A student commented that "covenant" meant God forming an alliance with people. This is a good way to think of it - God allies himself with those in covenant with Him. That alliance is dependent on God being a trustworthy ally and on actually trusting God. The trouble comes when we don't trust God to be "in command" of the alliance and reject His commandments. To whom then are we allied? Whose commandments do we obey? If not God, whom do we follow? I cannot act apart from my relationship with others; who are these others? Are they allies or enemies of God?
If one claims there is no God, then how are alliances made? Who can we trust? Who is in command? Someone must initiate an alliance - such initiation is always made by someone other than oneself for one is born into a community of already existing alliances. As one matures, that person accepts or rejects such alliances. The Church purports to be a trustworthy community in which one may find full fellowship of like-minded allies of God.
To whom have you allied yourself and why? You need not answer me, just yourself (and, from my point of view, God). Christianity claims that following Christ is the way of being allied with God who was pleased to accept the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as the completion of God's OLD covenant (DO WHAT THE LAW COMMANDS OR DIE). In the resurrected Christ Jesus we find ourselves in a NEW covenant that is summed up in the commandment to completely love and live: Love the LORD God with all one's heart, soul, mind and strength. Love one's neighbor as oneself.
Christian ethics is the manner of considering how to live out alliance with God - that is, being in covenant with God in Christ Jesus.
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