TRANSFORMED BY GOD
New Covenant life and ministry
By David G. Peterson. IVP. 192 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 1 844 745 678
David Peterson starts with God’s promise of a new covenant in Jeremiah 31 and goes on to present us with a thorough examination of how that ‘both enables and obliges obedience’ in God’s people.
Chapter 1 sets out the continuity and discontinuity with the ‘old’ covenant, and subsequent chapters demonstrate the fulfilment in God’s New Testament people.
Peterson shows from Luke / Acts how, in Jesus, salvation is not just a legal manoeuvre, but a living reality — ‘transformative rather than forensic’. The eschatological gift of the Spirit not only equips believers for service, but transforms their relationship with God. The exposition of Jeremiah 33 in Hebrews underlines the provisional nature of Judaism in contrast to the sufficiency of Jesus’s sacrifice.
The Holy Spirit writes the law inwardly, fulfilling the Old Testament call for circumcision of our hearts. What the law could not do, the Spirit does in us: ‘the motivation, the pattern and the empowerment for change’. Peterson finishes by setting out the benefits of the new covenant in the life of believers from John’s Gospel and letters, emphasising what he calls the ‘interiority’ of the new covenant, fulfilling God’s promise that all God’s people will know him personally.
There is a minimum of practical application in this book, but I found it an immensely encouraging overview of how the Holy Spirit transforms the lives of believers. The lucid explanation of Hebrew and Greek words is particularly enlightening.
Perhaps the book is best summed up by John Bunyan’s little rhyme: ‘“Run, John, run!” the law commands; but gives me neither feet nor hands. Better news the gospel brings: it bids me fly and gives me wings.’
Hugh Thomson,
pastor, City Church, Birmingham
