“This God cannot be known coldly, speculatively, or abstractly. Knowing God, for Israel in the exodus, and for God’s people in every age, is not a question of philosophical definitions of essence or being. He can be known only as all persons are known: in the existentially relevant warp and woof of historical existence, and only as he gives himself to be known” (33).
“While the covenant rests on God’s sovereign monergistic act, it is also two-sided or bilateral. The covenant involves mutuality, for by its very nature a covenant is a relationship. There is always an appropriate response to God’s initiative. We hear and obey his command. The covenant brings or calls its parts into a committed relationship in which both have obligations and responsibilities. This interplay between divine initiation and human response is consistent throughout the covenantal story of Scripture” (36).
