The covenant with Abraham in the context of Africa

Abstract

The Covenant of Grace is God's way of exercising his sovereign rule in personal fellowship with humankind. There are certain aspects of Old Testament belief which are unique to it, and which provide the basis for covenant fellowship. These aspects include the personal nature of God, his sovereign rule over history, and the fact that humankind was created in God's image, although it is by nature in flight from God. On this basis it becomes possible for God to seek humankind, to elect a people for Himself and to conclude a covenant with them which requires faith, love, fellowship and obedience. African religion in its different forms does not provide such a basis, since God is either impersonal, or remote, and not interested in the doings of humankind except in so far as they might threaten the cosmic order. The relationship between God and man is automatic, whether He is conceived of as Creator, or as the first ancestor, or in­ discriminately, as the source of energy.