About

Our name, Covenant Bible Church, combines three key Bible concepts which illustrate who we are, and what we are about.

Covenant

God reveals Himself as primary (ultimate) reality, most notably in His works of creation and providence, and in His word of truth, the Bible. God is self-existent, eternal Being: a personal, communicating, invisible spirit, who exists as three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is the paradigm of all moral excellencies. As such His word and promises are absolutely reliable and dependable. God is pure Being - independent, self sufficient and self sustaining. God is in a category of One: He is very different than anyone or anything else, transcendently greater than all that He has made. God is infinite, all powerful, present everywhere and knows everything, sovereignly governing all His creation - including mankind - to fulfill His good will and purposes. God relates to His created image-bearing human creatures who are part of secondary derived reality, by means of three overarching, interrelated covenants. (N.B. Covenant is a relationship that is stronger than an agreement or modern contract, often featuring strong sanctions to motivate covenant compliance). God's status and standing as Creator, Sustainer and Lord, implicitly requires the respect, worship and adoration of all His creation.

The Covenant of Creation (or Works) is the first biblical covenant recorded. It is referenced briefly in Genesis 2 where the original relationship between God and mankind (represented by Adam, the first person God created) is outlined. God promised to Adam and Eve (Adam's wife and the first woman) that they would continue to experience the magnificent, abundant, fulfilling life God had created them to enjoy on one condition: ongoing obedience to their loving, holy Lord. Failure to comply would result in death. Enticed by God's enemy, Satan, the first humans disobeyed God, and experienced the threatened sanction, death. Instantly mankind's constitution was changed, as the federal representatives of humanity became sin dominated rebels. Mankind was now separated by sin from the One who made us to live in a close, intimate relationship with Himself. The "life" of God was lost as mankind died spiritually. What remained was something less - a "life" more or less equivalent to biological existence, a new reality that continued until ended by physical death. For humanity, Adam's covenant violation had major consequences: sin; the loss of spiritual life; a limitation on physical life and, because sinful people were no longer fit to remain in God's special holy paradise sanctuary, God drove the human race out into the wilderness world beyond Eden. The covenant consequences of death were passed on to Adam and Eve's offspring. And so today, every new human being enters a world that is now characterised by bondage to sin, death and Satan. The problem is made greater by the fact that sinful humans do not recognise this bondage, or that the world is broken.

The Covenant of Grace is God's very good news communicated immediately after mankind's tragic fall into sin. In amazing grace and undeserved mercy God initiated another covenant - the Covenant of Grace - also between Himself and now fallen humanity. God promised that He would defeat sin (and the evil it spawns), death (spiritual and physical) and Satan by means of a redeemer whom He would one day provide, who would restore what was lost in the Fall, to all who responded positively to God's provision. The outworking of this covenant is a major theme of the Bible story as the Covenant of Grace progressively unfolds in the Noahic, Abrahamic, Old, Davidic and New covenants.

The Covenant of Redemption provides the context for the Covenants of Works and Grace. God established this inter-trinitarian agreement between the three persons of the Godhead before He created the world. The Father elected to redeem (rescue) some of lost fallen humanity from their bondage to Satan, sin and death. The Son committed to come from heaven to earth, become a human being, so that He might be God's agent of this promised redemption. The Son also fulfilled the role of a second Adam i.e. keeping the obligations of the human partner in the broken Covenant of Works. The Spirit committed to applying the redemption won by the Son to the elect.

Two millennia ago, Jesus Christ - the Son of God and son of Adam - came to earth in human form as God's promised redeemer or Messiah. Whilst here, Christ made atonement for the sin of God's people in His death on the cross, thereby turning aside divine wrath and God's just condemnation against them because of their sin. Jesus also perfectly complied with the human requirements of the Covenant of Works, earning for those He came to redeem the restoration of the "life of God" lost when Adam plunged mankind into a state of sin, rebellion and death. The benefits won by Christ are applied to God's elect people by the Holy Spirit across history. God redeems them by regenerating them to new spiritual life as they are united and spiritually connected to Christ, their redeemer and Lord.

Bible

The Bible claims to be the word of God in written form, validating this claim with many persuasive proofs, not least of which is the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, who exactly fulfilled countless Old Testament predictions about His coming, His life and His mission. Because the Bible is the revelation of God's truth to mankind, it is absolutely trustworthy and dependable, addressing all the ultimate issues that trouble us in our more reflective moments i.e. Is there a God? If so, what is He like and can He be known, and how? Who am I? What are human beings? What is our origin? Why is this important? Why do we exist? What are we here for? Why are we on a ceaseless quest for something undefinable? Can lasting satisfaction ever be found? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is our destiny? Why do we die? What happens to us after death? Why is the world in such a mess? Can it be fixed, and if so, how and by whom? Can true and lasting hope be found? Why do humans struggle to get along? Is real peace possible? Are we the problem, or something else, or both? Foundational to all these issues are two key questions: What is truth? And who determines it? Is it God (Creator) or His fallen creatures (humans)?

From beginning to end, the Bible reveals the history of mankind in four grand epochs or stages: creation, fall, redemption and restoration. Humans were created as the apex of God's very good world, but fell into a state of sin. Since then, God has been gradually unfolding His redemptive plan via the Covenant of Grace, gathering a people for Himself, as He creates a new spiritual humanity out of the residue of fallen sinful mankind through Jesus Christ. After completing the Father's mission on earth, the Son returned to heaven, where He was installed as God's appointed King, now invisibly governing everything. One day Christ promised to return to earth to conclude God's plan and purposes. When He returns, He will establish a new renovated heaven and earth, cleansing this world of all that is evil, defiling and unholy, including unrepentant sinners.

The Bible is the "book of books" and the world's best selling book for a reason. It is what it claims to be: God's powerful word! The Bible reveals the truth that God's lost human creatures need to know, if they would be restored back into a right relationship with God. Because of this, Satan works tirelessly to "blind the eyes" and "harden the hearts" of people everywhere, trying to keep them in ignorance of God's life changing message of hope, renewal and restoration in the gospel of Christ. But he is not strong enough to defeat God, or His purposes to redeem His people. We live in the era between the 1st and 2nd comings of Jesus, the Christ. It is the era of gospel proclamation. As the gospel message is heralded, the Holy Spirit enables people to respond by repenting of their sin to God, and believing by faith that their sin and guilt is forgiven through Christ. New believers are adopted into God's family - the Kingdom of God - to live in the presence of the Creator and Sustainer of the universe forevermore. God regenerates lost sinful people, by His Spirit, through His word, giving them a new desire to know and follow Him.

"For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable" (Hebrews 4:12-13 New Living Translation).

Church

Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20 NLT).

In one sense the church has always existed, not as a building, but as the body of God's redeemed people. It comprises people who have been called out of the world by God, to live as His people. But it also includes other people. In the words of the early church father, Augustine, the church exists as two entities: the invisible church - all God's redeemed and rescued people and the visible church - comprising both the invisible church and others, who are not redeemed. Thus at the local level, the church is a mixture: those who profess faith in Jesus Christ and genuinely possess such faith; together with those who, though they may profess faith and be part of the church, do not personally know Christ, as either their Saviour or Lord.

Christ is the head of His church. Those who are His sheep, recognise and respond to the voice of their shepherd, humbly serving Christ with thankful hearts for all that He has done for them.

Rather like a life-boat station on a dangerous coastline, Christ calls His church to rescue God's elect people by announcing the good news of the gospel of Jesus: the remedy He has provided for lost sinners, to enable them to escape God's wrath and condemnation against them because of their sin and unrighteousness. The function of Christ's church is multi-faceted and diverse, but two key tasks are: to evangelise (announce the gospel good news to others), and to strengthen and build up Christ's body by teaching His disciples who come to Him the truth of God's word.

Historically, churches have responded to Christ's commission in different ways: some have isolated themselves from their culture, operating as a safe refuge for those who claim to be God's people; others have assimilated themselves so thoroughly to their culture, that they have ceased to be Christ's "salt and light" in the world; still others seek to live faithfully as the people of God, and by their winsome, attractive, distinctly different lives, to permeate their culture as people who first and foremost, live in willing submission to Christ, their King, helping to advance His kingdom in the locations where God has placed them.