Covenant and Commandments: How to Abide in Jesus

I was struck by a line from the Psalms: “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14). The great covenants have been revealed through the Patriarchs and Prophets, culminating in the New Covenant given to us by Jesus. What does it mean for God to reveal his covenant to us?

I found an important connection to this passage from John 15, at the very moment when Jesus institutes his new covenant at the Last Supper.

A covenant binds people together through oaths creating a kinship akin to blood relations that is irrevocable and includes mutual obligations. Jesus enacted his covenant through his blood, making us members of his body. We enter into this covenant through faith and baptism, and, it may be tempting to think, as many do, that this is all that is required on our end to receive the blessings of the covenant. Jesus, however, is clear that he expects his disciples to uphold their end of the bargain.

He pours out his blood for us in response to the Father, showing him an obedience and love that overcomes all the darkness and sin of the world. For those who enter this covenant, with their sins taken away and new life poured into them, Jesus expects a similar response of obedience and love. He speaks of this as abiding in him, as living in his new covenant of love.

In John 15, Jesus explains: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you:” (vv 9-12). What was the Father’s command to Jesus? To give his life for those he came to redeem. What is Jesus’s command to his disciples? To fulfill this same command of loving others with the same kind of self-sacrificing gift.

Jesus’s new commandment summarizes and fulfills all the others. It is the obedience and love that honors the Father, just as Jesus did. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). You can’t say you are a Christian and truly have faith in Jesus if you do not live out the covenant he gave us through love.

Over the last five hundred years, due to controversies surrounding the Reformation, we think of salvation in juridical terms. This is certainly not wrong, for Jesus did redeem us and set us free, but it does fall short of capturing the nature of salvation. How sad and petty it is to think of faith as something that gets you off the hook so that you’re free to live without the threat of punishment. Is that why Jesus died on the Cross?

I’m more and more drawn to Paul’s powerful example in Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20). Faith is ordered toward living in union with Christ, taking on his life, his relationship with the Father, receiving his Spirit, and carrying out his mission.

The covenant has to be made known to us as it unfolds within us, prompted by the Holy Spirit who enables us to cry out Abba, Father, expressing the love of Christ for the Father and sacrificing for others. We abide in Christ when we love as he loves, keeping his commandment to give of ourselves to others as he has done. If we’ve received the complete gift of himself to us, he calls us to do the same, making our lives a sacrifice in honor of God and in service to others.