Holiness is
being set aside for sacred use, standing apart from sin and evil. Holiness is
the characteristic of God, especially the third person of the trinity – the
Holy Spirit. Holiness is that mysterious “Otherness” – that what makes a
difference, – that which sets us apart from the world. David asked the Lord for
one thing only: living in the house of God and seeing his beauty in the
covenant community Psalm 27:4. The people of God serve willingly, arrayed in
holy garments, or in the beauties of holiness Psalm 110:3. This is not only
about living differently, but also about publicly taking a stand against sin:

– Abortion

– Child
abuse

– Homosexuality

– Evils
of war

– Greed
and corruption

– Lack
of care for the elderly, the disabled etc

You are the
light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to
see. Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let
it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to
see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Matt.5:14-16

Covenant is
a ”coming-together” – the covenant community is about a strong sense of
togetherness

· The
end to animosity

· The
end to alienation

· The
end to a self-centred life

The New
Covenant creates a community of reconciliation and forgiveness. In a covenant
relationship we are reconciling people to God and to one another. Our business
is connecting people – to the reality of God as seen in the covenant community.

(more…)

The three
persons in God are always actively working to carry out the divine purpose, but
they never do anything alone – on their own! The Father, Son and Holy Spirit
always work together – with the same purpose, – as they are fully involved in
each other. The Divine Way: Let us make – in our image – in our likeness – a
community to represent us! The human way: I want it my way! I did it my way!
The divine way is always the way of covenant community: Let us! Only a covenant
community can represent God properly – in fullness! Togetherness is the
hallmark of the covenant community! If there is no deep sense of togetherness
we don’t have a covenant community, but only a human organisation!

Local
expressions of covenant must take place on many levels in house-churches,
city-churches, regional-churches etc. The church consists of people standing in
voluntary covenant with God, and is making commitments to God. The church also
consists of people making and expressing covenant together on a lateral or
mutual basis, and are committing themselves to one another.

Covenant is
by its nature local, it is an agreement among a particular, visible group of
believers. Where there is no covenanting community there is no church of God,
for the church is a covenant community.

Community
lies at the heart of the church which is people united in the new covenant. The
church is manifested in a visible, local group of believers who covenant to be
the local expression of the community of God, – a kingdom community living by
kingdom principles. Covenant transforms a loosely related group of individuals
into a community of committed people. The Holy Spirit is the facilitator of
covenant life, he is joining us together and teaching us to live and work
together to the glory of God.

The
marriage covenant confirms a relationship to last for the entire life (Romans
7:2). The family is a covenant relationship of greatest importance to any
healthy community. The family is the basic building block of the covenant
community at large. If the families don’t function, the covenant community
can’t function properly (1 Tim.3:4-5).

(more…)

The
ultimate basis for our understanding of the covenant community lies in it’s
relationship to the nature of the Triune God himself. The Father loves the Son.
The Son loves the Father. That spirit of love between the Father and the Son is
the Holy Spirit. As covenant people we are to show forth the divine reality
which is love. The new commandment of the New Covenant:

So now I am
giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you
should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that
you are my disciples.

Love is
what binds us all together in perfect harmony. Col.3:14

For God
himself has taught you to love one another. 1Thess.4:9

The two
creation narratives in Genesis 1 and 2 indicate that the image of God is a
shared, corporate reality. It is fully present only in community. Humans were
created as social beings, created for covenant community. Like we are told that
the woman was created to deliver man from his isolation and loneliness. It was
not good for man to be alone. We should not be surprised that this is the case
and that ultimately the image of God should focus on community. Throughout all
eternity God is a covenant community, that is, the fellowship of Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, who comprise the triune God.

The
creation of humanity in the image of God, therefore, can mean nothing less than,
that humans express the relational dynamic of the God whose representation we
are called to be. Not the individual man, not even man and woman together, but
humanity as a whole is designed to be the fully developed image of God. In
other words, each person can be related to the image of God only within the
context of life in community with others. Only in covenant with others can we
show forth what God is like, for God is the covenant community of love.

In what
sense was the image of God present in Adam? It could not have been fully
present for he was alone and lacking a partner. God is never one single person,
he is always one in three and three in one, as we have seen. When God had
created Eve and presented her to Adam, he became more human and the image of
God became more present. Likewise the fact of the Fall shows us that the first
people not had become what they were intended to be, otherwise their choice in
the garden would have been different. In other words we may say that even that
because humans are created in the image of God they have the potential to
distort that image or to let that image be developed and become more visible.

The
apostolic teaching of the New Testament clearly supports this idea, that each
human person is potentially a participant in the one destiny or purpose God has
for us, in sharing the reality to which the concept of the divine image points.

God’s
intention for humanity was that we should respond to his love by loving him and
respond to his commands by obeying because of love. This is the way humans can
experience the true life of fellowship with God for which we were called into
existence. Therefore humans can find no permanent home in this world but are
dependent on God for ultimate fulfilment. God made everything beautiful from
the beginning. He also set eternity in the hearts of men; and they will find no
rest in the temporal world (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Man was created for a special covenant
love relationship with God and to enjoy fellowship with him.