Introduction

The end of another year is closing in on us without delay. As they say, "time marches on" and there is no stopping it; there is no time out in which we can pause, hold back the clock, catch our breath, and then get time going again. New wrinkles appear, the process of aging continues, and circumstances may direct our thoughts to dying and death.

Looking back over the year may lead to reflection on the years causing us to think about history in order to understand our place in it. We may ask questions again like, "Who am I?" and "What is the significance of my life?" If you are like me, I am sure that you not only want to be assured that life has meaning but you also want to be assured that your life has meaning (we can each say, "I want to be assured that my life has meaning, dignity, and value"). The great significance questions of life are abstract questions that touch life in very concrete ways. Accordingly, these questions are not irrelevant or unimportant. Indeed, they are very relevant and extremely important.

We need to ask them and answer them. In a word, we need understanding of the big picture of history to aid us in living the little picture of history. This brings up the notion of a philosophy of history in which we try to get some hold on our personal histories within world history. A philosophy of history helps us get a grip on life so we can keep our bearings in the flood of events that threaten to overwhelm us, drown us, and drown our hopes and dreams.

Probably, the two main things in the big picture most relevant here are the purpose of history and the nature of history. Last time we considered the purpose of history, which is the glory of God. It is God’s chief end being that which He seeks most in the entirety of creation in all its historical unfolding. It is God’s ultimate end in that there is no end, purpose, or goal beyond the display of God’s glory. It is the final goal. All other goals come to rest in this grand goal. That all things are from Him, through Him and to Him (Rom. 11:36) teaches that His glory was His great goal from the very beginning of the world in creation week (it is all from Him), it is His great goal in each stage of history on earth (it is all through Him), and His own glory is what remains when history comes to its appointed end (it is all for Him). God’s own glory is the chief and ultimate end of all things.

Today, I want to discuss the nature of history and how understanding its nature gives wisdom for our journey through life. Specifically, I want to discuss the covenantal nature of history itself. I have three main points: the covenantal nature of history explained, supported, and applied.

1A. First, the covenantal nature of history explained

In the past year, I have made a number of references to the covenant such as Christ as covenant Lord and the incarnation of Christ as covenant obedience. Recall the outstanding fact that Christ existed before He was born and His birth was an act of obedience. That can only be understood against the backdrop of the eternal covenant relation between the members of the trinity. This is an inter-Trinitarian covenant in which the Father gives particular sinners to Christ who commits Himself to die for them and give them the Spirit who will apply the death of Christ to the Father’s elect.

When we say that from its very beginning history is a process through which God is keeping covenant then our attention is directed to the notion of a covenant that God makes and keeps within history. In the ultimate sense, we have a glimpse into the eternal purpose of God that is covenantal in nature and that comes to expression in history. In what might be called the historical sense, we are given insight into how that eternal and covenantal purpose of God comes to expression in history in a covenantal way.

Perhaps we might speak of the difference here as one that is between the eternal covenant and the historical covenants. On this very point hangs much of the difficulty of understanding Scripture within covenant theology and between covenant theology and dispensational theology. Part of the problem lies in the fact that the term "covenant" does not occur in Scripture with reference to the eternal purpose of God and it does not occur in Genesis until after the Flood when the Lord said to Noah, "I will establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you" (Gen. 9:9).

Nevertheless, thinkers who adhere to reformed theology have commonly used the term covenant to cover history from the beginning of creation to the end of time. This is especially evident in the Westminster Confession of Faith that subdivides human history into two categories: the covenant of works with Adam and Eve and the covenant of grace (WCF 7.1-3):

The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.

The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.

Man, by his fall, having made himself uncapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the Covenant of Grace, whereby He freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life His Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe.

The Confession does not appear to use the term covenant for the eternal covenant but it comes very close to doing so in the Shorter Catechism (A, 20) where it associates sovereign election with the covenant of grace: "God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer." Similarly, a main line reformed theologian, G. Vos, says that the words about Zacchaeus (that he is a son of Abraham) "trace back the blessed issue of Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus to the covenantal promise made ages before to the patriarch, and ultimately to the sovereign election of which this promise was the outcome (Grace and Glory, 64). Thus, the covenant to Abraham was an outcome of sovereign election before the foundation of the world. It is a simple step of good and necessary inference to conclude that it is the inter-Trinitarian and eternal covenant that lies behind all of God’s covenantal dealings with man in history.

Using the language of the Confession, we can therefore say that the eternal inter-Trinitarian covenant comes to expression in "the covenant of works" and "the covenant of grace." Or we can say that the various historical covenants whether so named explicitly or not are manifestations of the eternal covenant.

Before leaving this section on explanation, we should discuss a general point that helps us see the entire history of redemption. Namely, the covenant of grace has some notable subdivisions. 1) First, it is divided into promise and fulfillment. This is easily identified as essentially the movement from old to new, the OT to the NT, old wineskin to new wineskin. These are rough and ready divisions that get us into the right ball park. 2) Second, fulfillment comes in the well known pattern of "now and not yet." The day of salvation has dawned but we have not yet reached high noon!

Thus in reformed theology, history is a stage like unfolding of God’s covenant purposes. To be wise (and have a wise principles regarding history or a good/godly philosophy of history), we need to view history as covenantal in nature. This will help us understand the Bible as a whole better and this in turn will give us wisdom for our journey through time. So let’s consider some of the support for this view of history.

2A. The covenantal nature of history supported

We can begin here with some passages that intertwine the agreement between the members of the trinity with the history of redemption. These show that human history is the outworking of the eternal inter-Trinitarian covenant that contemplates a fallen race in need. From the sinful world the Father chooses particular people for salvation. This is a salvation that will be secured by Christ and applied by the Holy Spirit (Jn. 17:1-10; 1 Thess. 1:4-5) for the glory of God (Jn. 17:1-2; Eph. 1:3-6).

But what can be said about the fact that the term covenant does not appear in Genesis until the time of Noah after the Flood (Gen. 9:9)? Put another way, the question is, "How can we legitimately speak of the covenant of works with Adam and Eve or of a creation covenant?" To answer this we can look in Genesis and in the book of Hebrews.

1) Beginning with the opening chapters of Genesis, we have to view the fall in the context of the Sabbath. God worked in six days creating the heavens, the earth, and the host of things that make them up (Gen. 2:1, in six days God finished the earth, the heavens, and all their fullness). He rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2). And because He rested on the seventh day, God blessed it and made it holy. The implication is that every seventh day in the weekly cycles of days that will make up human history is a holy day to be set apart as a blessed and holy day.

As His image bearers we are to honor and set apart what God honors and sets apart. In a nutshell, this line of thought shows that Sabbath keeping (keeping the God-appointed seventh day holy) is an obligation that we have that goes all the way back to creation. The fourth commandment in the Ten Commandments is a reiteration of this duty: we are to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy because of God’s action and word recorded in Genesis (1:1-2:3):

ESV Exodus 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

But this obligation to enter into rest with God in His rest (a great privilege/obligation) carries with it a promise regarding history in its weekly unfolding. Consider how the promise emerges in this context. Adam and Eve were placed in history with a future to be reached by covenant obedience (Gen. 2:15-17). They were subject to death if they disobeyed and thus were promised eternal life in the way of covenant keeping (cf. eating of the tree of life, Gen. 3:22).

Therefore, the rest that is promised at the end of each week (rest with the Lord) stretches across all the 6-1's of history showing us that the end of history as a whole is rest with God in His rest. Consider the rhythmic unfolding of work to rest (work to rest, work to rest, work to rest, and so forth) that shows that history is a process of work that leads to rest. So the end of all the work of all of history is rest, eternal rest. That is the great promise of the six and one pattern given in the very way that God created all things. It was given before the fall and it thus underlies all of human history impressing on history both a weekly and an ultimate promise.

The promise is rest with God weekly and eternal rest with God ultimately. Thus, covenant obedience to the 6-1 pattern is part and parcel of a covenant relationship in which God promises rest at the end of history. Obedience has the remarkable context of promise; it is clothed with promise!

2) The writer of the book of Hebrews points us in the same direction. He indicates that "the promise of entering his rest still stands" (4:1). If it still stands then it continues in place from some earlier time. He actually refers to a number of earlier times going back to the time of David (4:3, 5, 7 citing Ps. 95:7-11), to the time of Joshua and those who did not enter rest in the conquest of the land (4:8; 3:15-19, those who were not given rest "whose bodies fell n the wilderness"), and all the way back to the seventh day of creation week (4:3-4). Therefore, the rest was promised from the time that God finished His works (i.e. they did not enter "although his works were finished from the foundation of the world" putting His rest as a promise out in front of us).

Therefore, the six and one pattern of creation that binds man as man to image God by following His extraordinary example is a covenantal six and one that puts a marvelous promise at the end of every week within history. It promises a special blessing on a divinely blessed day. It promises rest with God in His rest. But this weekly promise is a token of the great promise of entering His rest that still stands out in front of us at the end of the entire course of human history.

3A. The covenantal nature of history applied

An amazing feature of the creation covenant (or the covenantal six and one) that highlights the fact that history has a covenantal nature impressed on it is the fact that the fall did not alter God’s promise. From the beginning God promised to bring His image bearer (man) through history to the grand finale of eternal Sabbath rest. Due to the fall that promise must be fulfilled through a second Adam, through the death and resurrection of Christ.

Jesus is now Sabbath King. As Son of Man, He is Lord of the Sabbath (Mk. 2:28). The perpetual obligation to Jehovah God to set aside a day that distinctively belongs to Him as Sabbath King is now a continuing covenant obligation to the Lord Jesus. God's day is now Jesus' day. The Lord's Holy Day of the old covenant (Isa. 58:13) is now the Lord's Day of the new covenant (Rev. 1:10). He is Lord of the Sabbath and as Lord of the Sabbath He has defined its true spirit and depth for the church (Matt. 12:1-13, etc.) and He has changed the day from the Saturday to Sunday.

But some may ask, "What about the fact that nowhere does Jesus or the apostles say: ‘we now have the Sabbath on Sunday’?" Here is a short answer: it is like the truth of the trinity. Nowhere does Jesus or the apostles say, "We now have the truth of the trinity that God is three persons but one essence." How was the doctrine of the trinity revealed? It was revealed by redemptive deed: the Father sent the Son who was God with us, and the Son sent God the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (this sending and being sent gives expression to the eternal covenant). Likewise, the new day of worship was given to the church by Jesus as His day; He did this by rising from the dead on the first day of the week and distinctively revealing Himself to the church in stages on that day. This is highlighted when the Gospel writers stress the day of the resurrection (cf. Jn. 20:1, 19). We discover that the day of the resurrection is vitally important. It is stressed that the early church gathered for worship on that day gradually leaving Saturday worship behind as they moved forward in Sunday worship (they did both for a time). It simply emerges by the action of Christ.

The six and one pattern is a creation ordinance (like marriage) that is valid for all time. Now a new owner of the six and one modifies the pattern that abides throughout history (an earthly Sabbath remains because the heavenly fulfillment still stands out in front of us; cf. Heb. 4:9). Thus we have a day that is distinctively "the Lord’s Day" (Rev. 1:10) just as we have a supper that is distinctively "the Lord’s Supper" (1 Cor. 11:20).

Furthermore, consider the fact that Jesus, as incarnate Son of Man, did not exercise Sabbath Lordship over the six and one pattern until He became covenant Lord of the Sabbath by the resurrection (Acts 2:32, 36). He therefore now rules over the seventh day of the six and one pattern on Sunday, which was His inaugural day of Sabbath Lordship over the accomplished work of redemption (parallel with God's accomplished work of creation). Therefore, as Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus is providential ruler and sovereign Lord over the heavens and the earth in all their fullness. He is the one who sits on the throne of the heavens and props His feet on the footstool of the earth (Isa. 66:1).

Concluding Remarks

1) We are wise and build on solid rock when we order our lives in a six and one pattern of work and rest. History has this structure impressed on it. This is the flow of history as an outworking of the eternal covenant of the triune God. This is therefore an extremely important principle in a Christian philosophy of history. There is no more fundamental way to order our lives so that they harmonize with the nature of history; there is no more fundamental way to "go with the flow" of history in accord with God’s will.

2) Wisdom involves working daily under the authority of Christ as Sovereign Lord whether that work does or does not earn money. Each of the six days is defined as a work day in which we are to emulate the work of our Father in heaven. In this way, each day has dignity, meaning, and value for the glory of God as we image and reflect His glory.

3) And wisdom involves giving special honor to Sunday because this is the day that the Lord has made distinctively His own by His resurrection. He is Sabbath King.

4) Finally wisdom calls the Lord’s Day Sabbath "delight day" because we have the privilege of fellowship with the Lord Jesus in a special way. We set the day apart to Him, for Him, and with Him. And by means of this day He gives us hope. Our little picture is not futile. It is not a mere chasing after the wind. It is not a meaningless cycle of events going nowhere. Our eyes are lifted to the coming city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We taste now of eternal Sabbath rest yet to come. So, enjoy the day as you remember it to keep it holy.

Benediction

May the Lord of the Sabbath richly bless you in your work in history.

May He give you a sense of the value and dignity of work that emulates our Father in heaven.

May He give you special sense of value on this day that is to be called "honorable day" in honor to the Lord Jesus.

May He give you special delight on this day because it is a foretaste of eternal resurrection glory and eternal Sabbath rest with Jesus Christ the Sovereign Lord and Sabbath King!

To God be the glory forever. Amen.