Men could use their rationality to reason about God and converse with God, even to “argue” and “bargain” with God by faith. Examples include Abraham (Genesis 18:22-33), Jacob (Genesis 32:26-28), Moses (Exodus 32:11-14), Peter (Acts 10:9-16), and Paul (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). This is not a feature of the prophetic office. An ordinary disciple like Ananias could protest the risen Lord’s instruction about Paul until the Lord explained himself (Acts 9:10-16). In fact, a heathen woman could seemingly contradict an explicit restriction on Jesus’ mission to obtain what she wanted from him (Matthew 15:24-28). She did not have a covenant, but she had faith. This made her infinitely superior to those who claim to be Christians, and who boast about the emphasis on the covenant in their theology, but who live as those without a covenant — without benefits and without miracles.

They keep saying, “the covenant of the Lord, the covenant of the Lord, the covenant of the Lord,” but they do not believe what this covenant promises (Jeremiah 7:4, 8:8). They attack the good news that Jesus proclaimed, a good news that came with spiritual and material benefits, healing, deliverance, prophecy, and all kinds of miracles (Matthew 6:33, Matthew 8:17, Matthew 11:5, Luke 4:18-19, John 14:12, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:17-18). Thus the covenant becomes a witness against them, because their theology confesses its existence, but perverts its substance and refuses its power. They are like those who suppress the knowledge of God in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18), only that they are more guilty, since this knowledge is in explicit and detailed written form, and not only an innate intuition. Listen! If you have a “covenant theology” but do not believe what the covenant says, then you should shut up about the covenant. If you mention it, it will be counted against you. Among others, cessationists have no right to say the word (Jeremiah 23:33-38).

There is no hint that the angels can address God in the way that men can. If there is one who tried, that angel could only be Satan. Any angel who steps out of line is damned. There is no forgiveness or redemption. But for men, somehow they do not act out of place if they do something like this in faith and not in defiance (Psalm 8:4-5, see NLT or textual note on verse 5). In fact, it appears that God is rather pleased with such interaction when the men speak this way in faith. The angels are said to be servants, not only of God, but they are servants to the heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). In contrast, men are never told to serve angels. Christians are said to be co-heirs of the God-Man himself (Romans 8:17), a place that no angel would dare hope to share. We are not even sub-heirs, but co-heirs — heirs on the same level with Christ.

To which of the angels did God ever say, “Sit at my right hand” (Hebrews 1:13)? But Christians are seated together with Christ at the right hand of God (Ephesians 2:6). If all things are under his feet, then all things are under our feet (Ephesians 1:22). We have the authority of Christ right now in this world. The ones who boast of their “covenant theology” and “historic orthodoxy” do not teach this. I have noticed that “covenant” theologians and believers know the least about the covenant. They replace the real thing with their complicated and technical studies, but heirs of the covenant should enjoy the benefits of the covenant (Luke 13:16). If they are true experts of the covenant, they would demonstrate the throne-power of God. But they do not live out a fraction of its power, or any of its power, and they attack those who enter into it by faith. They use scholarship as subterfuge. They do not teach the covenant. They do not even preach the gospel.