Covenants with God help us to know who we really are.
A covenant made with God should be regarded not as restrictive but as protective.
The children of believing parents, at least their next and immediate seed, even of us Gentiles now under the gospel, are included by God within the covenant of grace.
I'm not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith. . . In fact, trying to convert Jews is a waste of time. Jews already have a covenant with God and that has never been replaced by Christianity.
When you choose whether to make or keep a covenant with God, you choose whether you will leave an inheritance of hope to those who might follow your example.
The world is like a courtroom, with God as our judge. We are called upon to fulfill our covenant with God, who asked, "Am I not your Lord?" To which we answered, "Yea. " And since here on earth we are on trial, our every word and action form the witness to and the evidence of that agreement.
I do think you can see, throughout American history, this temptation, and it's both a liberal and a conservative temptation, to take a healthy patriotism a little too far. For liberals the temptation is to say the purpose of politics is to straightforwardly bring the kingdom of God to Earth. For conservatives, I talk about Glenn Beck, the temptation is more apocalyptic and messianic, it's the temptation to say we did have a covenant with God, a literal covenant beginning with the Founding, and we are, like Israel in the Old Testament, falling away from it.
