Living In Covenant

The natural moral law guides us to become more human and to attain the good, the true and the beautiful.  The Divine Law builds on the natural moral law to bring us to our true destiny.  The purpose of the Divine Moral Law is to guide us to living the loving covenantal relationship with God. 

Human beings were created to live in covenant (a sacred family bond) with God.  The creation story in Genesis 1 makes it clear that God intended such a relationship with humanity from the very beginning.  The very meaning of the seven days of Creation is covenant – the Hebrew word for “seven” is a verb meaning to make a covenant with somebody.  The order of creation also reveals its purpose.  God’s rhythm in Creation is to first prepare for what comes after (e.g. the land is created for the plants, which in turn feeds the animals).  Human beings as the last of creation are the recipients of the entirety of Creation.  We are meant to enjoy all of Creation as a sacramental sign of His love for us. 

Original Sin broke the Original Covenant and introduced sin into the relationship.  However, Salvation History reveals that while humanity was unfaithful to the Covenant, God remained faithful.  The point of the story of Noah is God’s promise never to revoke the Covenant (signified by Creation) due to humanity’s sin.  The story of Abraham tells how God formed a single People to whom he taught to live in the Covenant once again.  Through Moses, God gave humanity the Divine Law to teach us how to love Him and how to live in the Covenant.  Through the conquering of the Holy Land and the reign of the kings God began to spread the Covenant to other lands.

Finally, Jesus Christ fulfilled salvation history by healing and perfecting the Covenant.  Christ indeed taught us to love and to live in the Covenant.  But he also gave us the grace that enables us to overcome our fallen human nature and to live the Covenant. 

Further, the grace of Christ elevates human nature and gives us a share in the Divine Nature.  By grace, human beings are empowered to truly become family with God – we are adopted sons and daughters of God.  The fulfillment of the Covenant in Christ is even greater than the relationship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God before the Fall.  While Adam and Eve did not have sin to interfere with their relationship with God, they did not have a share in the Divine Life the way we do through Christ. 

However, just as free will allows us to be fully human or to live lower than our human nature, so it allows us to actuate the divine life of grace or to live lower.  We still need the divine moral law to guide us to cooperate with grace and to live in the Covenant.  God puts before us what we must do to fashion our hearts into hearts of love – to live selflessly in the world He created out of love for us.  It is up to us to freely choose to cooperate with His grace to obey His law so that we can be transformed into people of love.