Precious Promises

It is a great privilege to have been called by God as your Regional Team leader.  On the 13^th of September at my induction service I will be making promises, vows before God, both to him and you, it will form a kind of covenant. Tim Keller defines a covenant as:

A covenant is the solemn, permanent, whole self-giving of two parties to each other. It is a stunning blend of both law and love… a relationship much more intimate and loving than a mere legal contract could create, yet one more enduring and binding than personal affection alone could make.’^[1]

I love this!

Covenant is such a rich word - yet in our culture of temporary promises and easy opt-outs, it often feels underrated.

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 11 that our very life as followers of Jesus flows from a precious covenant of deep love:

 “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Across the world, every single day these words are remembered as Christians gather, drawing intimately near to God and one another at the table:

Here we taste grace.

Here we receive forgiveness.

Here we are renewed in hope by the Holy Spirit.

Here we are surrounded by the life giving love of Jesus.

This covenant is not a flimsy promise; it is the covenant where Christ gives himself in love, wholly, permanently and intimately to us. And in response, we bring our stumbling, broken, imperfect lives and by the Spirit’s power we say: 

I will follow.

I will worship.

I will walk towards you in holiness.

I will love the Lord and my neighbour.

Seventeenth-century pastor John Flavel described another covenant - one made before the foundation of the world as God foresees the rebellion and waywardness of humanity. He imagined a conversation between the Father and the Son, called the “Father’s Bargain” where Jesus freely steps forward to bear the debt of humanity:

Father: My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls?

Son: O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shalt thou require it. I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.

Father: But, my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare thee.

Son: Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it.^[2]

I cannot read these words without being deeply moved, I’m undone by them! God’s love is so deep, and his grace so wide that it saved a wretch like me. For this is the covenant of all covenants: the eternal plan of God to reconcile the world to himself through Christ.

Paul tells us we are now entrusted as messengers of this covenant, this ministry of reconciliation.^[3]

As I step into ministry as Regional Team Leader of Webnet, I want to make a covenant with you, a solemn, wholehearted promise:

• To be a messenger of the gospel.

• To stand with you - in blessing and in battle, in trial and in green pasture.

• To work for unity among Baptists across the West, so that together we grow as a people of worship, prayer and discipleship.

  
  

I commit myself, as the Spirit gives me strength, to this calling - to build up, cheer up and stir up our regionfor the glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This will be at the forefront of my mind and heart on 13th September. Please stand with me in prayer, or in person if you are able, as I set my heart to serve you.

Andy Caldwell

Regional Team Leader

^[1] Timothy Keller, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Scepticism (Viking, 2015) p.104

^[2] Sermon “The Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Redeemer” John Flavel 1671

^[3] 2 Corinthians 5:19