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    • Covenant vs Entitlement PDF E-mail

    Throughout the Bible the theme of covenant is prevalent. Put simply, the covenant or contract, is between God and His offspring, man. If you obey God and His commandments, He will prosper you.  If you do not, all bets are off.  The Old Testament could be regarded, in large part, as a history of the covenant between the Children of Israel and God, a history of repeatedly breaking the covenant, and then renewing it.  Is the covenant still relevant today, or has it been replaced with the more “compassionate” idea of entitlement, whereby, just by being me, I am entitled to peace and prosperity? Just by calling myself a Christian Scientist, and believing that God is love, I am entitled to health and sinlessness?  We think not!

    The Bible is considered the chart of life for good reason. Neither human nature nor the underlying divine principles of being have changed since the beginning of the Bible.  The covenant could be equated to the principles of mathematics. If you obey those principles, you get the right answer.  If you do not, it may take a while before you recognize you are mistaken, but eventually, you are forced to face it.  There is no way to avoid it.  The policy of entitlement is not a new concept. It will be found throughout the Bible, wherever the Children of Israel got sloppy, turned away from acknowledging and thanking God, and took the “easy” route, worshipping idols and partaking in all the material rituals that went with it. When things went wrong, they whined and blamed everything but themselves for their misfortunes. Does this not sound familiar?

    The New Testament introduces the concept of grace and truth through Christ, but the principle remains. “If ye believe in me, ye shall have everlasting life.”(Jesus) In Hebrews, Paul refers to the first and second covenants, the first being centered around symbolic rituals and traditions, including the sacrificing of animals, the second being introduced by Christ Jesus who sacrificed himself for the redemption of us all. This was a profound spiritualizing of the covenant. Unfortunately, the second covenant described by Paul was soon to be blurred by new rituals and traditions for almost two thousand years.

    Enter Mary Baker Eddy, who with stunning clarity, captures Paul’s revelation of the second covenant, and brings it home to us:

                    

    “When the human element in him struggled with the divine, our great Teacher said: "Not my will, but Thine, be done!"— that is, Let not the flesh, but the Spirit, be represented in me. This is the new understanding of spiritual Love.· It gives all for Christ, or Truth. It blesses its enemies, heals the sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek in heart. Christians, are you drinking his cup? Have you shared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutions which attend a new and higher understanding of God? If not, can you then say that you have commemorated Jesus in his cup? Are all who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for ·the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspiration to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting out error and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God," that Truth has come to the understanding? If Christ, Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other commemoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel, or God with us; and if a friend be with us, why need we memorials of that friend?” (S&H)

    		                    

     

    - Andrew W. Kidd