I had a dream last night, and in it I was struck by the thought that to believe you have a contract with God you most likely believe yourself his equal in some way.
Why would you need a contract with God if he loves us?
edit: Perhaps I should clarify that I'm referring to a group of people who view God's love as some kind of business deal, a singling out from the rest of humanity for special treatment.
PS I also don't think it's the same God that I percieve.
A covenant. A promise. God loves us, and He is promising our salvation in exchange for us trying to uphold His law.
Wrong - that was the first covenant - and man specifically Israel demonstrated over and over they they could not keep their part of the covenant.
So a New Covenant was required, an unconditional covenant, of which Jesus is the mediator and we do NOTHING! Why because if we had to then we too would fail, just as Israel did.
Spelling edit
I stand corrected. God even tried expanding the first covenant in the OT to some of the other kingdoms but they failed too, so 2nd covenant was necessary as you said
What nations do you think he extended it to please? There were always 'strangers' with Israel but they lived with them as part of their community.
I recall reading in the OT (been about two years since I read thru it cover to cover) that occasionally God would get frustrated with the Jews and essentially said he would expand to anyone who would keep his commandments.
To be fair I'm not a Chapter and verse guy but I distinctly recall reading this and imo it set the stage for Jesus because even those other nations/people would eventually fail and God needed some way to bring them into the fold as it were. So I lack sauce but I could provide it given enough time.