A Ramble about the Contract

A contract is basically an agreement, written or verbal, between two parties. The word “covenant” is another word for contract, and the word “testament” as applied to the Scriptures is another word for “covenant”, which is another word for contract. So when we talk about the two Testaments of Scripture, Old and New, we're talking about the two Contracts of Scripture, Old and New.

The Old Contract is the one which God made with the nation of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai. It was laid out formally in the form of what was known at the time as a “suzerainty treaty”, an agreement between a ruler and those ruled. In this case the ruler was God Himself, and those ruled were the descendants of Israel. This contract, like every contract, had terms and stipulations. It had expectations laid on both parties. They went something like this, “if the descendants of Israel obey all the laws, rules, and terms laid down in this contract, then God agrees to bless them with abundant food, wealth, prosperity, and peace in their own land in perpetuity. If they choose not to obey the terms, laws, and rules of this contract, then God would curse them with poverty, war, famine, and ultimately enslavement into a foreign land.” The rest of the books of the Old Contract detail the history of the nation of Israel after the contract was agreed to, and the execution of the terms of the contract as the descendants of Israel chose to either follow it, or to disregard it. If they were faithful to their end of the bargain, then God was faith to His end of it. When they chose to disregard it, He was still faithful to the all the terms of the contract and ultimately they ended up enslaved to various foreign nations at various times in history. As St.Paul writes, “when we are faithless, He remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself.”

The New Testament is also called the New Covenant. In other words, it is a New Contract, separate from the Old Contract made through Moses. The author of the letter to the Hebrews is very clear about the relationship of the New Contract to the Old Contract. He writes,

“In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Hebrews 8:13, ESV)

In other words, the New Contract supercedes and replaces the Old. The Old Contract is no longer valid or in force in favor of the New Contract. To try and live according to the terms of the Old Contract is pointless because those terms are no longer in effect, and to expect God to keep His end of the terms of the Old Contract with you when He has already put into force a New Contract is complete delusion on your part and a refusal to accept the reality of what He has already said. To expect material blessing from following the terms of the Old Contract, which God agreed to under the Old Contract, is completely pointless in the same way that expecting starvation, poverty, and enslavement from disregarding the terms of the Old Contract is pointless. It simply is no longer in force.

The New Contract is, above all, a Contract. It is an agreement made between God and those people who agree to it. Like the Old Contract which was sealed by the offering of a blood sacrifice, the New Contract was sealed by the offering of the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. All those who partake of that one sacrifice through partaking of His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist are agreeing to that Contract just as those who partook of the sacrifices and were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifices on Mount Sinai were agreeing to the Old Contract.

So, now that we have this clarified, what are the terms of the New Contract that we who have been baptized and partaken of His Body and Blood have agreed to? All Contracts have terms and stipulations and this one is no different. More often than not, most pastors will define the only terms of the New Contract from Jeremiah 31:31-34 (ESV):

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

But this is not the terms of the New Contract, this is a prophecy of the New Contract. The New Contract was not put into force or even fully explained with the prophet Jeremiah around 600 B.C. It was only put into force and explained through Jesus Christ between 30 and 33 A.D.

Our Lord Jesus Christ actually laid down the terms of the New Contract very clearly. He said that those who believed in Him would not be destroyed but would have Eternal Life. He also said that those who followed Him would be persecuted horribly, be beaten, ridiculed, and executed in the same vein that He Himself was. He also said to remain in Him and He in us. He said that anyone who didn't remain in Him would dry up and be burned. He said that those who remain in Him would be able to ask anything in His name and it would be done for them. He said that those who denied Him in front of human beings would be denied by Him in front of the Father. He said that those who did not forgive would not be forgiven. He said to love your enemies. He said to love one another as He loved us. He said in order to be a disciple of His a person had to renounce family, possessions, and even his own psyche and live as though dead to everything but Him. He gave more terms and conditions, but they run along the same lines.

In general, the terms of the contract read that if we do these things (Principally believing in Him, with the assumption made that such a belief will result in doing the rest of what He said, otherwise how could it be said that one believes in Him?) then we will inherit Eternal Life/the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do not do these things, then we will not inherit Eternal Life/the Kingdom of Heaven and will spend eternity burning in Gehenna. These are the things which Jesus Himself said. The rest of the books of the New Contract outside of the Gospels add no new terms to it, but rather are explanatory of the terms which Jesus already laid down prior to His death which sealed the Contract and put it into force. There is mercy and leniency for those who violate the terms of the Contract but turn around and repent of their violations. There is none for those who violate it and do not repent. Again, Jesus Himself is clear on this.

One thing He did not say was that if we believed in Him and followed Him we would receive the material blessings (health, wealth, and prosperity) promised to the descendants of Israel in the Old Contract. Material blessings are not really stipulated in the New Contract while the promise and practice of renunciation and poverty is overtly stated and encouraged. There are those pastors and preachers today who confuse the terms of the Old Contract with the terms of the New, believing that obedience to the terms of the New will reap the benefits of the terms of the Old. They are confused and mistaken. Jesus promised no such thing. According to Jesus, those who are materially wealthy are at a disadvantage and are more likely to end up in torment, not less, because of their wealth. Poverty is the preferred financial state according to our Lord.

There are many Christians who agree to the terms of the New Contract without actually being told what those terms are. This is much like signing your name to a contract without reading all of the fine print. The problem with it is that once the terms kick in, you can be caught off your guard and complain “I didn't sign up for this!” when in fact you did without paying attention. There are many contracts which I have had to sign in my life where it didn't matter, it seemed, if I read the fine print or not because in order to move forward in life I had to put my name on the dotted line. When it comes to the choice between Eternal Life and Gehenna, I can see someone approaching it with this frame of mind, but then they are often caught off guard.

People are often given the narrative that if they believe in Jesus Christ then their lives will suddenly get back on track and they will be blessed materially and spiritually. This is not the Contract Jesus laid out for us. If you find your experience of agreeing to the New Contract not living up to your expectations or what you were told to expect, then it's time to reread the terms of the Contract carefully. Understand what you agreed to. You agreed to give up everything you hold dear to you in order to become like Jesus Himself to gain Eternal Life. You agreed to poverty, humiliation, persecution, and self-renunciation. If you didn't, or you don't think you did, then you didn't agree to the Contract Jesus signed with His own blood.

The next time you get angry with God because your life is being turned upside down and backwards and you find yourself struggling, go back and read the Contract. Struggle, pain, temptation, and humiliation are all there spelled out pretty clearly.