE.” John 1:3

“And the WORD WAS MADE FLESH, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:16

God came to earth and became the sacrifice. He taught the terms of the covenant. He is at God’s right hand, fulfilling the covenant.

God’s Economy

I’ve been the victim of many broken contracts, especially with car insurance companies. People fulfilled portions of the contract that are favorable to them. The contracts were constantly changing either in price or service.

We know from the earlier history of the United States that many peace treaties with Native Americans were broken by the government.

God’s word is unchangeable, unshakable, and all-powerful. Never ending, eternal in the heavens and earth.

In God’s economy, there are only TWO PARTIES to the Covenant, GOD, and YOU!

For example, Jesus said, ‘This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for YOU.’ It’s personal. HE said, “Take and eat, this is my body, which is broken for YOU” (1 Corinthians 11:24).

It is eternal, much more powerful, and permanent, not for God’s sake but for our sake.

It’s easy to put faith in a doctor, a lawyer, a politician, or a medical plan. But when they don’t have the answers. What hope do you have? But we are called to a living hope because God’s power backs us.

The Covenant is in Jesus’ flesh and in his blood. It’s a covenant based on the sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

If you could see Jesus today, you would see the holes in his hands, feet, and the hole in his side that was made by the soldier’s spear.

Case in point, in John 20, when Jesus appears to his disciples after his resurrection, Thomas isn’t there. When he was told that Jesus was alive, he said,

John 20:25

“The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the PRINT OF THE NAILS, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I WILL NOT BELIEVE.“ John 20:25

Eight days later, Jesus visited them, and Thomas was with them. Jesus addressed Thomas,

“Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: AND be not faithless, but believing.” JOHN 20:27

Thomas answered, “My Lord and my God.”

Jesus said to Thomas,

“… Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, AND yet believed.” John 20:29

There is no doubt about God’s covenant. We have sixty-six books in the Bible that attest to God’s provision.

Grace & peace!

👑