In covenant communities, there is accountability everywhere. Covenant makes everyone accountable to someone else. There are checks and balances all over the place. If the man at the top of the covenantal structure is not accountable to any institution, he will soon become a tyrant. If the man at the bottom is not accountable to the man above him, he will soon become an anarchist.
Covenantal relationships are relationships of representation and rebellion messes all that up. If those who mediate a covenant act outside the command of their leader, everybody loses. Adam sinned and caused the whole human race to suffer.
If the covenant community, such as the church, rebels against its God-appointed leaders, not only does the church suffer, the whole world suffers. The anarchy in the church prevents the spreading of the Kingdom of God to the world. In Deuteronomy 1, God leads Israel to the promise land to possess it but “they rebelled against the command of the Lord” and wouldn’t go in. The consequences of this act of disobedience were catastrophic!
They ended up wandering around the desert for forty years and worse, Canaan was not brought under the Word of God. The world was not subdued because of Israel’s rebellion.
Accountability, or the lack thereof, brings consequences for everyone. Christ’s visible sovereignty in the world will not be seen until it is seen in the covenant community, in Christ’s body, the church. Until God’s people learn to submit to their leaders, those they are accountable to, they will not be allowed to exercise dominion in the world. Judgment begins in the House of God. Submit to Christ by submitting to your leaders. Obey the command of the Lord by obeying them as they obey their leaders who obey the Supreme Leader.
Pastor Scott
