Themes
Grace • Covenant • Unfaithfulness • God’s Initiative • Substitution • Representation • Vicarious humanity • The person and work of Christ • Human inability • Divine sufficiency • Inclusion • God chooses us • Faithfulness of God • The binding of God’s Being to our salvation • Promise
God made all our necessary promises for us, and He took on the burden of keeping them all for us.
Scripture reading
Genesis 15:7–18 2 Timothy 2:13 Galatians 3:13–14 Romans 4:16–25 Hebrews 6:13–20
This call to worship1 is about the God who doesn’t wait for us to get it right—who comes to us first, carries both sides of the covenant, and remains faithful even when we fail. It’s a reflection on how, from Abraham’s deep sleep to Christ’s cross, God has bound Himself to us in love and taken full responsibility for our relationship with Him.
“I am the Lord, who brought you out to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know?” And a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. When God made a promise to Abraham, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And He passed between the pieces. That is why it depends on faith— in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring— not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. In hope he believed against hope. He did not weaken in faith. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. If we are faithless, He remains faithful— for He cannot deny Himself. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. On that day the Lord made a covenant.
Prayer
Father in Heaven, from the beginning, and now still, You are filled with mercy for us. Before we move toward You, You move toward us. You always move first. And You come the whole distance. And You know all our weaknesses and all our inabilities, even when we don’t. And You know there is no promise, no commitment we could make, no fidelity we are able to keep with You that would lock in the friendship, the relationship, the love You desire with us. But You bind yourselve to us anyway. You make all our necessary promises for us, and You take on the burden of keeping them all for us, so that when we don’t, You carry all the cost of our failures, the cost of every broken promise. You carry both sides of the covenant between us and You remain not only faithful to us, but You remain faithful for us, on our side, taking the burden of our promise-keeping on Yourself, holding the promise steady when we cannot, keeping faith even when we fail. And so it was with the man Abraham. Before Abraham could lift a hand, before he could believe Your promise—believe it— with any consistency, before he could demonstrate an iota of faithfulness, before he could know the fullness of what You were really promising, before he could make any attempt to protect the promise that was being made from his own failures— never mind the generations of failues and covenant-breaking and sin yet to come, nevermind the centuries of rebellion and grief You Yourself would have to take into Your own life under this covenant, bearing the full weight of all our faithlessness and all our unrighteousness, before he could comprehend that You Yourself would bear both sides of this covenant — bear all the curse of our endless covenant-breaking, all the estrangement of our turning away, all the whole crushing burden of restoring us to Yourself — before he could walk between the cut pieces, You put him into a deep sleep. And while he slept, You Yourself passed through — in fire, in smoke — binding Yourself to him without condition. In that moment, You recast the whole idea of covenant. You staked both sides of the covenant on Yourself There was no side ever contigent on Abraham’s faithfulness, or ours for that matter, All of the covenant’s curses due to our unfaithfulness fell in that moment on You. Every promise and every curse — including the curse of flesh being torn in half — was on your own unbreakable Yes! You pledged Yourself to be his God —and ours— in a way that would come to its fullness in Jesus Christ. In Him, You would bear both sides of the covenant, shouldering the blessing and absorbing the curse, for it would be His flesh torn in half. This was not a promise You — as God — could walk away from. In that moment, You bound Your being as God to our salvation. In Christ, You then took up our humanity, you lived our perfect covenant life, you bore our covenant curse, and you have perfected our fellowship with You. You have made our life part of Your own life. None of our unfaithfulness can undo Your faithfulness. Our failures cannot outweigh Your Yes. Our salvation is as secure as the Son’s love for You and Your love for the Son — an unbreakable bond into which You have gathered us by the Spirit. Here and now, we worship You, the God who binds Himself to His people—to us— the God who carries the whole covenant, the God who keeps His promise —and ours—at His own cost. In the name of Jesus Christ, our covenant-keeper, Amen.
1
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on August 10, 2025.