Series/The Covenant
The Covenant
12sessions
The thread that runs through every page of Scripture.
Covenant is the Bible's primary organizing structure. Understanding how God makes and keeps covenants, from Noah to Abraham to Moses to David to Christ, makes the whole story of Scripture click into place in a way that nothing else quite does.
Who it is for
- People who feel the Bible is disconnected stories with no clear thread
- New believers or anyone wanting a foundation for biblical theology
- Anyone who wants to understand how the Old and New Testaments fit together
What you will take away
- Trace covenant from creation to Christ
- Understand how promise and fulfillment work across both Testaments
- Read the whole Bible as one unified story
The sessions
What Covenant Means
The concept of covenant: what it is, why it matters, and how it works.
- 1What is a Covenant?After tracing God's covenants from Noah to Christ, this session asks what covenant membership means on an ordinary Monday. Peter's four titles are unpacked from the Greek: chosen race (a corporate family, not isolated individuals), royal priesthood (every believer represents God to neighbours and neighbours to God, including at work), holy nation (set apart for usefulness, with citizenship above country), and treasured possession (bought by blood). Mission flows from identity, proclaimed more by conduct than speech. Romans 12 then supplies the pattern: mercy precedes command, the whole person becomes a living sacrifice, and worship moves from temple to entire life. Conformity and transformation are contrasted, with the renewed mind as the means. The text breaks off mid-sentence on the New Covenant.
- 2The Noahic CovenantWeek two of a twelve-part study on the biblical covenants stays close to the text of Genesis 8:20 through 9:17. Noah builds an altar, and God speaks in His heart, vowing never again to strike down every living creature, the same human wickedness that brought the flood now becoming the ground of mercy. The stable rhythm of seedtime and harvest is read as daily covenant faithfulness. Then come the terms of the new world: animals now fearing humans, meat permitted but blood withheld, and the image of God upheld as the reason human life may not be taken lightly. The covenant extends to every creature, unconditionally, sealed by a warrior's bow hung up in the clouds as God's own reminder to Himself.
Covenant in the Old Testament
Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David: four covenants that build toward one promise.
- 3The Abrahamic Covenant, pt. 1Part one of a study on the Abrahamic covenant, set in week three of a twelve-week series on the biblical covenants. The teaching begins with the covenant ceremony of Genesis 15, then steps back to place Abram in his world: a moon-worshipping city, a family that served other gods, a barren wife, and no qualifications to speak of. Attention then turns to Genesis 12, where the emphatic Hebrew command to go is issued without a destination. The sevenfold promise is examined promise by promise, with weight given to the five occurrences of "bless" answering the five curses of Genesis 3 to 11. The text ends mid-exposition, having covered the first five promises.
- 4The Abrahamic Covenant, pt. 2Genesis 17 finds Abraham at ninety-nine, thirteen years after the covenant ceremony of Genesis 15, and Duncan works through the chapter section by section. God appears as El Shaddai and calls Abraham to walk before Him and be blameless, which is read as a summons to live up to an existing relationship rather than a condition for entering one. The promises expand to nations and kings, and above all to God giving Himself. Circumcision is examined for its placement, its blood, its eighth day, and the wordplay of being cut off for refusing to be cut, with Romans 4:11 guarding against works. Household and infant inclusion, Sarah's renaming, Abraham's laughter, the blessing of Ishmael set against the covenant with Isaac, and Abraham's same-day obedience round it out.
- 5The Mosaic Covenant, pt. 1Week five of a twelve-week study through the biblical covenants opens the Mosaic covenant by working carefully through Exodus 19. The argument turns on sequence: God carries Israel out of Egypt on eagles' wings and brings them to Himself before any law is spoken, so the conditional "if" of verse 5 governs how a redeemed people live, not how they get redeemed. The Hebrew terms are unpacked one by one, segullah as a king's personal treasure, a kingdom of priests mediating to the nations, a holy nation set apart for God's purposes. Then come the three days of consecration, the death boundaries around the mountain, and the thunder, fire and swelling shofar. The piece raises but does not resolve the question of how a holy God dwells with unholy people, leaving the theophany mid-scene.
- 6The Mosaic Covenant, pt. 2Working through Exodus 24 and 32, this teaching sets Israel's covenant ratification beside its immediate collapse. The invitation up the mountain, the twelve standing stones, the written Book of the Covenant, and the blood dashed on both altar and people are unpacked with attention to the Hebrew and to ancient Near Eastern treaty practice, including the astonishing meal where seventy-four representatives see God and live. Then comes the golden calf: the people's demand for a visible god, Aaron's weak compliance, the pagan revelry, and God's disowning language, "your people, whom you brought up." The study closes as Moses begins to intercede, appealing to God's ownership, His reputation among the Egyptians, and His oath to Abraham, with God relenting.
- 7The Davidic Covenant, pt. 1Week seven of a twelve-part covenant series opens with David secure in Jerusalem, troubled that he lives in cedar while the Ark sits in a tent. Nathan approves the temple plan, then God overturns it. The teaching works carefully through God's answer: He never asked for a house, He has always been a travelling God, and David's warfare disqualifies him from building a place of peace. The reversal comes through the repeated Hebrew word bayit, where David offers architecture and God promises ancestry. Also treated are the father-son language, the discipline of individual kings, and hesed that will not depart as it did from Saul. The piece closes with Psalm 89's lament over an empty throne, holding the tension open rather than resolving it.
- 8The Davidic Covenant, pt. 2Psalm 89 opens in worship, rehearsing God's sworn oath to David in the strongest possible terms, then breaks in half at verse 38 with a string of accusations aimed directly at God: you have cast off, renounced, defiled the crown in the dust. Austin Duncan lets that tension stand rather than smoothing it, arguing the psalmist's protest is not blasphemy but covenant faith holding God to His own words, ending in praise without resolution. The historical fall of Jerusalem follows: Zedekiah blinded, his sons killed, the temple burned, with the small mercy shown to Jehoiachin as a flickering sign the line still breathes. Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ezekiel then speak of a righteous Branch, a shoot from the stump, and one shepherd.
Covenant Fulfilled in Christ
The New Covenant arrives: how Jesus fulfills and transforms everything that came before.
- 9The New Covenant, pt. 1Beginning in the rubble of sixth century BC Jerusalem, Duncan argues that exile exposed the real problem: not a defective law but an incapable human heart. Jeremiah 31:31-34 answers with four promises, law written internally, universal personal knowledge of God, permanent forgiveness, and a covenant whose success rests wholly on God's action. Ezekiel 36 adds the sequence of cleansing, a heart of flesh replacing stone, and the indwelling Spirit that enables obedience, all for the sake of God's name. Jesus then takes the Passover cup of redemption and names it the new covenant in His own blood, mediator and sacrifice at once. Hebrews 8 explains why the older administration is now outdated rather than abolished.
- 10The New Covenant, pt. 2Starting from the Emmaus road and Luke 24, where Jesus treats the whole Old Testament as testimony about himself, this teaching argues that Christ is the interpretive key to Scripture and, following 2 Corinthians 1:20, the "yes" to every divine promise. Each covenant is then taken in turn: Noah's covenant of preservation fulfilled in the Christ who holds all things together and shelters us as the true ark; Abraham's promised seed identified with Christ in Galatians 3, bringing Gentiles into the blessing; the Mosaic law satisfied through Christ's active obedience and his bearing of the curse; David's throne secured in the reigning, returning King; and Jeremiah's new covenant inaugurated at the Last Supper, applied by the Spirit, and sealed by a single finished sacrifice.
Living as Covenant People
What covenant means for life in the church and the world today.
- 11Living in Covenant Today, pt. 1After tracing God's covenants from Noah to Christ, the question becomes practical: what does covenant membership mean on Monday morning? Peter's charter for the church answers first. Chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, treasured possession, all of them corporate titles that resist individualistic faith and put every believer, not just clergy, into priestly work at the desk and the sink. Mission then flows from identity, proclaimed more by honorable conduct than by speech. Romans 12 supplies the second half: eleven chapters of mercy come before any command, the living sacrifice gives the whole self while still walking around, and transformation is something God does to a mind renewed by Scripture rather than something we manufacture. Ends inside the renewed mind, with more to follow.
- 12Living in Covenant Today, pt. 2Beginning with Genesis 15, where God alone walks between the pieces while Abraham sleeps, this closing session argues that covenant faithfulness rests on God's nature rather than our performance. Deuteronomy 7:9 and 2 Timothy 2:13 anchor the claim that God cannot deny himself. A brisk review then walks back through the Noahic covenant of continuation, the Abrahamic promise Paul reads as the gospel in advance, the Mosaic covenant where grace precedes law, the Davidic dynasty that survived exile as hope, and Jeremiah's New Covenant of inner transformation. Romans 15:8-13 shows Gentile inclusion as the original plan, and Hebrews 13:20-21 grounds present obedience in the risen Great Shepherd and the blood of the eternal covenant.
How to use it
- Start at Session 1. The series builds sequentially
- Look for the repeated elements in each covenant: parties, promises, conditions, signs
- As you go, keep asking: how does this covenant change or build on what came before?
- By the end, read Hebrews 8 to 10 alongside your notes for a New Testament summary
