The Marriage Covenant

The Jews made a covenant with God at Mount Sinai. God gave them His law. The Jews count that there are 613 commandments in the law. They covenanted to keep all of them.

"And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do." - Exodus 24:3 KJV

The Jews look at this covenant as a marriage covenant with God. Just as the bride says, “I do”, the Jewish people said, “We do”.

God recognizes this covenant as His marriage covenant with the Jewish people. In Jeremiah 31:31-34, God refers to the covenant He made when He brought them out of Egypt and refers to Himself as their husband.

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

“Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." - Jeremiah 31:31-34 KJV

Here God speaks of making a new covenant with Israel. We know the new covenant to be the gospel.

While the covenant of the law is God’s justice, His covenant of the gospel is a covenant of mercy. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34).

Just as the covenant of the law was a marriage covenant, the covenant of the gospel is also a marriage covenant. Those that have obeyed the gospel become part of the bride of Christ.