Cutting and Covenant: A Christological Look At The Abrahamic Covenant

Usually when we think of an agreement or contract we are thinking of two people making a pledge and a pact to honor an agreement. While there are elements of this notion within the Biblical word “covenant” it’s not an exact corollary. O. Palmer Robertson, in his classic work, defines the Biblical covenant as “a bond in blood sovereignly administered.” He adds:

When God enters into a covenantal relationship with men, he sovereignly institutes a life-and-death bond. A covenant is a bond in blood, or a bond of life and death, sovereignly administered. (The Christ of the Covenants, 4)

This is an important distinction to make. God is the one administering these covenants. While the covenants do speak of man’s responsibility, there’s no sense in which they are actually bilateral covenants. God is the one who is responsible for implementing and managing these covenants. Such news is startling when we consider the nature of “cutting a covenant” in ancient cultures. For in making these covenants God does not simply agree to keep His word, but He submits Himself to being killed if He doesn’t.  When we see, however, these covenants in light of Christ we are confronted with an even more startling picture: Christ both keeps God’s word and is killed.

The Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15 serves as a great case study and example on this point. Abraham is an old man when God comes to make a promise to him of children. In fact Abraham is so old that the Apostle Paul says he is as good as dead (Romans 4:19). He had one foot in the grave and no children, yet God promises to give him exactly that. It will be all of God’s giving, in fact the very covenant sign of circumcision is a way of saying to an old man that his progeny would not come from his long since “dead” genitals, but from God’s grace. Certainly God calls Abraham to faith and obedience, but what we see in the actual covenant in Genesis 15 is that God is the only one committing to it. Abraham is asleep when the actual covenant is confirmed. “As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him” (Gen. 15:12). We read, then, in verses 17-20:

¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.  ¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,  ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,  ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,  ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

God (portrayed as the smoking pot) passes alone through the cut pieces of the animal sacrifice. Walking through the cut pieces of the sacrifice was a custom among parties making a contract. It was a way of saying “may I end up like this sacrifice if I don’t keep my word” (see Jeremiah 34:18). Robertson writes:

By dividing animals and passing between the pieces, participants in a covenant pledge themselves to life and death. These actions established an oath of self-malediction. If they should break the commitment involved in the covenant, they were asking that their own bodies be torn in pieces just as the animals had been divided ceremonially. (130)

But note here that it is God alone who walks through the sacrifices. God alone commits to keep His word or be subject to destruction.

Of course the history of both Abraham’s descendants Israel in general is one of regular covenant unfaithfulness. They regular disobey God and break His covenants. God is always faithful, even where they are faithless (2 Tim. 2:13). God always keeps His word. In the New Testament we see Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s word to Abraham, and yet we also know that the story of Jesus’ faithfulness to God ends with His crucifixion. Jesus keeps God’s word, we have failed, and yet it is still He who is cut and sacrificed. But that, of course, is not how the covenants were supposed to operate.

It is those unfaithful to the covenant who are to be cut down. But Jesus steps in to be cut down for our sake. He who was faithful, who never did wrong, who was righteous, took our place. Jesus keeps the covenant and He also takes our punishment for failing to keep it. God makes the commitment, God takes all the risk, and when we screw up God takes all the wrath. O, what great depths our God will go to to keep His word and to keep His people!