INTRODUCTION
The Powerful
Good News of
the New Covenant
Not one human soul will enter the pearly gates into the New Jerusalem
except as a child of Abraham!
That doesn’t mean literal Jews only (many of them will repent,
thank God!), but when God promised fantastic blessings to Abraham He
made it plain that “in Isaac shall your seed be called” (Genesis
21:12). That is, his “seed” will not be literal descendants through
Ishmael, the old-covenant son of the second wife, but all who have
Abraham’s new covenant faith. Ishmael came “according to the
flesh,” but “the seed” will come through Isaac, the one who was
“the child of promise,” “born according to the Spirit”
(Galatians 4:28, 29).
This means that all of God’s promises to His people come through
the righteousness by faith that Abraham experienced (seven times in
Romans 4 he is identified as “our father”).
What is the new covenant?
God's promises to Abraham (and therefore to us as well) are “the
new covenant.” The first step in understanding the new covenant is to
see that when God makes a covenant, it is always a promise on His part.
Paul tells us that God’s “covenant” with Abraham was His
“promise” to him (Galatians 3:17).
Abraham the unbeliever became “the father of us all” when he
chose to believe those promises of God. “It is of faith that it might
be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed
[that is, all of us], not only to those who are of the law [natural
descendants, literal Jews], but also to those who are of the faith of
Abraham, who is the father of us all, … the father of many nations”
(Romans 4:6-18).
We read those promises in Genesis 12:
“‘[1] I will make you a great nation; [2] I will bless you [3]
and make your name great; [4] and you shall be a blessing. [5] I will
bless those who bless you, [6] and I will curse him who curses you; and
[7] in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (vss. 2,
3). The promises were renewed again in chapter 15 when God called him
out of his tent one night and asked him to count the stars: “‘So
shall your descendants be’” (vs. 5).
As one reads the entire story through chapters 12-19, the surprising
fact emerges that God never asked Abraham to make any promise in return!
God’s “new covenant” was totally one-sided. Abraham did the only
right thing he could do when he responded with faith: “He believed in
the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (vs. 6). That
is all that God has asked us to do: believe His promise to us.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life” (John 3:16). Those who worry that salvation by grace through
faith alone won’t produce enough works need to remember that true
faith always “works by love” (Ephesians 2:8, 9; Galatians 5:6).
The unique nature of God's covenant.
God’s covenant is always a one-sided promise on His part, because
He knows that our nature is so weak and sinful that we cannot keep our
promises to Him. When we make promises to Him and then inevitably break
them later, we feel down on ourselves, “I-am-no-good,”
“I-am-not-cut-out-to-go-to-heaven,” etc. Note how Paul speaks of
God’s “covenant” and “promise” as being identical: “The law
… cannot annul the covenant … that it should make the promise of no
effect” (Galatians 3:17).
The old covenant “gives birth to bondage,” says Paul (Galatians
4:24). Some people in church even give up in despair, and many go
through their so-called “Christian experience” under a constant
cloud of discouragement.
But the confusion about the two covenants can be resolved very
simply. The problem concerns “the law” that was given at Mt. Sinai;
does that law alter the “new covenant” that was the straight-forward
promise of God to Abraham and thus to us? Paul was probably the first
Israelite who clearly understood the function of the law and of the two
covenants in the light of Israel’s up and down, discouraging Old
Testament history.
In several simple steps in Galatians Paul
clarifies the confusion:
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“The blessing of Abraham” is to
come on everyone, “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith” (Galatians 3:14). Not one human soul is left out.
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A “will” or covenant that anyone
makes (even God’s!) cannot be annulled or added to once the
testator dies (vs. 15). In God's “will” or “covenant” He
promised (and then swore to it with a solemn oath) to give
Abraham the whole earth “for an everlasting possession” (Genesis
17:8). This had to mean after the resurrection, for he could never
inherit it that way unless he also was given everlasting life. But
since only “righteousness” can “dwell” in the “new
earth” (2 Peter 3:13), the promise had to include making
righteous those who believe God's promise. Therefore the new
covenant has to be the essence of righteousness by faith.
-
When we make a covenant, it is always a
contract. You do so-and-so, and then I will do-so-and-so. But God
never makes such bargains with us humans. His new covenant is always
an out-and-out promise on His part.
-
God explicitly said that His promise
was made to Abraham’s descendant (singular, “Seed”) “who is
Christ.” We are not left out, but we come into the picture only as
being “in Christ” by adoption through faith (vs. 16).
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Since God made His solemn promise to
Abraham (which He sealed with an oath), nothing under heaven could
change an iota so that the giving of the ten commandments on Mt.
Sinai 430 years after Abraham’s time could not be an extra feature
put into the “new covenant.” It could not invalidate in the
least God’s one-sided sworn promise to him (vs. 17).
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“If the inheritance is of the law, it
is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise”
(vs. 18). The new covenant doesn’t specialize in telling us what
to do, but it tells us what to believe.
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Then Paul asks the logical question
everybody asks: why then did God speak the ten commandments from
Mt. Sinai? It was a terror-inducing demonstration with
lightning, an earthquake, fire, and a death boundary (vs. 19). God
didn’t need to frighten Abraham out of his wits like that! All He
had to do for Abraham was to write the ten commandments upon his
heart as being so much Good News; then Abraham found his greatest
joy in obedience. Why not do the same for Israel when they were
gathered at Mt. Sinai on their way to the Promised Land? That would
have solved all the problems that Israel had to meet ever
afterwards.
-
Paul explains the reason why the law
had to be written in stone: “the law … was added because of
transgressions, till the Seed [Christ] should come to whom the
promise was made” (vs. 19; the word “added” in the original
has the meaning of emphasized, underlined, but not the idea of
changing God’s “will” made out to Abraham). But what were the
“transgressions” that made this new “emphasizing” or
“underlining” necessary?
The forming of the old covenant is the answer.
Before we get to the fire and earthquake of Mt. Sinai and the writing
of the law on stone in Exodus 20, we find that Israel had already made
the mistake in chapter 19 of forming an “old covenant.” They wanted
to substitute it for God’s new or everlasting covenant. The story is
fascinating, for we can see ourselves in it.
When the people gathered at Mt. Sinai, God told Moses to renew to
them the same “new covenant’ promises He had made to their father
Abraham: “‘Tell the children of Israel: “You have seen what I did
to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you
to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My
covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all
people”’” (vs. 5).
When He said “My covenant” He was referring to the same covenant
He had made with Abraham —His one-sided promise. “Keep My
covenant,” He said; that is, cherish it. The Hebrew verb shamar
is the same word used in Genesis 2:15 where we read that God put Adam in
the Garden of Eden “to tend and keep it.” It couldn't make
sense to say that Adam was to “obey” the Garden! There’s a play on
words in what God said to Israel: If you will “treasure” My promise
to Abraham, I will “treasure you above all peoples.” For us to
believe as did Abraham makes God very happy!
And the Hebrew verb shamea translated as “obey My
voice” is rendered in the Old Testament as “hear” 760 times, as
“hearken” 196 times, but as “obey” only 81 times. The root
meaning of “obey” in either Hebrew or Greek is to listen attentively
(in Greek it is to bend the ear down low so you catch every syllable).
Any parent knows that if you can get your child to listen to you,
you’ve probably gone a long ways toward obedience.
Thus the Lord said to Israel, “If you will listen to My
voice and cherish or treasure the promise I made to your
father Abraham, you will be ‘a special treasure to Me above all
people.’” You will be the head and not the tail; there will be no
need for great world empires such as Assyria, Babylon, Grecia, Persia,
or Rome, to tread down the earth and oppress you. You will be above all
nations. Israel will embody the truths of righteousness by faith. “You
shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (vs. 6).
Israel’s temple would outdo and outlast Greece’s Parthenon!
But Israel did not understand. They did not have the faith of
Abraham. Mired in legalistic thinking, they made a vain promise,
something that God never asked Abraham to do. “All that the Lord has
spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). Thus they formed the old
covenant.
What could God do?
If they will not keep step with Him, He must humble Himself to keep
step with them. A long detour now becomes inevitable.
It was Paul finally who saw the deep significance of this old
covenant promise of the people: “Is the law then against the promises
of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could
have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the
Scripture has confined all under sin [as in a prison of our own
choosing], that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to
those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard
by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore
the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified
by faith” (Galatians 3:21-24).
The word “tutor” is pedagogue in the Greek, from paideuo
which means to exercise stern, harsh discipline. Paul saw the old
covenant that the people voluntarily put themselves under as functioning
like a stern disciplinarian, a policeman if you please, keeping the
people of Israel under custody until such time as they could find their
freedom again in the kind of justification by faith which their father
Abraham enjoyed.
Since they brought the old covenant upon themselves, God must let
them learn through their own history how vain were their promises to
keep His law. The law written in tables of stone imposed upon them a
burden of “ought,” a never-ending obligation they could not fulfill,
never giving liberty, but always threatening punishment if not kept
perfectly. It must serve in this long national detour now as a kind of
jailer, driving them “under the law” until at last they come to the
experience of their father Abraham to be justified by faith and not by
their “works of law.”
Thus the difference between the new covenant and the old covenant is
simply “who makes the promise.” In the new covenant, it’s God; in
the old covenant, it’s the people. And the keeping of the promise
depends entirely on who makes it. In the new covenant, the
foundation is solid Rock; in the old, it’s sand. Our salvation (and
Israel’s) does not depend on our making promises to God (or keeping
them) but on our believing His promises to us.
Believing God’s new covenant promise delivers us from the “yoke
of bondage” Paul speaks of. No longer do we serve Him through fear of
punishment, or even from hoping for some great reward. The new covenant
delivers from the constant sense of futility, that nagging sense of
“ought,” “I-must-be-more-faithful, I-must-do-better,
I-must-be-more-unselfish, I-must-study-more, I-must-read-my-Bible-more,
I-must-give-more, etc., etc.,” all without end. All this sense of
compulsion is summed up in Paul’s expression of being “under the
elements of the world,” the health-destroying angst or anxiety
that all humans know by nature (Galatians 4:3).
The “tutor” or “jailer” of the old covenant drove Israel
through the centuries on a relentless history of ups and downs from
Sinai all the way to their crucifixion of their Messiah. Prophets,
judges, and some kings tried earnestly but in vain to bring in permanent
reformation and revival. Samuel’s blessed ministry ended in the
people's clamor for a king like the nations around them; Saul nearly
ruined the nation; David may have believed the new covenant; kings such
as Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and finally Josiah tried their utmost to set
the people on the right course. But their revivals always were
frustrated by the old covenant mentality that produced backsliding and
apostasy.
Finally, Josiah was the last good king of Judah, determined to do
everything exactly right as “the spirit of prophecy” of his day (the
writings of Moses) enjoined. He would save the nation from ultimate
ruin. But the youthful king in his 30’s failed. His revival and
reformation came to nought, for he rejected the living demonstration of
God’s “spirit of prophecy” in the message that came to him through
the most unlikely source he could think of — the mouth of the pagan
Pharoah Necho of Egypt (a warning to us how easily we can reject divine
truth! see 2 Chronicles 35:20-25).
From Josiah it was old covenant history down-hill all the way for
God’s people until under King Zedekiah Jerusalem and their beautiful
temple had to be destroyed and the people taken captive to Babylon. What
a vivid demonstration of how the old covenant “gives birth to
bondage”! They never truly recovered the new covenant until they
finally lost their nationhood through the crucifixion of their Messiah
and the rejection of His apostles. In Galatians and Romans Paul
correctly delineates their history, “written for our admonition, on
whom the ends of the ages are come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).
What do the two covenants mean to us today?
The two covenants are not hemmed in by matters of time, as though
people living anciently were automatically under the old and we today
are automatically under the new. There were people in Old Testament
times who lived under the new covenant (Abraham, for example); and we
today can be living under the old covenant if we don’t clearly
understand and believe the freedom-giving gospel.
A gourmet chef can prepare a delicious seven-course dinner with good
wholesome food, but if he puts in even a tiny amount of arsenic, it is
spoiled. Even if it doesn’t kill us, it will cause paralysis. Even a
tiny amount of old covenant ideas mixed in with otherwise gospel
concepts can paralyze a healthy spiritual experience and produce the
lukewarmness that so characterizes the church in these last days.
Lukewarmness in His people is a mixture of hot and cold that produces
the nausea that Jesus says makes Him so sick at His stomach that He
feels like throwing up (Revelation 3:17, 18). The healing can come only
through a full recovery of the new covenant “truth of the gospel.”
It’s astonishing how old covenant ideas can penetrate into our
thinking. Even our hymns are sometimes examples, like the beautiful one,
“O Jesus, I Have Promised To Serve Thee To the End.” But we can turn
it into a new covenant hymn by simply changing one word so it reads,
“O Jesus, I Have Chosen …” Well-meaning teachers can fasten
innocent children into old covenant spiritual bondage by inducing them
to make promises to God, which He has never asked them to do. They
promise; and then later perhaps in forgetfulness they break their
promise, and then the syndrome of “bondage” develops into spiritual
discouragement. Parents sometimes weep their eyes out wondering why we
lose so many youth who get discouraged spiritually and leave our
churches. All kinds of tragedies can develop in an atmosphere permeated
with old covenant “Christian experience.”
But repentance is possible.
Both Abraham and Sarah waded through the discouragement of old
covenant thinking. His marriage to Hagar was one such tragic step. Sarah
cherished bitterness against God in her heart because she could not get
pregnant. “The Lord has restrained me from bearing children,” she
complained (Genesis 16:2). Her solution: the old covenant idea of
adopting Ishmael as her son, so as to help God fulfill His promise.
Finally, we read in Hebrews 11:11 that Sarah had an experience of new
covenant repentance. Her heart was melted somehow, by the grace of God.
“By faith Sarah conceived …” And finally, Abraham’s faith
triumphed when he offered up Isaac as an object lesson, sensing a little
of what it cost the heavenly Father to offer up His only Son (Genesis
22).
Correctly understood, the message of the new covenant is part of the
light which is yet to “lighten the earth with glory” in the closing
hours of this world’s history (Revelation 18:1-4). The message will be
centered in a true understanding of righteousness by faith which alone
can prepare God’s people for the final time of trouble (see 19:1-14).
Many, when they hear its Good News will awaken as from a dream. All of
God's biddings will become enablings, and the Ten Commandments will
become to them ten precious statements of Good News. Nothing will be
able to stop them from responding to God’s gracious last call, “Come
out of her [Babylon], My people” (Revelation 18:4).
May this refreshing “new” perspective on the Ten Commandments
bring great joy to your heart. |
