“You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God … and to Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.”
Hebrews 12:22,24
The Scriptures tell us that God is a covenant maker. This issue focuses on the New Covenant relationship established by Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. Covenant love and covenant relationships are very important to God. The growth and expansion of Covenant Christian communities is a prophetic sign of renewal for God’s people today.
A number of articles, including Bod Tedesco’s essay, explore the Scriptural teaching on covenant and covenant love.
“Before there were an Old Covenant and a New Covenant, and before there was a covenant with Noah… there was a covenantal God! It is his nature to be loyal, faithful, reliable, consistent and true to his word. Commitment, it seems, does not scare him at all. He relishes it; he invites it; he models it; he initiates it.
Covenant and covenant love are the glue that holds a community of disciples together. The love of God is a constant. In desiring to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), we intend to model his nature, and model his love to our brothers and sisters. We are “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) and covenant love is the mortar that allows us to be built into a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14).”
This issue offers tributes to the passing away of Steve Clark (1940-2024), a pioneer in the covenant community movement and founder of The Sword of the Spirit association of covenant communities worldwide.
May this issue inspire and call us on to follow the Lord Jesus Christ together as members of his Body – the people he has redeemed through his precious blood poured out for us on the Cross of Calvary.
Sincerely in Christ,
editor
Top image credit: Graphic artwork depicting the blood-stained cross of Christ, from rgbstock.com, © by ba1969 (Billy Frank Alexander). Used with permission.
Don Schwager is the editor of Living Bulwark and author of the Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation website. He is a lay religious brother and life-time member of the Servants of the Word.