"Covenants are, at bottom, relationships. Covenants are not doctrinal abstractions. Covenant is not a mere word that we use to distinguish ourselves from other denominational traditions. Covenants are structured in the very way that God created the world, and in the way He recreated the world in Jesus Christ. Simply put, you are never alone. Everywhere you go, in everything you do, you are always in relationship."
- Douglas Wilson
Ken, I would agree that marriage isn't based on feelings - when they are gone the marriage is not over. Yet marriage is not simply a contract, either. What really makes a marriage is grace or the desire to favor another, which can only be expressed in a relationship. There are legal realities that define such relationships (I don't think Wilson belittles them to say a covenant is not an abstraction) - but they are useless without the desire to favor another.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is a chicken and egg problem: legal or relational? Does one need priority over the other?
I also think your analogy breaks down because we are talking about the personhood of God, whose word is more sure than any legal contract we can imagine. His relational favor toward us will not waver.
Ken,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like I agree with you for the most part on this issue, although I don't have a problem with what Wilson says here. It's true that covenants are, at bottom, relationships and not abstractions. However, there are two specific forms that covenantal relationships take: legal and personal.
Even using the marriage analogy, marrige is at root a relationship. When two people marry, they enter into a legal relationship, not a legal abstraction. But the fulfillment of the marriage requires a personal relationship, as well. Two people who go through a marriage ceremony and never see one another again are still legally married - they maintain a legal relationship. But they have no personal relationship. And so their marriage never reaches the level of true fulfillment.