I Promise…Not to Snap

Do you long for that restored kingdom? Is he your king? If so, the Kingdom is not far from you!

Last post I wrote a bit about adopting a sort of “elastic hermeneutic”.

I also talked some big game against the “dispensational hermeneutic.”

This time I’d like to throw some love at the “covenantal hermeneutic.”

I’ve already mentioned it in two different posts but I’ve not explained it thoroughly.

Let me start by saying, like all hermeneutics, it has its limitations (the Bible alone is our authority, not our interpretive “grid”). But let’s not throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

So what exactly is a covenantal hermeneutic?

It uses the covenants (essentially, promises) given by God to humans as the interpretive key to the Bible.

As an interpretation method, this technique will get you quite far. It’s a good way to read Scripture.

God makes many promises (or covenants) to humans in the Old Testament. The fulfillment of many of these promises doesn’t come until the New Testament. Although, it’s not quite that simple as many of the biblical covenants find a “tiered fulfillment” in which a physical or literal fulfillment occurs prior to the arrival of Christ and then a broader fulfillment happens in Christ himself.

As for the merit of this way of looking at Scripture, you won’t find any blatant contradiction of this method in Scripture itself so it’s helpful to add it to your tool belt.

In fact, it’s highly complementary to the way Jesus himself has told us to view Scripture by seeing how it points to Him. Here it is in the Bible’s own words:

For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in [Jesus]. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Do you see that?

The Bible itself says that the promises (covenants) of God find their fulfillment in Jesus.

Large books have been written fleshing out this whole concept thematically throughout the Old and New Testaments (those are links to a two-volume book set that totals roughly 1500 pages explaining how!).

In the Old Testament God made many promises to mankind. In the New Testament those promises were kept and fulfilled.

As far as elasticity goes, you can “stretch” this hermeneutic pretty far without snapping it. Really, it makes useful sense of the whole Bible in a way that is easy to comprehend and complementary to the way Scripture has been understood throughout history.

It shouldn’t be the final tool in our tool belt, however. While a covenantal hermeneutic will get you really far, I don’t think it gets us all the way home.

To have a little fun with Luke 7:28:

I tell you, among those hermeneutics born of men no one is greater than Covenantal Hermeneutics, but the least hermeneutic in the kingdom of God is greater than this way of interpreting Scripture.

To get all the way home, I think you need to seek an “otherworldly” hermeneutic. And it comes from the King himself, Jesus. He’s given us the keys to the kingdom, and because he was always preaching the “Kingdom of God.” What if the covenants are simply the “door” (John 10:7) into that kingdom?

Where was that kingdom?

Not of this world. Ultimately, it’s where God’s people, are in God’s place, and under God’s rule. With this definition you get a glimpse of it in Eden in Genesis 1 and 2. We see a tragic loss of that kingdom in Genesis 3 and the continual decline of it throughout the rest of the Old Testament. But hope is not lost.

Jesus, finally, comes to dwell among us. The King has returned and finds a people committed to crumbling kingdoms of this world. But he does not condemn them, he begins a great reversal. Do you long for that restored kingdom? Is he your king?

If so, the Kingdom is not far from you!