The Messianic Covenant

 

About a thousand years pass between the time of David and the beginning of the Christian era. During this time the gift of prophecy became more prominent in the history of Israel. God began to use more people to receive the gift of prophecy.

 

The gift of prophesy was not new. Moses was given this gift in large measure but the circumstances in his case were quite different from all of the prophets who followed him up until the time of Jesus.

· Num 12:8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD.

Here God spoke directly to Moses in a way that makes him a special type of the Messiah who was to come and that this was an intimation of Jesus when we read:

· Deut 18:17-20 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

 

Following Moses there were few prophets until the last of the judges. There was one special example and that was Samuel who was not only a prophet himself but was assigned by God to a special duty of founding a school for young men to be trained in the prophetic office, that is those who had a special knowledge of the Law and seemed suited for the tasks.

 

Then there was David, on whom the gift was given with an unusual degree of ability. This is apparent in the Psalms. During this period and beyond, the prophetic voice was more and more common and influential in Israel.

 

The work of the prophet is not always correctly understood. The idea of prediction has gotten an undue bit of attention and may be given more credit than is due. This is understandable because most Christians have an unusual interest in future things.

 

The main purpose of the prophet has been lost. Many are unaware that its primary function was the practical spiritual condition of the people. They were involved in instructing the people regarding their sin, calling them to repentance, and putting before them the expected behavior as God’s people.

 

So they spent much time denouncing idol worship. Now it is true that several of the prophets did predict the future events, but again, most of their ministry involved dealing with the spiritual condition of the people. An example of this would have been Isaiah, who of all the prophets gave the most predictions of the future. But a careful study of the book of Isaiah will show that he too, was largely concerned with the spiritual condition of the people.

 

The true idea of the prophet is that of a man raised up to witness for God; to be His spokesperson to the people. They encouraged and gave hope to those people who were inclined toward God. In many respects, they had the function of today’s pastors.

 

One of the problems we have in dealing with the Old Testament prophets is that they spoke in language that the people of their day would understand. They used terms familiar to the theocracy or theocratic events. In other words, the language of the type is familiarly used in speaking of the antitype. For example “Israel” is the term used when referring to the spiritual seed; “visions and dreams” describe the future operation of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel age; “David” is the name used over and over to refer to the Messiah, the true Shepherd of Israel.

 

Given this bit of information, we need to be careful about being committed to a literal interpretation of Old Testament prophecies. As we attempt to interpret Messianic predictions we must be mindful that while the interpretations of the predictions may seem plain to us, the people of ancient days did not have the light of New Testament fulfillment to guide them and therefore the proper understandings were not as plain to them as they are to us.

 

For example, the predictions of the Messiah included many references to His lowly condition, including His birth, His sufferings and death. At the same time there were the majestic occasions when He healed the sick and even revived the dead. He was highly exalted upon His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and He taught as no one else had taught. So without the knowledge that we have revealed in the New Testament the prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah were not that simple to interpret. And given the unbelieving nature of fallen man, how is He received even today?

 

With this in mind we will be taking a brief look at the ministry of the prophets, beginning with David and then there is a break in the line of prophets until Joel and beyond.

 

No one contributed more to Messianic prophecy than Isaiah. He provides the most vivid picture of the treatment the Messiah would receive and the nature and severity of His sufferings. At the same time Isaiah gave us a beautiful testimony of the dignity of Jesus and the extent of His glory and kingdom. Then there is the figurative language of the government and spiritual results of His reign.

 

Most of the prophets simply echoed that which came from Isaiah. The work of the prophets was adding to the understanding of God’s plan as being revealed in the covenants. But things were growing darker and darker in Israel as the corruption of the nation increased. Then there came the destruction of the temple and the captivity of the northern kingdom. All of this seemed to cause the prophets to become more explicit as to the changes that the appearance of the Messiah would bring. The future became clearer, though not fully revealed.

 

Can’t you just look around you today and get some sense of the frustration of the religious Jews of that time? Events did not look as though there was much to look forward to, given what they saw going on around them.

 

Arthur Pink described the situation as follows:

“The idolatrous propensities of the masses, the general immorality which was encouraged by idol worship, the common contempt with which God’s servants were treated, the wickedness of the kings, and the frequent invasion of their land by hostile forces, all presaged dissolution of their state.”

Now wouldn’t you agree that this was enough to make them wonder about the validity of the promises of the covenants?

 

Well this condition gave rise and reason to the ministry of the prophets of encouragement. So the prophets continue to insist that there was a new day coming when the Messiah would appear. The more that the earthly circumstances grew worse, the more God revealed concerning the Messiah.

 

A very practical application for us today of this ancient situation is that we should think more on the future and the sure plans of God and to walk by faith, not by sight. This is not to say that we ignore the evil of our time, but that we not become defeated by it.

 

The key to the interpretation of the many predictions regarding the Messiah’s work is provided in the predictions which dealt with the new order of things which God promised.

 

What are we to learn from this? Well, if we look at the present order of things and observe the condition of the church where the enemy is having a field day; where the voice of God’s true servants seem to be less and less effective; and where secular humanism and political correctness are so proudly advanced, there is a tendency to believe that all is lost.

 

But God still has a remnant of His people and they can confidently look to the amazing future that is before the church. This was the position of hope that the prophets placed before the people. Listen to this encouragement:

· Jer. 32:37-40 I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

 

As if this was not enough, Ezekiel has this to say:

· Ezekiel 34:22-26 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken. 25 "'I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. 26 I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.

 

We cannot escape the clarity of:

· Jeremiah 31:31-34 "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,"  declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

 

Any method of Bible study or any system of interpretation where we depend on our own understanding apart form the teaching of the Holy Spirit, is unproductive. Oh, we may learn some things, but we will not have the spiritual understanding that is there for us.

 

The big question for the Bible student in the above passages is: Who is being addressed? To deal with this question we must return to Genesis where we saw God deal with Jacob and change his name to “Israel”. But he was not always thereafter called Israel. Sometimes he was still called Jacob. Therefore, we are led to consider the context as “spiritual” when the name “Israel” is used, and to consider the context according to the flesh when the name “Jacob” is used. So in these passages we interpret “Israel” as the spiritual descendants of Abraham and not to his natural descendants. For example:

· Ps 73:1 Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Obviously this verse does not refer to the nation Israel, all the descendants of Jacob, because it could not be said that all the people of the nation of Israel were “pure in heart”.  

 

· John 1:47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."

Jesus here chose His words very carefully. He meant that Nathanael was a genuine son of Israel, a man of great faith and prayer, as well as being honest and righteous.

 

· Matt. 15:24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

Jesus surely did not intend the fleshly descendants of Jacob, because Scripture plainly says that He was also sent to the Gentiles. “The “lost sheep of Israel means of the elect.

 

· Rom. 9:6-7 It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children.

This was a particularly sore point with the Jews. When Paul says here that “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel”, he means that not all natural descendants of Jacob belong to the elect.

 

In the opening phrase of verse 6 Paul is not suggesting by his teaching that God’s Word is wrong, but that the promises had never been given to men in the flesh but rather spiritual men. Then he makes a distinction between spiritual Israel and natural Israel.

 

So he wants us to understand that there are two kinds of Israelites; the carnal and the spiritual. And then he says that all of the descendents of Abraham are not “children of promise”.

· Gal 4:22-23 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

 

God’s promises were made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as believers, and only to the spiritual children of these ancestors.

· Rom 4:13-17 It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15 because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

 

This principle of two interpretations is important with many other terms that deal with God’s covenant people. Just one example is found in:

· Song 6:4, You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, majestic as troops with banners.

And,

· Isa 40:2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.

In these two passages, Jerusalem is a term used for the church in both the Old and New Testaments. Of course, it also refers to the city, but the context will guide us as to how we are to interpret it.

 

One other use of the word “Jerusalem” may be helpful.

· Rev 3:12-13 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.

 

This double significance of the term “children” and “seed” of Abraham are found in:

· Gen 22:17, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.

Now notice that Abraham’s descendents here are divided into two groups; those as numerous as the stars in the sky and those as numerous as the sands of the seashore. Abraham’s seed, or descendants, like the stars of heaven refers to his spiritual children and the seed, or descendants, like the sand on the seashore refers to the natural descendents.

 

The same must be said for the word “Jew”.

· Rom 2:28-29, A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.

Given this clear statement, it is surprising that most of the “Jewish” community continue to believe that they are “Jew” only because they are descendants of Jacob and they reject the idea of the “spiritual Jew”. Note what Paul says about “inwardly” and “circumcision”.

 

Now it may seem to some of you that we have wandered from the subject of the Messianic Covenant. No, the covenant was made with the “house of Israel and the house of Judah”, and we must understand those terms if we are to correctly interpret passages such as Jeremiah 31:31ff.

 

Lets look again at:

· Jer 31:31-34 "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Has this promise of God already received its fulfillment, or is it currently being fulfilled, or is the fulfillment yet future? The Christian has a special interest in the correct answer.

 

Matthew Henry in his commentaries says, “This refers to Gospel times….for of the Gospel times the apostle understands it, where the whole passage is quoted, as a summary of the covenant of grace made with believers in Jesus Christ.” The passage Henry refers to is Heb 8:8-9, where the writer quotes the whole of the Jeremiah 31 passage, as a summary of the covenant of grace made with believers in Jesus.

 

At this point it is reasonable to raise the question, if the main reference in Jeremiah’s prophecy was to the gospel, or new Testament Church, where the Gentiles were dominant, why is the covenant there said to be made with “the house of Israel and the house of Judah”? There are several answers.

· First, to make it clear that this covenant is not made with all of the fallen descendants of Adam, but with God’s chosen people.

· Second, because, so far as we know, during Old Testament times most of the elect were from the Hebrew nation.

· Third, to indicate that the Jewish theocracy had given way to the Christian Church.

· Heb 10:9, Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second.

· Matt 21:43, "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

· And fourth, to hint that the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints are all one body. 

 

It is generally believed among the best scholars that the Jeremiah passage above speaks of the church age. Notice that God says He will make a “new” covenant and it will not be like the old one, meaning the one made at Sinai.

· Heb 8:7-8 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said:

The Apostle then quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34. The above passage from Hebrews makes a very provocative statement.

 

So what was wrong with the Sinai Covenant that necessitated a new covenant? The old covenant did not secure peace and fellowship between God and the people and therefore the benefits and advantages were useless. This demonstrated the need for a new and better covenant, which would clearly secure the believers forever.

 

The fault with the Sinai Covenant was that it was altogether external and nothing internal. It provided for Israel an objective standard, but there was no source of power that enabled them to measure up to God’s standards. It dealt with the natural Israel. It provided for sacrifices for sin but these were only ceremonial. Because of these inadequacies a new covenant was needed. God’s complaint in Jeremiah is not with the covenant but with the people.

 

When the passage says “the time is coming” we must conclude that that time is the advent of Jesus. So the subject of what Jeremiah predicts is a new covenant.

This new covenant pulls together all the promises of grace that had been given from the time of creation to the presence of Jesus, His death and resurrection. So the new covenant became the new standard of spiritual life and worship.

 

The idea of the writer of Hebrews is to show the superiority of Jesus’ priesthood over the priesthood of Aaron and he does this by showing the great superiority of the new covenant of grace of which Jesus is the mediator.

 

The new covenant is significantly different from the other covenants in that in the New Covenant there is the death of the covenanter. Due to this circumstance it is called a “testament”. No term is more familiar to a reader of the Scriptures than that called “The New Testament”, yet it would be just as accurate to call it the “New Covenant”. But one thing we need to keep in mind; it is called “new” not because its contents are different from the “Old”, because it is simply a fulfillment of all that went before. Everything in the Old Testament contained a shadow or type of the substance of the New Testament.

 

In the New Testament the Gospel is fully unveiled, and the Gospel, in contrast to the Law, the main revelation of the Old Testament, was called “the New Testament” because it contained legacies which Jesus bequeathed to His people. (In our day, when a person dies they leave a last will and “testament” which leaves certain benefits to the family and loved ones).

 

It was by His blood that He ratified the New Testament; we might even say He signed the promises in His blood.

· Matt 26:28-29 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Well, what did He leave and to whom did He leave it? He left every possible blessing: temporal, spiritual, and the most durable blessing of all, eternal; and He left these to “His own”, those who loved Him and believed in Him.

 

Before His death Jesus spoke to His disciples on this subject when He said:

· John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

He also said something very interesting in:

· John 17:24, "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

The King James version of the Bible uses an interesting phrase in John 17:24 where it says “I will that they also be with me…..So our presence with Him in eternity is part of His will. Jesus died to make His “testament” valid, and now He lives forever to be the executor and administrator of His will. Now when there is a will there are those who are the beneficiaries of the will. They are called “inheritors” and they receive an “inheritance”.

 

So let us move to a discussion of the contents of the Messianic Covenant. It is a covenant of promise and gives, by grace, security to God’s people and preserves them in a state of sanctification until their final salvation. In other words their right of inheritance is not by law or their own works.

· Rom 4:14 For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless,

But what if a Christian should really depart from God and go his own way? Wouldn’t he lose all of his benefits as an heir?

This is a hypothetical situation and the answer is found in:

· Jer.32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

Have you ever seen that in your Bible before? God the Holy Spirit will not let you turn away from Him permanently. The Messianic Covenant contains all the promises that God has made since the beginning. And the covenant promised by Jeremiah included the sending of Jesus for the accomplishment of all these promises.

 

Let’s take an in-depth look at this covenant:

· Heb. 8:10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Please notice that God did not here promise that He would establish Israel in any earthly land, or grant them any material inheritance. This promise goes far beyond any material blessings. The promise can be summed up in four words, regeneration, reconciliation, sanctification and justification. And I would like for you to keep up with the order of things here. We are going to dissect Hebrews 8:10.

· I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.

The “law” here involves the principle of love of God in response to what He has done for us. If love is not the motivator of our hearts, then our obedience is of no consequence. This phrase clearly says that God prepares our soul by divine power so that His law is willingly received. In:

· Ezekiel 36:26, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

What is involved here is an inward illumination of God’s goodness and the creation of a heart that is inclined to conform to His law. If all we hear is the outer voice of the preacher and there is no willingness to receive what God wants to do, there will be no obedience. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. At Sinai Moses had come down from the mountain and told the people what God required of them at which they responded by saying that they would obey all that he said. But God said in:

· Deut 5:29 “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always”

When God puts into us a heart that is receptive to the Holy Spirit, then we “delight in the law of the Lord”.

· Rom 7:22, For in my inner being I delight in God's law.

This enables us to be obedient. Remember, we are talking about re-generation.

Once we understand what God requires of us, and our inner tendencies are inclined to sincerely believe, then genuine obedience becomes the natural outcome.  The miracle of regeneration is the foundation for the further spiritual experiences. Now we have called regeneration a miracle. Think about this: We are not in the miracle business, but God is. So if we are to be regenerated, it must begin with God Himself. When we have been regenerated, what was once considered a burden is now a desire to please God.

This phrase we are now examining is a contrast between the old and new covenants. Under the old covenant (Sinai), the Law was written on tablets of stone, not only to suggest the lasting nature of the law, but also to suggest the hardheartedness of those to whom it was given. But there was no provision in the law that secured obedience. Under the Messianic covenant, the law is written on the heart causing the whole man to be in harmony with the will of God.

 

An additional contrast is implied in the second blessing that we see in Heb 8:10.

· I will be their God, and they will be my people.

· Ex 6:7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.

These are other contrasts from the earlier covenant.

· Lev. 26:11-12 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

But this was greatly different from what was found in the new covenant. This dealt with a natural relationship. This new covenant dealt with a spiritual relationship. The earlier was external, this was internal; that was national, this was individual; that was temporal, this was eternal.

Under the theocracy all of Abraham’s natural descendants were true subjects and were properly members of the Jewish “church”, assuming that they had been circumcised. To be a member of the civil government and a member of the state church was essentially the same thing. That’s not unlike the case today where most Latinos are “members” of the Catholic Church but have no real connection with the church or any spiritual life within the church.

Under the Sinai Covenant God acknowledged all those to be “His people” and that He was “their God” who were externally obedient to His commands, even though there was no real spirituality in their hearts.

But things are different under the new covenant. God’s plan has now been fully revealed and God does not now acknowledge any as “His people” who do not truly know Him, love Him and worship Him in spirit and in truth. Only those who have His law written on their hearts are His people in a far higher sense than ever before under any of the previous covenants. And to be “their God” denotes that they have been reconciled to Him and have accepted His Son as their God.

 

The new covenant contains promises that pledged the “sanctification” of God’s people and their preservation in a growing state of holiness until their final glorification. These promises are summarized in:

· Heb 8:10-12 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."  

We have just seen this passage earlier. There are four promises listed here.

· First, the Lord would write His laws on the hearts of those for whom Jesus died. When this happens a change takes place in the person that results in God’s law being received and respected.

· Second, God assures His people that He will be their God and as their God He will supply their every need. He is the God of His people in a spiritual and everlasting sense.

· Third, this third promise is so critical to our understanding. It has to do with the Knowledge of God. Verse 11 is strange sounding at first, until we understand what God is here promising. Under the Mosaic covenant God revealed various aspects of His character but even the most spiritual people had difficulties really understanding God. The great masses of the people had little understanding. Again, so far as the nation of Israel as a whole is concerned, the revelation God made of Himself was external and many of the people knew the letter of the Scripture, but had no idea of anything higher.

· Jer. 5:4, "These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God.

· Jer 9:3, "They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me," declares the LORD.

The teachers of the nation Israel began to be divided into different schools of thought and this resulted in the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and others.

 

I want to read you two versions of two verses. Listen carefully and tell me if you can distinguish a difference between them.

· Mal. 2:11-12 Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of Jacob-even though he brings offerings to the LORD Almighty. (NIV)

· Mal. 2:11-12,Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. (KJV)

This is a good example of what we have been talking about as to how you interpret the Bible.

 

What is the significance of “the tents of Jacob” and “the tabernacles of Jacob”? Notice that this refers to a “master and the scholar” in the KJV and one who “brings offerings to the Lord” in the NIV. This is a leader of the church, but he is “of Jacob”. Meaning what? Yes, that he is of the natural seed and not the spiritual seed.

 

“No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest”.God has now given a perfect revelation of Himself by giving His Son, the Mediator, but He has also provided the Holy Spirit as our guide into God’s truth. Those believers in Jesus have an additional aid in knowing and obeying God.

· 2 Cor. 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

We have something far better than human teachers to explain God’s Word. The Holy Spirit is what is meant in:

· John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

· 1 John 2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 27, As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit-just as it has taught you, remain in him.

It is this anointing that provides the power to the believer of understanding and obedience. And this power, or ability, is not limited to a special few. It is given to all true believers and it is far more than an intellectual ability. It deals with the heart and it is this that God means when He says He will write His laws on the hearts of flesh. Since the Holy Spirit was not available to all prior to the Messianic covenant, the teaching of man was mostly external in its effect.

 

· The fourth promise was:

· Heb. 8:12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

What an amazing promise! God will pardon all of the sins of the believer and what’s more He will not even remember them. When God refers to “their” of course He is referring to believers and these are the people who have been regenerated, reconciled, and given a sanctifying knowledge of God. This applies only to those who are in a covenant relationship to God.

 

Now let’s recap the passage:

· First, “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts”.       This is accomplished at regeneration and this is the foundation for all that follows.

· Second, “I will be their God and they will be my people.”  This signifies a reconciliation on the part of God and the believer.

· Third, “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” This is the sanctification process, or the life-long growth in spirituality that comes as we grow in knowledge and obedience by direction of the Holy Spirit.

· Fourth, “For I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more.”  The final guarantee that the covenantees will be regarded as sinless, and as such receive their reward in heaven.

 

This is what makes the new covenant so much different from the old, or Sinai covenant. In the old covenant there was a hint of forgiveness, with limitations but there was no point at which there was an enabler, The Spirit, nor was there any assurance that their sins were permanently forgiven. Under the new covenant the forgiveness was free, full, perfect and everlasting.

 

The KJV says that “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness…”  The word here “merciful” is a word that we have seen but do not always understand. It is “propitious”. Propitious emphasizes that it is not absolute mercy without any justice. So we learn that Jesus died to make God propitious toward sinners. This is an example of the amazing wisdom of God. How can justice be enforced against the guilty, yet be merciful toward them? No finite intelligence could come up with an answer. Well, Jesus was the answer.

 

So this is the remarkable prophecy of Jeremiah. The Messianic covenant, unlike the Sinai covenant, accomplished the eternal salvation of the elect. The new covenant does for those who are in it what the old covenant failed to do for the Jewish people. To them God gave the law as written on tables of stone; to the New Covenant saints God also gives the law, but writes it on their hearts. That which makes all the difference is the Holy Spirit.

 

Those who are brought into the covenant are the objects of God’s electing love. And they owe it all to grace alone.

 

Now let’s turn to that which was going to communicate the blessings that were announced in the new covenant. First, and most important was the Mediator. This is a word that describes one who goes between two parties to discuss differences and matters of importance to each party. The objective is to come to an agreement or reconciliation. It was a matter of reconciliation that was in view here.

 

The Messianic covenant was a matter of free promises of grace and mercy to the guilty sinners. So one might ask, “Where was the need for a mediator when such gracious promises were made?” Couldn’t they have been given and fulfilled without the need for a third party mediator? Well this is not a matter of what God might or might not have done, but what He has done. Remember, He is sovereign. It pleased Him to do it this way and therefore it is for us to accept His plan on the terms that He has laid down.

 

First, sin is an evil. It caused a separation between God and His creation which can only be removed by means that does not compromise the character and government of God. God is more than a loving Father; He is also a moral governor and as such hates sin and must punish it.

 

Second, sinners need a mediator.  They are deliberate sinners and therefore at odds with God. It is not carelessness or ignorance that causes them to be an enemy of God. So sinners need someone who has the power to take our interests and deal with our helplessness to bring about reconciliation.

 

Third, Jesus Himself, as Mediator is glorified. Some wonder what role Jesus would have had if sin had not entered the world. But sin did enter and by the permission of God for His own wise reasons. This provided an opportunity for God to show his matchless wisdom and love.

 

Further, Jesus’ love for and His obedience to His Father evidences for us the extent of that love. The great reward that He was to receive for His role as Mediator is the eternal fellowship with those that He was sent to save.

 

While there was no mention of a mediator in the earlier covenants, there was a hint of one in the Noahic and Abrahamic covenants. This hint came with the idea of sacrifices which involved intervention as the means of ratifying the promises of the covenants. In the case of Abraham, the promise of a seed in whom all nations would be blessed, and in the case of David, the promise of a righteous king, simply needed amplification which was given in the Messianic Covenant.

 

Having said that, it is fair to say that in the Sinai Covenant the promise was somewhat clearer than in the earlier two. Notice the reaction of the people when God spoke to them out of the cloud.

· Deut. 5:23-27 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me. 24 And you said, "The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. 25 But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. 26 For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? 27 Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey."

In this case Moses became their mediator, and therefore a type of Jesus. It is likely, based on later events, that the greater number of the people who observed this event were moved by the awesomeness of the situation as a spectacular event, but their hearts were not changed by it.

 

Just as likely, there were some who were more spiritual and realized their unfit condition to speak directly with this awesome God, and were therefore confident of their need for a mediator in the person of Moses. This, in type, also speaks to us of the Godly remnant of which the Scripture speaks. Moses speaks to the people:

· Deut. 18:15-18, The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die." 17 The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.”

So it is apparent that it is necessary for there to be a mediator for the existence of any spiritual relationship with God.

 

The conditions on which divine communication with sinners is possible is a very important matter. The character and government of God requires the work of the Mediator, Jesus. The role Jesus fills as Mediator has many aspects but the term “mediator” covers them all. So to summarize:

 

First, Jesus as mediator is the supreme prophet. As prophet, He is the revealer of the character and will of God, including His love and mercy. He also revealed the requirements for salvation of fallen man and the work of the Holy Spirit..

· Luke 10:22 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

It is the role of Jesus as the great prophet of the church to enable fallen man to receive and understand the truth of God.

 

Second, Jesus as Mediator is the great high priest, an office that involves making intercession. The sacrifices at the tabernacle in the Old Testament were a dim picture of the necessity of a substitute for their sins and the need for a priest to intercede on their behalf.

· Heb 2:17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

· Heb. 7:24-25 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

 

Third, Jesus as Mediator is the King of kings. Under the Davidic Covenant Jesus was prefigured in type and definite promises were made of the raising up of a righteous King and that under His leadership peace would be His purpose. The New Testament declares His majesty and authority with which He now reigns to accomplish His ultimate purpose.

 

You will remember that it was part of the eternal covenant that this was the role that Jesus would have; the practical matter of the actual saving of all of God’s elect. It is by the discharging these three offices that Jesus effectively performs His work as the Mediator.

· 1 Peter 3:18-22 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand-with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

 

The first thing that was necessary for God to communicate the blessings of the new covenant was the appointment of His Son as the Mediator. This new covenant was a matter of the promises of grace to the guilty sinners; the fact that these promises become effective and how the relationship with God is maintained.

 

So Jesus was equipped for His role as Mediator by the Holy Spirit during His days on earth. While the blessings of the covenant were communicated through Jesus, He has become the administrator and dispenser of the blessings as a result of His sacrifice and position at the right hand of God. So it is Jesus who secures the salvation of all His people, the elect.

 

Paul tells us that when Jesus had achieved His purpose on earth, God then gave Him the reward for His accomplishment.

· Eph 1:18-23 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

So He has been given unlimited power and authority to achieve that which remains ahead for the saints.

 

The administration of the covenant is of great importance to us. What effect does this have on the saints? Well, it should be very comforting to know that He is in complete control as the Messiah for our salvation.

 

After Jesus ascended, His disciples depended on Jesus and relied on His presence in their lives to sustain them in all their work. They are able to live in this manner because of His Word and His Spirit. His Word contains all that is necessary for us to know for our spiritual deliverance from Satan. It reveals the character of God, the things He requires of us, and the principles on which He will save us.

 

But there is ample evidence of the resistance of sinners so in His wisdom God has provided the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us understand His Word and the capacity to live by it. This is a condition which only the Spirit of God can produce.

 

The actual reception of Jesus in order for one to be saved must be by faith, and that faith is a gift of the Spirit.

· Matt 21:31-32 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

While a person’s heart remains hard the Word does not have a way to effect a reconciliation. The faith that leads to salvation is the faith that receives Jesus as the One who hates sin, yet full of compassion for those who believe and heed His Word. So Jesus fulfills the promises of the new covenant by means of the ministry of His Word, under the agency of the Holy Spirit.

 

God’s people are effectually called by His grace; by faith they accept His mercy and surrender to His will. From the minute this exists in the heart, no matter how minor or feeble, salvation commences. The present grace progresses, sanctification, and finally passes into future glory, or that final stage of our eternal existence called glorification. Between this first manifestation of grace in the heart of a believer and our arrival in heaven our relationship with God continues to grow.

 

· Rom 11:29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.

This is an assurance that the covenant supplies. But there is still further assurance:

· Jer. 32:38-40 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

The covenant does not provide a pardon for their sins and then leave them in their sins. The “fear” which God puts in the hearts of redeemed souls is God’s medicine against sin.

· Prov 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

· Prov. 16:6, Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil.

God does not promise to place just His doctrines in our hearts but also His fear. Otherwise we have just a head knowledge of God. God says that He will not turn away from us to do good, but we will turn away from Him to do evil. So in the Jeremiah passage above He says that He puts fear in our hearts so that we will not turn away from Him. Now we must remember that the fear that the Scripture here mentions is not the fear of a mean, vicious father but a fear based on awe and appreciation and respect and thanksgiving.

 

So far we have been looking at the God side of the Messianic covenant, that is, the means that He has arranged for the fulfillment of His purpose of grace. Now let’s look at the human side and consider what God requires of us before the blessings of the covenant can become ours.

· 2 Sam 23:5, "Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire?

It would be easy to read this verse and leave it there but we must also consider Isaiah.

· Isa 55:3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

In this second passage we find several requirements of the one with whom God will make the covenant. He first says “give ear”, which means those who have not been willing to listen to Him must now listen and cease their rebellion against Him. Next, He says “come to me”, meaning those who are separated from Him, come to me and abandon your weapons of warfare against the holy God. Third, He says “hear me”, meaning that those whose souls are dead should listen to His good news and be alive. These are the human responsibilities required by God, and then He will make a covenant with you.

 

We must be careful here. While it is true that the covenant is entirely of grace, nevertheless grace reigns through righteousness, and not at the expense of it. God does not enter into a covenant with those who openly defy Him. It is not that the sinner has to do something to earn God’s blessings. But though God requires nothing from us in the way of earning or meriting His favor, He does have requirements so far as actually receiving the blessings. God cannot allow His blessing to be given without the submission of the sinner and confession and the resolve to be obedient to His standards. Remember that a covenant is an agreement between two parties and there is an obligation on the part of both parties.

 

Now so that there are no misunderstandings, God treats men as moral agents, that is, that they can act responsibly. The first blessing of the covenant, regeneration, or God putting His law in our hearts, depends on no condition on our part. That is purely a sovereign act of God’s grace. But for full participation in the blessings of the covenant, faith on our part is required.

 

This brings up an interesting matter. We have said much earlier that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that enables us to be faithful and obedient to God’s law. As we continue to live according to His law we are being “sanctified”, or growing in godliness throughout our lives. So how much obedience does God require of us?

 

· 2 Cor 1:20-22, Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

· 2 Cor 5:5, Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

In both of these passages there is a very important word and that word is “deposit”.

 

A deposit is a partial payment of what has been agreed between two parties and an inferred guarantee of full payment at a later time. This term is used because of the right the believer has to eternal life and glory in heaven. So the work of the Spirit now is only a token of what our glorified life will be like. Or to put it another way, the spirituality that we grow into in this life is only a small hint of the perfection we will experience in heaven.

 

There is a three-way contrast in connection with the idea of obedience between the Adamic Covenant and the Messianic Covenant. You remember the Adamic Covenant was also called the covenant of works, whereas the Messianic Covenant was called the covenant of grace. Now to the three differences;

 

First, the design of the two covenants is entirely different. Under the covenant of works man was obligated to be obedient to the command of God in order for his justification; but not so under the covenant of grace, for there the believer is justified on the ground of Jesus’ obedience being imputed to him, and the obedience of the Christian is necessary only as a matter of response and gratitude to God for the work of Jesus.

 

Second, enablement  to it. Under the new covenant God works to both will and to do His will in the sinner, but under the covenant of works man was left to his own natural strength. Under the one, God gave the bare command; under the other, He provided His grace and Spirit so that we are empowered to be obedient. When God calls us to come to Him, He enables us by drawing us to Himself.

 

Third, in the acceptance of it. Under the covenant of works no provision was made for failure, because there was neither sacrifice nor mediator. As a result, the only obedience God would accept was perfect obedience. While God requires the same under the new covenant, there has been provided a provision for man’s failure and God accepts imperfect obedience from us because the defects in our behavior are compensated for by the perfect obedience and the merits of Jesus. This imputed perfection is available to us when we show that we are willing to be subject to God.

 

Maybe you never considered the question of what time the new covenant became operational. We cannot say that it began at a particular moment in time. The first indication of it had to be the appearance of John the Baptist, who was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah. Mark 1:1 called this the “beginning of the Gospel”. Up until this time the Jews were bound by the Sinaitic covenant. John’s purpose was to prepare the people and cause them to anticipate the coming of the Messiah.

 

The second step was the incarnation and personal ministry of Jesus Himself. The old covenant continued even for Jesus who was “made under the Law”, meaning that He was subject to the Mosaic Law. However, His birth certainly announced the beginning of the new covenant. His public ministry gave credence to the idea that He was truly the Messiah.

 

Third, the covenant was confirmed by His death and the sacrifice of Himself that He offered up to God established the covenant. At this point the “promise” became a “testament”.

· Heb 9:15-17 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. 16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.

The cross, then, was the point at which all the promises of grace would meet. The old covenant, Sinai, no longer was the binding force that it had been until then. That is not to say that it was not part of God’s plan because the Ten Commandments continue to be a guide for believers as a life style, even though non-believers are still “under the law”.

 

Fourth, God did not make the old covenant, Sinai, for it to exist for a period, then die and be arbitrarily removed. The law had a special purpose to be accomplished and would remain until God decreed otherwise.

 

Fifth, the first formal presentation of the new covenant was on the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after the resurrection of Jesus. It is remarkable that this is the same length of time that elapsed between the deliverance of the people from Egypt and the law being presented at Sinai. I don’t know how well your imagination works but let’s give it a try.

 

Judas had died and hundreds had gathered to select a successor. Peter seemed to be in charge of the assembly in Jerusalem. They chose Matthais to replace Judas. Then the Day of Pentecost came and they were all in one place and they suddenly heard a violent wind from heaven. They were amazed when they saw what looked like tongues of fire and these strange tongues of fire came to rest on each of the apostles and they were each one filled with the Holy Spirit!

 

There were many God-fearing Jews from distant lands staying in Jerusalem at that time and they spoke many different languages. The strange thing was that they heard the apostles speaking in their own language. Now there is confusion as to what the scripture means when it says in:

· Acts 2:5-8 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?

· Acts 2:12, Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

Now a question for you: Was the miracle on the Day of Pentecost that the apostles were speaking in a strange language? Or was the miracle that the God-fearing men from other nations were hearing in their own language, what the apostles were saying in the apostles own language?

 

Logic would lead us to believe that the miracle that the Spirit did was to enable the hearers to understand in their own language. Otherwise, how could the apostles have been speaking in multiple languages at one time?

 

But Peter speaks up and quotes from:

· Joel 2:28 And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

So this strange event was when God chose to demonstrate the manifestation of His Spirit and suddenly all history was changing, especially for the Jews. So Peter makes one of the most profound announcements in all history.

· Acts 2:29-41 "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." 36 "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-for all whom the Lord our God will call." 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

 

When Peter said in verse 39, “The promise is to you and your children and all who are far off”, he was announcing the new covenant. And when he said in verse 40, “Save yourself from this corrupt generation”, he was suggesting that the old covenant (Sinai) was about to vanish and that God was revealing the final step in His everlasting covenant.

 

This historic day called the Day of Pentecost deserved the kind of attention that the events of 9-11 received. Had it happened today every TV network, news service and wire services in the world would have had this on the six-o’clock news. Of course there would have been those who would find some way to explain away the miracle God had performed. But the events of that day were truly one of the most important and historic of all times. Subsequent events have proved that to be the case.

 

As we near the end of our study of the Messianic Covenant it might be well to distinguish between the everlasting covenant which God made before the creation of the world, and the Messianic Covenant, or the Christian Covenant as it is sometimes called. This covenant regarding the Messiah ushers in the last stage of world history.

 

· First, the one was made in eternity past; the latter one was made in time, that is, during the history of the world.

· Second, the one was made with Jesus alone; the other with all of His people.

· Third, the one is without any conditions so far as we are concerned; the other establishes terms that must be met by God’s people.

· Fourth, under the one Jesus is the One who inherits; under the other Christians are the heirs and inherit that which Jesus purchased by His fulfilling the terms of the everlasting covenant, of which He now the administrator.

 

Now someone may ask, does my getting to heaven depend on the everlasting covenant or the new covenant? And the answer is, both. With respect to the everlasting covenant, we are dependant on what Jesus did in executing the terms of that covenant, namely, being the perfect sacrifice that satisfied God’s requirements under the law.

 

There are those who maintain that man has no responsibility under the New Covenant. This is simply not so. We cannot confine ourselves to a few favorite Scripture verses and ignore the “ifs” and “buts” in His word.

· Heb 3:1-19 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'"12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15 As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

 

Does this seem like there is some uncertainty regarding our individual responsibility under the New Covenant? Of course not! If a person turns from their sinful ways, God has made an everlasting covenant with him and has given him the same which He gave to Jesus as Mediator. But there is the condition of obedience.

 

Now for a kind of post-script to the study of the covenants. I would like for you to look with me at Galatians 4 beginning with verse 8. Actually, part of this passage is an allegory, an allegory being a symbolic representation of truth.

 

· Gal 4:8-11 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God-or rather are known by God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

In these verses Paul reminds the believers in Galacia of what they were before their conversion, and what a great change their conversion had made in them. He then tries to convince them of their weakness in listening to those who would return to bondage of worshiping other gods.

 

Do you remember what the Spirit called Paul to in his ministry? He was called to be a missionary to the Gentiles! And do you know where Galacia is? Well, it is in north central Turkey, and as such it is not a Jewish area but a pagan area that worshiped false gods before Paul preached Jesus to them. So this was not a matter of the Law with the Galatians; it was a matter of false gods. However, the Judaizers had come in, following their conversion to Jesus, and were teaching that they should obey the Law. In other words, the Judaizers were trying to convert them to Judaism.

 

So Paul does some straight talking to them in this letter. He reminds them of their past behavior and what they were before the Gospel was preached to them. He said that then they were ignorant of the true God and therefore were slaves to the false gods.

 

Then he reminds them of the happy change that took place in them when they heard the Gospel preached. He speaks in very critical tones when he asks why they want to return to positions of slaves to false gods.

 

Then in verse 11 he says something that I suspect every preached has at least thought on some occasions when there seemed to be no response to his preaching, or that his preaching had no changing effect on the congregation; He says that his preaching seems to have been wasted on them.

· Gal 4:12-20 I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. 14 Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15 What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you [from us], so that you may be zealous for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

The apostle pleads with them to follow him and not the false teaching of the Judaizers. He mentions his illness and how they have been so kind to him in that regard. This is one more hint that Paul had a vision problem. He goes so far as to say that these Galatians would have even given their own eyes to him if they could. (Do you remember what happened to Paul during his conversion experience?) Yes, he was blinded on his journey to Damascus.

 

Finally Paul seems to apologize for his tone of voice but still he is disappointed in them. At this point we pick up the allegory of Abraham’s family.

 

· Gal. 4:21-31, Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. 24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband." 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." 31 Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

 

Here is the background:

 

In Galatians 4 Paul is expressing his concerns over the Galatians who are reverting to some of their former practices which existed before they became believers. He describes their condition as “slaves”. He is talking about the difference of living “under the law” and “faith in the promise”

 

He has told them that as long as they were under the law, they were slaves to the law. But that under the promise they were heirs and no longer slaves. There were errors being taught by the Judaizers, such as circumcision, and Paul was rebutting these teachings by referring to the covenants which are designed to show the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. Paul’s tone is rather harsh as he writes to the Galatians even though he cares deeply for their well-being. So he decides to use the story of Abraham’s children and how they came into being to demonstrate his point. He begins by asking those who want to be under the law, that is to require circumcision, if they are aware of what the law says?

· Gal 4:21-24, Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. 24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants.

 

There is so much for us here in this short passage. Not only are we to understand that the Mosaic rites had typical significance, but the lives of the patriarchs had typical meaning. We should also pick up on the fact of God’s control by providence in the events and affairs of men. Paul tells us that the domestic affairs of Abraham were arranged by God, so that they would shed light on future events. The historical events in Genesis 16 and 21 contain profound spiritual truth.

 

Paul reminds the Galatians of the circumstances of the two women in this story and of the two children that were born to them. Then he tells us that the mothers are a hint of the two covenants, and the two sons as representing the results of the two covenants. In other words, Sarah and Hagar are seen as representatives of the two covenants and the sons as representations of the kind of worshipers those covenants were to produce.

 

Sarah was impatient for God to make good on His promise to provide a son to Abraham so she took matters into her own hands and told her husband to take her maid Hagar and have a child with her. This ultimately caused a lot of trouble around the dinner table, but God took this human action and turned it into achieving His plan.

 

Verse 22 tells us that one son was born of a slave woman and the other was born of a free woman, and further that the one born of the slave woman was born according to the flesh, or in the natural way, while the son born to the free woman was born according to the promise. Remember that Isaac was born to Sarah well after Sarah’s child bearing years. Therefore the birth of Isaac was miraculous. It had been promised and God miraculously caused it to happen.

 

By way of allegory, Paul shows us that the affairs of Abraham’s family represent a God ordained example of the basic principles in regard to the condition of spiritual slaves and spiritual freemen. They also hint at the bondage that comes with the Law of Moses and the freedom that is brought in by the Gospel.

 

Now of course Sarah and Hagar were certainly not “covenants”. A little hint on understanding biblical language: The words “is” and “are” frequently can be interpreted as “represent”. For example, when Jesus was instituting the sacrament of the last supper, He said, referring to the bread, “This is my body, broken for you.” Of course, He meant for us to understand this bread represents my body.

 

Likewise, when we read that the rock that was struck by Moses in the wilderness and gave water, Paul explains in 1 Corinthians that “that rock was Christ”. So the rock prefigured, or “represented” Jesus.

 

Well, according to some theologians, there is some debate over which covenants Paul was referring to in the letter to the Galatians. Was it the Abrahamic Covenant which produced the Law and the Messianic Covenant which freed God’s people from the hope of salvation by perfectly obeying the Law?

 

Or was it the Sinai Covenant where God laid out His governmental plan for the nation Israel and the obedience that was expected and the Messianic Covenant. Well we come to the same conclusion either way. However, Paul pretty well clears the air in verse 24 where he says that “One covenant is from Mount Sinai… etc. And Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and the earthly city of Jerusalem.

 

But the other woman, Sarah, who bears Isaac, is, or represents, the promise. This promise is the freedom from slavery to sin and the heavenly Jerusalem. So Hagar prophetically prefigured Mount Sinai, not the literal mountain, but the covenant that God made with the nation Israel. A large part of the nation really had no interest in the promise made to Abraham, which required faith, but of course were outwardly a part of Abraham’s family; yet they were in bondage to the law and all their outward obedience was actually a burden.

 

Back to Sarah; she prefigured the election of grace where all true believers are free from the bondage of the law. You see, Hagar’s place in the world was that of a maid, a servant. She was not free. Sarah on the other hand was a servant to no one. She was the legitimate wife of Abraham. So with respect to the women we can summarize as follows: the one was earthly, carnal, slavish, and temporary; the other was heavenly, spiritual, free, and eternal.

 

· Gal 4:25-27, But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."

 

At this point Paul quotes Isaiah as foreseeing glory and triumph for Israel on the basis of the expiatory work of the Suffering Servant after the barrenness of the days of siege and captivity (Isa. 54:1). This change of fortune is put in language that reflects the history of Sarah, who, though barren at first and apparently forsaken in favor of another, came into her own, in God's good time, with a greater progeny than that of Hagar. The church was enjoying a rapid increase in apostolic days, whereas Judaism was largely static and was even losing ground because of the witness of Jewish believers to their faith in Jesus.

 

The parable in action which took place in the household of Abraham contemplated that which took place thousands of years to unfold. First, was the marriage between Abraham and Sarah which symbolized the covenant union between God and His people. Second, for many years Sarah remained barren. This foreshadowed the lengthy period during which God’s purpose in that covenant was suspended. Third, Hagar the bond-slave, took Sarah’s place in the family of Abraham and this typified his natural descendants being placed under the Sinai Covenant. Fourth, Hagar did not permanently replace Sarah, hinting the fact that Judaism was to have just a temporary duration. Fifth, ultimately Sarah came into her own as the one who would miraculously have a child, the supernatural seed, the symbol of the spiritual children of God under the New Covenant.

· "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children;

Here the Abrahamic Covenant is represented as a wife, like Sarah, who had long been childless. Very few natural children among the Jews had been believers from the time of Moses onward. It is true that Israel was in covenant with God and, like Hagar in type, had a husband (in a carnal sense), but all the subsequent children they had were like Ishmael, and was purely of the flesh and not spiritual.

 

But all this was to change with the death of Jesus. Though the Jews rejected Him, there would be a great increase in the spiritual family of Abraham. This increase would come from among the Gentiles.

 

· Gal 4:28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

Here Paul begins the application of the allegory. As Sarah represented the covenant of grace, Isaac represented the true children of God. Our standing is essentially different from Ishmael’s, because He, like the great mass of those under the Sinai Covenant, belongs to the ordinary course of nature; whereas genuine Christians are the children of the promise, that promise made to Abraham.

 

· Gal 4:29 At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.

Now a further detail supplied by the allegory. In referring to the opposition to Isaac by Ishmael, this received its counterpart in the attitude of the Judaisers toward the Christians. The Judaisers were holding to the old covenant and were hostile to those who were experiencing the freedom of the new covenant. The carnal has always persecuted the spiritual.

 

· Gal 4:30 But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."

Here is the final point of the allegory. This is taken from:

· Genesis 21:10 So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac."

This pretty well settles the argument that Israel, after the flesh, would not share in the spiritual inheritance. Hagar represented the Sinai Covenant and Ishmael its carnal worshipers, and their being cast out of Abraham’s household prophetically signified God setting aside Judaism and the fact that the natural descendants of Abraham had no place among his spiritual children and could not share in the promised inheritance. Pure Christianity excludes Judaism, not the Jews, but Judaism. In other words, any who hope for salvation and heaven by obedience to the Law will miss heaven.

 

· Gal 4:31 Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Here then is the inescapable conclusion; since Christians are the children of promise, they, not carnal Jews, are the true heirs of Abraham. Since the New Covenant is superior to the old and believers in Jesus are freed from servitude to the law, it follows that they must conduct themselves as God’s freemen.

 

The controversy here in Galatians 4 centered around the question of who are the real heirs of Abraham. In chapter 3 there are three very important verses:

· Gal 3:7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham

· Gal 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.

· Gal 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 

The Judiasers said, “We are the children of Abraham.” Paul replied that Abraham had two sons, one of a free birth and one of a servant’s birth. Then he asked them to which son did they belong. Of course the Judiasers were the natural descendants of Abraham, but not of the spiritual seed.

 

Paul’s purpose was to get the Galatians to understand the promise and thereby deliver them from the Judiasers. He accomplished this by opening up the deep significance of the covenant allegory which presented three main contrasts: birth by nature as opposed to grace; a state of bondage as opposed to liberty; a status of temporary tenure as opposed to permanent possession. Just as Hagar was rightfully the maidservant of Sarah but was wrongfully accorded the position of Abraham’s wife, so the Sinai Covenant was designed to supplement the Abrahamic Covenant but was perverted by the Jews when they tried to get from it salvation and fruitfulness.